Ongoing Defensive Frailties

[SoccerHQ]

Guzan is the least of our worries, he'd barely concede a goal playing behind the 09/10 or even just with Laursen in there.

[Witton Warrior]

I get the feeling we may concede fewer simply because of the fact the midfield holds up better and so we will hold onto those one-goal advantages.
May even mean I can retire my "two goals for the draw" mantra?

[Monty]

Agreed WW. As Clough said, if you have the ball in their half, they can't score.

[Concrete John]

Really think Donacien should be sent off on loan this season.  He's very unlikely to play so a season loan would do wonders for his progression compared to U21 football.

When I said long term I meant beyond this season, so fully agree a loan for to the Championship would be great for him.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'd send him on loan until Jan, with a recall option as well.

[peter w]

Baker? Vlaar isn't great in the air but Baker is pretty good.

No, Vlaar. I was replying to the post about him when someone posted about Baker straight after.

[sonlyme]

I appreciate everyone has their opinion on who is good enough and who isn't but I think we may be missing a trick by talking about centre half personnel here.

The team attacks and the team defends - and I think it is Villa's set up under Lambert that puts such pressure on the centre half pairing - whoever it may be.   Last seasons high paced counter attacking lead to suicidal over commitment by some of our young players.  That over commitment was compounded by trying to be overly elaborate in defence.  A simple clearance seemed too much to ask early on.  But they got better - and stronger - even if the tendency to over load on attack remained.

I have been digging around - but I have yet to find evidence that Lambert is a sound coach defensively - all his teams seem be involved in high scoring shot fests - with scoring goals very much the focus of coaching and player acquisition.

It's clear that the new personnel and the experience of last season stands us in good stead.  Okore looks like the perfect Lambert defender.  Fast, skilful, and aggressive.  Qualities that are perfect for a team that will attack and attack by pushing its full backs forward and so may leave itself open on the counter.

I don't doubt Vlaar's integrity or his talent - I am just not convinced he is the top class defender that Villa's current style needs.

This could turn out to be the longest running thread in the history of H&V but one thing is for sure - it won't be boring.

UTV

[Matt Collins]

There's definitely a concern about whether the side is well drilled enough defensively.

But we should take into account that lambert sides have tended to over achieve given the experience of the players in thesquad. So that would tend to mean either being very tough to beat or scoring a bucket load of goals, but hard to do both.

Having said all of that, we still look shockingly bad at the back at times and its hard to think we're not going to get at least a couple of absolute shoeings again this season.

[Steve kirk]

Lambert obviously has faith in the 4 centre backs at the club so we should all forget about an older experienced defender coming in, I am hoping that younger players like Clark and Baker will be stronger following last season's battle to survive and that Vlaar will improve in his second season and be more of a leader on the pitch, as for Okore we will just have to wait and find out, pretty sure we will concede a few less but that area of the team is still by far the weakest
UP THE VILLA

[supertom]

A new center back won't be on the cards until january at least, and that's only if we've been complete and utter bobbins at the back, and we're in the bottom 6 again.

Of course if we concede 15 goals in our first 3 games, Lambo may have to have another look at the situation.

[BegbieAV]

I don't know if its already been mentioned, but Michael Mancienne has been released by Hamburg. He looked out of his depth in the premiership but he now has a couple of seasons experience in the Bundesliga I think he would be a decent addition to our defence.

[Mister E]

Really think Donacien should be sent off on loan this season.  He's very unlikely to play so a season loan would do wonders for his progression compared to U21 football.

When I said long term I meant beyond this season, so fully agree a loan for to the Championship would be great for him.

I think he'll keep Donacien in the squad - he may well prvoe important as cover on the right side of defence (either CB or RB). Whether this is good for the player's development long-term, I'm not sure, but the kid will also get good experience in the U21's next season  too.

[warleyboy]

Really think Donacien should be sent off on loan this season.  He's very unlikely to play so a season loan would do wonders for his progression compared to U21 football.

When I said long term I meant beyond this season, so fully agree a loan for to the Championship would be great for him.

I think he'll keep Donacien in the squad - he may well prvoe important as cover on the right side of defence (either CB or RB). Whether this is good for the player's development long-term, I'm not sure, but the kid will also get good experience in the U21's next season  too.

I think Donacien should be given a chance now Okore is out for season.
Cannot be any worse than watching any of the 3 stooges.....

[Ads]

The midfield in front of our Defence hasn't helped this season.

[supertom]

I think on the whole our centerbacks have been okay. Vlaar has improved. He's still got his problems granted, and whether he's good enough to be main man in the long run, I'm still not sure, but he's been fairly consistent. Clarky has done well too. Generally, aside from sloppy early goals blighting us, our central two are generally solid. The major issue is our fullbacks leaving acres of space, or getting isolated because there's no support from midfield. I don't ever remember seeing us really doubling up and decent wide players in this system, or in all honesty any other system Lambert plays. Our fb's need a lot more help though, because defensively they're not brilliant. And if they get pushed back and occupied defensively, it nullifies their attacking abilities which then takes away almost all our attacking width. Luna and Lowton barely got forward last saturday. Luna in particular had an awful time of it against Ben Arfa.