The Wider Importance of a Solid Defence

[A Storm of Blades]

I’ve been thinking about that 25 minutes against Bristol City, no not that one. The one in which we carved them open about a dozen times and for a fleeting moment in time, looked like the side we all want us to be. We haven’t replicated a single second of that football since, so it could have been a fluke, I don’t think so however. I think it’s splash damage from our porous defence.

In those 25 minutes, our attacking players didn’t have the horror of how bad our defence is and could play with freedom, push forward in numbers and attack with confidence. That Bristol game has killed us as much offensively as it has defensively. We’re flinching like a wounded animal and have retreated into ourselves, for self preservation if nothing else. O’Hare was terrific against Bristol, yet he spent the Swansea game camped on the byline on the halfway line. Players were static, almost frozen and played with fear. We went from having 50 touches in Bristol’s box (oo-er) to zero shots on target against Swansea.

He needs to bring in some real iron columns at the back, paradoxically to make us a better attacking side and to re-install confidence back into our attacking players.

 

[Frank the tank]

It's not just the defence the midfield trio of hamer ,o hare and peck have been in dereliction of duty

If they are worried about how poor the defence is then why not get back and help out every now and again
Stop throwing possession away like a smack heads giro money
Close down and press like you mean it and stop being so fucking timid ,giving away soft free kicks doesn't impress us or kid us that you care
We want you to be alert enough to danger that you don't spot it after it's happened

 

[Rodley]

Think defence looked better than attack against Swansea. Only need Cooper’s form to dip and then we’ve got a full house.

 

[Frank the tank]

Think defence looked better than attack against Swansea. Only need Cooper’s form to dip and then we’ve got a full house.

He was toss against Bristol too

 

[A Storm of Blades]

It's not just the defence the midfield trio of hamer ,o hare and peck have been in dereliction of duty

If they are worried about how poor the defence is then why not get back and help out every now and again
Stop throwing possession away like a smack heads giro money
Close down and press like you mean it and stop being so fucking timid ,giving away soft free kicks doesn't impress us or kid us that you care
We want you to be alert enough to danger that you don't spot it after it's happened

I agree. The work rate has been poor. Particularly Peck, if he doesn’t put the work in I’m not sure what else he offers. At least Hamer has a halfway line ping in his locker. Agree too about possession, it’s criminal how much we still toss the ball away.

I think my wider point was about how we can recreate that wave of consistent attacking energy again. I think it’s interesting that if we worry about our defensive weakness it reverberates across the whole team.

 

[raimond]

The defence can't do much if the rest of the team isn't protecting them, but ultimately without decent centre halves you've got buggerall. You can dominate and play brilliantly but if you can't trust the backend you're done.

As my dear old Granddad used to say, no point in having a hard on if you've got a slack arse*

*This wasn't my Granddad, I just made this up

 

[Laney Blade]

It's not just the defence the midfield trio of hamer ,o hare and peck have been in dereliction of duty

If they are worried about how poor the defence is then why not get back and help out every now and again
Stop throwing possession away like a smack heads giro money
Close down and press like you mean it and stop being so fucking timid ,giving away soft free kicks doesn't impress us or kid us that you care
We want you to be alert enough to danger that you don't spot it after it's happened

What do you want our manager to do to stop him showing himself up as a naive clueless manager and coach. Surely you have some pearls of wisdom for the dipstick on his way to win worst manager ever at all of his 4 clubs.

 

[Frank the tank]

What do you want our manager to do to stop him showing himself up as a naive clueless manager and coach. Surely you have some pearls of wisdom for the dipstick on his way to win worst manager ever at all of his 4 clubs.

I don't think they do an award for that do they. ?