11 goals in 6 games, nobody questioning back 4..?

[themotivator]

people have been questioning the back 4 when they've payed badly but for the most part they have played really well. Even the best teams in the world concede set pieces.

[cjslcfc]

Funnily enough I was having a discussion about the height of football players down the pub yesterday, the old their smaller than they look on TV thing. I was shocked to find out bar the Ulloa who as a natural striker isn't going to be as good at defending set pieces from a mental stand point as a natural defender, I'm actually taller than ever player we in our team bar Ulloa. So while small isn't probably the right term we aren't particularly big.

 

It's not hard to see why Jedinak and Delaney 6'2 and 6'3 respectively, caused us problems.

 

Jecinak won everything. He just wouldn't let us breathe, both in the air and on the ground. The amount of times he just swooped in and took the ball off us was ridiculous. Their second best player behind Bolasie on Saturday.

[My Nads]

Understand, I think we are doing well, but thought I would throw it into the circle.

Has I mentioned many fans last season and also posted our set pieces, might need looking at.

Never take a point mentioned as an attack on the whole teams s t atus or situation.It is an important issue that needs attention.

Forget who we have played, its a question where can we improve that weakness, it cant be....play weaker teams.

We are doing well, but it's annoying to play really well and then let a goal in from a set piece! It's difficult to understand why we are so bad a set pieces. Maybe we need to change something in training. We're not just bad at defending them either. When we have a corner or free kick I never feel like we're going to score, but it's something we can improve on. Cambiasso a big improvement, so hopefully the rest of the team can learn from him. 

[StanSP]

Talking about height of players I didn't realise Vardy was as tall as 5ft 11.

[Stadt]

Funnily enough I was having a discussion about the height of football players down the pub yesterday, the old their smaller than they look on TV thing. I was shocked to find out bar the Ulloa who as a natural striker isn't going to be as good at defending set pieces from a mental stand point as a natural defender, I'm actually taller than ever player we in our team bar Ulloa. So while small isn't probably the right term we aren't particularly big.

It's not hard to see why Jedinak and Delaney 6'2 and 6'3 respectively, caused us problems.

Well they're all considerably taller than me

I think we could do with a Jedinak type of player becauae are midfielders are:

5'9.5

5'10

5'10

6'0

6'1

The six footers are King and Hammond who aren't physically imposing which wouldn't be an issue if our defence wasn't so small in relative terms.

[Foxes1]

Its not only that I believe both goals could have been avoided on Saturday if we had put someone the back and front post.

[Steve_Walsh5]

Its not only that I believe both goals could have been avoided on Saturday if we had put someone the back and front post.

In the first half we had Cambiasso on a post and he cleared one of the line.

[Mad Dog]

I actually think this is a coaching issue and one of our current coaching setups only weak spots. We have the players. Our set piece defending has always been poor under Pearson.

[crazylegs1984]

and we have scored 10 , -1 after the games we have had thats pretty ****ing impressive moaners will moan though i suppose see how it is after the next 5

[Long Eaton Fox]

It's not just defending free kicks and corners, it's not giving them away in the first place! Players need to learn when to challenge and when to allow possession to the opposition!

[st albans fox]

Its not only that I believe both goals could have been avoided on Saturday if we had put someone the back and front post.

We don't have anyone on the front post as we defend the front of the 18 yard box instead. A very odd tactic.

I think this goals against issue should be reviewed after the next 4 matches. Until then, the quality of the sides we have already played may skew the numbers.

[LCFCFOX6190]

It's a shame our set pieces are so poor, attacking and defending. An area that we could gain points from, especially against the top teams.

[Aus Fox]

For **** sake, so far this season we have beaten Man Utd, won away at Stoke and taken points from both Aresenal and Everton.

One defeat away at a decent Crystal Palce team and Schemichael, Nugent the whole back 4 Cambiasso And Drinkwater should all be dropped? Some people need to get a grip!

We were poor at set peices last season ( the only thing that kept the moaners in buisness).

But have we really been that bad at set peices this season?

How many have we conceded this season before Saturday from set peices?

We are settling in to a new division with very few of our squad having any premier league experience, but so far Moore, Morgan and Konchesky have been outstanding, while De Laet has been hot and cold, made a few mistakes but will get better and shown signs of being quality.

As soon as we lose a game, we don't all have to melt down and drag out the scape goats, we are going to lose many games this season, some like Chelsea away we will have a good go, play well and just come up short against quality opposition and some like on Saturday we will play poorly, we just have to bounce back on the weekend.

