| What do we do about our defence? 21:55 - Oct 25 with 5357 views | pointofblue |
Tonight was very poor. And we give away chances due to errors every game, even if Walton or bad finishing helps us out.
Although it's harsh, our best period was probably with a back three of Donacien - Woolfenden - Burgess, but I'd argue Edmundson has been our best defender of late. A lack of Morsy no doubt hurt us tonight, especially as Ball did nothing to stake a claim.
Maybe I am being unfair but it feels like we should be more stable, and have been more stable, than we are at the moment. |  |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 07:52 - Oct 26 with 868 views | Bobbychase |
Harrison header and the two goals aside, did they create any clear-cut chances? I look at last night a bit differently, I thought we dealt well with a side who flung balls into the box every chance they got.
Caveat is that the first goal was pub league defending from about five different players, and the corner that led to their second was really poor decision-making by Woolfenden. Might cost us on another day. |  |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 07:54 - Oct 26 with 866 views | Crawfordsboot |
| What do we do about our defence? on 04:34 - Oct 26 by norfsufblue |
I'd suggest, the last few minutes before the end of a half is not the time to be persisting with knocking it around at the back.... thay are unlikely to score if they are retrieving the ball frfrom high up in the back of the stand at their end of the pitch.... crude but effective |
Bring back Mick? |  | | |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:02 - Oct 26 with 847 views | BondiBlue |
| What do we do about our defence? on 22:03 - Oct 25 by Nthsuffolkblue |
I would say our results suggest the current system suits them pretty well. |
And to complete this circular argument, our current system is already 4231. Problem solved! | |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 08:32 - Oct 26 with 808 views | Wickets |
I dont think it was helped by Ball being off the pace a bit although hardly surprising as he has not played that much i am just glad he got some game time prior to last night good old Pizza Cup what would we do without you . |  | | |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:40 - Oct 26 with 800 views | norfsufblue |
| What do we do about our defence? on 07:54 - Oct 26 by Crawfordsboot |
Bring back Mick? |
Of course not but surely it makes sense when you are in the position we where last night 2-0 up with a couple of min to half time that it's pragmatic not to have the ball in the most likely area where a mistake changes the whole half time situation.....I'm sure e go I 2-0 up we'd have won the game by at least 3 clear goals. Walton does appreciate this as kicks long a lot more often late in both halves in my opinion. |  | | |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:45 - Oct 26 with 794 views | FrankfurtBlue |
I think our defence has been one of our strengths. Playing out from the back is not always easy, but they do it really well on so many occasions. We are usually very tight, with the odd error or lapse that costs us.
If you are going to be critical of the defence, perhaps analyse the goals against. Last night, the first goal was a series of errors from Burns, Davis, Woolf, Ball and Burns again. Any one of them could probably have prevented the goal. For the second, it was mainly Ball and Ladapo at fault. You could argue that our central defenders are not great in the air, as surely one of them needs to get a head on every ball that comes into our box. BTW, don't you just love Freddie berating everyone else, when it was his man that so easily lost him to score? Ball and Ladapo, and even Burns are not defenders. All should have done better though. It is basics, getting yourself between the attacker and the goal, blocking their path, getting your head on a ball.
There is clearly room for improvement, and it is frustrating at times, but generally our defence is already pretty strong. |  | | |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:48 - Oct 26 with 787 views | SaleAway |
| What do we do about our defence? on 22:06 - Oct 25 by DJR |
I'm not sure they're really lapses in concentration. There's always a risk of conceding from balls pumped into the box, and most of the goals we have conceded recently have fallen rather well for the opposition. [Post edited 25 Oct 2022 22:07]
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It does seem to me that there is an improvement that can be made for us - we do often win the first ball - but last night, and in other games that I've watched, we're not great at picking up the second ball after a competitive high ball has been won.
I don't think that is necessarily about changing the men at the back, but more understanding for the players not involved in the contest, about where they need to be.
It may just be bad luck, but like you say, those second balls keep falling nicely for the oppo, rather than for us. | |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 08:56 - Oct 26 with 776 views | Bobbychase |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:48 - Oct 26 by SaleAway |
It does seem to me that there is an improvement that can be made for us - we do often win the first ball - but last night, and in other games that I've watched, we're not great at picking up the second ball after a competitive high ball has been won.
I don't think that is necessarily about changing the men at the back, but more understanding for the players not involved in the contest, about where they need to be.
It may just be bad luck, but like you say, those second balls keep falling nicely for the oppo, rather than for us. |
Stats wise, only four other sides have conceded the same amount of goals as us, or fewer, and we have the best goal difference in the division.
