Toon chief worries about a lack of clean sheets

[Colos Short and Curlies]

problem is the same as last season.

 

Our ball retention is below par, our attacking options are not varied enough, and consequently we are conceding the initiative to our opponents. Buying better defenders was never going to cure these faults, never in a million years. Defending begins from the front, and in these areas we are poor. He has bought some good defenders but if the players in front of them cannot shield them, even the best defenders find it difficult.

 

I started a whole thread on this, and said it all last season.

 

There was quite a lot of people who disagreed with me, one of them was that bulgarian bloke, wherever he is now. Another was geejon, gayjon etc

 

I wanted Allardyce for the job, but if he can't see this, I find it worrying.

 

 

Unbalanced view imo. If by saying better defenders won't help you defend then one could say better strikers won't help you score.

Defending is a team strategy but if a team gets in and around your box the better the quality of defenders you have the better chance you have of limiting your opponents options.

This is so obvious i don't actually think it was the point you wanted to make.

I agree about ball retention and i would guess that's why he bought Viduka.

I would also agree that defending from the front is very important and i suppose that was in his thinking when he bought Smith.

Incidentally, Italian strikers aren't renown for their defending from the front or being strong enough to hold the ball up, their defensive units however are often very effective.

 

I haven't studiously watched Italian football for a few years, but in the 90s at least the majority of the play was concentrated in the midfield, strikers were there for an explosion to finish a move off. The vast majority of Italian midfielders are very comfortable on the ball and rarely gave it away.

 

It was this rather than the strikers which helped the defence out, with the excpetion of Emre we don't have midfielders who are comfortable on the ball in tight situations, hopefully Barton will help us out here

[Guest sittingontheball]

If you look at the goals he's probably worried about, the defence has been up the pitch. Its a bit hazy, but I seem to remember...,

 

Mido's goal - simple ball up the middle

First Citeh goal - flatfooted after simple ball in behind on our left, runner untracked

Second Citeh goal - pissing about instead of clearing, then break down our right, runner gets free header

Everton goal - more kind of pissing about before break down our right, runner challenged-possibly an own goal

 

Obviously its early days so there aren't so many examples. In each case though, the defence didn't do very well. Maybe Sam thinks the four examples signify a systematic problem, not just individual errors that happen now and again.

 

Fwiw, I want to see a playmaker too.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

If you look at the goals he's probably worried about, the defence has been up the pitch. Its a bit hazy, but I seem to remember...,

 

Mido's goal - simple ball up the middle

First Citeh goal - flatfooted after simple ball in behind on our left, runner untracked

Second Citeh goal - pissing about instead of clearing, then break down our right, runner gets free header

Everton goal - more kind of pissing about before break down our right, runner challenged-possibly an own goal

 

Obviously its early days so there aren't so many examples. In each case though, the defence didn't do very well. Maybe Sam thinks the four examples signify a systematic problem, not just individual errors that happen now and again.

 

Fwiw, I want to see a playmaker too.

 

I'd be worried about the amount of good breaks the opposition seem to be getting from our corners

[toptoon]

Some people are yet to figure out that a draws better than a loss. A point would have been a good result at the COM Stadium.

 

I firmly believe we got nothing out of the game because we played in that spirit.

 

For too long we've played away from home with fear. Souness tried to combat it head on by playing the likes of Butt and Bowyer together but it didn't work, it's effectively waving a white flag, almost like damage limitation. We need to go to these places believing we can take all the points, a draw should be seen as acceptable. You could see at Man City, they wanted it much more than we did. Both teams got what they deserved.

 

Of course, a number of factors resulted in our defeat, but it gets up my nose the way we play with fear against average teams just because we're away from home. Man City look a decent outfit fair enough, but for every Man City there's a Derby or a Middlesbrough and we've been doing this for years.

 

100% agree with ohmelads. The most important thing is that we pick points up away from home, however we do it. If we manage that BSA's way by tightening up further, then all well and good. But i look at our attacking talent and look at Citeh's Boros Derby's etc and think why shoulden't we just have a go at them and attack more rather than sit back and invite them to have a go at us. Play to our strengths. With the likes of Owen Martins Viduka Smith etc we have better striking options than all outside the top 4 imo Milner, Zoggy, Emre, Barton and our new fullbacks should be able to create enough for them if we played them together and let them off the reigns a bit more at times especially when we have the ball.

[Guest Synthespian]

problem is the same as last season.

 

Our ball retention is below par, our attacking options are not varied enough, and consequently we are conceding the initiative to our opponents. Buying better defenders was never going to cure these faults, never in a million years. Defending begins from the front, and in these areas we are poor. He has bought some good defenders but if the players in front of them cannot shield them, even the best defenders find it difficult.

 

I started a whole thread on this, and said it all last season.

 

There was quite a lot of people who disagreed with me, one of them was that bulgarian bloke, wherever he is now. Another was geejon, gayjon etc

 

I wanted Allardyce for the job, but if he can't see this, I find it worrying.

 

 

Surely you must agree that BETTER DEFENDERS improves the defense...I agree that defending (and attacking is a team effort) but as Lotus said above, the same think can be said about attacking efforts, if you don't have good personnel behind the attackers, you will not score that many either...

 

You need good quality players at every position...Simple as that...

 

Yes, better defenders improve things.

However, we could have the best back four in the world, but if our forwards and midfielders cannot hold on to the ball, it comes straight back.

No-one is perfect, and if you play a game where 60% is in your own half and you have the ball less than 50% of the time, you're going to lose more often than not.

 

Ball retention is HUGE.  I'm sure this is partly where Joey Barton comes in.

[Parky]

Part of the problem is that Butt and Geremi are a bit dim.