I don't think the problem is in defense. Utd often lose by the odd goal. Mistakes get made each game. The problem is the lack of vision, speed, infiltration etc coming from midfield. If that gets sorted out I think the confidence will go up. Nobody will mind a defensive laps if the team gets forward with intent, creating chances and scoring goals. Now it's nervewecking for the team, a mistake gets punished and one mistake for this Utd is often the margin between winning and losing. Liverpool concedes goals every game too so that means mistakes are made but the confidence there is sky high and they keep winning as a result.
Our Defence - Has it actually been fixed?
- Thread starter Untd55
- Start date
Another game, yet again no clean sheet. In the EPL we've only managed to keep two of those: against Chelsea and Leicester early in the season. Wolves, Palace, Sheffield, Villa, Brighton, Norwich, SOTON, WHU, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bournemouth all scored against us, City, Tottenham up next.
Like feck it's improved. Our goals conceded is comparable to midtable sides. There is no organisation that Ole has put into our defence outside of buying a couple good players to operate there and hope it works out.
Our defence is crap.
Maguire is beginning to worry me.
Not fixed but it is better. If Williams or Shaw nail down the LB spot and we add Koulibaly in the summer, I would be a lot happier
No more money on defence now. Beyond a joke.
Still think we need another topnotch CB. Lindelof and Bailly are good backups, but I dont think we win anything with either starting. We could give Tuanzebe a long run in to see how he could do before we spend big on another defender, but the way it stands the defence is still not good enough.
We miss Smalling big time. Hopefully now some will realise how influential he was to our defence. Weak shit defending, never committing, afraid to put themselves about incapable of tackling or winning the ball in a 50-50 due to lack of strength, courage or pace. Not to mention the terrible risky passing giving away free chances and goals for fun. Has been a joke for large parts this season and Maguire had his worst 45 for the club so far. Hopefully no more but he is exposed for his pace consistently, it's a worry.
With that midfield of ours it's surprising we aren't letting in more.
I think midfield is a bigger concern, we don’t even have a DM.
Does anyone have a decent river for this? My usual soccerstream site is blocked 
The only way you can get the best out of your 80mm CB is to buy a 100mm CB. This is how all clubs do it.
I don't know how we can even think about passing judgement on the defense yet with the likes of Fred & Pereria in front of them. Rio and Vidic would've struggled to cope.
They've coped with Anderson and Cleverley duo in front of them, try again.
Joke of a half from Maguire
So far this season three teams have conceded fewer goals than us. Last season it was ten teams.
It might not be enough of an improvement but it is an improvement.
Both of them were far better than the current pair.
We got rid of our best defender and imagined this would somehow fix our defence?
Last season the defense had Ander, McTominay and Fellaini playing as 3rd CBs next to them. They dont this season
Maguire is our best defender, but I'm not sure, who should play next to him. I don't trust Lindelöf, who is not that good a header. So I actually think, that Tuanzebe or Smalling is our second best central defender.
Still think the influence of a quality midfield on a defence is underrated by many. They are dreadfully exposed by the 3 in front and in an attacking sense they may as well be passing to 3 parking cones.
Not sure whether you're talking about Rio and Vidić here being better than Lindelof and the most expensive defender in the world or Pereira/Fred vs Cleverley/Anderson. You'd be right on both accounts with a caveat that there's not much difference between the midfielders and there's a fecking grand canyon in terms of quality between the defenders pairs.
You're laughing because he has been made a joke of, like Jones, however the reason you keep laughing after being disproved of your beliefs is because you refuse to reevaluate what is presented to you. If you don't think Smalling would improve our defence then the joke is on you. Such a undervalued player, and people want to pay 100m more for a pacy serie a defender in Koubialy to compliment Maguire. It's laughable if we don't bring him back. We need pace and steel, no fecking about. These are a soft bunch.
Improvement will happen if you spend £130m but it doesn't mean it's anywhere near it should be. This bullshit argument in defence of Ole and citing our defence is just hilarious. If anything it's yet another one of his failures at the club.
A defense needs protection from midfield..but most importantly.. it needs a coach/manager to set them up properly.. we have neither
Ditto, seems like with the lack of quality coaching, most of the players are regressing.
I think AWB and maguire are very solid. But we need a proper partner to him and a new LB.
Does not really seem so as we keep making easy and costly mistakes very often. But, I guess we have to see for a bit longer.
How long did that duo last in midfield?
Smalling or Tuanzebe. We don't need a new LB. We have Shaw and Williams.
Totay with Fred-Pereira-Mata we were playing without a midfield. We only have Pogba (until the summer) and McTominay. Unless we plan to give Garner a chance we have to buy there.
They suck but we do need a midfield too. Bring back Smalling to get some pace and power in there, genuine solidity at the back. I remember his performance against PSG and Barca and can't phantom how Maguire would look against those teams currently. Mbappe and Messi vs Maguire and Lindelof, yeah "playing out from the back" will help against those guys.
Seriously dropping standards at the moment, but we can't keep spending on the defence. Bring back Smalling and sign 3 midfielders + a striker. Then we can look to upgrade on LB and CB in a couple of years.
Seriously dropping standards at the moment, but we can't keep spending on the defence. Bring back Smalling and sign 3 midfielders + a striker. Then we can look to upgrade on LB and CB in a couple of years.
Ole and coaching staff couldn't organise a pissup in the proverbial then our defence. It's been said elsewhere that he does no work on the training pitch leaving it up to his lieutenants but I would ask why is he being employed if he cant be bothered?
We invite pressure due to how poor the midfield is. You'd need Maldi and Baresi to not conceed goals in this team.
I have to say Lindelof looks in better form than Maguire at the moment and that's not just because of the goal but I wish we had a pacier centre back.
Our full backs don't convince me at all but AWB is young and will get better (I hope) .
Our full backs don't convince me at all but AWB is young and will get better (I hope) .
Why? At least half of the Caf knew he was an overhyped Defender. We should have spent 80 mil on a CM and right winger.
Instead we spent a record fee on a player whos harly better than Smalling.
£130 million down the swanny because we can't think outside of the box.
It's not good, but there's zero protection from the midfield. We're just a horrible mess of a team.
Still has Lindelof in it and now the youth team left back. Protected by no central midfielder worth his salt. It's far from fixed.