Beginning of November as far as I know, probably around the same time as Ramirez. Gaston has of course left a huge whole in our team but Cork has also been a huge miss as well and mostly forgotten about. Might not even start any games but valuable player for the bench.
Going into away matches with a midfield three of Morgan, Davis and Cork would hopefully give better defensive cover. Although I doubt it would have much effect on our inability to defend set pieces.
Cork isn't a small boy, and also can play at the back so has a defensive head on his shoulders, so would definitely be better at defending set pieces than Davis, Lallana, Puncheon etc., wouldn't immediately solve our problems but could have an effect.
Oh I don't doubt that at all. But I just suspect that even with Cork in there, we'd still look highly vunreable from set pieces. A month on, and I still can't forget Benteke putting that free header over the cross bar. If he'd buried that, we probably wouldn't even have four points right now.
Without doubt, we could have Chris Samba, Robert Huth and Vidic in the team and still have some defensive issues from set pieces. Not all about height and defensive prowess but also organization and concentration and that is what we severely lack. I do think a defensive coach would help, Adkins overall is a very good manager and man-motivator, but defensively he clearly isn't having enough of an impact at the moment. Our defence has been the weak point since day one, and there's been talk of work on the training ground and whatnot, but whilst I think there have been improvements, it has still not been good enough and there needs to be more done. Who knows if we actually get a regular back-four playing injury free, we might get a rhythm going and all of a sudden everythings wonderful, but at the moment there's a long way to go regardless of any positive spins you put on it.
Or could play him right back, Clyne left back, meaning Yoshida back to centre back. Just an idea - would Fonte noit be better at full back than Yoshida - he does like to get forward (remember Brighton home last season, also coventry!)
Yoshida can also get forward and does have some attacking aspects, but I think the games he's played at full-back have shown the difference between a CB who likes to get forward and a legitimate attacking full-back. And to show his attacking abilities, although I'm sure almost everyone will have seen it because of the pure brilliance... [video=youtube;OKsnH_ZyCIM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKsnH_ZyCIM[/video] Would like to see Fonte pull that off!
