Defensive record

[Karljohn]

Never rated konchesky, should be head and shoulders above the rest at the back but never puts any thought into passes, just a hoofer. Paying the price for pearsons failure to cement a consistent partnership at the back in the first half of the season, we've had 4 centre backs leave in mills, bamba, tunch and st ledger on loan and he's placed the job in the hands of a 19 year old rookie alongside Wes.

[Dickov22]

Keane hasn't been fantastic

If he'd been fantastic we wouldn't have conceded the goals in recent months we've conceded.

He's got lots of promise.

Personally, I'd have signed/played a bigger, stronger centre back to play alongside Morgan.

Someone with Championship experience.

It's fine margins, success and failure. As things currently stand we are 7th. Where I predicted we'd be at the start of the season.

Two massive games looming up but I'm afraid I remain thinking if Pearson had made better decisions over recent months, we'd be safely tucked up in the play offs already.

We'd all like the Manager to sign experienced championship players. Problem is, funnily enough if these players are good enough, their clubs won't let them go. We tried to sign Baptiste, Blackpool wouldn't let us have him. Id say he did pretty well to find Keane.

[Guest Col city fan]

We'd all like the Manager to sign experienced championship players. Problem is, funnily enough if these players are good enough, their clubs won't let them go. We tried to sign Baptiste, Blackpool wouldn't let us have him. Id say he did pretty well to find Keane.

If you feel that 7th, with two difficult fixtures remaining, having spent big money at this level and having had 18 months in the job is doing pretty well'' then so be it.

I'm still behind the manager and still believe we can make the play offs.

However, making the play offs is now a fight.. When it didn't look like that would be the case.

Secondly, if we don't make the play offs then this season can only be classed as a failure, in the eyes of the majority. Or so I would assume.

You and I differ over what constitutes 'pretty good' and 'pretty well'.

Finally, previously you said Keane has been 'fantastic'. He hasn't been. We're 7th and leaking goals over recent months.

[Dickov22]

I don't think we will make the play offs but I'm still behind the Manager 100%. It's not easy.

[Guest Col city fan]

I don't think we will make the play offs but I'm still behind the Manager 100%. It's not easy.

With an attitude like that you are clearly resigned to a further 10 years in the Championship.

I'm still behind the manager, but to give up saying that 'its not easy' is weak.

I believe the past two seasons have been City's best two chances of promotion in years. If we don't even make the play offs now it's a sad indictment on what could have been.

However, I hope we're gonna sneak it actually, because I think Bolton are gonna slip up.

Beat Watford and get something at Forest and I think we're in.

[Dickov22]

Our best chance of promotion was in Sven's first season when we gave a complete clown a lot of money to spend. Mostly he wasted it. Ever since, Pearson has had to rebuild a squad, save money and get promotion all in 18 months. Coupled with the fact his job was offered to Redknapp in October. I agree, it's thoroughly disappointing how we've gone from 2nd to looking like we will miss out on the play offs. However, I won't blame Pearson. Another problem is we have a young team who at times do not know how to roll their sleeves up and get a result when the going gets tough. Again, that's not Pearson's fault- he's had a huge rebuilding job on his hands.

[shade]

reading through this thread there's one thing that jumps out at me: how great everyone thinks players we sign are until about 6 months after they've been with us! I don't follow much football other than LCFC so rely on people's reactions to most signings to decide how super-excited to get. it's funny looking back at how great signings like whitbread, beckford, marshall, drinky, wood etc were going to be!

[Guest Col city fan]

Our best chance of promotion was in Sven's first season when we gave a complete clown a lot of money to spend. Mostly he wasted it. Ever since, Pearson has had to rebuild a squad, save money and get promotion all in 18 months. Coupled with the fact his job was offered to Redknapp in October. I agree, it's thoroughly disappointing how we've gone from 2nd to looking like we will miss out on the play offs. However, I won't blame Pearson. Another problem is we have a young team who at times do not know how to roll their sleeves up and get a result when the going gets tough. Again, that's not Pearson's fault- he's had a huge rebuilding job on his hands.

No.

That WAS Pearson's decision.

Cardiff, for example, have stuck with the nucleus of what they've had. They went for it, signed Bellamy and Helgeson (presumably on big wages?) and it HAS paid off. To the tune of 80 million. Don't just ignore this. Cardiff did it and its worked.

Pearson went for another agenda. To get rid of Mills, Danns, Beckford (not only for wages, I don't believe, I also suggest he just didn't fancy them) to replace them with younger players, cheaper wages, so on and so forth.

