Defensive record

[Has1978]

Understandably, all the talk has been of forwards for the past two months. I'm as pissed off as the next man as to the Keane/Berba outcome.

We've lost a quality pair of forwards. No argument. However, they were both pretty awful in their defensive duties (Keane loved shirking a challenge, Berbatov even worse). This put pressure on our somewhat lightweight midfield - and our lightweight defence and not incredible goalkeeper.

We've replaced Chimbonda and Robinson - source of many goals conceded. Woodgate has come in for Dawson and Hutton is clearly a decent player. Losing Lee is a mistake but we also have Corluka in the mix.

O'Hara is disciplined and able, Huddlestone a year wiser. And, as you may have noticed, Modric likes a tackle.

As for Zokora, he is no defensive midfielder but as another poster put it perfectly "a fucking handy player to have around".

And our keeper, Gomes. He is quite possibly our signing of the summer for me. I really rate him. He's like a better verson of Bruce Grobbelar in his prime.

I predict that our defensive record will be considerably better than our last two seasons. We'll be less of a pushover, concede fewer soft goals and wondering where we lost points from. I'm thinking Newcastle home defeat 2 seasons ago (3-2). Fulham away last year (3-3). Games we should have won but managed to get out-fought in somewhere - especially late on.

Darren Bent (and Pav) may not set the hearts racing but they run the channels, pull defenders around and keep the midfielders busy. And they score goals. Bent in particular is fantastic at running off the ball. It's not sexy but sex was the last thing I thought about when Diomanse Kamara scored that last-minute injury time overhead kick against us. Is about points boys and girls - and we have players with a proven record of scoring (Pav, Bent) and creating (Bentley, Modric) goals ably assisted by the likes of Lennon, GDS etc.

We may not score as many as the past two seaons but - mark my words - there will be a few 1-0s chucked in our favour as well.

If our 1st choice defence stay fit - we finish 5th. If not, we'll still be better than last season. And I daresay we have a fair chunk of cash burning a hole in our pockets. Not a bad transfer window - just a shite last day.

Cheers.

 

[Rackybear]

Great post, agree with it all apart from Gomes. Ill agree he was absolutely top class vs chelsea, world class, came out and plucked the ball out of the air for almost (if not) every cross and that takes away a lot of strain from the defence, not to mention his fine save from lampard :up:

However, its his first good game out of three, providing he has more performances like this over the course of the season, then yes signing of the summer, but at the moment its far too early to judge. He could go through a spell in which he makes a few errors and a barron spell of confidence as a result (much like robbo). So lets not jinx ourselves on him just yet, but ill agree, he wasn't great vs boro or sunderland, but has not put a foot wrong so far (although cisse's goal could be debatable).

Unlike last season, if we do have an unfit king, corluka I hope is ahead of Dawson to cover in CD, otherwise Ramos' decisions will come into question much like that of Benitez. I do wonder, is their team selection sometimes a spanish thing? Benitiez gets absolutely raped by fans because of his team selection and where he chooses to play his players, and we have seen that of ramos lately too..(Zokora RB, Bentley LM/AM, Modric - very deep)

Formation vs ski was spot on, hope we will be saying the same for the remainder of the season.

 

[bigturnip]

Bentley played LM for 20 minutes against Chelsea and Jenas was playing RB by the end, so I'm not sure the formation was spot on, but there is nothing wrong with playing people out of position if it works.

 

[Rackybear]

Bentley played LM for 20 minutes against Chelsea and Jenas was playing RB by the end, so I'm not sure the formation was spot on, but there is nothing wrong with playing people out of position if it works.

The way it started was spot on, when you make subs, things will obviously change, and that was one major problem with MJ. He would always do straight swaps, like for like..if we needed a goal, he would put on defoe and take off keane, whereas in Ramos' situation, he tries different things, like taking off a defender for a striker and playing 3-5-2 for example.

Putting JJ at RB worked, because it allowed Hudd to play in the middle, whilst utilising JJ's fitness by taking off a shaky looking Gunter imo..

 

[Has1978]

The way it started was spot on, when you make subs, things will obviously change, and that was one major problem with MJ. He would always do straight swaps, like for like..if we needed a goal, he would put on defoe and take off keane, whereas in Ramos' situation, he tries different things, like taking off a defender for a striker and playing 3-5-2 for example.

Putting JJ at RB worked, because it allowed Hudd to play in the middle, whilst utilising JJ's fitness by taking off a shaky looking Gunter imo..

loved bmj - still do but i definitely felt this at the time

 

[Evolution]

Great post :clap:

Especially like the

It's not sexy but sex was the last thing I thought about when Diomanse Kamara scored that last-minute injury time overhead kick against us

Hehe nice one. Have some rep!

 

[Has1978]

Great post :clap:

Especially like the

Hehe nice one. Have some rep!

cheers. when that goal went in i was in the gymn on the cross trainer. i started going a bit mental when i saw all the Soccer Saturday people laughing at us. started punching the machine, swearing loudly and generally losing the plot. haha. had my headphones on obviously so people must have thought i was a loon. didnt calm down for 2 hours that evening. thats what a crap defence can do to you.

so to the people at fitness first in london bridge - sorry.

edit: getting angry just reliving it.