while we all know we are in the mist of an injury crisis, we have no strikers, our midfield is down to the bones, but we still have a few options at the back, super bardo, turner, elmo, ned, anton, why can't we defend any more? surely it's not down to bramble, bruce himself was a mighty fine defender, and if anything was to come out of all his expereincw it would be to know how to defend. why can;t we stop crosses/corners, why have we lost the ability to defend. bruce was one of the best defenders of his generation, so why don't they watch some footage of the boss himself and see how it's done, is it to do, that they are just not as good at it as their boss, look at the club, no defenders as good as bruce, no strikers as good as quinn no midfielders as good as bally. when we question the ability of the bosses, just remember, they know what it takes to be a good player...
Only thing i can say to that really is, you have to defend from the front, if its just stream after stream of the opponents attacking, then sooner or later they will score, but if the midfield and forwards can hold the ball up and bring in other players, it puts less pressure on our back 4. But Bruce played for Man U for years, will be hard for us to get a defender as good as him in his heyday, not saying impossible but there are not many out there. and just lumping the ball upfield from defense doesnt help either.
Well if bruce is telling them to do that then i suppose yes, but i dont believe he is, run around like headless chickens, not pressuring, crap passing, etc etc, look at the start of the season we played some pretty good football (and some games without Bent) then its all gone to hell, i cant see Bruce changing the way we play, its the players on the pitch, lacking confidence, and panicing big time.
It's bizarre, we had the most clean sheets in the league at one point! Our defending was brilliant, and then at a certain point it started going downhill.
When SB first arrived, he tried to strengthen the defence, which he did fairly well. Even when we had the slump last season, we were shipping just odd goals. This season, after christmas, the flood gates have opened. Why! look at the defence up to christmas, Bramble/ Turner, Bramble/ Mensah mainly Bramble / Turner in the central positions. Since christmas they have all had long spells out with injuries, mostly 2 at a time. Unless you have a settled defence, it's not long before the goals flow in and the confidence goes. Start improvements at the back and work up to the front, stop letting in stupid goals and eventually we will get goals at the other end. I do agree that the best defence is attack, but if you don't have the guns to attack with, dig in and defend, but defend further up the field, Brucie in his day would not normally defend inside the box, defend halfway up I wish this season would end now, Ive looked at the teams around us, and think it may well come down to GD
Aren’t we all. I’d hate to be a defender looking into his eyes when they see a cross coming.
