maybe the defence wasn't the problem - defensively - but they couldn't be trusted to start effective attacks and use the ball well. Hopefully with terry and Chester that will mean we can turn defence into attack a lot quicker.
I can't believe people can say our defence wasn't a problem last seasonUnder RDM we conceded about 6 vital goals in the last five minutes including some fucking ridiculous ones. We'd have bee top four by the time he left without that Bruce tightened it up, but we still conceded stupid important goals (off the top of my head: elphick falling over v Ipswich, Gollini rushing out v Leeds, baker getting turned at about 2 mph against Brighton at home - unlucky w the pen tho - I'm sure Amavi cost us about three by himself didn't he?). Definitely scope for improvement (albeit Johnstone and Taylor already achieved some of that by the end of the year)
Quote from: Matt Collins on July 16, 2017, 08:53:51 PMI can't believe people can say our defence wasn't a problem last seasonUnder RDM we conceded about 6 vital goals in the last five minutes including some fucking ridiculous ones. We'd have bee top four by the time he left without that Bruce tightened it up, but we still conceded stupid important goals (off the top of my head: elphick falling over v Ipswich, Gollini rushing out v Leeds, baker getting turned at about 2 mph against Brighton at home - unlucky w the pen tho - I'm sure Amavi cost us about three by himself didn't he?). Definitely scope for improvement (albeit Johnstone and Taylor already achieved some of that by the end of the year)Having one of the leagues best defences proves you to be wrong about defence being a problem.conceded one of the fewest goals but scored one of the fewest amount of goals those are the facts and you think our defence was a problem oh dearWhen a team concedes very few goals but scores very few goals it's clear where the problem lies it's not rocket science to be honest but it does seem to be beyond some people.
Quote from: stuart445 on July 16, 2017, 11:16:10 PMQuote from: Matt Collins on July 16, 2017, 08:53:51 PMI can't believe people can say our defence wasn't a problem last seasonUnder RDM we conceded about 6 vital goals in the last five minutes including some fucking ridiculous ones. We'd have bee top four by the time he left without that Bruce tightened it up, but we still conceded stupid important goals (off the top of my head: elphick falling over v Ipswich, Gollini rushing out v Leeds, baker getting turned at about 2 mph against Brighton at home - unlucky w the pen tho - I'm sure Amavi cost us about three by himself didn't he?). Definitely scope for improvement (albeit Johnstone and Taylor already achieved some of that by the end of the year)Having one of the leagues best defences proves you to be wrong about defence being a problem.conceded one of the fewest goals but scored one of the fewest amount of goals those are the facts and you think our defence was a problem oh dearWhen a team concedes very few goals but scores very few goals it's clear where the problem lies it's not rocket science to be honest but it does seem to be beyond some people.The defence was a problem, hence much of the season employing a deep lying midfield to offer some protection. This in turn meant our attacking threat was reduced. Too early to know for sure but I imagine that Bruce's thinking is that with Terry there the midfield should have a bit more freedom.
I'm beginning to come round to the thinking that we've got no choice but to go 3-5-2. Taylor, Terry, Chester as the 3. Wing backs being Elmohamady and maybe Thor (Obvious other options being Baker/Taylor, three in the middle being Lansbury, Hourihane and one more (Jedinak/new holding player/Grealish/Thor), with two of Hogan/Green/Kodjia/Adomah/ someone else I've forgotten about.I don't particularly like the system and think we should even be going to 4-51/4-3-3 but i don't think Bruce knows how to knock the players into a decent unit using 4-4-2.
Only saw the highlights on the telly, but when Terry got nut megged by that top division 3 player, I have seen people on the iron man challenge get through mud quicker than Terry turned!
Quote from: stuart445 on July 16, 2017, 11:16:10 PMQuote from: Matt Collins on July 16, 2017, 08:53:51 PMI can't believe people can say our defence wasn't a problem last seasonUnder RDM we conceded about 6 vital goals in the last five minutes including some fucking ridiculous ones. We'd have bee top four by the time he left without that Bruce tightened it up, but we still conceded stupid important goals (off the top of my head: elphick falling over v Ipswich, Gollini rushing out v Leeds, baker getting turned at about 2 mph against Brighton at home - unlucky w the pen tho - I'm sure Amavi cost us about three by himself didn't he?). Definitely scope for improvement (albeit Johnstone and Taylor already achieved some of that by the end of the year)Having one of the leagues best defences proves you to be wrong about defence being a problem.conceded one of the fewest goals but scored one of the fewest amount of goals those are the facts and you think our defence was a problem oh dearWhen a team concedes very few goals but scores very few goals it's clear where the problem lies it's not rocket science to be honest but it does seem to be beyond some people.I disagree. Liverpool always used to have one of the best defensive records with scales, babb and ruddock. But in the big games they conceded sloppy goals. Our defence is good enough against teams in the bottom half but not good enough against teams in the top 8 or so in my view. I'm pretty sure we didn't keep a clean sheet away against any of them; and we conceded bad goals as I said above It's the strongest part of our team and stronger with the signings we've made since Jan. But it was a problem last season because we lost important goals stupidly
We both agree on that front - that's the biggest problem to fix But as others say above. Bruce reacted to our brittleness by deciding we needed to play deep, get bodies around Jedinak, and put energy (e.g. Bacuna) ahead of flair (e.g. Grealish)Hopefully if we're stronger at the back we can afford to be more creative with the rest of the team. Though how far Bruce is ready to do that; and whether a team with Terry and Jedinak can squeeze the play is debatable