The College Dropout

Mole - all the names you listed work hard defensively. They can all defend very well. hans - only Walker, Clichy, Baines & Coleman on that list are questionable defensively. The rest are meant to be rock solid defensively. Everton rarely keep clean sheets. The others a weaknesses in their sides.

How many top fullbacks are poor defensively? How many top sides carry a poor defensive fullback? Unless he's absolutely amazing going forward, it's not good enough. Let's take away Barca from the examples, they have 70% of the ball. Most team are much close to 50/50. If there's no quality option, most teams will go for an Arbeloa/Abidal or a ball playing CB like Ivanovic/Ramos rather than a Cicinho.

Never a winger.

That's usually why defenders are picked like. Please go through the threads of our other fullbacks. People have told me fullback is 50% defence 50% attack

You see, I disagree. Debuchy is at least as solid defensively as Danny when he's only 3 months into his PL career. He'll get better. For me, the only reason why Cole is still #1 at LB for England is because he's superb defensively. He is not. While i agree he may get better, so far he is worse than Danny in terms of defense. Of course Debuchy is a much better player and must be our 1st choice right back. No doubt. Cole is superb at both offense and defense. His overlap was devastating when he's on his prime. I'm talking about now. Baines is better in attack, Cashley better in defence. Cashley gets the nod. Fundamentally I disagree with you. 95% of top fullbacks are great defensively. At the highest level you would play the better defensive fullback 90% of the time.

You see, I disagree. Debuchy is at least as solid defensively as Danny when he's only 3 months into his PL career. He'll get better. For me, the only reason why Cole is still #1 at LB for England is because he's superb defensively.

I don't think it's bashing when you show concern to the lads poor defensive play, especially when you consider he is a defender. Call me old fashioned but i prefer my full back to be a good defender above all else, then you look for one who has good forward play too. Thank you. I've been saying this for months.

IMO they'll be like Bayern and Real. Too much money, influence and reputation. Even Milan.

Even Liverpool are still a massive, massive club. Not far away from being in that second bracket of clubs that they where in for awhile under Rafa. Since they lost won the league they've won what, 10 trophies? 2 CL finals? UEFA cup. Multiple FA Cups. I would lie Man Utd to be Villa status in 20 years.

What did SAF do tactically after the red? Move Welbeck out wide into Nani's position where Khedira was now positioned. RVP had to track Alonso.

The central midfielders roles didn't change. Welbeck and RVP did.

Aye Mou acted quickly and that's to his credit. But there wasn't much SAF could do. They where already doing a containing job. Only over move e could've done was to take off RVP for a midfielder but that would've been overly negative with so long to go. Carrick I think it was did a decent job with closing Down. Quick bit f movement a shot on the run, in off the post.

At the top level, he's scored into the teens/20's in 2 seasons.

Guess all he could be criticised for was failing to react to the red card as quickly as Mourinho. I don't even think he could do much except perhaps remove RVP for a midfielder but that would nullify their counter which would be dangerous with 30 minutes on the clock. Modric scored a "worldie".

Madrid aren't better player for player. SAF also uses his squad better, trusts more of them and can make more tactical changes. You can nearly always name 10 of their starting line-up and 2 substitutions. So you know how to prepare. Mou's had the same first XI for the majority of his time there. Man U looked the better side for the majority of the tie. This Man Utd. side is legit, I truly believe it. Only problem is there's 3 or so excellent players that are ageing. Rio-Vidic was excellent.

Is he going to blame us for injuries? What?

Big reason why i'm not worried about HBA leaving in the summer. Been here 3 years, less than 30 starts.

QPR away last season? That we got a point in that game Yeah you didn't watch the game.

If we are claiming Taylor had a good game at QPR, or we defended or played well. I'm done.

Away from home it's Tiote all day.

Aye, best defensive unit we've had performance wise, that I can recall, and yet the LB was s**** defensively, laughable. He was ffs The results, when he was playing, would strongly suggest you are wrong (or clueless). So one of the back four, who performed better than any other back four we've had for ages, was s****, yet the aforesaid back four remains one of the tightest we've had for years. I'll take a s**** fullback (by your yardstick) playing in a team not shipping goals any day of the week over owt else, seriously what else can be a meaningfull measure. You must really hate Santon I reckon. I think Santon is good, and will become top class in a few years. Colo was the main reason our defence looked so good. That and Taylor's good form, up until his injury. Even Williamson looked alright. Simpson saved us quite a few times as well. How highly do you rate Simpson? Santon is NOT good yet, he could well be though, as he's still extremely young, he's a crap defender (so far). Simpson is perfectly adequate, and gets way more stick than he deserves, although that's not to say couldn't be upgarded (or has been already) same category as Taylor, although Taylor is way more flexible in terms of roles within the team and I think we've really missed him this season because of that. A back four is a unit, always has been, always will be. As I said earlier it's also often better than the sum of it's parts. So true.

QPR game was emotional. Krul was amazing in that period. Jonas too.

He's neither a midfielder nor a defender, tbh. He's a set-piece specialist who can occasionally fill a random gap in the team without ballsing up. This is accurate. He's useful for striking the ball.

He's a shocking defender then. Was horrendous defensively at LB.

Ryan Taylor is a midfielder.