Our defence seems to be a source of disscussion in recent times so i thought we could have an open discussion about why we are conceeding so many, your take on it, see if as a whole we agree or do we view the
issue different ways.
For me the reason we are letting in so many is a tactical issue rather than a personel issue for the main part, defenders like anywhere else are only as good as the players around them or the tactics being used, if you play a more open attacking style the way we are doing then the defence is more exposed than if you were to be a more pragmatic team, play with two banks of four and narrow the pitch to make it difficult for the opposition to get onto the back four.. In the same way as a forward will score more the more you create for them, if you dont create as much then it makes it more difficult for them to score so many.
We are an attack minded unit, we get bodies forward, we push the full backs high up, Henderson and Coutinho are advanced thinkers, Coutinho especially in a midfield 3 centrally wont think too much about what happens behind him.. The way we get so many forward leaves us open to being turned around quickly and exposed.. Even our CBs are encouraged to bring the ball out and split as a two..
When we have the ball you will often see us like the formation above, with alot of players commiting themselves forward to attack, often both full backs high, its a nature of playing which thinks of blowing teams away.. With both full backs high, Hendo and Cou supporting the front three if we do get turned around then its far too much to do for the CBs and Steven.. If one Full back went at a time then the holder has more chance of shuttling across and and covering for them, but when both go its easy to expose..
Often we look like we make individual mistakes and yes to an extent we do but its what happens before tactically that we need to think of rather than look to blame one defender who is often exposed.
Now im not having a go at the way we set up, it certainly makes for entertaining football and it has us challenging for the league so i accept it as part of the way we play and accept that from time to time it wont come off or we will have very heart rending days like yesterday.
Look at 3 of our defenders today, Johnson, Agger, Skrtel.. All played in Rafa sides but the way Rafa set them up didnt leave them as exposed and we looked often a far better defending unit with essentially the same defenders..
If you look at a typical Rafa set up, we didnt have the Full backs so high, maybe one went at a time, but on the whole they stayed as a unit, with Macherano never far from the sweeping across and Alonso next to him as the ball playing midfielder but he was very tactically aware of his defensive job.. The wide players often came narrow to close space and make it difficult for the opposition to break on us quick or in essence difficult to pass or run through us.
We commit ourselvs as an offensive unit under Brendan and it works even if at times its hair raising, but if you look at heat maps of average player positions we have so many really high up and leaving us open.
You could put the best defenders in the world in our current defence and they woul still get exposed.. We need to improve at holding the ball to stop us being broken on quickly and have the chance to filter numbers back, we can improve defensively yes but i dont think we will ever be a side that doesnt conceed with these tactics.
Thats my take anyway