Left back in the changing rooms (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

Aly Cissokho's horror show at the Emirates on Saturday got me thinking: Liverpool are absolutely terrible when it comes to signing left-backs, and have been for a long time.

Cissokho is merely following a long line of mostly mediocrity, interspersed with the odd sprinkling of above averageness. If you were selecting an all-time Liverpool XI, left-back would be the most difficult spot to fill. The chances are you may even opt to play a right footed player there, such as Steve Nicol or Gerry Byrne perhaps. Alan Kennedy is the only natural left-back even in the conversation. He scored winning goals in two European Cup finals which have assured him of legendary status amongst the Liverpool fan-base, yet he was never viewed as being a great player.

While it's rare to find a team where the left-back is the undoubted star (Julian Dicks at West Ham, Stuart Pearce at Nottingham Forest and Leighton Baines at Everton are rare exceptions), it's equally rare to find one where the left side of the defence is consistently the weakest position in the team (or at least close to it) over a period of decades. Yet that's been the case at Liverpool for most of my lifetime. Even most of the Reds' great sides had average left-backs or great players playing out of position.

Read the rest of the article here.