Defensive concerns

[Rabbi_Krustofski]

I'm pleased Redknapp has finally highlighted concerns for our defensive options. Surely it was obvious when he first took over that we needed to sign at least one new centreback of a high quality to push king and woodgate? Plus, surely he knows that Woodgate and Kings are two of the worst players to rely on for their fitness???
If Corluka and Dawson are the cover then I don't know if anyone agrees - not good enough.

 

[luptic]

woodgates fitness since joining us has been good, but with kings knee problems, im surprised that he hasnt identified a replacement for king. Dawson is ok at the back, but never fills me with confidence when watching him, and Corluka is alway prone to the auld titus bramble moment, when playing centre back.

 

[Shanks]

I said at the end of lasst year, I would like to see a central midfielder join us, due tot he ones we currently have and their injuries.

I was mocked by a fair few people for suggesting that, because apparently we had enough cover......


Wonder what they are thinking about cover now ;-)

 

[MrWoolley]

Am I the only one who thinks Dawson is a really good centre back? I thought he had a great season last year and was unfortunate to miss the end of the season due to both injury and King's fitness.

It's quite clear we need a 4th choice CB, I honestly don't think Corluka (nor Chimbonda) are good enough there. But I think it's very harsh writing Dawson off.

 

[Phantom]

Am I the only one who thinks Dawson is a really good centre back? I thought he had a great season last year and was unfortunate to miss the end of the season due to both injury and King's fitness.

It's quite clear we need a 4th choice CB, I honestly don't think Corluka (nor Chimbonda) are good enough there. But I think it's very harsh writing Dawson off.

Nope, I would agree as well but seemingly most on here don't rate him. I know a few chelsea fans who were more than happy to think they could grab him if Terry left.

 

[Shanks]

I liek Dawson and last season I thought he was fantastic again.

But, we still need another decent centre back, in fact, I'd actually prefer one who would push to start over King/Woody, rather than just back ups.

 

[riversmonkey]

I'm assuming the mess at Newcastle means that the Bassong deal would drag until they get their house in order. Gary Cahill was mentioned, but I doubt Bolton will sell one of their prize assets. Who else could we sign?

 

[MrWoolley]

It's tough to get a quality CB at the moment. I can only really think of Distin as a realistic target which I think would do a really good job here.. Look at Man City, they've resulted to going after Kolo Toure (for up to 14m according to the papers!). I'd much rather have Daws than Toure.

 

[Danners9]

I said at the end of lasst year, I would like to see a central midfielder join us, due tot he ones we currently have and their injuries.

I was mocked by a fair few people for suggesting that, because apparently we had enough cover......


Wonder what they are thinking about cover now ;-)

Well, they bought Palacios and sold Zokora.. centre midfield isn't really the problem.

Centre defence however........

On friday night they had 3 right backs (inc Corluka, who is a bit of both) and a left back making up the back 4.

 

[Coyboy]

I said at the end of lasst year, I would like to see a central midfielder join us, due tot he ones we currently have and their injuries.

I was mocked by a fair few people for suggesting that, because apparently we had enough cover......


Wonder what they are thinking about cover now ;-)

You mean defender?

 

[Coyboy]

I liek Dawson and last season I thought he was fantastic again.

But, we still need another decent centre back, in fact, I'd actually prefer one who would push to start over King/Woody, rather than just back ups.

That's all well and good and I believe we tried last year but how would you convince a defender who is good enough to dislodge Woodgate and King, and by definition up there with the best in the league, to come in whenever one or tother is injured. You can't, even Richard Dunne wouldn't come and he is no better than Daws for me.

I am not sure if anything is new with King. He was never going to play pre-season and I am not sure that he won't come against Pool. I am not sure either how long Dawson or Woodgate for that matter will be out- the latter longer than the former but we still have a few weeks to go yet. I am sure it is very gratifying saying 'I told you so' but not all of us could have predicted Woodgate would get a new injury and Dawson pick up an achilles problem.

 

[Kendall]

I think Ledley will play against Liverpool. Woodgate is no longer injury prone and Dawson will be back before long.

It's just unfortunate circumstances, but you can't just go out and buy new players every time you're hit with freak injuries.

 

[Shanks]

Yeah sorry I did mean defender!!!

When Woodgate and Dawson are fit, we have more than adequate cover. We have seen Corluka play central very effectivly as well, and Chim has done a decent enough job there too, but it's very thin on the ground if they are injured.

And with Woodgate and King, we have a higher chance than the rest of the premier league that our defenders will be injured for part of the season.

