Are these the SOFTEST goals you've seen all season?

[a1canary 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuH1uyJvxHE   Thanks to Ole for providing the link. Great free kick and set piece work but the defending for their goals is absolutely shocking. The more you watch it, the

worse it gets. It looks like a Benny Hill sketch, and i''ll show you why. Here''s the script:

1. Etuhu, poor pass to no-one.

2. Hughes misses chance to tackle Bell who goes in to the area and is faced by "The Doc." 

3. The Doc falls over, Bell goes on.

4. Etuhu has another chance to tackle, doesn''t, Bell goes on, with Hughes, who has now recovered from part 2, tracking from behind.

5. Evenso, Bell gets his pass away which goes straight through Safri to Runstrom.

6. Drury misses a chance to tackle Runstrom who fires past Shackell on the line.

And if you''re wondering where on earth Gallacher is during all this,

that''s a damn good question. Run it again and look where he is. WTF, is

he doing there?? And this is the first goal i''m talking about, not the

second where he makes the infamous antics of Bruce Grobbelaar and Rene Higuita look normal. The guy is a liability - get Joe Lewis in there, i don''t

care how old he is.

And for god''s sake PG, wake up to our defending. How can you

think we don''t need new personnel in there? If we had our Dublin/Mackay

figure in there (no, Dublin is not a reliable solution to the problem)

instead of the Doc the above sequence wouldn''t have got past number 3.

I like pretty much everything else you do, just PLEASE sort out our

defence!

[Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB 1,023]

It is alleged that PG blew the NCFC interview board away with his dossier which set out all the goals we have conceded over the last season and a half, with details such as when the goals were conceded, how they were conceded and what he was going to do to rectify our (many) defensive problems. Maybe it is time for PG to dust down said dossier given the number of sloppy goals we have conceded of late.

[norfolkbroadslim 223]

The defending is painfully woeful at times.  And Gallacher.......  I renamed him last night.

Arise, Paul Grobbelaar.

I hope Gally gets a good rollocking for going AWOL on several occassions, you can''t afford to have a keeper doing that at the best of times, let alone in the position we are in.

[lucky green trainers 0]

agree A1, our defending was woeful, the first goal made the luton guy look like john barnes in his prime.  studied the second goal intently, and i''m still not sure if gallagher meant to trip the luton player up, but luckily failed to get anywhere near him, or did he just pull out of his challenge at the very last minute?  anyway up, if he had tripped the luton player, he''d have conceded a pen and probably been sent off- and changed the course of the game and maybe city''s champs status. 

[nutty nigel 7,528]

I thought the second goal last night was softer.

As for the softest of the season - for me it was the first goal at Palace on New Years Day.

One thing though - if Gally gives us the jitters whatever does he do for the other defenders!

 

[Regime Change 0]

[quote user="norfolkbroadslim"]

The defending is painfully woeful at times.  And Gallacher.......  I renamed him last night.

Arise, Paul Grobbelaar.

I hope Gally gets a good rollocking for going AWOL on several occassions, you can''t afford to have a keeper doing that at the best of times, let alone in the position we are in.

[/quote]

Totally agree.

Whilst know is not the right time to be playing Joe Lewis it is blatantly obvious that Gallacher is not up the required standard for this division.  I really hope Grant is looking to bring in another keeper on loan to replace Marshall as soon as possible.

[mbncfc 1]

It is clear their is a mutual lack of confidence - the defensive four in Gally, and Gally in himself!

At Luton we looked capable of conceding a goal everytime the ball ended up in our half, and it became clearer as the game went on that it wasn''t simply as a result of the midfield going awol in the first half.

Marshall or equivalent to be brought in as GK. A right-sided CB to compliment Shackell - the Doc just isn''t up to it as a long term option I''m afraid, and a RB which can defend. That would do it. I think the rest of the side is looking far more balanced.

[a1canary 0]

My god, given PGs apparent blindness over our defence, do you think he''s from the Ardiles/Keegan school of management? You know, so long as we score more than the opposition that''s all that matters!? West Ham when he was coach weren''t dissimilar. And we''ve seen how the wheels have come off there. Makes for lots of games like that against Luton, which i don''t think i can take, nor is it sustainable, as the above have proved.

