Saturday's match against Stoke didn't provide much in the way of top quality individual performances to look back on over the longest break between games in December or January, but amongst the many disappointing showings was yet another quality outing for Martin Skrtel. Six months ago fans impatiently waited for Phil Jones or Scott Dann to arrive on the transfer market and bump the Slovak down the depth chart, and now all the rugged defender does is turn in one man of the match calibre performance after another.

Skrtel Suffers Injury Setback

Martin Skrtel has been dealt with a bitter blow whereby he is set to miss the start of Liverpool's season through injury. The Slovak played every single minute for Liverpool in the Premier League last campaign but, due to an ongoing calf injury, the centre-back has yet to set a date when he is likely to return to action.