Leicester's Defence - What will we do?

[marbelladave]

Defending too deep has cost city dear this season. I have mentioned it on several occasions that our central defenders seem scared to death to push out, let alone anything as revolutionary as playing a high line.

Their lack of pace may be the issue, or maybe they are playing to instructions but this combined with defensively minded central midfielders, (Clemence, Oakley, Weso) and quite often an extra defender in midfield (N'Gotty, Chambers and even Worley) left us woefully short of any attacking options.

I would love to see Stears and Worley start pre-season as first choice in the center of our defence but the chance of that happening is sadly pretty low.

[marbelladave]

We have the second best defensive record outside the Premiership for precisely this reason...

Hendo, Stearman, Kisnorbo, McAuley and Mattock were only part of our defence. For most teams they would constitute the defence - but with ours, and our defensive minded attitude, they made up roughly 50% of our overall defence.

You're forgetting the fact that in midfield we played defensive minded players for the majority of games and under Megson constantly played an 8-1-1 formation.

Consider this along with the fact that any of our attacking outlets played balls sideways or backwards all of 5 yards, and it's no wonder that we had the 2nd best defensive record.

We constantly played with a defensive mindset in games at home - after roughly the first 10 minutes or so - and did little more than that away from home too.

If you set out to defend and do nothing else, it's no wonder!

And there was me thinking football was an attacking game. It needs to be next season.

Legend.......Keep telling them, one day they will understand!

[Thracian]

This season the one really good thing about LCFC has been the defence of the team. LCFC conceded 45 goals all season. Only Crystal Palace conceded less (42). Our back four generally consisted of:

Stearman - McAuley - Kisnorbo - Mattock

The table doesn't lie and this was a brilliant backline. Considering the sorry state of the rest of the squad and the new financial problems of relegation to L1, this would have acted as a great foundation to work around and would have allowed the club to recruit players for other areas of the squad.

However now what with relegation we are surely going to see most (if not all) of that back four disappear. Kisnorbo will stay due to his injury though.

We had an offer for McAuley in January, and teams will have renewed attempts now that we got relegated. He himself will want to preserve his own club and international career - being in L1 won't do that

LCFC received offers for both Stearman and Mattock in January. The same as for McAuley applies really. The only small hope is that they are both local academy products and they may still have a level of loyalty that overrides any offers that come in for them. However put yourself in their position. Your playing in League 1. You also play for England. You have the choice between staying with your "childhood club" and playing in League 1 for at least one season, and also missing out on becoming an england player. Or go to a premiership club, earn loads more, just the thrill of playing there and also continue for England.

I hate to be this pessimistic but really just what are we going to do when our back four walk out of the club this summer?

Perhaps we could sign Clapham permanently for a few million! That would be a start.

Mind you the resilience of our defence covered up a lot of limitations.

[marbelladave]

Perhaps we could sign Clapham permanently for a few million! That would be a start.

Nah......just use the money to bribe Stears and Mattock to stay!

Back 4..........Chambers -- Stearman -- Worley -- Mattock.

Not resilience, just numbers!

[thecannon]

Good point but i think they will stay! Unless the offers are silly!

Think McAuley might end up the new club captain and will form a great partneship with Worley until Kisnorbo returns!

I think Kisnorbo will go, probably to a good championship club. Not prem though!

[Sparky]

Geordie highlighted that Lesta used the word 'offence' in his quote.

Geordie highlighted that word as a bit of a pis take as we seem to all of a sudden gone americanilised (good word ) with the word offence , attack would have done

[Mark]

What shall we do with the defence? I'm past caring right now cause no one ever fixes our problems.

Our defence was average, the reason we conceded so few was because none of the back four have any idea or have been properly trained how to distribute the ball and start an attack, not helped by the fact half the season we had another 4 defenders in midfield as well, so just lumped the ball forward. That way even if it's lost, we've got enough numbers back to make sure we're in no trouble. The problem is though you keep that up for the full 90 minutes theres a chance a team will get through, hence so many 0-1 defeats over the years.

If only we got thrashed 5 or 6 nil last season, or at any point over the last 4 seasons, things just might have been put right before this, instead we stuck with it and paid the price, and it serves them right.