[nutty nigel 7,528]

[quote user="a1canary"]My god, given PGs apparent blindness over our defence, do you think he''s from the Ardiles/Keegan school of management? You know, so long as we score more than the opposition that''s all that matters!? West Ham when he was coach weren''t dissimilar. And we''ve seen how the wheels have come off there.
Makes for lots of games like that against Luton, which i don''t think i can take, nor is it sustainable, as the above have proved.
[/quote]

To be fair a1 PG has attempted to replace the goalkeeper 3 times in the short time he has been here. Each time fate has conspired that Gally returns to the side. It must be frustrating. I doubt he is blind to some of our other failings although it seems obvious that he believed a change in goalkeeper would be sufficient for the time being. I have to say on what I have seen I agree with him, although longterm defensive cover/replacements are definitely neccessary.

 

[a1canary 0]

I guess you''re right NN, he has tried to address the GK problem. His actions don''t match his words though as he always seems to be bigging up Gall! It''s just that what really worries me is PGs previous assertions that no changes or additions are needed in the back 4. I agree with what he''s said and done for the rest of the pitch and i think we can all see that he has restored balance to the attack and midfield (when everyone''s fit). You are a persistant and admirable defender of the Doc and on occassions you''ve almost swayed me that perhaps he has a place in our back 4. But i''m back at square one with him after yesterday, i really am.  And I will not be persuaded that we don''t need a Malky/Dion figure at centre back (who isn''t 37), and if we have to pick between Shax and Doc there''s just no contest.I don''t really understand what Colin has done wrong either. On the plus side he seems to have made Hughes into a viable option at right back but he''s not consistent enough (think Chelsea, think Luton) or defensively sound enough. It may be easy to say now but i feel certain that if Colin and Dublin were at right back and centre back last night, we would have won 3-0.  The first goal  wouldn''t have happened and  Dublin would have been able to read  the second because although Gall went awol, their winger popped up a very predictable ball up into the middle of the 6 yard box that Shack or the Doc could have easily got to first if they had read the danger. Neither of them did. Shackell''s positioning can be erratic without Dion to organise him. I just hope PG comes round to these defficiencies in the summer because they are there and plain for all to see and they are not just a result of an imbalance further up the pitch.

[blahblahblah 2]

[quote]It''s just that what really worries me is PGs previous assertions that no changes or additions are needed in the back 4.[/quote]If you''re PG in February, having not managed to bring any defenders in during the transfer window, and knowing that people are unlikely to offer any large sums of money for members of one of the more porous defences in the league, you''re hardly going to publicly criticise the players who can lose you every game for the rest of the season with "lapses of concentration" in "key moments".  These players are all you have to work with, for now.  The key to any successful team is confidence in the spine. And sometimes you have to fake confidence to make confidence in others.[quote]It may be easy to say now but i feel certain that if Colin and Dublin

were at right back and centre back last night, we would have won 3-0. [/quote]If we hadn''t gone behind, would we have chased the game late on ?  The goals should have been avoided, but it''s more likely we would have won 1 or 2 nil.

[nutty nigel 7,528]

I would think he has to try and big up Gally after making three attempts to replace him! Grant must have amazing motivational skills to get him playing at all after that.

I have never said that The Doc is a brilliant central defender only that I feel he gets a lot of unwarranted criticism. I feel that he and Shackell are good enough for where we are now and could be good enough to get us where we want to be in this league. The Docs biggest failing for me, and where I totally agree with you, is he has no leadership qualities in the way Dublin/Malky have. Whatever happens we will need cover and competition for these defenders next season because we can''t go into the new season relying on a 38 year old centre forward to play there however much we like him.

Colin is unlucky to be dropped. I feel Grant prefers Hughes because he is that bit braver and doesn''t let his head drop when it goes wrong as it did for him against Bell on Tuesday.

If Grant has ambitions to sign Marshall in the summer then I doubt he will bring another keeper in on loan so we could have to make do with this defence for the rest of the season. lets hope we get a couple of clean sheets soon so that confidence grows.

I have spent far too much time on this Board today but its nice to talk football with you.