Centre back options

[salfordbluetrue]

It is just a narrative people buy into. The fact is we lost our Mojo at Celtic in Septemper when we failed to win for the first time. Then Spurs beat us. In the first game we were outplayed all season ( one would say this was defining game that broke us) then we tied 3 at home on the trot.

By the time we played Chelsea we had failed to win a game at home in 3 attempts. Chelsea was just a continations of a 6 week trend of being terrible at converting chances.


Anyway, just coz Chelsea went on to win the league doesn't make our game against them defining. We were simply one of the many teams they swatted on the way to their victory. Nothing about bearing us was defining. They did it again in the return. Just another win for them. Nothing defining about it.

Again, I repeat, this problem of missing chances has continued till today. We are still missing a boatload, albeit winning.

Defensively we are still conceding few shots albeit our Keeper is saving more of the few we concede.

But somehow, its CB folks think is the problem. Strange reasoning, if you ask me.

that last line is the bit that i have a problem with, we do not have a left sided CB we have only Ottamendi who can play there, the others that do are crap and every team knows that , so yes i want a LCB trouble is i do not think pep does.
its a bit like playing a goalkeeper who cannot catch

 

[Neville Kneville]

It is just a narrative people buy into. The fact is we lost our Mojo at Celtic in Septemper when we failed to win for the first time. Then Spurs beat us. In the first game we were outplayed all season ( one would say this was defining game that broke us) then we tied 3 at home on the trot.

By the time we played Chelsea we had failed to win a game at home in 3 attempts. Chelsea was just a continations of a 6 week trend of being terrible at converting chances.


Anyway, just coz Chelsea went on to win the league doesn't make our game against them defining. We were simply one of the many teams they swatted on the way to their victory. Nothing about bearing us was defining. They did it again in the return. Just another win for them. Nothing defining about it.

Again, I repeat, this problem of missing chances has continued till today. We are still missing a boatload, albeit winning.

Defensively we are still conceding few shots albeit our Keeper is saving more of the few we concede.

But somehow, its CB folks think is the problem. Strange reasoning, if you ask me.

And strangely enough, one of us, on here, was getting pelters in the Celtic thread, for saying that actually, Celtic did not play like Real Madrid, our defence was fucking shite & that unless we improved drastically, we would win fuck all.

 

[Dax777]

And strangely enough, one of us, on here, was getting pelters in the Celtic thread, for saying that actually, Celtic did not play like Real Madrid, our defence was fucking shite & that unless we improved drastically, we would win fuck all.

We had a shit game vs Celtics. Players turn ing turningoff everywhere. This can happen to the best defense on a day off.

We just weren't in that game and tied on the share disparity in talent.

But your analysis was eventually found to be wrong. It was our wastefulness in front of goal that coat us 9 points at home in 4 straight home games. Not the defense.

We score just 10% more of our chances over that period and its a 12 point swing with Chelsea.

Poor conversion of chances was our biggest problem.

 

[Bpughh]

i think we should sign that scary looking serbian fella over at roma. a bit slow but not a bad option for lcb if we plan on playing three at the back.

 

[Neville Kneville]

We had a shit game vs Celtics. Players turn ing turningoff everywhere. This can happen to the best defense on a day off.

We just weren't in that game and tied on the share disparity in talent.

But your analysis was eventually found to be wrong. It was our wastefulness in front of goal that coat us 9 points at home in 4 straight home games. Not the defense.

We score just 10% more of our chances over that period and its a 12 point swing with Chelsea.

Poor conversion of chances was our biggest problem.

So Spurs was 0-0 then.

 

[Dax777]

that last line is the bit that i have a problem with, we do not have a left sided CB we have only Ottamendi who can play there, the others that do are crap and every team knows that , so yes i want a LCB trouble is i do not think pep does.
its a bit like playing a goalkeeper who cannot catch

Can't argue against the want of an LCB. I use "want" as opposed "need" coz the leftsided guy doesn't have to be left footed. It will be nice if he were, but not necessary.

 

[Dax777]

So Spurs was 0-0 then.

That's a silly retort. There are games when the opposition is better. Spurs was that. But has we been firing when we were better, we still would have won.

Again, your analysis is uneven. All teams give away chances and all teams create chances. What determines where your problem lies is figuring out which of the following is happening:

1. Conceding too many chances
2. Conceding too many goals
3. Creating too few chances
4. Converting too few of the chances created.

Again, I repeat for the 100th time, 1 and 3 were not problems at all. We simply conceded fewer chances than anyone but Spurs and United. Meaning, defending, while not great was NOT a debilitating problem

On the other hand we allowed too many goals from the few chances we conceded. Absolute worst ratio in the league. Which points to 2 things, weaker than normal goalkeeping and bad luck.