If we don't make it this season, I'm hoping that what I've said all along will come true.. That it's next season that we get top two.

But this was Pearson's decision.. Don't get away from that. He could have signed a couple of older heads, more experienced players, better paid players.. But chose not to.

[Dickov22]

Hold on, how long has it taken Cardiff to finally reach promotion?

Everytime pearson has wanted to sign a player, he's had to offload one or two, save on wages etc. hence the reason he's signed younger players. Beckford was a disgrace in a Leicester shirt, Mills is useless and I don't understand the Danns thing. I thought Danns was a decent player last season.

[dedlock]

Despite the statistics,we have displayed defensive frailties most of the season.

Positioning and organisation have been poor at times.

The defence has been vulnerable at set pieces,

Palace might have scored a couple more from free kicks into our box.

Other lessons are not learnt ,Palace's 2nd was reminiscent of Bellamy's for Cardiff.

That young Keane has commanded a regular place reflects poorly on our other centre backs.

When he returns to Old Trafford,a robust,quality, fit CB to partner Morgan is a priority.

A serious rethink and reorganisation of our defence is also neccessary.

[WeAreGoingUp]

no doubt our record is poor, i think our scoring problem is over as we have scored 7 goals in 3 games but at the same time we have conceded 6.

[Babylon]

Despite the statistics,we have displayed defensive frailties most of the season.

And all but two teams have clearly shown many more.

You don't have to be perfect, you just have to be better than the other teams in the league.

[Babylon]

Going forward, Hull have scored relatively few goals but their defence of Hobbs, Faye and Chester look as solid as a rock. Big, strong and physical. This is what is needed in the Championship.

Presume that's why they have conceded four more goals, shipped 3 goals four times and 4 goals twice and we've never conceded more than two in a game.

[buzzy]

I've not looked up whether he played even game since Jan 1st, if he has this is the record. (Moved Bolton away into second row as he played in that and got a clean sheet before getting injured and returning to Man U).

22 goals In 24 games without Keane

22 goals in 20 games with Keane

A four goal difference is fairly negligible.

not much difference really thanks for those stats . are we defending differantly like zonal marking to man to man or visa versa

[Babylon]

not much difference really thanks for those stats . are we defending differantly like zonal marking to man to man or visa versa

Got knows, who do you think I am Thracian or Marbella?

[lcfcsnow]

So it hasn't crossed anyone's mind that the reason we're conceding a few more goals is because we're setting up more attacking? Naturally, a Pearson midfield will do a lot of defensive work, especially on the wings but results have meant we've had to change our approach and its exposing the defence - less protection so we see their weaknesses more often. That said, we should be able to defend set pieces better regardless.

This is why I suggest strengthening central midfield as it would give protection to the defence and free up our more creative players.

King is a fantastic finisher given the chance but he hasn't been in and around the box half as much as previous seasons due to playing a more defensive role.

[Babylon]

So it hasn't crossed anyone's mind that the reason we're conceding a few more goals is because we're setting up more attacking?

It has, but we were as attacking if not more so at times during the season and rarely conceded. I think it probably has played some part of late, but it's more likely a lot of little contributing factors than one main problem.

The team is nervous at the moment, the poor run of form and where we find ourselves contributes to that. Normally reliable Wes has looked shaky the last few months, giving away stupid pennos, getting sent off etc. There have been poor individual errors like the Nugent penalty that have compounded things.

[acooling08]

Yesterday against Palace, we looked likely to concede from every set piece delivery into our box.

[Dan]

The thing about us, they're individually not bad players, but they're simply not as tight and as organised as we were under Pearson before. Is this defence honestly better than Morrison - Hobbs - Brown - Berner? It's not as strong as those four as a unit if you ask me.

The comment about "would you expect forwards to score bicycle kicks if we had Mark Hughes" - that's a bit daft really considering that's one aspect of Mark Hughes' game, rather than his actual ability to attack. I'd expect us to be better going forward if we had someone like Hughes in charge as he was an ex-striker - and I'd expect Pearson to organise a better defence than most managers.

And for all we are high up there, is anyone really convinced by this defence? It's not bad but it's not great at all, it's very prone to mistakes and I put a lot of it down to Schmeichel as well, imagine if we had Weale back? We'd be average at best, Schmeichel's saved us a lot of points.