[Brown Fox]

I've actually thought we've looked decent at set pieces in general. We were bombarded by them against stoke and Man U and came away completely unscathed. We've only let in 2 from set pieces which was against palace. I agree they were really bad to concede, but I think we've come quite a long way since last season.

[Oxfordfox83]

The first goal on Saturday was pretty poor, and I think the finger has to point at Kasper given how close to him the cross came. You can't do a lot when it's turned in on the line, but it shouldn't have got that far. That's really the only soft goal we've conceded all season-not an excuse, but context.

The second goal was different-it was a great delivery, perfect jump and well placed. Hammond could have got tighter, but Jedinak's movement was very good. The thing I did notice was the job being done on Kasper. One of their big lads was parked right in front of him and blocking him from moving either side; if not for that, I think Kasper would have saved it. That might be something worth looking at, because I think we've been had by some clever gamesmanship there.

[kingcarr21]

isnt it 10 goals??

[Leicester_Numan]

We don't have anyone on the front post as we defend the front of the 18 yard box instead. A very odd tactic.

I think this goals against issue should be reviewed after the next 4 matches. Until then, the quality of the sides we have already played may skew the numbers.

What will also skew the numbers is that 6 of the goals have had more than a bit of luck about them. I think our defending has been good on the whole but set pieces are as always an issue.

[Vicki Vixen]

I posted this last season as well regarding set-pieces - from an interview with Mike Stowell in the Yeovil match programme:

 

"Nigel has [also] entrusted me with the attacking set plays..."

"Shakey does the defending set plays...."

 

I don't know much about Stowell or Shakespeare's coaching skills, but it did concern me having a former goalkeeper coaching attacking set-pieces, and a defender who did not exactly play at the top level of the game organising us at the other end.  It certainly showed last season, and while we were pretty successful at set-pieces in pre-season, we have looked disorganised again in recent games.  Jedinak is an absolute beast in the air and Wes or Liam needed to man-up and man mark him when we are defending corners or free kicks.

[Crinklyfox]

IMO we'd defended relatively well as a unit in the previous games. Arsenal kept the ball and poured it on but we held firm. So I'm not going to start criticising the back four, nobody's perfect, they've all got their strengths and weaknesses. Physically Palace dominated through height advantage, something we also struggled with at Stoke with Crouch.

Burnley had a good defensive record, four goals conceded in five games, before last weekend's hammering but they'd only scored one goal. We could change our style of play to set up more defensively but that would impact our attacking options. There are some games when we should be doing that, but there is an attacking philosophy in the team that has got us to where we are so I'm not in favour of changing it.

[tylesta]

if we keep picking up between 5-8 points every 6 games i couldn't care less if we had the worst defence in the league. That should see us safe.

We was always going to concede alot more than most in the prem but i think the lads havme done superb. I wonder if the chelsea fans are complainig at conceding on average just over a goal a game? They have conceded 3 less than us.

Fair play to pearson for giving the players who won promotion a chance i think they have made the step up really well.

When i seen the fixture list with palace and stoke away aswell i would of been happy with a win and a draw. Out of the 6 teams we have played only one is below us everton who i'm sure will pick up points very soon.

We could of been alot worse off, i don't know what some are expecting, us to have the best defence in the league? I think we all should be happy with our start.

Enjoy thr ride we waited 10 years for this and think we are a million more times prepared than that campaign.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

This. We clearly struggle to defend set pieces with the combination we have, we could really do with a Skrtel or Mertesacker type centre back who just takes complete command of most of the situations.

 

We've got Upson who I think would help us out no end in set piece situations but he's crocked.

[David Lowe]

As long as the goals do not dry up completely it will not be a problem. We could have gone very defensive against Man Utd and lost 1-0. The defensive record would look better but we would have got no points from the game.

[Oxfordfox83]

As long as the goals do not dry up completely it will not be a problem. We could have gone very defensive against Man Utd and lost 1-0. The defensive record would look better but we would have got no points from the game.

Agree completely. This is why I think de Laet needs to be given more time, because what he offers us going forward is worth more than someone more solid would offer defensively. This still relies on us harrying the defence and pressuring them into mistakes. I do believe that with our solid midfield we are more secure and more threatening with width, and hope that we see 442 return for Burnley.

[Deucalion]

On goals conceded we are 4th bottom.

 

On goals scored we are around joint 7th.

 

I bet the coaching team are working on how to concede less goals.

[kingcarr21]

Liverpool conceded almost double the goals than Chelsea last season (50 and 27 respectively) and still finished ahead of them in the league. Its not the be all and end all if you concede a few goals. Our attacking line up has looked pretty solid so far and long may it continue. To have only conceded 10 goals in the fixtures weve played so far for a newly promoted team is not bad going surely.