Even when poor goalkeeping was factored in, we still were allowing more goals than expected. Which means we also were unlucky that the opposition almost never missed the target. This is rear and should regress to mean this season.

Also, we scored significantly fewer of our chances than normal. Frankly we created the most chances by a decent margin. But converted at a bottom 10 rate.

These facts borne out by the stats were obvious when watching by the way. Even thoufh too many fans stuck in a belief system or another, just try hard to reshape the facts to fit their belief.

 

[Neville Kneville]

That's a silly retort. There are games when the opposition is better. Spurs was that. But has we been firing when we were better, we still would have won.

Again, your analysis is uneven. All teams give away chances and all teams create chances. What determines where your problem lies is figuring out which of the following is happening:

1. Conceding too many chances
2. Conceding too many goals
3. Creating too few chances
4. Converting too few of the chances created.

Again, I repeat for the 100th time, 1 and 3 were not problems at all. We simply conceded fewer chances than anyone but Spurs and United. Meaning, defending, while not great was NOT a debilitating problem

On the other hand we allowed too many goals from the few chances we conceded. Absolute worst ratio in the league. Which points to 2 things, weaker than normal goalkeeping and bad luck.

Even when poor goalkeeping was factored in, we still were allowing more goals than expected. Which means we also were unlucky that the opposition almost never missed the target. This is rear and should regress to mean this season.

Also, we scored significantly fewer of our chances than normal. Frankly we created the most chances by a decent margin. But converted at a bottom 10 rate.

These facts borne out by the stats were obvious when watching by the way. Even thoufh too many fans stuck in a belief system or another, just try hard to reshape the facts to fit their belief.

You are at it again.

Of course our finishing should have been better, I was saying so every week.

And of course our defending should have been better. We have Gabriel Jesus & another attacking player in Silva, several kids who can score goals & are rumoured to be after two more forwards.

We are playing 3 at the back, with the same central defenders who were responsible, directly, for losing us points last season.

It isn't fucking rocket science. Pep is taking a gamble.

 

[Dax777]

You are at it again.

Of course our finishing should have been better, I was saying so every week.

And of course our defending should have been better. We have Gabriel Jesus & another attacking player in Silva, several kids who can score goals & are rumoured to be after two more forwards.

We are playing 3 at the back, with the same central defenders who were responsible, directly, for losing us points last season.

It isn't fucking rocket science. Pep is taking a gamble.

No slick, our scorers and goalie and fullbacks were most responsible for losing us points last season. Guess what? We are upgrading all those positions.
Hence Danilo, Walker, Mendy, Ederson, and trying for Sanchez.

We've added nothing to defense you say? I mean outside of spending 160 million on defense you are right. Pep is really taking a gamble.

Have you ever thought perhaps, just mabye, your fact free analysis was wrong all along?

 

[Neville Kneville]

No slick, our scorers and goalie and fullbacks were most responsible for losing us points last season. Guess what? We are upgrading all those positions.
Hence Danilo, Walker, Mendy, Ederson, and trying for Sanchez.

We've added nothing to defense you say? I mean outside of spending 160 million on defense you are right. Pep is really taking a gamble.

Have you ever thought perhaps, just mabye, your fact free analysis was wrong all along?

No I watched when we were bossing games & someone lumps the ball out of defence into our half & some useless **** falls over & it's suddenly a problem, when it was previously an easy game, we were going to win sooner or later, comfortably.

Or some fucking tithead passes the fucking ball to the oppo with 5 mins to go, again, in a game we are winning comfortably. Or some stupid twat leaves his man completely unmarked for a free header, again when we were comfortable.

Over & over & over & over again.

Everyone can see it happening, utter fucking incompetence. Even in games we won, it was often there & the opponent missed at a key time, so we cruised to victory rather than collapsing like a house of fucking cards. On another day, they score, our arses go & a simple stroll becomes a battle.

You don't win titles defending like wankers, even if you score 100s of goals. We almost lost both our recent titles due to the 3rd & 4th defenders being shite & had to pull it out of the bag.

Last season our 1st & 2nd defenders were often shite.

Pep is gambilng on Kompany staying fit & the keeper plus fullbacks helping the cbs to improve.

So far Vinny is struggling on the right & Otamendi has already made about 6 fuckups which could have resulted in goals. The keeper has saved a 1v1, from a simple piss easy, obvious, straight pass, in every game.

The centre of defence could & should be miles better for a team with our aspirations.