I agree that the way we are set up means we are always liable to concede as we push forward, but when you look at most of the goals we actually do concede, we usually have numbers back and it is individual errors or players not doing their jobs correctly that was the cause.
Take the three goals against Swansea. The first goal (Shelvey) we had enough players back, we allowed a player to run along the edge of our penalty area before passing to Shelvey who admittedly finished superbly.
The second goal (Boney), Skrtel gave away a silly foul, we then had numbers back to defend the free kick and in all honesty the goal itself was just bad luck.
The third goal was a mistake by Stirling and Johnson giving the ball away out on the wing when there was absolutely no danger. A simple cross and maybe a dubious call but Skrtel needn't have touched him as Agger cleared the ball easily.
We are conceding a lot of goals , but most of them are individual mistakes rather than inherent to our tactics or style of play. These type of mistakes are usually due to mental tiredness which I do believe is a factor.The way our defenders are asked to play means that they not only have to concentrate on defending, but also on distribution as well.
The other factor is that our defenders are having to defend more because we no longer have two defensive midfielders covering in front of them. The more often defenders are asked to defend the more likely that they will make an error.
I think our defenders had it much easier before Brendan and now they are being called on more frequently, their flaws are beginning to show more frequently too.
I also think they had it easier before because they had Pepe and Carra telling them what to do and where to go .... now they have to make their own decisions.
I agree S@int I just think our defenders need to be more disciplined, it's great to see us playing the way we are attacking wise,and it's clear it's working, we are always going to be more exposed at the back so for me our defenders need to be at the top of their game in every single match,
With injuries and what not we have not been consistent enough hence BR mixing things up, that brings about the inconsistencies and in turn a change in how confident players have in one another,
We have all seen recently that cohesion is lacking amongst the back 4 especially between Migs and the CB's,
So for me I believe a defensive coach solely to work with BR and the back 4/5 would bring about a more cohesive unit, disciplined and all singing from the same song sheet, I don't think we can ever completely eradicate individual mistakes but with special coaching it could lessen the amount of mistakes we see each season, ive said before that Steve Clarke could be very helpful for our defense, don't think it's to bad a shout if he were to come in , don't think he'd refuse either.
YNWA
Logged