Jores Okore

[saunders_heroes]

I didnt say i was happy with our defence , i argued the point that we have looked better with okore in defence and had improved and made progress .

And I'm arguing that Clark and Baker are not PL class and shouldn't be anywhere near our first team. And Vlaar is very lucky to be still at our club.

Players aren't born 'Premiership players'. They can develop into them if you let them.

And Baker and Vlaar are better than you're giving them credit for, in my opinion.

It's all about opinions of course but 26 games without a clean sheet tells us everything you need to know about our centre backs in reality.

It's not just them though, the team had to defend better as a whole. I thought they were once Sylla got going, so I'm a bit baffled as to why he hasn't played yet.

Same here. We need some protection for the CBs and Sylla's the only one who can provide it at the moment.

[dave.woodhall]

Vlaar IS a competent defender.

I think Vlaar IS very lucky to be still at the club considering how poor he was last season.

Give it a rest, 1 season in a new league where he did ok in the main (he put in 3-4 really poor performances but was competent the rest of the time), there are worse defenders than him who've been given a hell of a lot more time to settle.

I'm not really sure what you're problem is, every time things aren't going well your post rates increases massively whilst you glorify in calling as many of the squad as you can completely shit.

Let's not make things personnel, eh? When I post has nothing to do with anything and its no business of yours either. I've been posting on here since 2000 through good and bad times. I don't need to justify anything to you.

Let's also not fall out.

[PeterWithesShin]

So you really don't think conceding 8 less isn't an improvement?

So not getting dicked 8-0 at Chelsea is something to shout about now?

At least we're not B-lose/ Leeds/ insert your own faint praise

Is that what I said? If anyone is daft enough not to think that conceding 8 less than we did in the corresponding fixtures last season isn't an improvement then it's a bit hard to have a logical debate with them.

Every single bit of logic dictates that getting more points, scoring more goals and conceding less is a sign that there has been an improvement.

Same as scoring less, getting less points and conceding more would show that we are worse. It's hardly rocket science.

[Navin R Johnson]

In the last January window we were faced with the same problem.   Our defence was shipping goals by the bucketful and we had a troublemaker and a hospital patient as our principal centre backs.   Groundhog Day has rolled around again and here we are without adequate defensive cover.

I remember watching the Cup of Nations and all the young, big, athletic, african central defenders and thinking that there must be available players out there to do a job for us.

At times like this those on the Villa payroll scouting for talent have to get their arses in gear and find an unattached central defender or preferably two.

[olaftab]

Fear not, PL will probably buy a forward in January to replace him.

Or another goalkeeper.

Cynicism is not appropriate just now.

[olaftab]

You never know that through this crises we find a golden nugget in young Donacien.

[Ads]

We're not conceding goals by the bucket load.

[PeterWithesShin]

And while I am stating that we showed signs of improvement I will repeat yet again, there is still a way to go before I am satisfied with our defence. Sylla in MF would be a start as he provides more cover for the back line.

[The Left Side]

Gutted about this, what is it with Danish defenders joining the Villa and getting a bad knee injury.

[KevinGage]

I guess if your starting point is so low, and you are desperate to latch on to any sort of crumb of comfort then, aye, not getting beaten 8-0 represents improvement.   If you can honestly look at that defence and think it looks more secure than last season then good luck to you. 

Yes, Chelsea and even Newcastle have the ability and individual talent to score at least two goals against most sides in this division.   They won't do that in every game, but the way we play increases the likelyhood that it will occur against us.     

If we continue to ship an average of two goals per game or our defensive record this campaign mirrors the last one, we'll be in the shit again. 

[paul_e]

Vlaar IS a competent defender.

I think Vlaar IS very lucky to be still at the club considering how poor he was last season.

Give it a rest, 1 season in a new league where he did ok in the main (he put in 3-4 really poor performances but was competent the rest of the time), there are worse defenders than him who've been given a hell of a lot more time to settle.

I'm not really sure what you're problem is, every time things aren't going well your post rates increases massively whilst you glorify in calling as many of the squad as you can completely shit.

Let's not make things personal, eh? When I post has nothing to do with anything and its no business of yours either. I've been posting on here since 2000 through good and bad times. I don't need to justify anything to you.

Of course it's business of mine, and everyone else on here as soon as you've posted it.  I apologise for the 2nd paragraph but I've seen a hell of a lot of posts from you in the last 3 days and I don't recall seeing anything remotely positive in them which is an attitude I just can't understand.  As for how long you've been posting on here or needing to justify things I don't really see any relevance to either of those comments, I'm not asking you to justify anything to me and I've been a member of the site for just as long as you have (in it's various formats).

This particular post from you pushed me over the edge because it's just silly, in no way is Vlaar lucky to be at the club still, he had a couple of poor games, as did alomst everyone but he certainly wasn't poor enough that we should've been dumping him this summer.  Yes the defence is a worry, of course it is, but that's not solved by buying a new one every window until it clicks, Vlaar did enough to have a 2nd season, Baker and Clark both did enough to stay around the squad, but probably shouldn't have been starting regularly, and wouldn't have been but for some terrible misfortune for Okore.

[PeterWithesShin]

I guess if your starting point is so low, and you are desperate to latch on to any sort of crumb of comfort then, aye, not getting beaten 8-0 represents improvement.   If you can honestly look at that defence and think it looks more secure than last season then good luck to you. 

Yes, Chelsea and even Newcastle have the ability and individual talent to score at least two goals against most sides in this division.   They won't do that in every game, but the way we play increases the likelyhood that it will occur against us.     

If we continue to ship an average of two goals per game or our defensive record this campaign mirrors the last one, we'll be in the shit again. 

My starting point isn't low, it is you assuming that. We aren't conceding 2 a game. We aren't mirroring last season. Hence, yet again, more goals, more points, less conceded. Otherwise, good post 

[Clampy]

I guess if your starting point is so low, and you are desperate to latch on to any sort of crumb of comfort then, aye, not getting beaten 8-0 represents improvement.   If you can honestly look at that defence and think it looks more secure than last season then good luck to you. 

It might not look more secure but it looks a bit more organised. I think back to the first game down at Arsenal and the number of chances they had, Rosicky in particular. A year ago we'd have lost that. We defended bloody well that day and Arsenal haven't lost a game since.

There was a lot of praise on here for us after the Chelsea game. It was a massive improvement after last season's debacle down there but I guess there's just no pleasing some people.

[Toronto Villa]

Really, I'm gutted for the person as much as the player. He seems such a pleasant young man and a very promising talent. He will be devastated by this. I wish him nothing but the best on his recovery. We'll need to get by without him and as galling is might appear every other player will need to step up and be counted.

[mal]

Really, I'm gutted for the person as much as the player. He seems such a pleasant young man and a very promising talent. He will be devastated by this. I wish him nothing but the best on his recovery. We'll need to get by without him and as galling is might appear every other player will need to step up and be counted.

I'd like to applaud this post and echo the sentiment. Get well soon, Jores.