Jamie Carragher’s infectious passion for Liverpool is irreplaceable, but the signing of Kolo Toure today will surely be seen as his defensive replacement.
Carragher ended his Reds career before retirement with an impressive 2012/13 campaign, displacing Martin Skrtel as the Reds’ first choice defensive partner for Daniel Agger.
Meanwhile Toure lost his first team place at Manchester City to Matija Nastasic the season following City’s Premier League triumph.
Whilst Toure isn’t a replacement for Carra’s unique scream, or leadership, we look at last season’s stats of the two defenders to see if Toure is worthy of that label of Carragher replacement.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or on Twitter @thisisanfield.
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Read the stats how you want, and with a pinch of salt with City and Liverpool having very different league seasons, but the two defenders overall come out quite similar – both showing their strengths and weaknesses in the game.
Toure will be hoping to impress enough to get a run of games at Liverpool under Brendan Rodgers after effectively being relegated to a part-time defender by previous manager, Roberto Mancini.
In terms of tackle success, and his ability as a defender, Toure seems like a good and solid replacement for Carragher, coming in on a free transfer, it leaves Rodgers open to finding younger first team competition for Agger and Skrtel.
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