Defence and Enrique

[ChrisJbarnes]

didnt look that bad at OT from the highlights on motd. not great, but conceding 6 goals probably was harsh on them, due to a bit of dodgy refereeing and lack of cover from the midfield throughout. seems to be a lot of critisicm of enrique, who didnt look bad imo. wasnt at fault for the 2nd goal, although a not great backpass, given blasted it at cacapa. enrique did make a good off the line clearance, along with taylor twice and cacapa, and look to save us on another occasion. im hoping he'll be very good for the future, and lets be honest i didnt see the whole game, but playing in a team with no manager at old trafford cant be easy. he looked more than capable at stoke, lets hope he gives them a good game on wednesday.

[Rob]

enrique looked really solid especially in the first half, giggs and rooney got nowt out of him, cant understand why he hasnt been used as much... really promising

[James]

Some aspects of defending we did well, Enrique and Carr stopped them attacking down the touchline. But time and time again, Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez found their way between our defenders, taking advantage of our centre halves lack of pace, and our midfielders lack of bite.

[Guest jimmy1982]

didnt look that bad at OT from the highlights on motd. not great, but conceding 6 goals probably was harsh on them, due to a bit of dodgy refereeing and lack of cover from the midfield throughout. seems to be a lot of critisicm of enrique, who didnt look bad imo. wasnt at fault for the 2nd goal, although a not great backpass, given blasted it at cacapa. enrique did make a good off the line clearance, along with taylor twice and cacapa, and look to save us on another occasion. im hoping he'll be very good for the future, and lets be honest i didnt see the whole game, but playing in a team with no manager at old trafford cant be easy. he looked more than capable at stoke, lets hope he gives them a good game on wednesday.

 

None of the defenders had individually bad games, but as a unit (which is the most important thing) they just got cut to shreds. You can't blame that solely on the defence, as the midfield need to keep the ball to stop the other team just mounting wave upon wave of attack and break up their play better, but the fact is there were loads (like easily double figures) of occasions where they waltzed through our defence and runners weren't picked up (Rio Ferdinad for Christ's sake). Having said that, in the first half we restricted them by and large to having shots from distance, which is usually as good as you can hope for at Old Trafford, although Rooney's decision making and/or inaccurate shooting let us off the hook on a few occasions. Second half we looked pretty much what we are at the mo' - a managerless, directionless mess. Man U had the quality players to embarass us and did just that. It was expected and little more than pride was at stake so it wasn't the end of the world. Enrique was no worse than anyone else, and defended reasonably when he was one v one with them, but he doesn't have the confidence or ability to get his head up and look for simple balls out of defence at the minute, and it seems his first instinct is always a long hoof. He might improve there, and you don't have to be the world's best passer to be a good left back, but good teams have full backs who use the ball well. The team as a whole is low on confidence so we should definitely give him more time.

For the second goal, Cacapa shouldn't have passed it to Enrique in the first place as it put him and then Given under a lot of pressure.

 

[NG32]

For the second goal, Cacapa shouldn't have passed it to Enrique in the first place as it put him and then Given under a lot of pressure.

 

Given had ample space and time to put that ball to the half way line.

[DJ_NUFC]

I like the look of him, and we sorely need to keep a player in his position and obvious potential on our books.

 

Loved how he blasted Cacapa in Spanish / broken English after that goal.

[TaylorJ_01]

I like Enrique. He looks a class act if we are wanting to get some attacking football going. Fast, strong and ALWAYS trying to get in the game from what I seen.

[Thespence]

We conceded 6 goals in one half man it is shite however you try to dress it up. I will admit Nicky Butt is not a DM as he stops fuck all but smell the coffee lads any side that gets beat by 6 goal has been shite.

 

Loving all this first half bollocks the game has two halves, so being good in one & fucking disasters in another & losing the game, means the first half served no purpose to the overall result.

