The guy is just not good enough for this level IMO. His defending for Burnley's second goal was unforgivable. He is no way commanding. Am I being too harsh? Surely Onuoha is better? Surely he couldn't be worse? We cannot keep playing Dunne, remember how he fell apart in the second half of last season. Ferdinand - unplayable, full stop. Hill - an option but not a very good one. I see our central defence as a major weakness going into the second half of the season. Do we need someone in on loan?
I think he's done OK with a few dodgy performances thrown in. One thing's for sure, if we kept possession better our defence would have more respite and not as prone to errors or look as flaky.
For someone with a supposedly big future, it ain't happening with us. Never buy a defender from a relegated club .............. that's gotta tell you there's a lesson there.
He was a lot of people's MOTM against Swansea. Our entire defence gets so exposed by the failings of the entire team that I find it hard to single out any one individual too much. Any combination of our CBs would be similarly exposed imo.
Thank you, Abu! I could not agree with you more! I've been saying all season that Caulker is second rate at best, half-hearted to defend and would rather go forward. Onuoha is better. He should be playing more.
That Burnleys second goal was really a sad testament from Caulker... Litlle player (Ings) pushed (very softly) big muscular one (Caulker) out of the situation to score a winning goal. That Ingsie boy should have run straight to a "brickwall" instead.
Think he is a good centre half and will prove that with us, good defending is a team effort and we are getting exposed big Time in certain games. Dunne is past it and way to slow for premier league football. I'd have caulker and onuoha.
Don’t be silly- he has made a few rookie mistakes- which partly is because he is a rookie. He recognises this himself and one of the reasons he signed from us was to learn off of Rio Aerially he is excellent and this is often taken for granted. Other than John Terry I would say there is no better defender in the league at attacking or defending corners. It’s amazing how many he wins. He managed to score 5 for Cardiff in the league last year and scored on his England debut. Matter of time till he scores for us. Must have had at least 3 cleared of line for us. He is strong and has good pace. With experience he will reduce these mistakes. Other issue is Harry. Unfortunately he is playing under a manager he sucks confidence out of the team by constantly saying how ‘difficult’ it is and how much quality we lack. Last thing we need is for fans to start getting on his back and knocking that confidence further. The guy has ability. As has been pointed out our he was excellent against Swansea our last game before Burnley and majority of season been outside of Rob Green and Austin probably our most consistent performer So slagging him or saying he isn’t good enough for the this league is idiotic and the only rational is that you started this thread as some sort of attention seeking. Pretty sad really
You really are a prize asshole. Never heard of debate? Heaven forbid if anyone has a different opinion to yours. It must be great knowing you are right all the time. My opinion is that you know a lot less about football than you think. "Caulker is strong" - give me a break, what planet are you on?
Average at best like the rest of the players. Caulker will be a good Prem defender in the future though I think. Probably not with us though........
Agree completely with the OP. Haven't been impressed with him. He is easily pushed off the ball and gets beaten far too easily. Not exactly a commanding CB that I thought he would be.
I think his performances are variable. I have the impression he is learning his trade and might develop into a much better player after another season or three. We, however, are running out of time. It is partly a confidence issue. Had his header gone in at the death, this thread would (probably) not have been started.
He had a bad game, i'd go to say a very bad game but is that enough to drop him ? IMO if you have another competent CD waiting in the wings then yes....heres Ned. Really don't understand why Nedam has never been given the opportunity to regularly start in the middle. Awful defensive record and yet we don't change anything....
On paper our defensive record is poor; but if you think about how deep we play (does any other team play deeper?) then it follows that the the defence is always under pressure and as such goals will eventually be conceded. Caulker could have done better with the second goal on Saturday, but fair play to Ings who was aware enough to apply the pressure on Caulker and got him facing his own goal. I think Caulker is genuine but is now looking strained by it all. This is where Harry's man management needs to come into play. I thought Ned looked a lot more comfortable when he was moved to centre back against Sheff U an made some great recovery tackles in that game. He is never a right back in a million years. Any 2 from Ned/Dunne/Caulker good enough for me.
I wrote on another thread somewhere that I thought our priority purchase or loan, if we are only doing that, should be a new decent (and youngish) CB, now we have brought in a striker. We have the worst defensive record in the PL, not all the fault of the CB's but it must be a big part of it. I don't think Ferdinand, Clint or Ned would be better alternatives than Dunne or Caulker, but I don't think these 2 are good enough as a pair. Both are good in the air, but I think either of these 2, or Clint, need to play alongside someone not just fast like Ned, but who has a better vision of the game and can pass out of defense better than Ned can.
Personally for me the arsehole is the bloke who starts a thread like this. Burnley was his first bad game for us. He has had a couple of other games where he has made an error here or there but Burnley was his first bad game. He was excellent in the recent league games particularly at home, like against Swansea, Palace, Burnley, Leicester. He’s good on the ball, which gives him an edge on our other centre back options and is particularly useful when you consider how bad on the ball Henry and Barton are. And of course he is strong. He’s 6 foot 3 or 4 and not a skinny lad. He’s cock up with Ings was more that he switched off and was too passive in that instance. If he went in for a true shoulder to shoulder with him obviously there would only be one winner. The mistake was he didn’t do that. Also his obvious dominance in the air is more evidence of his obvious physical strength. So to be so sure he isn’t strong is surely seen as pretty daft by anyone with an unbiased opinion. Its one thing when to have threads like this when its about SWP, Henry or even Hoilett. Who have had poor or questionable performances over a prolonged period of time. To start throwing in threads like this looks to me like attention seeking behaviour and/or your first opportunity to jump in with some sort of bias or preconceived opinion you had of him.
