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hopeful canary

first job for Grant. A defence

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we do need defenders but possession counts.

If you have the ball, the other team Cant score.. unless ur Gary Neville

jas :)

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[quote user="winchester canary"]

How can it keep happening?

 

Injury time goals let in. We have let so many goals in this season.

[/quote]

 

the defence is only as good as the midfield infront of it, we need the whole team to learn how to hold the ball, not spend ages soaking up pressure.

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Yup, by my reckoning it is 5 pts gone in the space of the last 5 league games from stupid injury time lapses....but it''s much more than that, you can''t go shipping 17 goals in 6 games (ie an ave of just under 3 a game) and expect to be winning games. 

People seem to be looking at signing more strikers (rumour of Zamora or Cole on loan) but it is the defence that needs the biggest shake up.

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I agree - first loan signings (if there are any funds available) should be a centre half and a strong central midfielder

We can score goals - that''s not a problem!

We just can''t keep them out!

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I was about to write a similar thread to this IF we hadn''t conceded the late goals against Southend, Palace and again today - the late one against Burnley wasn''t that damaging!- we would be sitting in 9th place today.

 Today I would have played Dublin along side Shackell as one thing Dion did against Burnley was try and organise a very unorganised defence.

Good Luck Peter.

 

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Yeah I''m with you on this. Dubs may not be the quickest or the fittest, but he has the skill, the strength to hold onto the ball wherever he is playing and what was very clear today was his energy at organising the team, he even was up there pacifying Hucks and putting him in his place when his frustration nearly got the better of him with the referee in added on time.

I think that Dubs would encourage the defence to use the skills that they surely must have to go beyond the all too typical blast from defence, the hoof, the powerful headers into touch or straight back into the path of the opposition, and get them to keep the ball on the ground, move forward keeping possession and play the ball constructively into midfield. There were some great glimpses of that style which resulted in goals or near misses for us today, but sadly too few.

There is a place for those well timed and accurate long balls from defence to Huckerby, Earnie and Crofty, but must this  be everytime. Drury may have been a good and loyal servant to the club, but his play is far too predictable and unfortunately it seems to have infected most of the back line. They lack confidence big time and will either pass back to Gally or hoof it nine times out of ten. This leads all too often to our strikers wasting far too much energy chasing wasted causes, which, lets be honest, they have to do or they would get stick. The  result of this pattern of play is that they lose their sharpness towards the end of the game. Has Crofty finished a game yet? No I dont think...he''s so  knackered chasing too many long balls.

The defence IS the priority, I dont know whether we have to get new players in, but something must be done about the current defensive style and organisation to ensure that the possession, creativity and ''on the floor'' passing game starts from the back and Dubs can be a big influence on that, in my humble opinion.

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i think that it''s worth trying dublin at centre back, we cant do any worse really can we? it''s worth a gamble IMO until we can try and bring in someone on loan, perhaps try to bring davenport back for another loan spell?

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Davenport played for spurs today so i doubt he''ll be coming, i know they dont rate him at spurs as i have a work mate who is a Spurs fan but they have no one else who isnt injured. he also was useless today, got a broken nose, gave away a pen, got sent off and got caught asleep many times. but to be fair to the lad he was great for us, just the timing is awful.

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[quote user="Rudolph Hucker"]Grants first job is to find himself a leader out on the pitch.[/quote]

A very good observation, Rudolph. Andy Hughes was meant to fulfil this role but is clearly not the man for it.

 

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[quote user="Rudolph Hucker"]Grants first job is to find himself a leader out on the pitch.[/quote]

This would be my first move. Every successful club needs a strong experienced player who can control what is happening on the pitch and dish out verbals when they are slacking.

He needn''t necessarily have great ball skills...a la Malky, Duncan Forbes etc....but earn due respect by giving everything he has got for 90 minutes.

We don''t have such an animal in the club right now.....so here''s hoping Grant has someone in mind. Maybe Teddy Sheringham even for a few months.......if he could lower himself.

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First job for Grant. A defence.

How about:

''I just arrived, I''ve no money to spend, it''s a long time until January and the last bloke left such a mess behind what do you expect?''

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[quote user="Rudolph Hucker"]First job for Grant. A defence. How about: ''I just arrived, I''ve no money to spend, it''s a long time until January and the last bloke left such a mess behind what do you expect?''[/quote]

Not sure that defence would wash for long, even if it is true!

The defence is actually for me the oddest part of Worthy''s legacy - he was a defender himself, but only in the Championship season did we ever defend anything like solidly enough and we also had Green on the form of his life, making excellent covering saves when needed.  I''d have thought defence would have been his strongest point as a manager, but there you go.

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I know it seems a long time ago, now, but we started the season well.The defence played it''s part (although a little shaky at times) and I recall Drury and Colin making overlapping runs and mixing up the style of play from the back. Gallacher was also roundly applauded for some inventive distribution - not just lumping it up, as Greeno used to (I always felt he was worse after an England training camp!). Perhaps PG''s first job should be to have the squad watch the full-length videos of the first five games? Reminding them of the quality they are capable of can be no bad thing, and it might show the defensive coaches where to start improving things.

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