Ongoing Defensive Frailties

[SoccerHQ]

Horrible to lose Okore for the season. When he got injured on Saturday I just assumed he'd pulled a muscle as he limped off and so he would be back in a few weeks.

That's just bad luck, most prem teams would struggle if one of their first choice defenders was out for 9 months.

We will need to get someone in, I don't trust Baker at all to stay fit even to next week if he plays at Norwich and Ron will probably get a knock or two so we'll be back to Clark again.

Even if it's just a loan in January, that Ba bloke we keep on getting linked to?

Short term we'll probably see more of Donancien in the squad, he played well in pre season.

[Mortimer's Bear]

I wonder how much of our defensive frailties can be put down to a complete lack of support and protection from the midfield.

[SoccerHQ]

Saturday was the first time we've looked poor in defence this season.

Liverpool after they scored against us created hardly anything, same with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. At Arsenal we gave away a poor goal but actually defended well for the rest of the match.

As I keep on saying look at Norwich even when they were rising through the divisions, their season in the prem. We won the games we needed to in the second half of the season and didn't keep a clean sheet, it's not the Lambert way to build from the back.

I'd much rather our chronic lack of midfield creativity was sorted first personally.

[AlwaysAVFC]

Was John Gregory a defensive coach under Little? I'm sure he wouldn't mind a few part time hours a week.
I seem to remember the defence being pretty tight. Then after he left we started leaking goals again before him coming back as Manager to sort them out once more. Well that's how I remember it anyway.
Could hardly imagine Lambert wanting a former manager working under him though and it also probably needs a bit more than part time hours to sort the current lot out.

[PaulWinch again]

I wonder how much of our defensive frailties can be put down to a complete lack of support and protection from the midfield.

It has a massive impact. For instance on Saturday as poor as Lowton and Luna were, they needed a lot more help from Gabby and Andi. That was one of the major impacts Sylla had last year, he helped shield the defence as well as up our tempo and drive.

[Ads]

I wonder how much of our defensive frailties can be put down to a complete lack of support and protection from the midfield.

It has a massive impact. For instance on Saturday as poor as Lowton and Luna were, they needed a lot more help from Gabby and Andi. That was one of the major impacts Sylla had last year, he helped shield the defence as well as up our tempo and drive.

I constantly bang the drum about this. You need somebody big and physical in your midfield to screen the back four. Sylla is the man to do this.

[Monty]

I wonder how much of our defensive frailties can be put down to a complete lack of support and protection from the midfield.

It has a massive impact. For instance on Saturday as poor as Lowton and Luna were, they needed a lot more help from Gabby and Andi. That was one of the major impacts Sylla had last year, he helped shield the defence as well as up our tempo and drive.

I constantly bang the drum about this. You need somebody big and physical in your midfield to screen the back four. Sylla is the man to do this.

That helps, although if they're a positional lunatic it doesn't matter how big they are, they're going to get nothing done. Physical certainly, willing to do the unpleasant work, but positioning and not being a fairy are more important than being massive. Think about Makelele, or Petrov: not exactly beasts but they could hold their own, and their tactical awareness was terrific.

[Matt Collins]

Sylla was a real help generally but particularly in terms of covering the full backs. The wingers just don't on any kind of consistent basis

[Uknowthescore]

Don't know why everyone banging on about sylla helping our defence  out how many clean sheets did we have when he played last season.. Big fat zero plus he was probably the most attacking of the 3 when I saw him play

[PaulWinch again]

Don't know why everyone banging on about sylla helping our defence  out how many clean sheets did we have when he played last season.. Big fat zero plus he was probably the most attacking of the 3 when I saw him play

We didn't keep cleansheets but we became a lot more solid as a team.

[Matt Collins]

Absolutely. Anyone denying the defence got better didn't watch the games. We went from catastrophic to just pretty bad / 5 mistakes to one or two. Sylla's energy clearly had a big part to play in that

[supertom]

Was John Gregory a defensive coach under Little? I'm sure he wouldn't mind a few part time hours a week.
I seem to remember the defence being pretty tight. Then after he left we started leaking goals again before him coming back as Manager to sort them out once more. Well that's how I remember it anyway.
Could hardly imagine Lambert wanting a former manager working under him though and it also probably needs a bit more than part time hours to sort the current lot out.

Not entirely sure to be honest. I do think JG benefited from having an excellent selection of center backs.
Currently you'd have to say our best CH is out injured and the other 3 are very questionnable.

[Matt Collins]

And JG's teams used to set up with five defenders and two defensive midfielders a lot of the time

[Chris Smith]

Absolutely. Anyone denying the defence got better didn't watch the games. We went from catastrophic to just pretty bad / 5 mistakes to one or two. Sylla's energy clearly had a big part to play in that

Absolutely, the clean sheets thing is a bit of a red herring too. Few clubs keep them regularly these days. The way the laws are interperated makes it much more difficult for defenders to the point where almost every tackle risks a yellow card if slightly mistimed. There's no doubting we had problems but similarly there is no doubt that we improved in the second part of the season.

[Matt Collins]

I wouldn't say the clean sheets thing is quite a red herring. It means you can never win by scoring one goal.  That's a bit of a bummer!