Realistic targets - we won't be able to get a defender thats like Terry or Rio, but we could get someone in like Upson (not sure how realistic that would actually be though).

Distin, has the experience also.

I'm sure HR has a plan for this area though.

 

[Shanks]

I think Ledley will play against Liverpool. Woodgate is no longer injury prone and Dawson will be back before long.

It's just unfortunate circumstances, but you can't just go out and buy new players every time you're hit with freak injuries.

I'm not suggesting we go out and buy jsut because of the injuries we have currently, I'd personally be more comfortable if we had decent enough cover.

Which we don't really.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I still think we can cope as we are, despite yesterdays appalling performance. I don't know if anybody noticed but Celtic didn't carve out a single chance one Corluka went centre back.

If we do sign someone, the time will have come to relegate either King or Woodgate from their role as automatic first choice. If we do sign someone it has to be someone to go into the first team straigh away, because if we're going to sign someone who is not an improvement on King/ Woodgate/ Dawson, then we might as well have just kept Rocha

 

[mil1lion]

I still think we can cope as we are, despite yesterdays appalling performance. I don't know if anybody noticed but Celtic didn't carve out a single chance one Corluka went centre back.

Apart from that mazey little run early in the 2nd half where Corluka kept backing off :wink:

But yeah, i dont see a real problem there. I reckon King will start the season. He doesn't train with everyone else anyway, and it takes him a bit longer to get fit again in the summer cos he hasn't been playing. But i think he'll start alongside Corluka against Liverpool. Dawson and Woodgate only miss a couple of games anyway. So come the end of August we'll probably have King, Woodgate, Dawson and Corluka. Its gonna be difficult to sign a player who knows they'll be on the bench when Woodgate and King are fit. Another signing like Naybet wouldn't be a bad thing though.

 

[Bing]

I dont get the view that says "well we have Woodgate, King and Daws so all we need is a fourth choice CB".


Why not get a top quality CB and have Daws as our fourth choice? Thats called progress.

People are seriously living in denial about the whole Woodgate/King thing. Both players have improved injury wise over the last few months and they seem more reliable now but its still a huge needless risk. Why say "Im sure it will be fine" and leave it? Thats just asking for trouble.


Throw caution to the wind and get another CB, if the worst happens we're covered....on the other hand if by some miracle Woodgate and King play the whole season what have we really lost?

As for Daws...again good season last year but he was atrocious the season before that and there are still question marks there.


Essentially we are relying on two defneders who have question marks over their inury record and one with question marks over quality. Just sort it, a top class CB wont go to waste.


PS. Corluka is absolute pony at CB and is simply not good enough to even cover there for a team of our, supposed, ambitions.

 

[elvis7754]

Apart from that mazey little run early in the 2nd half where Corluka kept backing off :wink:

But yeah, i dont see a real problem there. I reckon King will start the season. He doesn't train with everyone else anyway, and it takes him a bit longer to get fit again in the summer cos he hasn't been playing. But i think he'll start alongside Corluka against Liverpool. Dawson and Woodgate only miss a couple of games anyway. So come the end of August we'll probably have King, Woodgate, Dawson and Corluka. Its gonna be difficult to sign a player who knows they'll be on the bench when Woodgate and King are fit. Another signing like Naybet wouldn't be a bad thing though.

good shout. Would back another experience campaigner. NN invaluable in helping our young CBs at the time and steadying the back four.

 

[fridgemagnet]

I'm just confused as to why we went public with the CB not likely to be fit thing, surely that just drives the prices up for the selling club.

I don't like Chimbonda anywhere near CB, he seems to spend most of the time blaming his defensive partner for anything and everything.

Corluka gets caught out or does very stupid things whenever i've seen him at CB (it's happened at RB too but luckily Lennon has helped him out more than once)

Can Hutton play CB?

 

[sihills]

I think your all over reacting a little bit! we probably wouldnt have conceded against celtic had it not been for a couple of mistakes from dervite. King and woodgate are both worldclass center backs (albeit with a few injury problems between them) Dawson is also a top center back (as people have said he is very similar to terry, he gives his all and was super solid last season and will only get better with age), there are not many teams center halfs I would pick over dawson, and as a third choice I seriously doubt we will find anyone even half as good!! Corluka is a decent enough replacement, chimbo can play there, then we have our youngsters coming through aswell. Currently all 3 of our main center backs are out injured! they will all be back, atleast one will be back for the start of the season so i personally think we are fine. There are other positions that need addressing before our defence in my opinion.