Why Is Our Solid Back Line Not So Solid?

I think the reason is because in the last 2 games, chelsea and arsenal, we've been desperate for a win and when you're desperate for a win you have to attack and the more you attack the more out of position you're defenders become. Then when the ball comes in they panic more about clearing it and it's harder to get organised.

I bet we see over the next 5 games that we won't concede 4 in all of them put together against the lower sides.

Agger doesnt look happy. He looks to be off in the summer.... lets not chop and change and stick with the same back 4 for the last 5 games

I agree with that they should just lash it out of play and regroup instead of trying to play it out. Other than that no complaints.

Tonight wasn't a bad defensive display. It was three indiviual errors and Arsenal, or rather Arshavin, took advantage. The fourth was because we had little time to win the game, they caught us on the break.

I think there is a serious lack of pace in our defence, defensively Arbeloa and Aureilo are fairly average defensively and there is a lack of pace in the centre as well.

Wrong. They made mistakes today. But you cant call them average.

When we play like we did tonight we will always concede goals  so the back four need to regroup and not go for an all out attack-Cmon Liverpool we are nearly there!

Aurelio and Arbeloa have been two of our most consistent performers this season IMO. Today they both made mistakes. Doesn't happen very often but it can happen. All players make mistakes from time to time. Personally I'm quite comfortable with those two as our full backs.

It's football and these things could have been prevented. The midfield probably should have even stopped Arsenal from going into our defence area.

I think our defense is used to counter attacking style but lately we have been pushing forward far more and are playing much higher up the pitch even Xabi and Mascherano are playing more in the opposition half. I am not sure if this explains the mistakes though, it could just be nerves or a combination of both. The way the game panned out worked right into Arsenals style of play and against Chelsea we had to go for it so I think its a series of unfortunate coincidences and I think we will be back on Saturday with a tight defense again.

3 of the goals are just common mistakes every world class defenders can do. But that last goal by Arsenal I was disappointed. 3-3. I know we need the points, but 1 point is still better then 0? With that pacy Walcott around we have only 1 guy behind at the corner set piece. Arshavin showing 3 fingers was painful, showing 4 I was like crying.

The Arsenal game was a stange one where we were punished for almost every mistake we made,ok the mistakes were a bit obvious but in any other game we would have got away with at least one of them.
I don't think there is any need to panic just yet but i would like to see Insua get more games next season as i don't think we'll geta full term out of Aurelio

In any other given time, we wouldn't have conceded the 4th goal, as we would have more cover, the others were individual mistakes, so obviously quite rare to see.

Overall though, I think that we are playing good atacking football, so must accept the fact we will concede more goals then in the past. Although, if we could have the goal threat and a solid back 4, the league shall be ours either this or next year.

Taken from an article given by Gerrard;

"It's not like us to concede that many goals. We're normally sound defensively, especially at home."

Link To .tv Article

There aren't a lot of good ball playing defenders around that are better than agger and skertel ,we knocked 4 past chelski so there defence ain't solid,4 past arsenal,and the previous results speak volumes when we destroy real madrid and the mancs...possibly our midfielders do block out the telling pass or the runners which would give defenders more time to react....i'd like to see sami come back for spells and when he feels it's time to stop playing first team footie use him for coaching

3 of the goals are just common mistakes every world class defenders can do. But that last goal by Arsenal I was disappointed. 3-3. I know we need the points, but 1 point is still better then 0? With that pacy Walcott around we have only 1 guy behind at the corner set piece. Arshavin showing 3 fingers was painful, showing 4 I was like crying.

Agreed, especially with the highlighted bit. If we are only going to have one back at the half way line, surely it shouldn't have been Alonso. It had to be Masch, if anyone. Xabi just didn't have the pace to get near Walcott to even block the pass, had it been Masch, I reckon he would have intercepted it and got it back inside our front half for another goalscoring opportunity.

Calm down people, theres nothing wrong with the defence that can't quickly be sorted . 3 individual errors cost us, errors from players who i trust 100% to bounce back, just watch.

- 2-0 Sunderland
- 4-0 Real Madrid
- 4-1 Man United
- 5-0 Aston Villa
- 1-0 Fulham (could have been more)
- 1-3 Chelsea
- 4-0 Blackburn
- 4-4 Chelsea
- 4-4 Arsenal
Prior to the 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge, we scored 21 and conceded 4(1 penalty). So our defence has been really sound and IS STILL is.

Remember MU had that long clean sheet run? They later conceded 10 in 4 games(4 against us, 2 against Fulham, Villa and Porto).
This is football  and it's bound to happen at one point of time.  We were unlucky that so many individual errors happen to come in the same game.

We must be glad that the manner we conceded those goals were errors which are not representative of the players themselves. So there is really no cause for concern unlike the situation where committing simple errors are second nature to them.

We must be glad that the manner we conceded those goals were errors which are not representative of the players themselves. So there is really no cause for concern unlike the situation where committing simple errors are second nature to them.

Spot on!