Athleticism & Mobility

[Keen Blade]

I have been hugely underwhelmed by Davies personally. A good footballing centre back was the least of our priorities at this level. We needed some physicality and someone to impose themselves. He is one of the weakest centre halves I have seen for some time at the Lane as decent a footballer as he is and we saw tonight that he will just get bullied. Be my first priority in January - a big dominant centre half. Ironically for the loan fee we could have probably signed one permanently.

Why can we simple fans see these basic deficiencies but highly paid managers just can't ?

 

[LS16Blade]

D'Jaffo spot on. I've been saying for 2 seasons we need a proper brick shithouse 6ft 4in centre half who wins everything in the air. The Millwall left footed centre half is the one I'd go for.

Completely agree. I said that we should have gone for Cooper in the Summer 2020 window, and it should have been a priority when we knew O'Connell had broken down again.

As ever, though, it seems that we're out of fashion. At a time when increasingly even the best footballing teams have realised that you need a core of physically imposing players - especially down the spine - we are small and weak in central defence and midfield.

As we know, Davies was the defender identified in the January window and we've continued that fixation through a change of division and manager notwithstanding the continued glaring vulnerability to high balls that has screamed the requirement for a commanding centre-half. It's almost as if we're now embarrassed to sign a no-nonsense defender for fear of validating other people's completely erroneous idea that 'Sheffield United are always big and physical'.

I've said before that for all they did for several seasons, Brentford eventually realised that they weren't going to get out of the division until they got in an unglamorous but effective big centre-half - totally at odds with their usual transfer dealings.

And, I have to give credit to that horrible cockney spiv Scott Parker, because his decision to pay Cahill's wages will be the signing that ensures Bournemouth get promoted this season rather than fall just short like they did last.

 

[Deadbat]

Davies is plenty strong enough and a very clever centre half. He’s definitely who we need. The OP is correct that we just get run over.

If you want a big ugly player, he should be a central midfielder.

The trouble is you can have a big, ugly central midfielder but unless the defence can clear high balls or deal with the physical challenges in the box/when teams attacks then it still will be an issue. Egan and Davies have shown time and time again they cannot deal with the basic stuff.

I have seen no evidence that Davies is plenty strong enough. Every time there has been an important physical 50-50 or a header needed winning, he has lost more than he has one. At fault for goals v Huddersfield and Hull also. Complete waste of valuable resources for me for a sizeable loan fee.

 

[robbiez666]

The Boro centre halves tonight have been ridiculed all this season by their fans. When the side was announced tonight their fans weren't happy with the back 4 at all. The fact they put in that sort of performance was a bigger insult to Egan and Davies than it was to Sharp in my opinion. Not once this season has our defence put in a competent display like that.

Billy is going to struggle against big experienced CBs. He doesn't have the pace, not winning a header and the tricks don't work. He's essentially battling on his own. He's 36 and I doubt he can play twio games per week well. He looked a little tired last night.

The Boro CBs will struggle badly against pace.

 

[Deadly_D'Jaffo]

One defender who stood out to me was Van Den Berg on loan at PNE. He was deployed as a RB but has all the physical and mental attributes that Davies lacks.

 

[Darthblade]

I thought Hourihane was supposed to be the enforcer in the middle of the park.

Hourihane should be starting instead of Norwood ….. he can actually take a set piece UTB & FTP

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Can I add "bollocks" to the attributes of this thread title?

Davies looks soft as babyshit. Egan also needs help at side of him, they dont seem to be able to work together.

Come January I'd love us to sign a big, ugly, shithousing CB. Not a marquee, big name signing for the media team to put a photoshoot together with some grime music over it. An underwhelming Jake Wright type of signing. Someone who can lead, organise the back 4, read the game, win headers/2nd balls and clear their lines. Aden Flint springs to mind.

Need Morgs back out of retirement

 

[Deadly_D'Jaffo]

Need Morgs back out of retirement

I think I just heard cartoon steam extinguish out of Pinchy ears.

 

[LS16Blade]

I have been hugely underwhelmed by Davies personally. A good footballing centre back was the least of our priorities at this level. We needed some physicality and someone to impose themselves. He is one of the weakest centre halves I have seen for some time at the Lane as decent a footballer as he is and we saw tonight that he will just get bullied. Be my first priority in January - a big dominant centre half. Ironically for the loan fee we could have probably signed one permanently.

Totally agree.

The Davies signing seemed at the time to be the sort of ‘lazy recruitment’, that the previous gaffer used to accuse other clubs of.

In a panic response to a poor start to the season and with the club failing to get any other signings through the door, we simply went back for a player that we’d already looked at in January and who was now more attainable, irrespective of whether he was what we actually needed.

Picking up on what KeenBlade says, many supporters have watched an awful lot of football and, whilst they obviously don’t have the wherewithal to manage and train a professional football team, the perspective that fans have from a distance can often be clearer than it is for those who are closely involved with the players on a daily basis. It’s the “wood for the trees” point.

