'Important to keep Kolo's experience'
Signing Kolo Toure up to a new deal should prove to be a wise decision from Liverpool, according to former defender Mark Wright.
The Ivorian put pen to paper on an extension to his contract last month, ensuring he will spend a third season at Anfield since arriving from Manchester City in 2013.
Wright, who made more than 200 appearances at the heart of the Reds' defence between 1991 and 1998 and won 45 England caps, believes Toure's experience would have been a big loss had he moved on.
He is delighted to see the 34-year-old commit to Liverpool again as they look to bounce back in 2015-16.
"I think he's a true professional," he told Liverpoolfc.com.
"[He] does everything that's asked of him, plays at right-back, centre-half, sweeper, wherever, he gives his all.
"He comes across as a fantastic pro and a nice man.
"You need to be giving that experience out and giving an opinion and he seems to me one of these people who are liked in the dressing room and that's important as well."
Wright also had his say on the prospects of another fellow centre-half, Dejan Lovren.
The Croatian struggled to break up the defensive trio of Emre Can, Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho for much of his maiden campaign on Merseyside following a summer move from Southampton.
But he showed flashes of his potential over the course of 22 Barclays Premier League starts and will hope to build on that total next term.
The 25-year-old must focus simply on his defending basics in order to do that, Wright insists, as he already has an 'unbelievable' passing range to call upon.
"I've watched him pitchside when I've been working for LFCTV, warming up and he'd be with Skrtel and maybe Emre Can and they'd be doing their passing," he continued.
"His passing range is unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. When you see him strike a ball, whether he clips the ball, bends the ball. Everything about him, the attributes are there.
"[But] when you're a centre-half your job is to destroy and that may sound really old school, but you've got to destroy. If there's balls to be won in the air you've got to win them.
"It's not about creating a goalscoring opportunity at the other end. That's not the way I see defenders, you've got to put your body on the line.
"If people are shooting and it's going to hit you in the face, let it hit you in the face. If it hits you in the stomach, let it hit you in the stomach, take the knocks, take the blows and dish it out.
"I think maybe at times he didn't do enough of that and we conceded more goals than we'd want to concede, and a lot of them were from set plays.
"I'd rather have big strong boys who destroy everything, and if Liverpool get back to those boys and doing the right things, I think Liverpool will have a good season.
"I think the players that they have can achieve that but I just think they need to be more dominant when they play."