defence is the problem

[canaries 0]

since relegation from the prem league we have had a negative goal difference that says it all.

[Hardhouse44 261]

[quote user="canaries"]

since relegation from the prem league we have had a negative goal difference that says it all.

[/quote]I disagree. Whilst our defence is far from the best I think you have to point your finger at the midfield to find our real problem. Any back four in the world will concede goals if the midfield in front of then doesn''t clean up it''s far share of attacks before they reach the last third.We also lack any kind of consistent creative midfield players to set the strikers up. Our midfield is one if not the weakest in this league and has been since relegation.

[Irish canary 0]

[quote user="Hardhouse44"][quote user="canaries"]

since relegation from the prem league we have had a negative goal difference that says it all.

[/quote]I disagree. Whilst our defence is far from the best I think you have to point your finger at the midfield to find our real problem. Any back four in the world will concede goals if the midfield in front of then doesn''t clean up it''s far share of attacks before they reach the last third.

We also lack any kind of consistent creative midfield players to set the strikers up. Our midfield is one if not the weakest in this league and has been since relegation.
[/quote]

 

Have to agree with the first post, its the defence thats the problem, fair enough we may have a better midfield at going forward than defending but they are still quite good IMO. I dont think Bell, Clinigan, Russel & Hoolahan is a weak midfield?! Id say its one of the strongest.

Whereas the defence is too lightweight, and too much emphasis has been put on the fact that they have speed, which is not much use when we canr defend a simple cross!

[JohnoBono 0]

Our defence is fragile. No doubt about that. Some of the defending has been shocking to say the least.

But there is a problem with the midfield. It is ok to a point. But part of the midfields job is to protect the defense. It does not seem to offer that much in way of protection. The lack of a genuine creative & ball retaining midfielder helps create this problem. Our central midfield pairings are all of the negative variety. The lack of protection the midfield gives has been illustrated many times this season when we have a corner or free kick and within seconds the ball is back in our penalty area with the oppostion on the attack.

Still does not excuse the woeful defending and marking we have seen lately though.

[Yellowbeagle 0]

I dont think our midfield is too bad and Clingan is a decent holding midfielder for me. But most managers totally rebuilding a team would get the defence sorted first but GR has tried to get the midfield in place first.

It was always going to be dodgy with so many new players in the team to get a stable defence and this has only been made worse by the fact that there our loan defenders possibly going back in Jan, we were also basically banking on a 34 year old centre back staying fit for the whole of a gruelling championship season, Kennedy has also had terrible injuries to date and was always going to miss matches and we''re allowing other teams youngsters to learn from the mistakes they make while in our team.

We also sold Shackell without replacing him, whatever people think of Shackell he did at least provide competition at centre back and may have made Doherty and Kennedy (in particular)  raise their performance levels, something they dont have to worry about at the min. So with the constant chopping and changing at full back, the centre backs always getting injuries or suspensions with no adequate cover, the defence was always going to start leeking goals.

[Houston Canary 0]

since relegation from the prem league we have had a negative goal difference that says it all. - canaries

And yet how many people continue to sing the praises of Doherty!?!?!  Geez, a couple of weeks ago, he was being lauded here as MOM in a game in which we conceded 3 goals!  When we give up 3, no defended in MOM.  When we score 0, no striker is MOM.  It makes pretty good sense, doesn''t it?  (Unless the score is 6-3 for us in the former case, or 0-0 in the latter, and the opposing goalie played like he was that bald French goalie against Brazil in the World Cup final a while back).

[chicken 0]

I don''t think its the defenders that is the problem but the defending by the team as a whole.You can get by with a mean defence - we had one of the meanest defences in the league for a few years on the trott when we had Malky, Jackson and Fleming with good fullbacks such as Kenton, Fuglestad, Sutch etc. And that was with a midfield of Grant, Milligan and Carey!Going up to the prem was a bit of a disaster - our squad was too old. We could of had another season out of Roberts in the Championship, at least a couple from Malky. We had too many positions to fill and too many old hands to make up numbers. Edworthy was out of his depth - Fleming coped but struggled when coupled with someone with as much of a lack of pace as him.Our problem has been the same since then. Doherty and Shackell were basically our defence for the last few seasons and you have to be honest and admit that the two of them together just weren''t good enough - I think they are too similar a player. At centre back I always find that good solid teams seem to have one player who loves to attack the ball and go to the attacks and try and force a decision from them and the other sits a couple of yards deeper waiting to sweep up and get the ball moving on again whilst organising the defencive line.I have to say I rather like Doherty and as he is the only fit permanent member of our defence I think he has to start now when possible. Stefanovich was looking great - such a shame the injury came when it did.As for midfield. I still think that it needs to "click". At the moment its like a vintage car part of the way through resteration. Every now and then its starts up and you get that wonderful purrr - the rest of the time it coughs and splutters and you have to go back to tinkering until it is fixed. Although I think what this team needs is regular faces and time - not an oil change, if only it were that simple!

[James Kent 0]

Agree Houston. Doherty is not good enough.