We've been keeping clean sheets for fun under McKenna. I don't think there is some deep-seated issue with our defence. | |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 08:58 - Oct 26 with 777 views | Bluesky |
I wish Woolfie wouldn't faff about so much so close to our goal. He scares me. |  | | |
| What do we do about our defence? on 09:01 - Oct 26 with 765 views | Weekender |
Aside from the Cambridge pizza cup game their first goal last night was the first conceded from open play since Plymouth. There is room to improve on crosses/set pieces but the defence is fine |  |
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| Yes, very much this…. on 09:02 - Oct 26 with 768 views | Bloots |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:58 - Oct 26 by Bluesky |
I wish Woolfie wouldn't faff about so much so close to our goal. He scares me. |
….he seems intent on taking just very, very slightly too long in the ball at every opportunity.
It almost unnoticeable but it’s as if he’s trying to tease the attacker by releasing the ball at the very last moment.
He’s gonna come unstuck and cost us a goal if he doesn’t stop sodding around soon. |  |
| Enduringly lovable, intelligent and thunderingly exquisite. |
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| Yes, very much this…. on 09:05 - Oct 26 with 761 views | Bobbychase |
| Yes, very much this…. on 09:02 - Oct 26 by Bloots |
….he seems intent on taking just very, very slightly too long in the ball at every opportunity.
It almost unnoticeable but it’s as if he’s trying to tease the attacker by releasing the ball at the very last moment.
He’s gonna come unstuck and cost us a goal if he doesn’t stop sodding around soon. |
He did last night. His error led to the corner from which they scored their second | |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 09:06 - Oct 26 with 756 views | DJR |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:56 - Oct 26 by Bobbychase |
Stats wise, only four other sides have conceded the same amount of goals as us, or fewer, and we have the best goal difference in the division.
We've been keeping clean sheets for fun under McKenna. I don't think there is some deep-seated issue with our defence. |
Agreed. If there is a problem, it may be that our team is not especially tall in comparison with some of the giants we face, which does mean we don't always win the header in either box. This may point to bringing Burgess in for games when we are likely to face a barrage because he does have the height.
But the main thing from last night is we won. Last season we would have lost or drawn that game when Port Vale got back into the game. |  | | |
| Agreed on 09:12 - Oct 26 with 745 views | Dyland |
| What do we do about our defence? on 22:11 - Oct 25 by SomethingBlue |
Not too worried on the back of tonight — tough opponent who were always going to ask questions and with some significant absentees we just had to get through it. Feels like a fairly big win in the circumstances. |
The OP raises something I've been thinking though. I only watch Town and the odd Premership and international game so have little to fairly judge our defending on. Are most teams at this level guilty of switching off as a team and conceding similar goals if not all the time at least every month or so?
Vale's first goal was awful defending from Town, and it's not the first time we've looked.. I don't know... like our minds are elsewhere. Is it concentration? Moments of complacency? It looks like pride before the fall at times... |  |
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| Yes, very much this…. on 09:13 - Oct 26 with 742 views | pointofblue |
| Yes, very much this…. on 09:02 - Oct 26 by Bloots |
….he seems intent on taking just very, very slightly too long in the ball at every opportunity.
It almost unnoticeable but it’s as if he’s trying to tease the attacker by releasing the ball at the very last moment.
He’s gonna come unstuck and cost us a goal if he doesn’t stop sodding around soon. |
Part of me thinks that’s intentional and requested by McKenna - draw players onto him and then play it into midfield where there’s more space. If it is, then it has to be asked is he really good enough at it? If he isn’t then he needs a kick up the backside from McKenna to cut it out. | |
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| Yes, very much this…. on 09:37 - Oct 26 with 719 views | Dyland |
| Yes, very much this…. on 09:13 - Oct 26 by pointofblue |
Part of me thinks that’s intentional and requested by McKenna - draw players onto him and then play it into midfield where there’s more space. If it is, then it has to be asked is he really good enough at it? If he isn’t then he needs a kick up the backside from McKenna to cut it out. |
It's presumably tactical, considering Luke and George do it all the time. As has been said, it's sometimes nerve wracking and better teams will punish us occasionally but it's all about percentages and over a season we'll create more chances from this than we concede. | |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 09:44 - Oct 26 with 709 views | C_Jam_Blue |
Apart from the 2 goals, and it was not just the defenders at fault there, I thought they were OK. Having said that, we are undoubtedly giving away more goals as the season progresses.
In August we averaged 0.4 goals against per game
In Sept it was 0.8
In October it is 1 goal per game
I think teams are beginning to work out some of our vulnerabilities, like deep crosses from the right to the back post, so I think we may need to tweak the system/personnel as the season progresses. Maybe time to see more of Keogh and reintroduce Burgess. | | | |
| What do we do about our defence? on 10:18 - Oct 26 with 691 views | itfcjoe |
Yes you are being unfair.