[Fez of Mahrez]

Ideally we'd bomb Holloway out and retain two Championship full-backs despite still selling Stearman and Mattock. Unfortunately I can't see either Chambers or Sheehan wanting to play for Holloway anymore and fair play to them. As for the centre-backs, N'Gotty is on huge wages, McAuley is wanted by Championship clubs, Kisnorbo is out for the foreseeable future and Worley is a complete wildcard. There's an equal chance that four of them or none of them could form our back four for the first game next season.

Just to expand on it, being too lazy to find a more appropriate thread...

With the goalkeeper situation, Henderson improved towards the end of the season and will be good enough. Logan as backup.

I think our hopes in midfield rest with the young players but again why on earth Holloway would suddenly be going to play them, I have no idea. I'm talking Porter, Wesolowski, King, Gradel. I wouldn't blame Weso, King or Gradel for leaving though.

Up front we need to have a mobile targetman in the Jermaine Beckford mould in my opinion. We needed one all of last season too. Whoever leaves from our strikers though, we should have enough firepower left in our squad at League One level. I don't think we can lose on that score really. They could all do a job.

[Paddy]

I thought a few people on here understood football and know how it works at a professional level? (I know some of u do! )

the defence ie paddy, mcAuley, stears, mattock, clapham... Same as everyone else on the pitch play how the MANAGER tells them too! They hoof the ball up to Howard! We know it hasn't worked! But that is how holloway has TOLD them to play. Posting blame on our defence for relegation is laughable! You muppet!

I hope we don't lose any of our great defence, but sadly I can see us losing 2, maybe 3 of them

[ozleicester]

I only hope we can retain most of our good young players over the summer...then...if we can get into the top 2 before the january window, you would hope thats enough to keep the good ones here.

Lets face it, a bounce straight back to the Champiopnship is what we are expecting and aiming for..so, for Stearman or Mattock etc to leave when we are on the verge of going back up would not make sense.

Also, if they have any pride, they would like to be part of the team that takes us back out of this sh*thole league that THEY put us in!

[Father Ted]

McAuley will probably go, but he was already in the Northern Ireland squad whilst he was at Lincoln in league 2 was he not?

and he know Nigel Worthington from his time here and it seems Nigel likes him

[Father Ted]

I think Kisnorbo will go, probably to a good championship club. Not prem though!

He's not going anywhere until January because he's out for like 6-8 months and so wouldn't be able to pass a medical.

[teblin]

Both kisnorbo and n'gotty are being linked with Sheff Utd.

[BrockwellFox]

What will we do? Drink usually, dance usually, bubble, drink usually, dance usually, bubble

but who's wearing your rolex?

I agree that a defensive mindset has cost us a fair few games - the one spectacular example being sheff wed at home, after scoring we just invited them onto us until it was 1-2, and then in trying to get forward and push for the equaliser we left it open for the counter attack for the third.

I must say though that i think Mattock and Stearman have come on leaps and bounds this season, if we can hold onto them then they should be good enough for L1.

Not too fussed on McAuley to be honest, was impressed with Worley when I saw him, wonder if we could get away with 3 youngsters at the back with Kisnorbo or some other big experienced bruiser to lead them.

Oh, for the days of Elliott and Taggart again..

[Houdini Logic]

Defending too deep has cost city dear this season. I have mentioned it on several occasions that our central defenders seem scared to death to push out, let alone anything as revolutionary as playing a high line.

Their lack of pace may be the issue, or maybe they are playing to instructions but this combined with defensively minded central midfielders, (Clemence, Oakley, Weso) and quite often an extra defender in midfield (N'Gotty, Chambers and even Worley) left us woefully short of any attacking options.

I would love to see Stears and Worley start pre-season as first choice in the center of our defence but the chance of that happening is sadly pretty low.

You can blame the manager(s) for that - not the players

[AyewJoking]

Why would Mattock leave other than to ensure he still gets picked for England? I know this club is a proper shíthole but he should stay for at least next season where he will be playing regularly instead of warming the bench for someone else.

[Tilley]

Why would Mattock leave other than to ensure he still gets picked for England? I know this club is a proper shíthole but he should stay for at least next season where he will be playing regularly instead of warming the bench for someone else.

Thats what I think, I know its a bit different but it has shown that Theo Walcott needed at least one more season at Southampton before he moved. I think moving to a Premier League club could harm Mattocks development.

[breadandcheese]

Thats what I think, I know its a bit different but it has shown that Theo Walcott needed at least one more season at Southampton before he moved. I think moving to a Premier League club could harm Mattocks development.

