Our Defence

[tom jennings III]

Left-back is still the absolute priority though surely. Cissoko just hasn't looked good enough, although as per the tongue-in-cheek Joe Bennett comments above I would like to see if Sherwood can make him a much better player than he was under Lambert. Rico is ok as backup but that's about it.

[Toronto Villa]

Cissokho isn't a bad defender but he's not going to offer anything going forward which I think Sherwood will insist on from his full backs. I'd like to see Bacuna develop into that role but Richardson certainly needs to be upgraded.

[LeeB]

To be fair to Cissoko though, he's had little or no forward passing options when he's played. Coming back now he'll have give and go options and he'll no doubt look twice the player, like everyone else.

[usav]

As good as Hutton has been defensively this season, I still think his crossing let's him down badly.  I kind of wish we could have a hybrid Hutton-Bacuna, then you would have the perfect right-back.

[Toronto Villa]

To be fair to Cissoko though, he's had little or no forward passing options when he's played. Coming back now he'll have give and go options and he'll no doubt look twice the player, like everyone else.

yep true and maybe all he has to do is be a protector of that side of that pitch with Delph/Grealish running that side offensively. Certainly interested to see also how Bennett looks. Hell, even our Enda might have looked twice the player.

Ok...that might have been pushing it!

[Dave]

To be fair to Cissoko though, he's had little or no forward passing options when he's played. Coming back now he'll have give and go options and he'll no doubt look twice the player, like everyone else.

Good call Lee. His main issue is his crossing (for which I remember reading a statistic suggesting it was worse than any other player in the league this season). If he is told to get forward when he can but not to do much more than pass to Grealish or Delph then I can't see why he can't be a useful asset.

It's not like Richardson's attacking prowess in the last few games has been anything to write home about so we're not really going to be losing anything.

[PaulWinch again]

Personally I'd build the defence around Clark & Baker with okore as back up.
Hutton is fine but cissoko is back up for me .

I'd go with Clark and Okore, as they're a much more balanced combination. You have pace, power and class with those two.

[Villa in Denmark]

Personally I'd build the defence around Clark & Baker with okore as back up.
Hutton is fine but cissoko is back up for me .

I'd go with Clark and Okore, as they're a much more balanced combination. You have pace, power and class with those two.

And you avoid having one of two very left footed defenders playing on the right.

[peter w]

To be fair to Cissoko though, he's had little or no forward passing options when he's played. Coming back now he'll have give and go options and he'll no doubt look twice the player, like everyone else.

Good call Lee. His main issue is his crossing (for which I remember reading a statistic suggesting it was worse than any other player in the league this season). If he is told to get forward when he can but not to do much more than pass to Grealish or Delph then I can't see why he can't be a useful asset.

It's not like Richardson's attacking prowess in the last few games has been anything to write home about so we're not really going to be losing anything.

When he wast at liverpool and he had plenty of passing opportunities. the biggest criticism Liverpool fans had of him was that he could defend but was pretty useless on the ball. I don't think his game under Lambert was affected to the point that he would suddenly improve exponentially under Sherwood.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Just enjoy the attacking!

When was the last time we attacked teams regularly? Brian Little? Big Ron?

So long as we score one more than them, it don't really matter!