We have only scored 3 goals less

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

..............than Derby (43 to 46) who are currently 1st in the table - and from 1 less match at that.

Says it all really doesn''t it?

We need a rock-solid, dependable central defender to pair with Shackell. (Yes, I know we have to defend from the front, defend as a team, the midfielders blah blah etc etc  and Doherty this and Dublin that - but still..........)

Yet this  has never seemed to be a priority this season under either Worthington or Grant.

Do they know something we don''t know?[8-)]

OTBC

 

[andy laz 0]

But they have only conceded 35 goals this season ,only problem for them or plus for us is that there best defender micheal johnson may be missing on tues with a knee injury .i saw there game on friday v colchester thelooked good going forward but looked very pedestrian at the back when johnson went off injured .It will be abig test on tues but we allways play well against the top teams OTBC

[Chris Meadows 0]

michael johnson is nowhere near their best defender.

[andy laz 0]

he was on friday , he is the one who does all the organising simular to dion for us OTBC

[Branston Pickle 3,632]

Someone posted about this sort of thing the other day.  Out of interest, I just did a quick check on Derby: they''ve won 17 league games by just one goal this season, 8 of these were 2-1, 9 were 1-0.

It just goes to show the value of having a solid and effective side - if you can stop sides scoring or just limiting them to the odd goal, you have a very good chance of popping one in at the other end: the way to get out of this division is by being well organised and having players capable of doing what is needed, not necessarily having the eleven best players. 

I certainly remember West Brom being much the same a few years ago, people labelled them as boring but they got promoted; the stats for our title winning season are probably not too dissimilar - there is often a fine line between success and failure.

[Pyro Pete 1,886]

There are 11 teams who have scored more goals than us this season. I''m sure their fans will be saying the same thing.

[Bovril 215]

i think to many people it is evident that defence is the key to getting out of this division, for example derby this season perhaps and west brom the year they went up with us who seemed to grind out no end of 1-0 wins at the time... however i would have to disagree with the original poster that worthington never solved this problem, our promotion year was largely based on the great defensive performances of drury, malky, a younger fleming and marc edworthy with huckerby providing the flair..

its also evident in my opinion that doherty simply isnt reliable and gives away far too many free-kicks with his ''grapple'' approach and lost count how many times he falls over on the pitch, so a centre defender would be a must in summer along with a centre midfielder providing the inevitable departure of safri

however on a more positive note scoring 6 goals away from home in 2 matches is a marked improvement and bring on derby who incidently have birmingham on friday 3 days later, so maybe may rest players who are possibly 50/50

[lucky green trainers 0]

sure, scoring isn''t our problem its our defence, in the prem and since.   in hindsight, perhaps worthy should have kept malky and said goodbye to flem.  ratings on our defence then??? and whether we should sell in the summer.warner - too soon to comment.marshall - looked the part for me, has a great presence. 9/10gally - makes mistakes, great shot stopper but lacks height necessary to command the area.  6/10  sellcolin - better this year, but goes awol when under pressure - he''s no eddy 6/10  sellhughes - am more comfortable with him at right back than colin - good back up - again, he''s no eddy 7/10  keep 4 bench.dion - best organiser, good in air, awkward on ground - 7/10, keep for bench.doc - on his day he''s solid, but not got the quality we need - 7/10  needs to play regulary to find best form - sellshacks - has most talent and potential, but needs consistency - fails to pick runners up.  8/10 - keep.drury - is still good enough, but not as commanding as he used to be.  fails to cover his post enough - 8/10 keep.lappin - will do as emergency cover for drury.  7/10 - keep.in short - to challenge for next year, we need a new goalie (hopefully we can do a player swop with celtic - gally for marshall!) a new right back, and centre right half. any comments???

[yellow blood 0]

[quote user="lucky green trainers"]sure, scoring isn''t our problem its our defence, in the prem and since.   in hindsight, perhaps worthy should have kept malky and said goodbye to flem. 

ratings on our defence then??? and whether we should sell in the summer.

warner - too soon to comment.
marshall - looked the part for me, has a great presence. 9/10
gally - makes mistakes, great shot stopper but lacks height necessary to command the area.  6/10  sell
colin - better this year, but goes awol when under pressure - he''s no eddy 6/10  sell
hughes - am more comfortable with him at right back than colin - good back up - again, he''s no eddy 7/10  keep 4 bench.
dion - best organiser, good in air, awkward on ground - 7/10, keep for bench.
doc - on his day he''s solid, but not got the quality we need - 7/10  needs to play regulary to find best form - sell
shacks - has most talent and potential, but needs consistency - fails to pick runners up.  8/10 - keep.
drury - is still good enough, but not as commanding as he used to be.  fails to cover his post enough - 8/10 keep.
lappin - will do as emergency cover for drury.  7/10 - keep.

in short - to challenge for next year, we need a new goalie (hopefully we can do a player swop with celtic - gally for marshall!) a new right back, and centre right half.

any comments???



[/quote]

Jeez, are you planning on starting from scratch?...oh no, 2 left backs and 1 centre half kept (with more defenders on the bench than you can shake a stick at!

[Alex Harvey-Jones 0]

If Derby hadn''t run riot and scored 5 against Colchester on friday evening then their goal tally would be lower than ours. Pointless post really as they did run riot and score 5 but I guess it shows that until friday we had scored more goals than them.......Taxi!!

[lucky green trainers 0]

[quote user="yellow blood"]

[quote user="lucky green trainers"]sure, scoring isn''t our problem its our defence, in the prem and since.   in hindsight, perhaps worthy should have kept malky and said goodbye to flem.  ratings on our defence then??? and whether we should sell in the summer.warner - too soon to comment.marshall - looked the part for me, has a great presence. 9/10gally - makes mistakes, great shot stopper but lacks height necessary to command the area.  6/10  sellcolin - better this year, but goes awol when under pressure - he''s no eddy 6/10  sellhughes - am more comfortable with him at right back than colin - good back up - again, he''s no eddy 7/10  keep 4 bench.dion - best organiser, good in air, awkward on ground - 7/10, keep for bench.doc - on his day he''s solid, but not got the quality we need - 7/10  needs to play regulary to find best form - sellshacks - has most talent and potential, but needs consistency - fails to pick runners up.  8/10 - keep.drury - is still good enough, but not as commanding as he used to be.  fails to cover his post enough - 8/10 keep.lappin - will do as emergency cover for drury.  7/10 - keep.in short - to challenge for next year, we need a new goalie (hopefully we can do a player swop with celtic - gally for marshall!) a new right back, and centre right half. any comments???

[/quote]

Jeez, are you planning on starting from scratch?...oh no, 2 left backs and 1 centre half kept (with more defenders on the bench than you can shake a stick at!

[/quote]take your point, but yeah - imo our back line isn''t good enough to get us promoted.  if its means shipping the lot out then so be it.  the point of this thread demonstrates that if we were more defensively mean, we''d be in the top 6.