Our Defence

[alysha 0]

There are a lot of people on here who are the first to critcise John Ruddy, and I myself am undecided on him, but what concerns me is our defence. R. Martin is supposed to be the best RB in the league at the moment and I must admit he is really impressing me; people are say Barnett and Ward are the best CB pairing we have had in years and are both quality players, and of course Drury is very solid at LB with Smith not being a bad replacement...so after all this, why do we keep conceeding silly goals? Most of the goals we conceed arn''t because of great play from the opposition but from basic mistakes at the back, but yet supposedly we have a great defence? Some games we look very solid in defence yet in others we just gift the opposition goals. I think if we are serious of play off place, we need to sort our consistency, as it seems that we seem to find the goals even when our strikeforce isn''t on fire, yet are backs are always against the wall as we usually gift the opposition with a head start. If we sort this problem, I can definiatley see this team pushing for a play off place.

[Snakepit Lass 0]

Hello canary_girl... i think john ruddy is worring sometimes lol, Hope he does well tonite and the defence lol

[Jacko 0]

Its a pretty valid concern to honest. I for one don''t think Steven Smith is anywhere near the player Drury is. The way we got sliced apart down the left flank for Burnley''s first was very concerning and I also felt he had a pretty torrid time when he replaced Drury at QPR. I think the two centre backs have been terrific but again you have got to be concerned when in two games on the bounce (Cardiff and Burnley) we have conceded goals from a long punt downfield. We have also conceded a worrying number of goals to set plays. It is starting to annoy me that Lambert tells the media that it isnt like us. Unfortunately it is because we always seem to get caught on our heels particularly when corners are taken quickly.

 

Ruddy is a difficult one. I am putting my tin hat on here but I really felt he could have done a lot better for the second one of Saturday. I know you are not expected to save one v ones. But although the shoot was hit firmly it was pretty near him and I felt he was perhaps a little slow to react to potentially get up and make a second save. However I am not advocating him being dropped at all. I don''t know whether Declan Rudd would be any better because I have not seen enough to judge. I have seen him play a handful of games against MK Dons, Tranmere, Barnsley, Bristol Rovers and Leyton Orient where he hasnt had to do much and his kicking has occasionally gone on the blink. To start playing him in a run of games against Millwall, Reading, Leeds and the Binners would frankly be absolute lunacy. Ruddy is the number one for now although that may change as the season wears on.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

 

Burnley''s first goal on Saturday was the result of a brilliant attacking move from them. Fans often look for someone to blame from the defence when we concede but sometimes you have to hold your hands up and give credit to the opposition. The second goal was a result of a brilliantly timed run by Paterson on to a great through ball. Again, just like the previous week we were undone by a side who have a fantastic range of strikers. Laws had the luxury of replacing their top scorer Iwelumo with Paterson for this game. If goals were only ever scored through defensive mistakes then if defenders cut out mistakes every game would end 0-0. I don''t believe that''s the case. Getting a point from this game was a great result for Lamberts team.

 

As for conceding from corners and set pieces I''m afraid you have to look further than just the back 5 because most of the team are defending these set plays.