Has it shown that? Or is he going to become a better player long-term by spending a season training at Arsenal, working with their coaches, playing with world-class players and improving in their reserves?

[marbelladave]

You can blame the manager(s) for that - not the players

Not quite. When your 3 first choice central defenders are all big and slow, then it is clear that they are causing the problem.

Sure it is the managers fault for continuing to play them, though to be fair he did try to get them to play less deep and to pass the ball out of defence but by the time Holloway had worked out that they can only play one way, it was to late to do anything about it.

I usually try and refrain from knocking individual players, but at our level EVERYTHING stems from the way our central defenders set up the back 4.

As I have said before, playing as deep as they did drags our full backs and central midfielders (defensively inclined in any case) back and leaves us with 6 or 7 totally defensive players and absolutely no options going forward!

I am not suggesting that it was the players fault as in they were individually awful, that is not true, but the way they (were) played was, in a team sense very poor indeed!

To move forward, we have to make big changes and as has been pointed out many times, the changes must start from the back.

Get some youth and some pace in there, this will transform the way we play and give us a chance to get the team moving forward in every sense!

[Tilley]

Has it shown that? Or is he going to become a better player long-term by spending a season training at Arsenal, working with their coaches, playing with world-class players and improving in their reserves?

Maybe, but Mattock isn't moving to Arsenal, it will probably be Aston Villa. & me personally would rather play a years first team football at Leicester than play in Aston Villa reserves.

[marbelladave]

Maybe, but Mattock isn't moving to Arsenal, it will probably be Aston Villa. & me personally would rather play a years first team football at Leicester than play in Aston Villa reserves.

Three reasons why Mattock might well think different;

Premiership money, Premiership money and..........yeah you guessed!

[AyewJoking]

Depends on Mattocks character, is he going to chase the money or does he care enough to stay for at least 1 more season?

Stearman is more likely to leave, not because he is after more money but he has been in the team longer than Mattock and perhaps now is the time for him to move on. Mattock hasnt served his time yet .

[Manwell Pablo]

Our defense was decent enough at defending but the two centre halfs didn't distirbute the ball effectively, which added to our problems in keeping the ball and creating chances.

I wouldn't be too upset to see one of Kisnorbo or McAuley go. Especially for upwards of seven figures.

[Houdini Logic]

Not quite. When your 3 first choice central defenders are all big and slow, then it is clear that they are causing the problem.

Sure it is the managers fault for continuing to play them, though to be fair he did try to get them to play less deep and to pass the ball out of defence but by the time Holloway had worked out that they can only play one way, it was to late to do anything about it.

I usually try and refrain from knocking individual players, but at our level EVERYTHING stems from the way our central defenders set up the back 4.

As I have said before, playing as deep as they did drags our full backs and central midfielders (defensively inclined in any case) back and leaves us with 6 or 7 totally defensive players and absolutely no options going forward!

I am not suggesting that it was the players fault as in they were individually awful, that is not true, but the way they (were) played was, in a team sense very poor indeed!

To move forward, we have to make big changes and as has been pointed out many times, the changes must start from the back.

Get some youth and some pace in there, this will transform the way we play and give us a chance to get the team moving forward in every sense!

Come on mate, you're talking about them as if they're invalids!

They're professional football players, and if the manager was to tell them to move forward 10 feet i'm quite sure they'd be able to do so.

I'm not saying it's the managers fault for playing them (they're all good players and should be played) - i'm saying it's the managers responsibility to push them forward.

Although it is evident that some of our youth players would be better suited than some of our first team players in certain areas, i personally don't think this applies to our defence.

[marbelladave]

Come on mate, you're talking about them as if they're invalids!

They're professional football players, and if the manager was to tell them to move forward 10 feet i'm quite sure they'd be able to do so.

I'm not saying it's the managers fault for playing them (they're all good players and should be played) - i'm saying it's the managers responsibility to push them forward.

Although it is evident that some of our youth players would be better suited than some of our first team players in certain areas, i personally don't think this applies to our defence.

You would think so wouldn't you?

So why, as we settle back in the second half of games we should be dominating, did we see Holloway screaming at the defence to push out and get forward?

They may be decent players individually, but the were poor as a team, change the combination! We need more pace and the ability to pass the ball out of defence to a midfield that is not concentrating solely on defence.