Burnley striker Chris Wood has revealed that former Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel is the toughest opponent he has faced in his career. New Zealand international Wood stated that Martin Skrtelis his most difficult opponent in a chat with the Premier League YouTube channel.

Wood has faced a lot of quality defenders during his time in the Premier League, most of which he has spent at Burnley. The New Zealander has faced the likes of Portuguese star Ruben Dias, Dutchman Virgil Van Dijk and Manchester City legend Vincent Kompany but he's certain that Martin Skrtel has given him the most tough time. According to him, retired Slovakian international Skrtelwas a nightmare to play against.

Premier League heavyweights Liverpool made a big transfer coup when they signing Slovakian national team star Martin Skrtel from Zenit Saint Petersburg at the start of 2008. Liverpool signed Skrtel from Zenit in a £6.5m deal in January 2008 and he went on to establish himself at the club, forming a potent centre back partnership with Danish player Daniel Agger.

Martin Skrtel played 319 times for Liverpool, netting 18 goals in the process before he signed for Turkish Super League giants Fenerbahce in the summer of 2016.Apart from Fenerbahce, Martin Skrtel also spent some of his post-Liverpool playing career at Istanbul Basaksehir in the Turkish top flight and Spartak Trvana in his native Slovakia as he returned to where it all began for him. Skrtel started his professional career at AS Trencin before moving to Russian club football giants Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Atletico Madrid striker Luis Suarez has told UEFA's official website that he enjoyed his time in the Liverpool dressing room with Slovakian defender Martin Skrtel. Suarez talked about Martin Skrtel as a major dressing room influence ahead of the Champions League clash at former club Liverpool on Wednesday night.

Retired Slovakian senior national team defender Martin Skrtel was not fortunate to win a lot of major trophy during his time on Merseyside with Liverpool. He bagged just one trophy during his eight-year stay at Liverpool and that was the League Cup title at the end of the 2011/12 season.

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The fact that Liverpool refused to sign more than one player this summer has remained a shock to many. The Reds signed only one player this summer and decided to not bring in another new face after adding Ibrahima Konate to their squad. They completed and announced that they had reached an agreement with German Bundesliga outfit RB Leipzig for the transfer of the France international defender before the end of last season and many people thought that they signed the player so early so that they would focus on other targets as the summer transfer window crept in. However, they did not sign another player till the window closed two days ago and many people still talk about it.

Slovakia defender Martin Skrtel spent almost a decade as a Liverpool player before signing for Turkish Super League giants Fenerbahce on July 14, 2016. Skrtel spent eight-and-a-half years at Liverpool before joining Fenerbahce. Skrtel signed for Fenerbahce from the Reds in a £5m deal.

Martin Skrtel found the back of the net twice in 31 games in the league and he was seriously linked with a return to the Premier League. The Slovak was touted as a possible addition for clubs such as Swansea City and Stoke City. Newcastle United were newly promoted in the Premier League at the time under manager Rafael Benitez and they were linked with a move for Skrtel. Skrtel played under Spanish tactician Benitez at Liverpool. Benitez was the mastermind behind his transfer from Russia Premier League side Zenit St. Petersburg in January 2008.

Former Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel has backed his former club to have a better start to the coming campaign than they did in the previous one. The Reds started their 2020-21 season against newly-promoted side Leeds United and were only able to snatch a close 4-3 win from Marcelo Bielsa's men in what was an exciting game of football to watch. After that match, Liverpool had a strange continuation to their season and became one of the worst clubs in the league, to the shock of many.

Slovakia right-back Peter Pekarik is known as Mr. Reliable for his consistently good performances on the right side of defence and he would be hoping to continue in the same manner for his country at the upcoming Euro 2020 tournament. Euro 2020 is set to be the last major tournament for Pekarik who's set to call it quit with national team duty according to reports in the media.

Pekarik and Slovakia have been drawn in Group E of the Euro 2020 tournament alongside Spain, Poland and Sweden. Slovakia start their Euro 2020 campaign against Poland on Monday evening before taking on Sweden next week Friday. Their last group game is against three-time winners Spain on Wednesday, June 23.

For a team that won the English Premier League title last season, many would have been expecting Liverpool to start this current campaign on a high and also compete for the title this season as well, but just like not everything that's expected usually happens, it did not turn out that way. The Reds started the season with a thrilling 4-3 win against Leeds United at Anfield and their fans thought that the club was continuing from where they stopped last season.

However, after a couple of games into the season, they started showing signs of lackluster performances and started to lag. They suffered a couple of losses and drew games they were expected to win comfortably. The major reason for their dip in form has been due to the many injured a lot of their players have had to suffer or deal with this season, including captain Virgil van Dijk.

Istanbul Basaksehir centre back Martin Skrtel enjoyed a good national team career with Slovakia before he retired two years ago. The ex-Liverpool and Zenit St. Petersburg defender had played for the Slovakia senior national team over a period of 15 years before he called time on his career with the team.

Martin Skrtel played for the various youth teams at country level before making his debut in the colours of the senior team in 2004. He played a major part in helping Slovakia qualify for the FIFA World Cup tournament for the first time ahead of the 2010 edition in South Africa.