For instance, we’ve all seen enough second tier football to know that PNE have been fielding a physically robust side for a good 15 years or so. They invariably have combative players at full-back, centre-half and through midfield. Davies, meanwhile, developed a reputation as a footballing central defender and it’s obvious that he was able to flourish in a set-up where he was not required or expected to deal with the physical stuff; he had plenty of team-mates to do that.

At the Lane, however, he has been added to a side that is already full of players who don’t like, or are incapable of doing, the physical stuff.

Davies is a good player in the right side but for us it was a signing that didn’t address the pressing and immediate lack of physicality in the defence and a soft centre.

 

[Revolution]

Totally agree.

The Davies signing seemed at the time to be the sort of ‘lazy recruitment’, that the previous gaffer used to accuse other clubs of.

In a panic response to a poor start to the season and with the club failing to get any other signings through the door, we simply went back for a player that we’d already looked at in January and who was now more attainable, irrespective of whether he was what we actually needed.

Picking up on what KeenBlade says, many supporters have watched an awful lot of football and, whilst they obviously don’t have the wherewithal to manage and train a professional football team, the perspective that fans have from a distance can often be clearer than it is for those who are closely involved with the players on a daily basis. It’s the “wood for the trees” point.

For instance, we’ve all seen enough second tier football to know that PNE have been fielding a physically robust side for a good 15 years or so. They invariably have combative players at full-back, centre-half and through midfield. Davies, meanwhile, developed a reputation as a footballing central defender and it’s obvious that he was able to flourish in a set-up where he was not required or expected to deal with the physical stuff; he had plenty of team-mates to do that.

At the Lane, however, he has been added to a side that is already full of players who don’t like, or are incapable of doing, the physical stuff.

Davies is a good player in the right side but for us it was a signing that didn’t address the pressing and immediate lack of physicality in the defence and a soft centre.

The comparison that comes into my mind is the signing of Paddy McCarthy in 2014-15.

 

[HoodedClaw]

The Boro centre halves tonight have been ridiculed all this season by their fans. When the side was announced tonight their fans weren't happy with the back 4 at all. The fact they put in that sort of performance was a bigger insult to Egan and Davies than it was to Sharp in my opinion. Not once this season has our defence put in a competent display like that.

Personally thought it was a bigger insult to SJ than anyone else.

How tall are our attacking players? How tall were 'Boro's defenders? yet our primary tactic is to get hopeful crosses in.

Does the opposition get scouted anymore?

 

[nopigfansintown]

Unfortunately for us football is a game where you have to have a plan and players to implement it - both in and out of possession. Last night was an acid test for our credentials: a team that would battle and scrap for everything; a miserable Tuesday night, cold and wet, second game this week etc etc. A team who, - despite their limitations - will win headers, second balls and races and do the basics right. We had to match their work rate and "earn the right to play". In the first ten minutes they won everything and had a few runs down our right where Baldock was constantly getting doubled up on. This resulted in the first goal. We let the kid get his confidence up and settle in the game and were duly punished. For the rest of the match we were outworked and outbattled. In possession we looked useful at times, and there were large spaces which we should've exploited. Despite this, there is a clear blueprint to limit us: overload the central areas and force us to cross from wide areas. Rooney/Derby implemented it and Boro copied it. The feeling is that our danger comes from the ten position and that by forcing us wide you'll expose the lack of numbers and height in the box. You don't have to worry about runs in behind which makes this even easier to implement. We desperately need a forward to stretch the game or MGW or Osborn to make more runs in between the full back/Wing back and the centre backs.
We look like a team of luxury players. I'll give a pass to Stevens (obviously not fit), Sharp (thankless task), Olsen and the two centre backs (thankless task). Being a centre back in a four in our team is impossible: you get no protection and thus have to play most of the game in reactive mode, because you are doing the midfielders work rather than focusing on your own. I think with the current set up and personnel we'll do well at home and struggle a lot on the road. The players will increase their effort levels at home and down tools and cower away (where they can get away with it!).

For those that haven't noticed, Ndiaye is still by far our best player out of possession. For a Championship team it's really embarrassing that a young kid sets the standards in this respect. If football became non contact or a walking sport we'd win the title by February.

 

[Upton_Blade]

I'm still not sure we are obsessed with 4 at the back. A back 3 doesn't mean going back to Wilderball as a lot of top teams play it. You just have to ditch the flat 3 in the middle.

For me it would look something like this and, IMHO, it would make us stronger at the back with the players we have available.

......................................................Olsen..................................................
.......................Bash......................Egan..................Davies....................
Baldock/Bogle.....God Knows.....God Knows.....Stevens/RND
..................MGW...............Sharp/McB.............N'Diaye....................

 

[blades14]

Liverpool have had our pants down again with Davies, a "classy ball playing centre half whos looks good on the ball". He's weak, He's scrony and when asked to actually defend he struggles.

 

[Wandsworth Blade]

Billy is going to struggle against big experienced CBs. He doesn't have the pace, not winning a header and the tricks don't work. He's essentially battling on his own. He's 36 and I doubt he can play twio games per week well. He looked a little tired last night.

The Boro CBs will struggle badly against pace.

Panic over then. We have pace. Oil Burke. Oh Christ now I remember. The only thing worse than the match last night was the hotel I stayed in afterwards in Darlington. A proper shit day out.