defence every good team starts with a solid back four or five and it may not be exciting but we have to start getting results somehow...bring back curbs!!
Completely agree, oohaah. The forwards have lost confidence because there was no solidity at the back. Now it's affecting the midfield too, and if we're not careful, it will also spread to Weaver, and then we'll be well and truly up the swanny.
We have only had two blanks in front of goal yet we cannot keep a clean sheet against even the most average teams at home.
Im sure that we have the personnel in defence to keep a clean sheet and look solid. Im not convinced we have a 20 goal a season striker that every team needs to get promotion.
Lets at least work with what we have and put a bit more emphasis on the midfielders chipping in with a few goals.
Agreed with you both - defence is the priority. If we are going to be spending £2M on a player (as suggested in the Sun - Rasiak at Southampton) then it should be on a top quality defensive centre half (I say defensive because I don't mean a Bougherra / Karkouri type!).
Our strikers are big disappointment too, but we'll never go anywhere with such a dodgy defence. A pity we cannot get Marcus Bent back. Or even Darren Bent!
Agree with most it's got to be the defence that takes priority. We have enough quality to start scoring goals again, i'm not convinced we have enough quality to stop them though. It was said on sky yesterday that earlier in the season when Man Utd were struggling to score, Fergie went back to basics, tightened them up and they ground out a few 1-0s. This in turn breeded confidence and once the players had that confidence they played more freely and are now scoring for fun. This is what we need to do. Grinding out a 1-0 away from home without the crowd getting on their backs for the slightest mistake is exactly what we need right now.
I'd even take a 0-0 or two away from home right now - that is exactly how you stop a bad run. It's what Pards forgot on Sat with his attacking show pony of a substitution.
Good teams defend from midfield, the fewer balls that get through the fewer chances and so on.
Other than that we need to sharpen up at corners/set pieces, we concede too many goals from those, which suggests that concentration and the defending drills aren't right, and/or that not enough prepartaion and organisation is being conducted before the games.
I thought the defence looked relativley solid in the first half on saturday and had we taken 1 of the 3 or 4 decent chances that we had, the game would have been a very different.
I agree that the defence could be better but when your front line are missing 4-5 chances a game, I think that is where you need to look first.
[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]On Saturday, it wasn't just our front line that missed 4 -5 chances.
QPR missed all but one of their 4-5 chances, all set up by the generosity of our defending.....
But how many QPR chances came in the first half when our defence wasn't exposed by a lightweight midfield?
Had we taken our chances in the first half (Varney had 1, Big Chris 2) then we wouldn't have been in the position we were. Teams are coming to the Valley expecting us to dictate the game, when it's still 0-0 at half time, they begin to fancy their chances and up there game.
We have only had two blanks in front of goal yet we cannot keep a clean sheet against even the most average teams at home.
Im sure that we have the personnel in defence to keep a clean sheet and look solid. Im not convinced we have a 20 goal a season striker that every team needs to get promotion.
Lets at least work with what we have and put a bit more emphasis on the midfielders chipping in with a few goals.[/quote]
Agreed watching Watford last night there 2 centre halfs were a massive part of there performance powerfull and commanding something we cleary lack.
[cite]Posted By: Chris_from_Sidcup[/cite]Agree with most it's got to be the defence that takes priority. We have enough quality to start scoring goals again, i'm not convinced we have enough quality to stop them though. It was said on sky yesterday that earlier in the season when Man Utd were struggling to score, Fergie went back to basics, tightened them up and they ground out a few 1-0s. This in turn breeded confidence and once the players had that confidence they played more freely and are now scoring for fun. This is what we need to do.
Grinding out a 1-0 away from home without the crowd getting on their backs for the slightest mistake is exactly what we need right now.
One 1-0 would've done, but two! Maybe Pards read my post!!
Comments
We have only had two blanks in front of goal yet we cannot keep a clean sheet against even the most average teams at home.
Im sure that we have the personnel in defence to keep a clean sheet and look solid. Im not convinced we have a 20 goal a season striker that every team needs to get promotion.
Lets at least work with what we have and put a bit more emphasis on the midfielders chipping in with a few goals.
Our strikers are big disappointment too, but we'll never go anywhere with such a dodgy defence. A pity we cannot get Marcus Bent back. Or even Darren Bent!
Grinding out a 1-0 away from home without the crowd getting on their backs for the slightest mistake is exactly what we need right now.
Other than that we need to sharpen up at corners/set pieces, we concede too many goals from those, which suggests that concentration and the defending drills aren't right, and/or that not enough prepartaion and organisation is being conducted before the games.
I agree that the defence could be better but when your front line are missing 4-5 chances a game, I think that is where you need to look first.
QPR missed all but one of their 4-5 chances, all set up by the generosity of our defending.....
But how many QPR chances came in the first half when our defence wasn't exposed by a lightweight midfield?
Had we taken our chances in the first half (Varney had 1, Big Chris 2) then we wouldn't have been in the position we were. Teams are coming to the Valley expecting us to dictate the game, when it's still 0-0 at half time, they begin to fancy their chances and up there game.
We have only had two blanks in front of goal yet we cannot keep a clean sheet against even the most average teams at home.
Im sure that we have the personnel in defence to keep a clean sheet and look solid. Im not convinced we have a 20 goal a season striker that every team needs to get promotion.
Lets at least work with what we have and put a bit more emphasis on the midfielders chipping in with a few goals.[/quote]
Agreed watching Watford last night there 2 centre halfs were a massive part of there performance powerfull and commanding something we cleary lack.
And our current centre half, Jonathan Fortune, was considered a better player which is why Shittu went.
Let's not forget that!
One 1-0 would've done, but two! Maybe Pards read my post!!