Our full-backs are far more attacking than in 09/10. I think Berner's better than Konchesky, Brown & Hobbs as a pairing were about as strong as Morgan & Keane, and Morrison was a better defender than De Laet, but De Laet far better going forward.

Honestly I'd be getting a new right back in next year and moving De Laet further up the field..

[Babylon]

The thing about us, they're individually not bad players, but they're simply not as tight and as organised as we were under Pearson before. Is this defence honestly better than Morrison - Hobbs - Brown - Berner? It's not as strong as those four as a unit if you ask me.

The comment about "would you expect forwards to score bicycle kicks if we had Mark Hughes" - that's a bit daft really considering that's one aspect of Mark Hughes' game, rather than his actual ability to attack. I'd expect us to be better going forward if we had someone like Hughes in charge as he was an ex-striker - and I'd expect Pearson to organise a better defence than most managers.

And for all we are high up there, is anyone really convinced by this defence? It's not bad but it's not great at all, it's very prone to mistakes and I put a lot of it down to Schmeichel as well, imagine if we had Weale back? We'd be average at best, Schmeichel's saved us a lot of points.

Our full-backs are far more attacking than in 09/10. I think Berner's better than Konchesky, Brown & Hobbs as a pairing were about as strong as Morgan & Keane, and Morrison was a better defender than De Laet, but De Laet far better going forward.

Honestly I'd be getting a new right back in next year and moving De Laet further up the field..

Play off team conceded 45 and scored 61, with two games to go we have conceded 44 and scored 67. And only Watford, Palace and Cardiff have scored more.

People can bang on about being average, not good enough etc etc but at the end of the day, the goals we have let in and score show we are good enough in these areas whether that be individually or as a team.

To be 7th when you have the fourth best attack and third best defence highlights inconsistency. And when you have a squad as young as ours that's probably to be expected and Pearson has reaped what he sowed in that respect.

[Dan]

Play off team conceded 45 and scored 61, with two games to go we have conceded 44 and scored 67. And only Watford, Palace and Cardiff have scored more.

People can bang on about being average, not good enough etc etc but at the end of the day, the goals we have let in and score show we are good enough in these areas whether that be individually or as a team.

To be 7th when you have the fourth best attack and third best defence highlights inconsistency. And when you have a squad as young as ours that's probably to be expected and Pearson has reaped what he sowed in that respect.

In 09/10 we finished with 76 points. this year 71 is the most we can get and that itself is unlikely.

We may have kept the goals out but I think this 'not conceding more than 3 in a game' makes the defence look better than it is - it's often let us down this year, far more than the last defence that made the play-offs and I cannot see how anyone can deny that.

It's all about when the goals were conceded and ours have simply been at the wrong times. This defence is not as strong as that 09/10 for me.

[Babylon]

In 09/10 we finished with 76 points. this year 71 is the most we can get and that itself is unlikely.

We may have kept the goals out but I think this 'not conceding more than 3 in a game' makes the defence look better than it is - it's often let us down this year, far more than the last defence that made the play-offs and I cannot see how anyone can deny that.

It's all about when the goals were conceded and ours have simply been at the wrong times. This defence is not as strong as that 09/10 for me.

The defence has let us down no more than any other part of the team. So far it has conceded one goal less than the play off team with two to go. Even if we let in 2/3 goals in the next two the difference is negligible.

I really fail to see how you are so sure it's so much worse when there is little evidence of that.

As for the "it's about when they are conceded" utter poppy cock. That somehow concludes that a goal conceded in the first minute is somehow better than one on the last. A goal let in is a goal let in.

[Guest Col city fan]

Just look at the stats of the top championship 'assists' and the top championship goal scorers.

The main reason why City are not much higher in the table this season is the MIDFIELD... It's plain to see for anyone who wants to look.

Our midfielders have not scored anywhere near enough goals this season, nor set up anywhere near enough goals.

Other than occasional wonder goals from Knocky, the odd one or two from Marshall or a smart finish from King every so often we have NO midfielders who constantly chip in with goals, or with a killer ball leading to a goal.

[Babylon]

How is "it's about when they are conceded" a load of shit? You've only got to look at our points total to realise that we've conceded low in a lot of games where we've also scored low, hence our league position, it was absolutely nothing to do with what point in the game we conceded.

You were talking about times of goals being conceded, what conclusion will people come to from that?

So we concede low in games we score low so that makes the defence the problem?!? I'm confused.

[Fez of Mahrez]

I think Drinkwater's excellent form earlier in the season contributed to our defensive record.