No defense for the defence

[Guest Col city fan]

Meow!!

You spend a lot of time in the pub, you should cut back a little.

Cheers dad! It's the only way I can drown my sorrows at how we take ten years to get back up, then look to be taking ten mins to go back down again.

[ScouseFox]

Help me out here, I'm playing Col City Fan Bingo. I've nearly got a line, I just need you to say you were discussing this down the boozer with your mates and you were all saying the same thing.

Cheers.

 

absolutely done reading this. got stomach cramp here 

[Fez of Mahrez]

absolutely done reading this. got stomach cramp here

Stick it on Tinder and invite me to the wedding.

[fleckneymike]

Meow!!

You spend a lot of time in the pub, you should cut back a little.

 

When in the Pub Col likes to stand just infront of the bar to offer some protection to the staff incase they get overwhelmed, whilst also conveying orders from those even further back. On occasion he'll pass glasses of water back in a manouvre he likes to call the 'Deschamps'

[Guest Col city fan]

When in the Pub Col likes to stand just infront of the bar to offer some protection to the staff incase they get overwhelmed, whilst also conveying orders from those even further back. On occasion he'll pass glasses of water back in a manouvre he likes to call the 'Deschamps'

Very clever Michael.

[theessexfox]

I thought the midfield were to blame?

 

Or.....there it is.

 

Col, where did I tell you all the goals we ship come from and what has happened yet again today.

 

You can't blame the formation when we're letting the opposition score set pieces for fun.

 

If you look at their second Matty James is one of the few men goal side when Villa break. Paul Konchesky nowhere to be seen when Hutton scores.

Covering in the centre - centre-backs out of position from the corner. 

[StanSP]

How have you managed to spell defence differently in the same question ?

[Thracian]

It's not just about the defence although they had to shoulder most of the blame as they were totally unable to cope with Villa's aerial threat either by dominating physically or by cutting out the crosses that were always likely to do the damage.

 

But there were other factors. Two players shadowed their winger before the ball was transferred with ease to the right-hand side for the winning goal and neither got tight enough...not for the first time in the game. 

 

Then you have to ask who was tracking Hutton? Okay, Villa shouldn't have been able to transfer the ball so easily but to leave a guy totally unmarked - for at least the second in the match - 10 yards from the far post is just asking for trouble and shows a complete lack of communication and organisation.  

 

As I mentioned elsewhere many are having a go at Moore for their first goal but he was left without a prayer by the clever movement of the scorer and the real fault lay in Wasolowski giving away such a needless free-kick in much the same way as Konchesky volunteered his own sending off.

 

He fouled Hutton, no question, whispered some vitriol in his ear and tried to pretend that Hutton had retaliated. The referee got it right and we were down to 10 men for nothing for all that it didn't really matter in the end and Wood or Nugent might actually have scored a truly spectacular equalisers.

 

The other thing lacking in a defensive sense was the lack of additional aerial support from central midfield and that's cost us so badly this season especially with having relatively small defenders although we ignore it because somehow we seem desperate to accomodate Cambiasso. That could be done i suppose but not at the expense of someone like King. It's a form of suicide until we sign other options.   

[fleckneymike]

How have you managed to spell defence differently in the same question ?

 

On purpose? Err nope, speed typing (mistyping).

[Thracian]

Yeah sure, the defence could do with some support. But every bloody position could because we're currently not good enough in any of them.

 

 

There's no arguing with that but we have to make the best of what we have until we can sing alternatives and we're not doing that by a long way.

[sdb]

I think we need to try our most experienced back 4 (bar Upson as not sure on his ability now yet):

 

Simpson - Was - Wes - Konch

 

I think that'd do OK. 

 

Personally I think our CB's have suffered this season from a keeper who doesn't really command, a RB who can't defend, an ageing LB and an overrun midfield. These 4 would at least boss things better and communicate more. 

[fleckneymike]

There's no arguing with that but we have to make the best of what we have until we can sing alternatives and we're not doing that by a long way.

 

How about Heskey in at CB and Alan Sheehan at LB?

[hamptonfox]

The defence is hopeless at Premier League level, and playing two wide players who are fleetingly involved in attack and little in defending, makes it even worse.

 

I don't want to see Konchesky involved again.

 

Morgans decision making  is getting worse and worse.

 

De Laet looks okay, and then completely terrible, and Moore and Was played poorly today too.

 

Not sure what our record rubbish run is, but given we have better teams to play now, than we have been losing against, then I assume we will be creating a negative record soon, to go with all last years positive ones.

 

 

[Fox92]

I don't understand how we're so bad at defending given Nige was a solid defender himself. I even get worried when we're defending any kind of set piece because we're so bad at defending.

[Benji]

I still think Pearson's the right man but the ongoing issue with set pieces and crosses into the box is becoming a real turning point for me.  I'm sure they practice them a lot in training but game after game when the ball comes into the box it's like they've never had to defend one before.  There has to be something going wrong in the management and wider coaching here, it's gone beyond a coincidence.

[The Doctor]

You all miss the point. We KNOW our back four is weak. It's feeble at this level.

So we continue to play a formation that puts them under even MORE pressure? That makes no sense. As eight goals shipped in three matches testifies. Now bottom, I think, in terms of numbers of goals conceded.

But no. You keep going on about coaching 'errors' out of players. It's the 'individual errors' that are costing us. So where's the 'coaching' ( the errors are increasing) and why are they happening?

If things were getting better, defensively, fine. They aren't. They are getting worse.

It's not the formation that's the problem - this was explained after Tuesday, and again today we saw it - set pieces and crosses. A defensive midfielder won't stop our positioning for set pieces and giving people free runs for crosses.