Form Virgil van Dijk to Alan Hansen, Liverpool have had some of the greatest centre-backs of all time, but striker Chris Wood once revealed the toughest defender he’s ever faced is not one of their decorated legends.
The role of the enforcer in football has changed as the game has changed, with referees nowadays taking a much sterner view on two-footed tackles and late challenges.
‘Let them know you’re there’ was once a common phrase used in football dressing rooms up and down Britain, whether it be Sunday league or the Premier League, as dominant centre-backs and tough-tackling midfielders used intimidation as a tactic.
Premier League’s toughest players in pictures
For Liverpool, those tackles were often performed by the likes of Jamie Carragher and Javier Mascherano, with former Manchester United winger Nani once revealing why a tackle by Carragher left him in tears: “When I saw my leg for the first time, I thought my season was finished. That is why I was crying.
“Afterwards, the doctor saw my leg and said I had been lucky because it just needed stitches and I would be out for two or three weeks. He is surprised that I could recover even quicker.”
The Sky Sports pundit only received a yellow card for the tackle on Nani, which in today’s game would have been met with a straight red and a hefty ban.
Towards the end of Carragher’s Liverpool career the Reds signed several centre-backs with a view of becoming his successor, and perhaps one of the most beloved by fans was a 23 year-old from Slovakia called Martin Skrtel.
Chris Wood: Skrtel the toughest defender I’ve ever faced
Manager Rafael Benitez was thrilled when Liverpool signed Skrtel in January 2008 for a transfer fee of £6.5m, telling fans their new defender was “aggressive” and “very competitive”.
Wood, who played against Skrtel when he was a young striker at Leicester, went one further in an interview on the Premier League’s YouTube channel in 2021. He said that for all of the legendary centre-backs to grace Anfield and the Premier League as a whole, it wasn’t greats like Van Dijk who gave him his toughest test.
“Skrtel was actually one of the toughest ever. He wouldn’t give you a minute’s peace. He was pinching you, pushing you around, not letting you settle.
“At the time I was probably too young to change something and do something back to him, but now, I like to think I’d deal with him a lot better. He did the job and he put me off my game, so it was a good learning curve.”
Skrtel left Liverpool in 2016 to sign for Fenerbahçe, and despite not winning many trophies during his time on Merseyside, is remembered fondly by Liverpool fans.
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Where does Virgil van Dijk rank?
The former Slovakia international played 320 times for Liverpool, scoring 18 goals and winning the League Cup in the 2011-12 season. Interesingly, despite being yellow carded 51 times, he only ever received one red card in England, as he was sent off in a 4-0 defeat at Tottenham in September 2011.
