Posted this as a reply on another thread but thought it may be worth discussing on its own. Hopefully Nigel has learned a lot from our baptism of fire and in particular the consequences of small defensive laps or mistakes. Most of the goals we have conceed have come from mistakes along the back line or from midfield that could have been avoided. The harsh reality is that had we not had these little lapses and made those little mistakes we could well be sat on 7 points right now. Hanson tore us apart defensively on MOTD and it all seemed pretty obvious and basic. We can't bring in any new players to improve the team but we could bring in someone else to work directly with the defence. Steve Bould has had a massive impact on Arsenal, so is there someone out there we can bring in to iron out these defensive lapses/mistakes? and who do you think it could be? Killer? Claus? If not this how do you think we can reduce the number of goals conceeded without the option of buying new players?
Even if we have a solid defence, we can still concede goals. For example, if the opposition have a corner and Lallana loses his man and he scores, even if the back four have their men marked, one of our attackers hasn't and we've conceded because of it. It's just like how we rely on our defenders for goals, Hooiveld got 7 in the league last year. Everyone has to do their part defensively just like they do when going forward. Our defence should improve throughout the season as we adapt to the league more and our players gel. Last season our defence started off quite weak, especially away from home and it improved as the season went on. We ended up having the third best defence in the division, after Reading and Hull respectively.
"It's defence with a C, not defense with an S, 'cause defense with an S just sucks..!" Sung to the tune of It's Liza with a Zee [save me from US English], not Lisa with an S Le god that tune is awful. Don't click on the link. Save your sanity.
Of course we will always concede but we need to iron out those ones which should not have happened.Everyone needs to know what their job is in the team defensively. I am sure it will be worked on in training but have we got the best coaches to do this or is Nigel spliting his time between attack defence and overall strategy. I don't know but just though that Hanson had a point and if coached correctly the players we have can be good enough. Beef Dripping - Good point was using him as an example as a decent CB, forgot about his little mishaps.
Aww... Gort will be back, don't worry. He's my favourite too, but he's had to take some time off. Apparently there's a planet where time has to stand still, and he's organising it. Kryten is just a stand-in, I assure you.
I think the formation of 4-3-3 doesn't help with the defence tbh. Don't really know what ex defender could help us.
It's still new to the team and as the team gains confidence in the system, the defence will sort itself out to a great extent. Reading still have Ian Harte playing left back. Great with a dead ball, but he's the slowest man alive. Man for man our team is pretty good and swith some working together, we've got it in us to stay up. Speaking of ex-defenders, what's Ken Monkou doing these days?
Hi havn't posted since last season - Was at the game on Sat and IMO game was won and lost in midfield as was shown by first goal, how was that ball lost ?? Give world class players the chance to run at you and you've got problems. Thought Yoshida looked relatively solid when he came on apart from being suckered for third goal which he immediately acknowledged. Best defender was Fonte who came back well after his panic-stricken last 10 mins against Man U, that's what strikers like RVP do to you. Worst defender on the day was KD - I was also at the Man U game and he seemed to take that defeat very personally, was thumping the ground in frustration, he will come back though Believe the defence will improve and for next game, we need to look at our offensive play. On Sat, our two biggest attacking threats, Lallana and Lambert were both poor on the day and need to improve on that and I'm sure they will. Ramirez looked classy but there was no real pressure on him as Arsenal had dropped off with their coming champions league exertions in mind....he's got good balance for a big man and didn't seem 'lightweight' to me Best to draw a line under Saturday, I dunno bloody Guly....oh hang on ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
Haha! He's obviously been consuming his own produce - he looked quite round when Channel 5 brought him in for that Ajax game!
Problem is defensively there wasn't much option on Saturday. Yoshida had only just arrived back from Japan and Shaw from an illness.
Not sure I agree yet. How much of a shake up and which players? One or two maybe, but not five, six or seven.
Think we are looking like a team that picks itself. Was the transfer market dealings enough to give us quality in depth ? I don't think so. Players should be battling for a starting place & perhaps with the couple of new arrivals this may happen.
