Town boss Mick McCarthy says the Blues now need to add to the strong defence which saw them to Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Derby with more forward options now at his disposal.

“Defending is a skill,” former centre-half McCarthy said. “You have to have talent to do it.

“When you watch games on television and see teams that have got players that can’t defend, that step out, that don’t block things or duck when headers come in, get too tight or don’t get tight enough the pundits can all pick the bones out of it.

“Then they all want to talk about the beautiful game, the great shots, the great goals, bits of skill. They can thrive if you can do all the other stuff.

“What we need to do is put the bits of other stuff on, but we’ve got some good forward options now Freddie’s back and once Didzy’s back and Jonny Williams, Tom Lawrence is in the team now.

“We’ve got Besty who we’re just trying to get up to full fitness, Reg came on and scored the other night, so maybe we can pose more of a threat rather than having to sit in and defend.

“But if we were playing against a good team and that’s the way it happens I’ll still take a clean sheet all day long.”

Reflecting further on Tuesday’s defensive display, he added: “It is pleasing because it was all the attributes that I talk about that you’ve got to have in a team. It was a display which was really organised and disciplined, the number of blocks we got in was great."

Town's two away games illustrated the zero to hero nature of the game with Jonas Knudsen having given away the last-gasp controversial penalty at Reading before stopping Nick Blackman's seconds-from-the-whistle effort at the iPro Stadium.

“Anybody that thought Jonas Knudsen was a villain on Friday, he was certainly the hero on Tuesday, and that’s football," the Blues boss continued.

“He blocked it. I thought it was Bart that had saved it but it wasn’t, it was Jonas behind him who blocked the ball.

“That would have done damage to me had we conceded a goal at that stage having thwarted everything they’d thrown at us, a very good team, I might add. That would have seriously upset me!”

Half-time subs Varney, who scored the winning goal, and debutant Lawrence both impressed their manager.

“I was very pleased with all of them, and Bish came on and helped shore it up, making sure we didn’t concede,” McCarthy said.

“But I thought Tom and Reg were excellent. Reg getting his goal was just fantastic because for some while he has been a big part of the squad, of the team, has not played that often, but has always contributed when he's come on.

“I remember him against Reading [at Portman Road last season] when I put him and Pits on and he broke down the left-hand side and crossed and we scored in the last minute.

“And he’s always there to contribute. I went 4-4-2 and it suited us in that game in that second half and we got a win out of it.”

Villa have let leads slip in the final minutes of their last two games, home draws with Nottingham Forest and Brentford, while the Blues conceded deep in injury time at Reading last weekend.

“It could be 0-0 to the 85th minute and a three-all draw Saturday, couldn’t it? All the goals conceded in the last minute, that would be good,” the Town boss joked.

The Blues played their midweek game at Derby on Tuesday while Villa played on Wednesday but McCarthy doesn’t feel the additional day’s rest will have any impact.

“We went to Derby and they’d been beaten by Newcastle on the Saturday and you wonder whether an extra day’s rest would be better for them,” he continued.

“Well, they didn’t look tired, did they? They didn’t look like they’d suffered at all.

“And apparently their confidence was pretty fragile. It didn’t look it to me. Did it to you?

“They played very well, they passed the ball well, they moved it. The one thing they couldn’t do was score because we’ve got good defenders and a good goalkeeper.

“So I don’t know whether it’ll have any effect on them. You just worry playing a team like this that they don’t just turn up and it’s their day, that they turn up and all of a sudden every one of them plays well and it clicks and you think, ‘Wow, where’s that been?’.

“I think that’s the danger with teams with so much quality, that on any given day it could be their day. We’ve got to stop them having their day.”