Open Play
In open play we have conceded more than 20 less shots than anyone else in the division
Only Oxford have a lower xG against in open play
We have conceded the least goals int he division in open play, bar Derby and Bolton everyone has conceded double what we have
Set pieces
Only 6 teams have conceded less shots than us from set pieces
Our xG against from set pieces is 13th
We have conceded more than average goals from set pieces this season.
Overall
We are far and away the best open play defence in the division, no one even gets close to us for stopping the opposition having shots, and in turn those shots being low quality.
Set pieces could improve, but the reality is we have footballers in our side and we come up against people who are great in the air but can barely kick a ball so we are going to lose out sometimes. Players like Woolfenden and Edmundson are good in the air, but sometimes you are up against players who are so dominant and teams set up to play that way |  |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 10:25 - Oct 26 with 676 views | Kieran_Knows |
What do we do about our defence? Is that the same one with 20 clean sheets (albeit a change of left back) in McKenna's 40 odd games in charge?
Jesus wept. |  |
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| Yes, very much this…. on 10:26 - Oct 26 with 674 views | itfcjoe |
| Yes, very much this…. on 09:02 - Oct 26 by Bloots |
….he seems intent on taking just very, very slightly too long in the ball at every opportunity.
It almost unnoticeable but it’s as if he’s trying to tease the attacker by releasing the ball at the very last moment.
He’s gonna come unstuck and cost us a goal if he doesn’t stop sodding around soon. |
But when you watch build up for Ladapo's first it is him doing this that drags people around to create the space to start the attacks - he could very easily have released the ball earlier here but it's not what him and GE do.
You are right though, it will cost us a goal or two this season, but McKenna obviously thinks it is worth the cost
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| What do we do about our defence? on 10:28 - Oct 26 with 665 views | SaleAway |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:56 - Oct 26 by Bobbychase |
Stats wise, only four other sides have conceded the same amount of goals as us, or fewer, and we have the best goal difference in the division.
We've been keeping clean sheets for fun under McKenna. I don't think there is some deep-seated issue with our defence. |
I'm not saying that there is a deep seated issue - and I don't think anyone else is - what we're talking about here, is how to take us up to the next level. We concede "bad" goals.... like people say, we don't concede a lot of chances, but those goals that we do concede often seem to stand out as being some that the oppo haven't had to work that hard for, which is frustrating for the fans, but like you say, in the context of our general performance, not a massive problem.
However, if we managed to tighten that up, then we would be almost unbeatable. | |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 10:29 - Oct 26 with 662 views | Kieran_Knows |
| What do we do about our defence? on 08:58 - Oct 26 by Bluesky |
I wish Woolfie wouldn't faff about so much so close to our goal. He scares me. |
Ffs, what a load of tosh.
You'll concede goals playing that way, but I'd so much prefer watching this style of play than anything I've seen in the last 10 years we've served up. | |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 10:30 - Oct 26 with 658 views | HighgateBlue |
Clearly there are individual goals that we can be disappointed to have conceded.
But every year in this division we've conceded a goal a game, and this season it's 0.875. Last season was of course a year of two different halves, with KMac improving on his predecessor.
And of course we've made this (ok, maybe marginal) improvement whilst scoring way more. We're on course to score 89 goals this season. So taken as a whole, I think we're in a pretty healthy position. Looking at individual games we've lost, Lincoln was an uncharacteristic failure to score rather than a defensive disaster, and Plymouth was an away game against the top side with some moments of individual brilliance. It happens.
It's natural to be really disappointed with those two goals last night, and KMac will be all over that. But I don't think there's a real disease that needs solving. Everyone catches a cold from time to time. |  | | |
| Yes, very much this…. on 10:31 - Oct 26 with 655 views | Kieran_Knows |
| Yes, very much this…. on 10:26 - Oct 26 by itfcjoe |
But when you watch build up for Ladapo's first it is him doing this that drags people around to create the space to start the attacks - he could very easily have released the ball earlier here but it's not what him and GE do.
You are right though, it will cost us a goal or two this season, but McKenna obviously thinks it is worth the cost
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Give me this, every day of the week. | |
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| What do we do about our defence? on 10:31 - Oct 26 with 655 views | HighgateBlue |
| What do we do about our defence? on 22:10 - Oct 25 by LeoMuff |
I think we have sacrificed a bit of defensive solidity to allow us to get forward more and we are a much better side for it. |
Indeed so, and it's fair to note that looking at previous seasons, we're actually conceding slightly fewer whilst scoring way more. | | | |
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