We need defenders who can defend

Not John Stones....!! Directly cost 5 or 6 goals since Xmas. And got away with that blatant penalty on us. Great on the ball. Questionable defender
 
Joe Royle put in defenders who could defend in 2000/01, the same with Keegan in 2004/05.
 
littlemarkyc said:
i sorry your analysis of Sagna is wrong, he can defend and has been excellent this season.
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He's been good, but he was at fault for both goals against Stoke purely because he seemingly couldn't be bothered tracking runs. He also had the ball taken off him for Mangala's own goal against Liverpool. He's been the best of a bad bunch but his level is quite a bit lower than that of what Zabaleta's level was a couple of years ago - before his injuries imo.
 
I think we've bought a couple of average defenders in Otamendi and Mangala. Otamendi does have his qualities. He covers well and is very strong in the tackle.But both are rash, reactionary defenders. Otamendi's ability on the ball has to the most overrated thing I have ever seen going by what people make of him on here. The ocassional decent pass sandwiched in between sliced clearances and complete thin air clearances isn't good enough. Otamendi is better than Mangala but as I said in the summer, he was a flavour of the month defender who was signed partially because of a good goal scoring season in Spain. He scored 6 league goals I think and be scored the winner (iirc) at the Bernabeu to end Real Madrid's ridiculous winning streak. It was these headlining moments that lead to him appearing on people's radars. He still isn't much different from the defender who was loaned back to South America after starting his European career fairly poorly. He's an alright defender, but not close to top class.

Mangala is physically brilliant but mentally and technically not great. He lacks the intelligence needed to be top class and I'm not sure he will ever learn it.

The difference between us with Kompany and us without him isn't a coincidence. He is streets ahead of anyone else at the club at centre back. As bad as the rest of the team are at protecting the back four, Kompany seems to be able to hold everything together at the back. All Otamendi(to a lesser extent), Mangala and Demichellis seem to do is add to the chaos.
 
We really needed to bring in a good defender in January...or a loan player. Sadly, I think we might fall just short in the major competitions due to our defensive frailties.
 
We've needed a decent left back for years now and really should've done a better job in getting the right partner for Vinny. We have probably one of the most exciting attacking units in the world and one of the poorest defences. I think we have a lot to thank Joe for that were still in the race for trophies.
 
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Interesting how opinion is starting to change on Otamendi. I got slated week after week at the start of the season for suggesting he's quite a poor defender, his hollywood reel tackles earned him a hell of a lot of plaudits on here and he quickly become the new bluemoon darling who could do no wrong. I think he'll be one of the first out under Pep unless he decides to turn him into a destroyer type midfielder in the mould of De Jong. Pep insists on good positioning, Otamendi ignores positioning completely half the time and just chases the ball like a dog on heat. I still have faith Mangala will turn into a great defender under a manager that isn't Pellegrini. I think we'll go into next season with Kompany, Mangala, Denayer + a new defender with that +1 preferably not being Stones who i just don't think is very good at actually defending.
 
KippaxCitizen said:
Watch Stones closely. He's an exceptional talent with the ball at his feet for a young defender, yet I actually think he's not a particularly good defender.

I've said the same about Cahill for years; Cahill is actually quite a poor defender.
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This has been my conclusion from watching him. That said, I'd absolutely have him here. I belong to the minority who believe being a footballer is more important than being a tackler at CB.

So I'm a huge Stone fan.
 
Rolee said:
Don't think that's fair mate, I think both Mangala and Otamendi have looked fine partnered with Kompany. It's just any other combination that looks dodgy imo.
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When you spend much money as we did on defenders you would expect better performances without kompany who is injury prone. I like them both and hopefully they will come good, and God bless pellers for bringing in demi who is still argubly our second best defender after kompany
 
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