The whole defense was poor in the first half of the season, it was pissing goals everywhere, it took us ages to get the midfield half right and to settle at the back, Agger, Skrtel, Coates and Johnson were all responsible for a few gaffs each, he was just singled out and is probably the closest in style to Carragher, so was naturally going to be the one to make way. He was brilliant in his first season (in which we finished 2nd), had an indifferent second one, was back to his best the year after and then was made a scapegoat of last season. None of them have been particularly consistent with us and are far from a patch on Sami and Carragher, but they are hitting the ages now where they "could" put their experience to good use and start to show the form weathered pros should.