Now this is not a negative thread by any means as I believe we have the most complete squad we have ever had. But if you had to pick the weakest part of our team, where would it be? I've been thinking about this and I'm finding it very difficult to pinpoint an actual weakness in our team. So if I had to pick somewhere that we are not as strong, I'd probably have to go for fullbacks. Even though Rangel, Davies and Taylor are all brilliant when contributing to our attacking play, all 3 imo have defensive frailties. What you guys think?
For me if would be our centre halfs, If we get any injuries to Ash or Chico then I do think we are week in this area. Yes we have cover in Amat, he's new and will need time to adapt.
Not positional but .... Desire It was what seemed to be missing at the end of last season more than anything. It was this that was missing in many a challenge. It is this that makes a good player great and a good team great. It is also a lack of this that makes a good team poor. This is why I am not getting carried away. I am ecstatic by our signings and pre season but realistic that even just matching last year is a runaway success. A note of caution: last year, DG was possibly our best player pre season...as I said, DESIRE
I was thinking perhaps our wingers as last season they would tend to be fairly inconsistent, but this preseason their link up play, final ball and even their shooting is looking much improved. Hard to judge as its only preseason, but you get the feeling this has been worked on pretty intensely over the summer. Our front 4 are looking excellent!
Our full backs are pretty solid. Rangel because of age and perceived lack of speed could be a weak link defensively but on offense he is a dangerous full back. Our minimal depth is center back. An unlucky coincidence of injuries and we could be reduced to Monk and Ki. But as said above, this is probably one of the most fluid and solid squads we have ever had.
Our weakness without doubt is still our defensive set piece play, again in the reading game we failed to defend them preoperly and this will lead to goals, of course if we were great at this then we would be looking at being a top 6 team which despite heavy investment is fantasy world really. I guess we have to except and live with certain aspects of our team, we could find a centre half that batted everything away but he would probably be very poor at the more technical stuff, overall I think Laudrup is building a great little team,one which should be mid table even though Europa league may prove to be a difficult extra responsibility. I reserve judgement on where we are until we have played at least 10 games, pre season means nothing in terms of results so its difficult to gauge where we are at really. Im very happy with what ive seen on highlights so far, I just cant wait for the season to start,then the real debate will begin for me, Laudrup looks relaxed about things and that's a good sign
our weakest link this season has to be parking at the liberty, It can be a nightmare......I cant see any weaknesses with the team as yet....
Defending set pieces and a lack of self discipline / concentration from all of the back four are our achilles heel ,has been for a while now and my concern is the fitness of Chico ,although Monk when selected hasn't let him self or the team down I believe that a centre back pairing has to be a consistent in selection something for various reasons took some time to form between Ash & Chico last season. Ben understandably was caught to on number of occasions but considering the quality of players he was up against then he more than acquitted himself well. Rangal had the previous season to adapt to the pace of the game and had a solid last season looking more defensively sound and gave an added threat going forward. I don't believe the centre half positions are something that can be experimented with and change unless forced should be minimal.Whether Ki playing in the final was an inspired choice or not we'll never know but little could be taken from it to see if he could be another option . We do look a threat going forward , with players who can now alter the pace of the game at will ,such as Jon Jo's goal yesterday demonstrated , and his long ball forward to Bony who only had to control it such was the accuracy of the pass . Early days yet but there are a lot more positives than negatives for me and hopefully lets kick the season off proper on Thursday with an emphatic win
Its definitley defending set pieces for me - any corner gets me sooooo nervous especially when you have big buggers like Carrol playing. The mitigation against this is of course not to give away any corners or free kicks near the box - so lets just keep the ball - simple
I think defending corners has been ok the last few seasons, it's the free kicks we seem to get undone by, the ones where they are drilled in. Is shelvey a good header of the ball? Could provide the extra numbers we need to defend them. We've had a team of pigmies for so long now
Strange one with Chico though, im sure he was fit up to the point when he had the tragic news of his dad passing away(rip ) he had compassionate leave and then came back injured didn't he ? Chico is a player that always seems to get little niggles, I think Laudrup said that he wanted to play but they decided against it due to it being early season and it not being worth the risk. Canas is cut from the same cloth though and the way he steams into tackles he is sure to get a few knocks and red cards, these players seem quite happy to put the body on the line for us which is quite refreshing to see,they earn the wages so for them to get frequent injuries I guess its to be expected. Laudrup has certainly beefed us up over the summer, I don't see any of chico,canas,bony,michu,shelvey and ash taking a backwards step against anyone!! I expect firworks when canas takes the field, old school"thou shall not pass" attitude that will make him a terrace hero down here
Ki could play centre half against certain teams but I don't think he has th hard edge to be a success as a defender, he is not a laudrup signing so I think he will struggle for game time this season, jj ,michu,britts,canas and jdg are ahead of him imo so Ki needs to step it up this season he wants to feature. It is more of a squad game next season though so they will all play games but next season if we don't venture into Europe it could get very intresting! though im guessing we may lose one or two if laudrup decides to go...unless we trump him with a top Spanish coach,which I think we will do considering the core of the team is a la liga carbon copy team
Set pieces for me are the issue, and sloppy defending due to lack of concentration, Ash being one of the guilty ones at this, when he drops his game!...........
