Inexperienced defence

[Haydos]

It's been preying on my mind for a while now and I have barely seen it mentioned on here. Our back 4(5 if you inc Ricardo) are ridiculously inexperienced in comparison to a lot of the challenging teams defences in this league.

Whatever combination they are played in they seem to lack the cohesion and experience that is necessary to sustain a challenge in this division. Berner is the only player in there who I see as having the ability to play first team football for us and who knows the club well(ish). Bamba is the only other 'experienced' defender but has played in Scotland recently (make of that what you will). Weale was settled and had the experience in this league and at the time it was questionable to drop him.

Most of our other first team back 5 (PVA, Cunningham, Vitor, Bruma, Mee, Hobbs, Naughton) are very young and lack experience in this league and sometimes (Mee) any sort of first team action. Vitor and Ricardo are playing in their first seasons in English football. I've read some people suggesting Ricardo, Naughton, Vitor, Bruma, Mee in their team selections which just looks like suicide to me.

Combine this with the fact that the back 5 seems to change week in week out you have a horrendously unstable and on paper, questionable defensive unit. Most of the goals we've conceded recently have come as a result of horrible defending in the box. Too much ball watching, poor marking and what looks like poor communication. As I said, this has appeared obvious to me but I have barely seen this mentioned and would like some views on the overall effect of the points I've mentioned.

No scapegoating, no Yakubu-is-fat....ing

[Guest Col city fan]

I do agree but I think it's quite obvious what you are saying here and doesn't really need further discussion.. Of course they are either young or inexperienced, or both... because they are... Don't forget again that this is a Sven policy... Pearson was all for blending youth with experience eg Hobbs and brown

[OmnipresentSam]

I think this is part of the reason Sven tried to bring Curtis Davies back for a second spell, to add the bit of experience at the back. I agree with you completely, and hopefully we can improve this in the summer. A player like St Ledger would be ideal for me.

[Guest Col city fan]

I think this is part of the reason Sven tried to bring Curtis Davies back for a second spell, to add the bit of experience at the back. I agree with you completely, and hopefully we can improve this in the summer. A player like St Ledger would be ideal for me.

Agree on St Ledger - good player at this level IMO

[Guest Mee-9]

I think it's more the fact its like the defence has been 'thrown' together for me.

Last season we had one of the strongest defences in the championship. Morrison - Brown - Hobbs - Berner.

These all communicated well, knew each others strengths and weaknesses, and played alot of games together.

If you look at our defence yesterday.

Naughton - Bruma - Bamba - Mee

Bamba had never played english football before he came here, Mee had never played a competative game in English Football, Bruma had never played a game in this league, and Naughton being as young as he is, is infact the most experienced player in the back four at this level.

The thing is Sven changes the back four too much for my liking. Im going to sound like an arse, but we should have kept Hobbs and gave him a go with Bamba. For me Bruma is no better than Hobbs. If Hobbs would have been given a go in a 'settled' back four, we might have seen what we saw last season with him.

Was anybody find what Sven said about 'dropping vitor' last night intresting? Not being critical of Sven or anything, he's a world class manager. But its not the first time he's chosen 'big name, big money' signings over 'In Form' players. Yesterday bringing Bruma in for Vitor, Bringing Ricardo in for Weale. Even playing Oakley over Abe. Not saying Oakleys big money or big name.