Fair point mate. My concern is that collapses like against Villa, Soton and Palace are only going to be come more common as they get older and slower. I was probably being a bit harsh on them, just think those three humiliations have skewed my perception of them.
I agree they need replacing and now hopefully they'll get less game time. I just think a lot of their exceptional form is lost in the midst of those performances. I'd probably do the same if I wasn't so into game by game stats. But as I said, good form aside, their lack of pace severely handicaps us further up the pitch, and the overall lack of pace meant we couldn't even install a counter attacking to deal with it.
Unfortunately, I think that those 13 clean sheets were because of the whole team defending because of negativity, so I'm reluctant to only give credit to our defensive unit With a better defence our other units would be able to create and cause damage at the other end, which is what we all want (probably), so I'm just hoping for some sparks in the 'right areas' rather than the shocks in the 'wrong areas' that we've, sort of, become accustomed to I've got concerns, like most S.A.F.C. fans, but I really do have more faith in our recruitment team/management than I have had for many years
That's why I said if you take away the isolated collapses and turn them into narrow 2-0 defeats it shows how well our defence did last season overall. Even with them (were talking 10-12 goals from colapses) we beat most that finished around us on goals conceded, plus following stats at the time led to me keeping a close eye on them and in most part they looked excellent, combine stats and my own judgement I'll stick my conclusion fella. We didn't park the bus the full season. and teams as a whole always have to chip in defensively for any team. Not saying they're perfect, far from, but clearly the few bad performances clouds the good work the old knackers did. I'm all about balance fella and they weren't getting credit for the good things they've done, just wanted to draw attention to the hard work they put in.
everything I've seen & heard since dick came in gives me confidence. I think that even if we made no more signings, we'd get 10 more points than we did last season, just because he's a much better manager who knows what he's doing and will get more out of the players. Watford have signed 10 players so far, we know that doesn't work and I'm glad we've stopped just wasting money like that, because the hardest thing is getting rid of them when you find out they're crap. Like somebody said Hull spent 42m and went down, what else do you need to know.
I agree with Gordon; a lot of our clean sheets were down to Gus's style of play, which (a) was turgid and boring to watch and (b) starved our forwards of any sort of service. No wonder the goals dried up. I just hope Dick can use the speed we've bought to create a sense of urgency through the side when we have possession. The flowing football we enjoyed under Peter Reid seems a lifetime ago...
Disagree Dick: 4 clean sheets in 9 games. 44.4% clean sheets Gus: 9 clean sheets in 29 games. 31% clean sheets % of our clean sheets under Dick. 30.7 and was in charge 23.6% of our games. Fact is our defence was tough to break down all season. Clean Sheet Table Chelsea 17 West Brom 15 Liverpool 14 Man City 13 Sunderland 13 Arsenal 12 Southampton 12 Swansea 12 Aston Villa 10 Burnley 10 Everton 10 Hull 10 Leicester 10 Man Utd 10 Spurs 9 Newcastle 8 Stoke 8 West Ham 8 Crystal Palace 7 QPR 6 If we didn't implode(games we conceded 4 or more) in the games we did and got beat 2-0 we would have 6th best against tally. Which only goes to highlight the heavy defeats cloud the truth. Our defence deserve way more credit then they get for last season, we know they're slow, aged and prone to injury and implostion, everyone knows that, but given their obvious misgivings I think they deserve the credit they're not getting. Pants, Vito, Jones, PVA, Brown, O'Shea, Coates and even Vergini. I salute you! As well as the rest of the hard working squad who pulled together to keep us tough to beat last season. Which we were. Very tough to beat.
If only, eh ! The world's full of them I agree that there have been more whinges than compliments, and I appreciate the fact that the owld gits (in particular) haven't received much praise from 'us' (that doesn't include me 'cos I've praised both of them when relevant), but 'we' are just a bit frustrated because we all know that they haven't 'got much left' to donate to our cause and there aren't many signs that they're going to be replaced by better centre halves Is Dave Watson not available for selection these days
I'll agree with that. Though the way Coates finished last season I'm very optimistic about him. We know Kaboul is miles better than what we have but if he can keep fit it remains to be seen. Not hopeful on him.
Personally I think Dick spotted more of a defender in him than footballer, his game certainly tightened up under Dick as he stopped dwelling on the ball the last half dozen games and just plainly got rid rather then construct.