 

I walked away from the Arseanl game with hope becasue at the end of the game we drew with a team many thought would be champions at the end of the season, now we got people getting hope from 45 mins of footballl!!!! And to think it is being reported across the board we are demanding & are bunch of fans with high expectations who will only settle for our team scoring at least 3 goals. Reality is some us will settle for a nil-nil at half time score, some people still think Bramble could do a job, that in my eyes makes us the eternal optimists.

[Teasy]

Have to agree that goal was Given's fault.  Cacapa shouldn't really have passed it to Enrique there, but the ball back to Given was fine and he should have been able to clear it.  Though I have to add that even though I hold Given responsible for that goal I don't subscribe to the idea some have that he was at fault for just about everything in the game and should be sold

[Teasy]

We conceded 6 goals in one half man it is s**** however you try to dress it up. I will admit Nicky Butt is not a DM as he stops f*** all but smell the coffee lads any side that gets beat by 6 goal has been s****.

 

Loving all this first half bollocks the game has two halves, so being good in one & f****** disasters in another & losing the game, means the first half served no purpose to the overall result.

 

I walked away from the Arseanl game with hope becasue at the end of the game we drew with a team many thought would be champions at the end of the season, now we got people getting hope from 45 mins of footballl!!!! And to think it is being reported across the board we are demanding & are bunch of fans with high expectations who will only settle for our team scoring at least 3 goals. Reality is some us will settle for a nil-nil at half time score, some people still think Bramble could do a job, that in my eyes makes us the eternal optimists.

 

Nobody's said anything about being happy because we did ok in the first half, get a grip, read people's posts, and calm down.

[Thespence]

We conceded 6 goals in one half man it is s**** however you try to dress it up. I will admit Nicky Butt is not a DM as he stops f*** all but smell the coffee lads any side that gets beat by 6 goal has been s****.

 

Loving all this first half bollocks the game has two halves, so being good in one & f****** disasters in another & losing the game, means the first half served no purpose to the overall result.

 

I walked away from the Arseanl game with hope becasue at the end of the game we drew with a team many thought would be champions at the end of the season, now we got people getting hope from 45 mins of footballl!!!! And to think it is being reported across the board we are demanding & are bunch of fans with high expectations who will only settle for our team scoring at least 3 goals. Reality is some us will settle for a nil-nil at half time score, some people still think Bramble could do a job, that in my eyes makes us the eternal optimists.

 

Nobody's said anything about being happy because we did ok in the first half, get a grip, read people's posts, and calm down.

 

Glad you quoted the right post & the 2nd time of asking. The OP said we didnt look that bad, we got beat 6-0 ffs.

[Teasy]

Oh no I've been found out, yes I admit it, I did it!.. I clicked the wrong quote link, and it took me a whole 30 seconds to correct it!  This debacle has shamed me horribly

[Nobody]

Tbf to Given, I think he might've taken their second goal had Rooney not been blocking him. You can see Given desperately trying to move him to reach the ball

[tmonkey]

From what weve briefly seen, hes in the same boat as Milner for me - one paced and relatively slow, which is an issue for a fullback or winger. He has to be a good footballer where it matters to compensate for that lack of pace, which for Enrique means he needs to be spot on with his positioning, reading of the game, and tackling. Contrast his lack of recovery pace/tackling with Beye for example to see how much of a difference that extra bit of mobility can make if positioning isnt spot on in the first place.

 

Hopefully he'll improve with experience.

[merlin]

For the second goal, Cacapa shouldn't have passed it to Enrique in the first place as it put him and then Given under a lot of pressure.

 

Given had ample space and time to put that ball to the half way line.

 

Totally agree - the second goal was all Given's doing through a bad clearing kick.

As far as Enrique goes, I think the lad has ability and, given the right coaching and time to learn the language properly, could prove a real asset.He DOES have a tendency to pull out of tackles sometimes, but this could be cured by coaching and raising his confidence.

His passing is generally good and for a young defender of 21, I cannot understand why he gets so much criticism - that stupid air-head Louise Taylor's assessment of him was so wrong as to be funny - it demonstrated exactly why Brian Clough once told a journalist(who had questioned one of his player's

ability 'That's why I'm a manager, and YOU are a journalist..!!'

