Our glaring weakness at LB, will it be fixed?

[hassanmyall]

Pellegrini has turned VK from a world class CB to a guy whose form has dipped and is injury prone. I wonder what either fullbacks would've been like in a mourinho team. Sometimes a high line with primadonna midfielders are to blame rather than individual defenders. We carry too many passengers. Too many.

 

[FredTilson]

Pellegrini has turned VK from a world class CB to a guy whose form has dipped and is injury prone. I wonder what either fullbacks would've been like in a mourinho team. Sometimes a high line with primadonna midfielders are to blame rather than individual defenders. We carry too many passengers. Too many.

 

[thereWasATime]

We will be starting next season with Komp and Denayer at CB with Mangala at LB, so chill out, no worries :)

 

[George Hannah]

We will be starting next season with Komp and Denayer at CB with Mangala at LB, so chill out, no worries :)

Has Mangala played left back in any of our games so far?

 

[burning blue soul]

the defeat against real, although not a disaster of any magnitude, 3 of the 4 goals were conceded because of a deficiency in the left back area. i may be being over critical of the two left backs here as there were two youngsters in the central defense area also. apart from the corner (which also came in from the left, but you cant do anything about that!!) the other three goals came down our left side that real exploited to great success. kolorov was at fault entirely for the ronaldo goal for tracking him and not holding the defensive line. and the other two goals resulted from a lack of pressure on the ball from the lb position.

real are seeing an area of weakness in our defense, and its an area we have seen for a long time now. if they are seeing it it, manuel and his stats boys are too - and so are all the other teams we will eventually play this season.

in conclusion, we need a new left back and kolorov needs to go, and i say that as a fan that has never criticized him before.

 

[Hart of the Matter]

I feel our left sided defensive issues reside at defensive midfield and left wing. On the right we have had Navas and Milner who both worked hard to provide cover backed up by dinho in front of Zab. Last season Zab was sometimes a liability when exposed. Add in MD at CB and right back is where I would prefer to play. LB has had very little cover in front or to the side ( although I feel Mangala is also pulled out of position at times by this lack of defending from the front by others). Sterling playing on the left should help this this season, he works his socks off defensively.

 

[Sergio Picasso Aguero]

Clichy is 30 and Kolarov turns 30 in November so LB will be addressed soon whether it was a weakness or not. I think Angelino will be promoted in the next couple of years as an understudy to whoever we bring in. Sandro or Ricardo Rodriguez would be my personal choices. Same with RB, I think Sagna will move on next year, we will promote Maffeo in a couple of years as an understudy to either Zaba or a new RB we bring in. Fabinho looks the most likely.

 

[NipHolmes]

It's not a really a glaring weakness both our left backs have been solid for the last 3 or 4 years, almost improving every season imo.

if it is a glaring weakness, then its really a strength, as then we know where the opposition is most likely to try and exploit.

Firstly, what in the fuck?

Secondly, no, no, no.

Thirdly, they haven't improved at all, Kolarov had a decent finish to last season but has been less than satisfactory since Mancini's last season here. Clichy has been consistently decent and sometimes good but he has never been great because of his vertigo going high up the field and final ball. His defensive capabilities gloss over this weakness though. Neither are good enough to start for us as a top team. Zabaleta is a phenomenal player, he's a leader, he's always up for it and gives his all on that right flank.

Fourth, that final line, I had to back over point One and Two, I have never heard such bollocks. That's like Audley Harrison saying 'Oh it is ok I have a china chin, at least I know opponents will look to crack it.' Then Harrison gets bombed out, but all is good because he knew it could happen. Just think about what you wrote please, because it is inane and ridiculous.

I said years ago it was an issue, I also recall us getting murdered don that flank and Neville saying on MNF that it was our weak spot, and here we are about two years from there and still it's a weak point.

 

[foggy1974]

How many defensive full backs are they in the game nowadays.The problem is that our fullbacks are high up field so,when we lose possession teams can get wingers down the sides of our fullbacks, this means that the centrebacks ala Mangala have to decide whether to close the winger down or mark the striker/forward in the box.

 

[NipHolmes]

I feel our left sided defensive issues reside at defensive midfield and left wing. On the right we have had Navas and Milner who both worked hard to provide cover backed up by dinho in front of Zab. Last season Zab was sometimes a liability when exposed. Add in MD at CB and right back is where I would prefer to play. LB has had very little cover in front or to the side ( although I feel Mangala is also pulled out of position at times by this lack of defending from the front by others). Sterling playing on the left should help this this season, he works his socks off defensively.

An element of weakness is certainly that it's left exposed but the holding mids role is to clean up and keep the ball ticking over, snuffing out dangerous runs and balls. They cannot be tracking to the left wing and then leave Yaya to clean up in the middle because that itself is as bad. What we need is a world class LB to do this role and need Sterling to be on that left side to initially track these runners.

Mangala suffered from a few issues last season. We were too open in our formation as the 4-2-2-2 is a porous formation, especially with Yaya as one of the two men ahead. It certainly didn't help when the backline was ever changing, our LB weakness certainly made him struggle as they were too high upfield and Mangala would be trying to cover multiple runs as well as mark his designated striker. He was green to the league and the pace of it, not having an older head like Kompany to help him along was certainly a blow but thankfully MDM stayed fit and we got better as the season went on.

Should we choose not to replace LB then a formation change is a must. We have to play a defensively set 4-3-3 which is more like 4-3-2-1

Hart
Clichy,
Mangala/Senayer
Kompany/Mdm
Zaba
Then have Fernandinho and Delph holding and Yaya ahead of them
Silva/Sterling/KDB in the two roles ahead of them and Kun or Bony up front.

Should we play 4-2-2-2 then it must be a 4-3-1-2 with Sterling or KDB being a pacey runner from wide dragging fullback around and looking to stretch the play with Kun and Bony dragging CBs out of position with their runs.

It will be tricky, but starting with a world class LB helps immeasurably.