Our Defence - Has it actually been fixed?

Mickson said:
If Tony Pulis had AWB, Lindelöf, Maguire, Shaw he would barely let goals in. Ole has spent over £150m on defenders and we still can't defend. I know where the problem is, although people will still be blaming the players. They need coaching. They need a setup. They need clear roles. And yes, they aren't the best in the world individually but defenders rarely have to be if the setup is right. Defending is the easiest part of football.
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The biggest (and maybe only) problem is set-pieces. If you ignore the first three matches where we clearly werent ready to play - our defensive record has been quite ok this season. Not great, but certainly not bad. But we had 11 goals against after 3 matches which was absolutely awful - after that - it's 10 in 10 which is among the best in the league.

And if you look at the goals:

Leeds - 1 corner and 1 dream superstrike from Dallas in a wildly open game
Sheffield United - 1 mistake by Henderson and 1 corner
West Ham - 1 corner
Southampton - 1 corner and 1 freekick
Everton - 1 goal from open play by Bernard after we lost an aerial duel prior
Arsenal - 1 penalty
Newcastle - 1 freak own goal

So after the Spurs-game - 6 set-pieces, 1 mega mistake by Henderson and 1 freak owngoal. If we can sort out the problem on set-pieces, our defending could be really good.
 
Mickson said:
If Tony Pulis had AWB, Lindelöf, Maguire, Shaw he would barely let goals in. Ole has spent over £150m on defenders and we still can't defend. I know where the problem is, although people will still be blaming the players. They need coaching. They need a setup. They need clear roles. And yes, they aren't the best in the world individually but defenders rarely have to be if the setup is right. Defending is the easiest part of football.
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If he was our manager we’d also not score any goals and be deep in mid table. He wouldn’t have a clue how to attack.
 
Our defense wont ever be fully fixed without replacing De Gea.

He saves the ball well but his style of plays effects the balance of our defensive line and even how they attack, how high they get up the pitch, their ease of holding on to an offside position etc, how much they can trust the goalkeeper to come forward etc.
 
Our midfield and attacking quality & depth are great if we get rid of jokers like James & Lingard and add a DM.

Can't say the same thing about our defence though. Bailly is a better ball playing CB than our £80m signing and probably the best defender we have. We won't win anything with this defence.
 
They didn't look dangerous all game, yet they score 2. That's our defence summed up.
 
Only 3 clean sheets all season, 2 of them being 0-0 draws.

Also 23 conceded in 14 games.
 
It's a bag of wank. I feel like no matter how much we spend on it, it'll still concede sloppy goals.

Need some form of defensive coach or something.
 
Only Shaw was good today and that was mainly due to his speed running the ball forward and a good cross from a freekick. Barnes was dangerous and scored, though from central with McTominay giving too much room. Vardy was mostly contained but got free to score
 
It's not a bad defence but its not stable enough to be title winning.

I thought nobody had a particularly bad game today but still we concede 2 goals.
 
Defending and finishing is an issue. Chances are being made - for once that’s not the issue. We need to start Cavani which might address the latter problem but desperately need a centre back and/or defensive midfielder to sort the defence.
 
It's shit, I've been saying it since last season when idiots keep claiming we've a good defense just because we've the third best defensive record in the league.

A good defense doesn't average nearly conceding a goal a game!
 
They lost it for us today. We might have been wasteful up front, but we played against a team who did nothing, and came away with two goals and a draw. Not good enough.
 
It gifts too many goals. It completely undermines the rest of the team. Coupled with the wayward finishing it's why you never feel this team is fully in control of a game, even when a couple of goals up.
 
We're never going to win anything major with this lot. Maguire is a massive problem. He cost a fortune so Is always going to play, he's been made captain, which was a huge mistake, so taking that off him is now a story and, more importantly, he's nowhere near good enough.
 
Godfather said:
Crumbles under the slightest pressure. We simply can't afford to sit back
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Prone to ball watching too. It's a shambles. If Rio or Vida were playing like that we'd be appalled by their form.
 
No, our defence wouldn't look out of place at Sheffield United or West Brom. That's not saying Maguire, Lindelof and Bailly are bad players, they're just painfully average. You could stick O'Connell or Bartley in our team and we'd look no worse.
 
Fair criticism of the defence overall today but the two CBs played ok IMO. Their first goal was a sloppy pass by Bruno and then Scott didn't close Barnes properly. Their second goal, Shaw lost Perez on the right and Vardy's movement was sharp.

There were still too many sloppy passes in midfield. If we could cut that out we could be more dominant and hold onto leads better.
 
Paxi said:
We need two. Maguire isn't good enough.
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There are lots of examples where a truly great centre back can carry a decent one beside him and bring the defence up another level -Liverpool are the obvious example, Chelsea a few years ago, and I rated Ronny Johnson a lot but Stam was world class. I think Maguire (or Lindelof) would benefit from a world class center back alongside them.
 
We desperately need a defensive midfielder - I think that would improve our defensive unite more than a CB funnily enough.

Also - our defending once we lose possession or in transition is genuinely appalling. It's becoming a big concern.
 
We keep scoring and the defense keeps leaking goals. Until that gets fixed, we are not challenging for any big titles.
 
I don't see anything wrong with Leicester's second goal. That one goes in 90 percent of the time. Can't fight lucky bounces.
 
sincher said:
Fair criticism of the defence overall today but the two CBs played ok IMO. Their first goal was a sloppy pass by Bruno and then Scott didn't close Barnes properly. Their second goal, Shaw lost Perez on the right and Vardy's movement was sharp.

There were still too many sloppy passes in midfield. If we could cut that out we could be more dominant and hold onto leads better.
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Why dont we expect our CBs to be sharp? Agree about the first goal but the 2nd could have been defended better
 
Irwin99 said:
There are lots of examples where a truly great centre back can carry a decent one beside him and bring the defence up another level -Liverpool are the obvious example, Chelsea a few years ago, and I rated Ronny Johnson a lot but Stam was world class. I think Maguire (or Lindelof) would benefit from a world class center back alongside them.
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Hopefully either of them goes up a level but ideally you want two top class defenders. Think of Rio Vida Terry Carvalho etc.
 
No.
Our attack has been bailing us out since the start of the season.

No organization or leadership at the back.

We couldn't even be resilient for a mere 5 minutes after scoring ffs.
 
MattofManchester said:
No.
Our attack has been bailing us out since the start of the season.

No organization or leadership at the back.

We couldn't even be resilient for a mere 5 minutes after scoring ffs.
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As a matter of fact, Evans demonstrated how to lead at the back. But then, he failed to show any bit of leadership when he had the opportunity.
 
The amount of goals given away from either basic errors or unable to cut out simple crosses is extremely frustrating.

Let's not forget Klopp won no trophies at Liverpool until he sorted out his defence with good signings.
 
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