[garth]

From what weve briefly seen, hes in the same boat as Milner for me - one paced and relatively slow, which is an issue for a fullback or winger. He has to be a good footballer where it matters to compensate for that lack of pace, which for Enrique means he needs to be spot on with his positioning, reading of the game, and tackling. Contrast his lack of recovery pace/tackling with Beye for example to see how much of a difference that extra bit of mobility can make if positioning isnt spot on in the first place.

 

Hopefully he'll improve with experience.

 

I really don't know how you can say Enrique is slow he looked to me he can turn the speed on when needed, okay his positioning wasn't that good sometimes but he stills needs to adjust to the Premiership and I'm sure he will be one of better defenders.

[alpal78]

I thought he did very well when Ronaldo was on his flank. He outmuscled him quite a few times and did try to retain possession instead of just hoofing the ball out. That shows termendous courage for a fullback coz most others would have just been happy to get the ball out asap when Ronaldo is running at them.

 

True we conceded 6 goals, but let's be honest the last 3 was in the last 5 minutes when Man Utd basically ran riot (Ferdinand was playing RW) and our boys looked to have given up. Except for the first goal where I felt Given could have palmed the ball away and the second goal where I blame Cacapa - 25% and Given - 75%, none of the other goals were down to individual faults ala Bramble.   

[Newcastle Fan]

Tbf to Given, I think he might've taken their second goal had Rooney not been blocking him. You can see Given desperately trying to move him to reach the ball

 

Not really, he was trying to push Rooney so that the ball hits him (Rooney)

[ShearMagic]

The mood Man Utd are in, I think they would've at least scored 4 or 5 against most other defences in the league.

 

The problem was, that for the first time in a while our midfield tried to pass the ball around and attack.

 

This left us extremely short at the back and quite often there were 6 or 7 red shirts onto 4 or 5 black and whites.

 

Enrique though, he's looked good in every game I've seen him. Bit unfair on the lad that we've conceded more goals with him playing at left back then we have with Zoggy.

[Guest DarkSchneider]

Enrique looked great when defending IMHO. If we had someone he could pass the ball to in CM it would be even better. His long passes were not good at all. The problem is still the lack of someone who can keep the ball in CM. I would prefer Emre over Smith any day. Hope It happens soon.

 

              Given

 

Carr Taylor Cacapa Enrique

 

Duff  Butt    Emre  Zog

 

      Viduka Owen

 

Hopefuly now that Smith is banned we'll se something like this

[WhatTheFunk]

 

Confidence confidence confidence

 

Our entire team (and defence especially) are shorn to shit of confidence. It's the main thing Allardyce got wrong in his time here. Robbed it off the entire squad.

 

I think we have more than adequate personnel in defence for now. Whoever comes in next will need to get our goalscorers scoring again so as to take the pressure off the defence, and let them gel and learn to work with each other. With Beye and Faye to come back in, I believe we're alright. Sam's insistence on containing the opposition added needless pressure on our defence, as we didn't have much in the way of attackng play.

[Thorpinho]

The defence was for the large part good enough against Man Utd. Man Utd got all their good positions from the space between midfield and defence. The pressure the defence came under and the scoreline was in my opinion entirely the fault of the central midfield players. Smith and Butt were awful - NOT Enrique.

[WhatTheFunk]

The defence was for the large part good enough against Man Utd. Man Utd got all their good positions from the space between midfield and defence. The pressure the defence came under and the scoreline was in my opinion entirely the fault of the central midfield players. Smith and Butt were awful - NOT Enrique.

 

Spotty Onny

[Guest worjack]

Funny is'nt it, when we played them last year (Jan 1st) with two 19 year olds in defence we didn't concede 6 goals if I remember rightly.

[Thorpinho]

Funny is'nt it, when we played them last year (Jan 1st) with two 19 year olds in defence we didn't concede 6 goals if I remember rightly.

 

Yeah as i remember it those two 19 year olds weren't being "protected" by the midfield performance seen on saturday. No wonder our defence has no confidence when they are constantly blamed for the ineptitude of the rest of the side.