5 Defensive Options for Liverpool Following Martin Skrtel's Ban

The Press Association (via the Guardian) reports that the Football Association have rejected Martin Skrtel's appeal against his charge of violent conduct for the incident involving Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea, and he will therefore serve a three-match ban.

Given the FA's ludicrous 99.5 percent conviction rate, per BBC Sport, this was always going to be the case.

The Slovakian centre-back will now miss games against Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers (FA Cup quarter-final replay) and Newcastle United.

Skrtel has been an almost ever-present for Brendan Rodgers' side, missing just three Premier League games all campaign.

He has been especially vital since the change to three at the back, missing only the New Year's Day game with Leicester City, due to suspension, since Rodgers changed shape.

The change in shape for Liverpool has helped Skrtel, and he's been far more solid with Mamadou Sakho and Emre Can either side of him.

Alas, Liverpool must now cope without their defensive linchpin for three games, two of which could decide their season.

Here are five options for Rodgers to contemplate in light of the ban.

Kolo Toure

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When Skrtel last missed a match for the Reds, Kolo Toure was the like-for-like replacement at the heart of defence.

The experienced Ivorian played between Can and Sakho against Leicester City and could do so again in these three games.

Dejan Lovren

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An alternative but similar option would be to bring Dejan Lovren back in from the cold as another like-for-like replacement.

The £20 million summer signing has endured a pretty negative first season at Anfield, but this could offer him a chance for redemption.

Emre Can in Centre, Lovren or Toure on Right

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Another option would be to move the versatile Can to the centre of the three and play either of Toure or Lovren on the right.

Can has been mighty impressive of late but has been caught out twice making poor challenges to give away penalties against Chelsea, and Manchester United when caught on the wrong side of the attacker out wide.

A move to the centre could see him in more of a sweeper role, able to bring the ball out of defence and help the midfield duo ahead of him when the team is in possession.

It's a role he certainly has the attributes to play and could help Liverpool going forward, but does he have the tactical awareness to play there?

Jon Flanagan

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Another option, perhaps the wild card, is to bring Jon Flanagan in as the right-sided centre-back.

The 22-year-old has missed the whole of the campaign with a knee injury but returned to full training earlier this month.

As a more defensive full-back, he could slot in on the right of the back three and leave Can to play in the centre.

Having Flanagan on the right, with Alberto Moreno as the left wing-back, would allow Liverpool to quickly switch to a back four of Moreno-Sakho-Can-Flanagan if needed.

Change to a Back Four

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And that is the final option available to Rodgers—to scrap the back three and move back to four in defence.

Doing so would open up a plethora of questions though: is Moreno defensively solid enough to play as a full-back? Who starts at right-back out of Javi Manquillo and Glen Johnson? Are either of those good enough? Who would be the preferred two centre-backs and are they capable of fixing the leaks that affected Liverpool so much earlier in the campaign?

It looks unlikely Rodgers would scrap his entire system just because of suspension to one player, especially with most of his squad away on international duty and thus leaving him with little time to implement such a dramatic change again.