Photo: TWTD

osborne added 06:22 - Sep 17 COYB. Let's have a good solid performance in defence and show some flair and hunger going forward. Onwards and upwards. Let's take 3 points today. Come on!!
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christiand added 06:30 - Sep 17 I'm not convinced MM knows how to involve the flair players. We'll revert to type, hoof up to pitman, who isn't a target man will be my guess.
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battyblue added 06:30 - Sep 17 Going for a 0-0 again then McCarthy well thats true to form then nothing changes with this man in charge as long as we get the blocks in thats all that matters.
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Dissboyitfc added 06:50 - Sep 17 "defending is a skill" , yes it is and that is why Bart is going to be our best player again this season. I hope oneday MM brings a book out and hopefully he will explain in that book his persistence in playing Chambers, think many of us would like to know that.
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BlueMachines added 07:02 - Sep 17 It's so frustrating reading MMS comments. He talks about a more free flowing, passing attacking game, giving us all hope he might change his 'style'. But when that team sheet comes out at 2pm your heart breaks a little more with every game as basically nothing has changed again. I await 2pm again, but I won't hold my breath.
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BlueMachines added 07:04 - Sep 17 Dissboy. I'd refuse to spend my £ on it, but I'd loan it from a library!
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EuanTown added 07:24 - Sep 17 Is it only me that read the headline and thought that's us leaking 2 goals and Villa getting their first away win of the season
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horsehollerer added 07:53 - Sep 17 Very well put, Mick. COYB.
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jalapenosteve added 08:52 - Sep 17 Mick, you're teasing us.
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ArnieM added 10:03 - Sep 17 Christ some of you lot really are dim. By your posts you actually demonstrate that you really DON'T understand the fundamentals of the game. MM is absolutely spot on with he's saying. Defending is an art, a skill. It takes a player with an ability to "read" the game in order to be a good defender. He needs to "anticipate" and therfore make his move being at least one step ahead of the attacker. Good defending is about timing, anticipation, being "ahead" of your opponents next move and able to counter that move. In fact is about making your opponent move to where and how YOU want them to move. THAT'S high quality defending. Many of you ( sadly for you) are too young to have seen the sheer quality defensive partnerships and individual defenders we used to have in Beattie: Hunter...Burley, Mills, Osman : Butcher. The quality of our current defenders are light years away from those listed that's for sure. However MM is starting to address this now with the likes of rookie Webster who is the best young footballing defender capable of playing at senior level. He reads the game and plays it out of defence. All of what I've written above is NOT the same as defending as a team - that's a tactic but to operate successful as a unit, every team player needs to do "their job". Let's just get behind the lads today and do "our job", making PR a place teams don't like coming to. COYBs

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Swn98 added 10:22 - Sep 17 Good post Arnie I notice you highlighted Webster there was an article in the mail about him yesterday currently valued at 2mill another good bit of business by mickma.
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greenkingtone added 10:22 - Sep 17 Quite right ArnieM.
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ArnieM added 10:54 - Sep 17 Sorry guys, didn't mean to preach there. Just passionate about the Blues and in an ideal world we'd all be pulling in same direction. ....sometimes feels on here that we're not lol.
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Miles added 11:00 - Sep 17 Agree Anrie! I doubt the majority who complain actually play football themself which is where a lack of knowledge comes in when it comes to things like this
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Ipswich58 added 12:10 - Sep 17 Defending is a skill yes. So don't expose Chambers' limitations at right back and also MM you must understand that creativity and tactical nous also a skill which you as manager haven't mastered. Stubbornness favouritism and blind loyalty to players who repeatedly go not perform breeds complacency. Players have to know they're accountable
1

oldblue added 12:12 - Sep 17 Well said ArnieM ...again people shhoting from the hip failing to engage brain and clearly don't understand the finer points of football and it's many facets...I do agree though that Chambers at RB is a mystery he is often out of position, too slow and lacks mobility in that position and is the main man when it comes to hoofball.... Pitman is a better footballer than given credit for , works hard and links play and enjoys scoring goals ...all round we need to be better at keeping the ball for longer periods of the game . A win today by whatever means may satisfy some of the so called experts on these pages for a while tho..COYB

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Seasider added 12:26 - Sep 17 I also share the sentiments above,which you cant really argue against. However when the Manager says things like he would take a nil/nil as you could always nick a goal,calls Skues and Douglas brilliant.Says he wont drop players if we are winning and doesn't even if we lose/draw and players like Chambers have a bad games and still stays in,what does this say about his attitude. I feel it is basically that McCarthy decides on a team early in the season and sticks to it regardless.The only chance other players have of getting a regular game is if one of his favourites is injured as in the case of Smithy. He has stayed faithful to this philosophy throughout his tenure,and it has paid off to a certain extent.He does change formations more often now;but is still pretty rigid with the style of play,hence the falling attendances. I shall be there again this afternoon,as I have been for the last 55 years,hoping to see a good game and a win;but do not expect to see Town attack much,and try and negate Villa. This is why I rarely see ITFC win by more than 1 goal,and this I am afraid will continue whilst this man is in charge as I fear he will never change. Lets hope that we get promoted though,whatever.

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ArnieM added 12:30 - Sep 17 Chambers at Right Back is once again MM's tactics. Chambers is ( was?) A half decent CB. Problem is he hasn't played there fir so long he would appear very rusty if he was suddenly plonked back in a central role. I don't think we've had a dedicated right back since David Wright left us for Palace - he's been gone that long he's bloody retired from playing now!
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ArnieM added 12:34 - Sep 17 Dissboyitfc. The answer to your question is simple. Because the back four possess very little quality. That's not to say Mick's comments on the attributes required of a quality defender are any less correct. He's hardly going to trash his players publically is he.
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planetblue_2011 added 12:53 - Sep 17 Hope mick plays Lawrence from the start today. Sorry to Varney but bring him on again, he could be a great super sub👍🏻
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TimmyH added 15:34 - Sep 17 Holly crap...this is turning into your forum Arnie, I agree with your main post though, defensive work is a skill to a degree and yes no players here are no where near the forementioned players - 'to build on the solid defensive base' though is puzzling, 1 game against Derby!?! - maybe Mick should look at our goals conceded ratio per game since he's been here season on season - the term 'now' is completely out of context.

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