Richards played more games than Zaba the season when we won the title under Mancini.Mancini took one whole season to sort out our defending, and that was no easy feat through making Kompany and Lescott the strongest CB pair in the league. There were a few mistakes between the two like that miscommunication goal conceded, but it cannot be denied Kompany and Lescott understood and complemented each other. Granted we also had a coming into form Zabaleta and a tough DM in Nigel de Jong, but pair Kompany with a player in the same wavelength (like Lescott and Demichelis, not Nastacic) and we really are hard to break in front of goal. Otamendi has the potential but I find him a bit small for a CB.
Everyone always points at the Chelsea game and Kevs miss which obviously was a big factor. However, i also think that day showed defensively how poor we were at times. Costa in that last half hour dominated us physically and it pointed to two things: We were so naive at times and were so wide open to the counter and secondly without vinny we were physically not up to it when a player like Costa turned it on. So i totally agree, we can't just say 'we only conceded x amount of goals, so defense isnt much of an issue', it clearly was at times and that does need addressing.If we want to win the title we have to improve all aspects of our game, and our defending was not great last season - the league table shows some of the weakness, bu consider that City had more possession than any other Premiership club. Significantly more - that emphasises the weakness in that area.
have we solved it? I doubt it. We've addressed it in part.
TEOE is right
I know that supporters have had a right old moan about Bravo, but he is part of the back five
Yes the four defenders may have left him exposed, but Bravo is the keeper, the last line of defense and he couldn't keep anything out and there were a number of very soft efforts that beat him
As we are one of the better teams we don't give up that many chances, so our keeper is never going to have to pull out a string of saves and put in a MOTM performance. But can anyone direct me to a game where Bravo saved us a point or made a great save that ensured we won!
The point is - the issue has been discussed to death. Nobody is disagreeing with the comments - mainly because it's all been discussed before
Richards played more games than Zaba the season when we won the title under Mancini.
I think he may have got something like 6 assists that season as well as some very impressive defensive stats and play
People need to realise that we're never going to be an overly defensive team under Pep. Our defensive strategy is going to be based around stopping the opposition from having the ball rather than sitting deep in numbers.
That doesn't mean Pep doesn't believe in the concept of defending. He has a clear strategy for the unit in front of the ball but that didn't seem to be much in evidence last season. We will concede goals but we should score more than we concede,which we didn't do enough of last season.
Watch Mica in the Sick Swan....Immense.
What a waste & Steven Ireland.
Pep says we have to be much better at both ends of the pitch.....sums it up perfectly.
Some elite fullbacks are an absolute necessity