Rafa Bentiez struck gold when he signed unknown Martin Skrtel from Zenit St Petersburg for a club record fee of 6.5m for a defender overtaking the price we paid for Daniel Agger in 2006.
You know what you are going to get with Martin (says what it does on the tin) a tough tackling centre half who puts his life on the line with a cheeky eye for goal (4 so far this season) with his most importantly coming in the Carling Cup Final last weekend.
He has doubled the amount of times he managed to find the back of the net in the whole of last season.
Nonetheless, while pleased to be offering more in attack for Kenny Dalglish's side, Martin Skrtel insists he takes more satisfaction from a job well done in defence.
"I have got a few more (goals) and I'm pleased about that because before I came to Liverpool I used to score a few," he said.
"It is not my focus, though. It is my job to help the team defend. I would prefer it if the goals were scored by someone else and I helped the team keep a clean sheet."
Martin Skrtel admits that 'this is the best period in my career and definitely since I came here to Liverpool' I agree with this and I think it is down to Steve Clarke who has improved the whole back line in since he arrived last year. 'We work a lot in training on defending with Steve and that has helped not only me but all the guys who play at the back' he says 'since Kenny Dalglish and Steve Clarke have come in the atmosphere changed around the team. Everything is much, much better now. If I feel the confidence of the manager that is important for me and maybe that is the reason'.
I remember Martin Skrtel making a rocky start to his Anfield career making his full debut against Havant and Waterlooville and he needed Rafa's support afterwards. ' I remember going back to the hotel knowing it wasn't my best performance. I knew people were talking about me that I wasn't good enough for Liverpool'.
Rafa encourage him and said 'don't worry about this game look ahead to the next one. I will give you a chance and you have to show me you are a better player.
People fail to realise that Martin Skrtel arrived from a different culture in Russia and he had the language barrier as he didn't speak english.
For me Martin is the main contender for Player of the Season.
I would like to use statistics to highlight the following points.
Cutting straight to the chase Martin's defensive partners have been Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger. Martin Skrtel's main strength is his no nonsense "terminator" like tackling although he has been criticised in the past for a few rash tackles and at times a lack of judgement - these stats tell a different story.
*currently our number 37 is Liverpool's top tackling defender with 84% success rate compared to Agger 75% and Carragher 67%
*breaking it down to ground and aerial duels Martin Skrtel has a healthy 70% in ground duels while Daniel comes in at 68% and Jamie tops it with 72% and if we take into account the number of extra games Martin Skrtel has played then he beats Jamie hands down.
*in the air Martin is the run away winner having won 77% of the duels while Agger and Carragher have a percentage of 64 and 57 respectively.
*Agger however completes more passes than his team-mate being the more stylish and attack minded of the two with an 86% completion rate. Martin Skrtel comes in at 83% with Carragher behind at 79%
But on a four year average Martin Skrtel beats his team-mates in all of the above variables.
Cast your minds back to when we played Spurs at White Hart Lane (sorry to bring it up but...) apart from the score line it was the red cards received by Adam and Martin respectively (for a foul on Bale) the team didn't play well but something became crystal clear Martin Skrtel isn't a RB especially if he's faced with pace and tricky wingers. Fast forward to Anfield and the defining moment was when Martin Skrtel out muscled Bale won the ball and cheekily shoved him in to the hoardings.
He is now a confident man when flying into a tackle a prime example was yesterday when Martin tackled Theo Walcott in the first half having won the ball and Theo falls down remonstrating for a free kick.
We don't see him getting involved in a goal mouth scramble with one of our rival teams attackers. Martin is more composed when it comes to marking his target and has hardly lapsed under pressure in front of goal. He has also improved his positional sense a considerable margin too.
Martin Skrtel's reliability has been one of his game aspects this season allowing Agger the freedom to go forward especially since Lucas has been injured without worrying about his defensive partner.
We could of drew another home game this season (against Newcastle). We were 2-1 up courtesy of a Bellamy goal. Newcastle countered attacked with Demba Ba the next minute Pepe is beaten and the ball is bouncing and going towards the empty Kop net. And just like a bolt out the blue Martin Skrtel lunges in for a clearance and in wonderful fashion clears it off the line and gets tangled into the nets.
Martin Skrtel is more than committed to the task at hand and is serious about representing LFC which are all attributes of a classy defender.
Martin achieved the magic number of 3420 minutes last season. Even though he can't repeat it this year he has gained valuable experience from playing regularly to playing every week. Which is good news for everyone.
Hopefully it won't be just the Carling Cup he will win this season. But Player of the Season trophy for the recognition he truly deserves.
On Wednesday 7th March Martin was rewarded with his good performances by winning the Standard Chartered Player of the Month for February.
The defender scooped the accolade after a month in which he played a starring role in helping Liverpool end a six-year wait for silverware.
Skrtel started all four of Liverpool's matches in February and followed up a goal in the 6-1 FA Cup victory over Brighton by netting a crucial equaliser in the Carling Cup final against Cardiff at Wembley.
The Slovakia international was the overwhelming winner following a vote on the official website, collecting 46 per cent of the total.
"I would like to say thank you very much. I am very happy" he said
"February was a very good month for all of us because we won the Carling Cup, and I happy to have won this trophy and also the Carling Cup.
"I've scored four goals so far and it's the most I've scored in one season in my career, but the season is not finished yet and I hope I can get a few more goals before the end of the season."
Well Done 'The Terminator'
By Katie Price
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