a quality unit !!!? we are lucky to have 2 good DMs to protect us in the expenses of our attack regarding schweinsteiger, time will tell .. & hope am wrong
I'd say we almost have a very good defence. Darmian, Smalling and Shaw look like they're in good form and will only get better. Blind has done well in two games but it's early days. But here's the problem. You dig deeper beyond that and then we start getting into murky waters. Darmian injured, Valencia at RB. Smalling injured and you're looking at McNair if LVG wants to keep the right foot left foot thing going. Or Carrick? Then it's all a bit iffy. Blind's backup will be Rojo which is fine imo. Having said that, I think we'll manage defensively in the prem (Champions League very much doubt it but hey ho it's probably a season too soon for this defence in Europe) What we do need is a forward to rotate with Rooney in all competitions. Striker is a must or no league title imo.
@CFC: Champions of FFP thinks he's just arrived out of nowhere and wasn't an established Italian international already.
Not conceded a goal yet and only 23 since 8th November 2014. That's getting close to a year (minus the summer break of course). At what point do people stop talking bollocks and call our defence what it is, well drilled, competent and one of the best in the league. hes already proving you wrong shwan, just watch him. Different class.
You can say that about almost any defence in football. The back ups will always be inferior, it's why they are back ups and not the first choice. Soon we will concede a few goals and all hell will break loose as if we are the first team in history to do such a thing. I look forward to it.
A rather simplistic view as always UIR Look at the defensive unit as a whole. It's like ker plunk with our backups. You switch Darmian for Valencia and it makes a fledgeling defence much more vulnerable. Regardless of what you may believe this group of players are just carrying that defence at the moment. A weak link coming in may likely affect them.
From November to May we didn't have Darmian at RB or Blind at CB yet still had the best defensive record in the league, somebody must have filled in quit well. EDIT....and we didn't have Basi or Morgan to shield them then.
Simplistic? No. Realistic? Yes. Valencia is the worst of the back ups but has shown he's capable enough. As long as it's not long term, the odd game here or there doesn't concern me. Smalling is just immense. Shame he's also injury prone but with how he's played recently (way back into last season) he deserves the faith being shown. McNair and Evans (shudder) are not the worlds best back ups but the , who the hell is? Left backs well and truly covered though, layers of quality for that role. blind as CB adds the intelligence that we lacked last season. The calm head who as it happens, is t so bad defending either. A permanent choice? Probably not but as you say, Rojo is there too. Regardless of what I may believe, the facts and performances add up. We've got a top class defence and it will only improve. LVG and the lads have to take huge credit for the turn around since the first few months of last season.
My answer to that is simple. We are playing in 4 competitions. The demands will be greater mate. I can remind you of what happened in the FA Cup game against Arsenal. Now we're looking at group stages of CL, knockouts hopefully, FA Cup, Capital One. It's a lot to ride out imo. I think we'll make do and can compete in the league with it, as I said earlier. Striker is the priority imo.
So I ask you to look at the affect of changing one on the defensive unit as a whole and you respond with a list of individual substitutions Do you read what ppl post? Serious question.
Yeh Di Maria got himself sent off like an absolute prat and Valencia made a mistake. He wasn't the first or last to do so but to put that as a reason our defence isn't good enough is just daft. Even the greatest players have made some horrendous mistakes. We have more games, which means more time to get even better. More games dont make it any tougher, I fact, we've played less games the past two seasons and been worse than in the 20 years before. The more it plays, the better it gets.
I elaborated on it. Your on your own with this one treble, only Shwan thinks in a similar way. Shwan, he thinks Schweinseigers not good enough too. Think about that
I think if anything these past few months have shown I am very sure of myself. A little to much probably. I think you missed the joke anyway. Oh well, next time.
All I can say to that is can you remember who our back ups were the last two times we won the league and played in four competitions.
Yes ofcourse but then you're forgetting who we had starting. Think we're going round in circles and ppl are looking at each thing in isolation. We have fledgeling back 4 who are performing well but are carrying each other at the same time. They arent an experience back 4 with the likes of Evra, Rio, Vidic etc BUT that's ok, they're building and they are fine. However take one away and the guy who comes in then makes that fledgeling defence more vulnerable as a whole bcos we dont have that commanding experience back there who can carry the defence. Btw we also had Fergie Also note I've already said we can get away with it in terms of challenging for the league, provided we get a striker.
