Our Improved Defence

Love_Each_Day said:
Our central defence was never the problem for me, ancient fullbacks and our goalie having a nightmare were. Otamendi has always been good and Stones has improved but still does a lot of good things and some bad things in games, a lot more still to come from him. Their partnership is understandably better after having played together for a bit. We pass the ball faster and more accurately and don't give it away in dangerous areas as often. Maybe most importantly Fernandinho has been immense in protecting the defence as a whole, the best spell of form he's had for us in my opinion.
Click to expand...

This. When you list out the defensive players who have gone or been dropped: Bravo, Kolarov, Sagna, Yaya, all are slow or had patchy form. All replaced with better, sharper players.

There is no reason to change this defence now. I'd give Danilo and Magala game time if it can be done of the bench to keep them fit but a settled back line also helps.
 
Dax777 said:
Who are the great athletic CBs in the game today? Of which you think one might fit this description you have above?

For what its worth, my opinion on Bonucci is well documented. He was greatly flattered by playing in Italy and for Juve. Decent passer of the ball but other than that, he is more reputation that anything... A reputation mostly built on Pep's admiration.

Chiellini, I'll give you. He is the Vidic of today's defending. A no nonsense solid all round defender. But he is slower mow and was never fast to begin with. Don't know if he'd be able to cope with the speed and open style of football here.

Most of the players I'd suggest, are really around Stones age and some even younger. Laporte, Varane, Koulibally, Diego Carlos and Marquinhos are looking the business so far.

But for What its worth, Ota and Stones rank comfortably with these guys.
Click to expand...

Never watched the guy, but Diego Carlos' passing stats look quite crap
 
I keep reading in this thread people asking for a better cb, I think Stones is becoming exactly that, if we think of bringing someone in the winter we should look at LB position. Anyway to add to this thread I think is a mix of things, the confidence that Ederson brings to the defence, one more year of listening to Pep, etc and more importantly if we keep 85% of posession as the first half of the stoke game then we will never need to defend. It also helps the amount of goals we are scoring.
 
Dax777 said:
This was not that serious of a problem as many made it out to be. Yes, he was no where close to Ederson, but a good # of the goals he conceded were similar to the 2 Ederson conceded. Just freaky goals.

I said to anyone who would listen over the summer, we'd have conceded fewer goals this season even if we hadn't changed anyone. As the % of goals we conceded from chances allowed was abnormal and an outlier. A regression to the norm was always most likely.

But that aside, our general play has improved. As for the CBs, the hysteria from the summer was always silly- Either the claim that Otamendi was a bad player or that Stones was soft were just silly. Both are very good players.
Click to expand...
Defending is as important as attacking. Concede less and you get more points. In this respect, Bravo was a disaster as was the lack of pace at full back.
We are so much better this season. No longer do I expect our keeper to be picking the ball out of the back of our net at least once a game.
Otamendi and Stones are also class acts and with a good keeper behind them they do not need to be nervous or be rash. Indeed, with our current fullbacks the opposition no longer gets behind our defence and so Otamendi rarely has to go to ground in a last ditch effort to stop a goal.
My only concern when defending is an attack down our left. Not for our fullback (Delph) or our Left Centre Half (Otamendi) but the midfielder who should get back into space that makes a defensive triangle between the three. With our positional interchange movement that can be Sane, Silva, KDB or Fernandinho (and Fernandinho doesn't have this problem on his right side). At least once a game one of them does not track back quickly enough or is out of position and leaves a weakness that can be exploited. It is a small problem, but a problem that needs to be resolved nonetheless.
 
Last edited:
Tbh, the goals we conceded were poor.

Any lump it & hope team, Burnley, West Brom, Utd, etc, is cabable of creating that 2nd goal, if allowed to cross & the cf allowed to get a free header with several City defenders around, in positions to easily stop it.

This is stuff that can & should be improved upon, irrespective of even if we score 25 at the other end.

The two goals we let in, should actually matter, plenty. That's how we get better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.