Our Defence - Has it actually been fixed?

[Web of Bissaka]

You guys need to trust in the process, back Ole to finish rebuild
Not enough yet, 3 more seasons needed, to be extended to +5 seasons.

18/19
- Fellaini
+ Jones

19/20
- Herrera, Smalling, Darmian, Rojo, Young, Valencia
+ Maguire, AWB, Axel, Williams, TFM, Matic, Bruno

20/21
- Romero, Dalot
+ Telles, Henderson

 

[RedRonaldo]

Currently our defence is worst than ever.

I blame it all on Pogba.

 

[Samid]

Where the feck are all our defenders?! Shaw the only one on the bench tonight.

 

[Bondi77]

I hope Telles can lift his game defensively as so far he has been found pretty shaky from what I have seen.

 

[Plymouth Red]

The sticking plaster on the defence is a bit better than the plasters on the midfield and forward line.

 

[A-man]

Where the feck are all our defenders?! Shaw the only one on the bench tonight.

Good question. Is Tuanzebe injured again?

 

[Chicharo]

Our defense is just dreadful, lead by the most overrated captain in the league.
And people still blame DDG, every keeper would crack after years of having to play alongside the back four that we've been having

 

[Idxomer]

When you need 3 or 4 players there just to babysit Lindelof-Maguire, then it's far from being fixed.

 

[KD6-3.7]

We are in this endless cycle where we keep needing a new CB despite buying one every second transfer window.

I am still of the opinion that spending £130M on Wan Bissaka and Maguire was a colossal waste of funds. Not just them Rojo, Lindelof, Bailly they have all been rubbish.

 

[Castia]

Not sure about Telles

I was lead to believe he’s an all out attacking full back but he doesn’t look like that to me. Pace is mediocre, ability to beat a man isn’t there either. He’s got a decent cross but I was expecting more

 

[Machine Elements]

We had no problem in goal (De Gea + Romero + Grant/Pereira) but Ole decided it needs "fixing. He made it worse.

We had no problem in defence (at least in actual defending; maybe at building from the back but we're as shit now if not more) but Ole decided it needs "fixing. He preferred the worst one to partner his record signing and we lost £150 m+ Smalling for this shit defence. Our defence is definitely worse than it was under LVG or Mourinho (if you don't count the season when he was sabotaging it on purpose).

 

[Bastian]

We probably need 3 players for that back 4.

 

[sport2793]

We had no problem in goal (De Gea + Romero + Grant/Pereira) but Ole decided it needs "fixing. He made it worse.

We had no problem in defence (at least in actual defending; maybe at building from the back but we're as shit now if not more) but Ole decided it needs "fixing. He preferred the worst one to partner his record signing and we lost £150 m+ Smalling for this shit defence. Our defence is definitely worse than it was under LVG or Mourinho (if you don't count the season when he was sabotaging it on purpose).

Wow so many people begged for Henderson to start over De Gea and now you have this guy who says that Henderson should never have come in the first place. What an awful fan base this has become.

 

[Machine Elements]

Wow so many people begged for Henderson to start over De Gea and now you have this guy who says that Henderson should never have come in the first place. What an awful fan base this has become.

I don't care who begged for Henderson to start as I wasn't one of them at any point. I always thought he should've been sold when his stock was high after a good season in PL. And this says nothing about the fan base. Stop dramatizing the situation.

 

[Polar]

We probably need 3 players for that back 4.

At least 2 players. AWB is terrible and we also need a more aggressive and fast central defender (and CDM and RW)

 

[Bobski]

There is barely a decent defensive side in the league, a reason why the Utd numbers don't stand out, but what is that, 19 goals conceded in 12 games? On course to concede 60+, worse than our managerial sabotaged 18/19 efforts

 

[Bwuk]

Shocking tonight.

Maguire doesn’t inspire confidence. He was bought to be our leader at the back, but he’s not got it in him.

 

[Godfather]

Hell no.
If this is what happens the moment we don't go with two ultra defensive midfielders then God help us.

 

[Andersonson]

Difficult to blame the defence today. An error from our up and coming keeper and a corner that was never a corner.

Maguire and Lindeløf was good today

 

[Godfather]

One thing I really appreciated with Romero was his handling of set pieces and crosses. Wasn't faded at all and quite casually handled them. With DDG and now Henderson (seemingly) we have two GK that shit their pants at every corner. Not helped by a defense that can't defend them either

 

[Eckers99]

We're not great defensively but the back 4 gets no protection from the midfield unless both Fred and Mctominay are playing, and even then we're hardly rock solid. We need a top CB and top DM.

 

[keithsingleton]

Our defence will never ever ever be fixed till we buy in the transfer market. Yet again conceding poor goals, espically against a team that have lost 12 of their last 13 games. As usual we make hard work of it.

 

[G-MUFC]

There's a reason why we play with two defensive midfielders quite regularly - our defence is not good enough. Lindelof and Maguire will never be a title winning partnership. We're kidding ourselves if we think they can be.
I'm also getting increasingly worried about AWB's poor passing. It feels like the opposition are specifically putting pressure on him when he has the ball as they know his passing ability in tight areas is very poor.
If we can get a proper backline this team can go places.

 

[Dante]

Our defensive organisation is shit.

I don't think it's about the players, or even that transfers will fix anything. The problem is the distance between the defenders and how easily they're dragged out of shape.

Maguire and Lindelof have been very good this season. Shaw and AWB are fantastic defenders in their own rights. But none of them are playing on the same wavelength right now.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Was it me or did we seem unusually happy to just let the ball bounce a few times today? It was bizarre.

 

[Zoo]

Paul Scholes talking some sense on Prime. Said that the key for the defence and getting the best out of Bruno is getting control in midfield.

 

[adnando]

There is barely a decent defensive side in the league, a reason why the Utd numbers don't stand out, but what is that, 19 goals conceded in 12 games? On course to concede 60+, worse than our managerial sabotaged 18/19 efforts

With a sample size of 12 where one of them is a huge outlier I could give you some fun statistics as well.

Do you think we we'll reach the 60 away goals we are on route to finish on?

 

[Ekeke]

There's a reason why we play with two defensive midfielders quite regularly - our defence is not good enough. Lindelof and Maguire will never be a title winning partnership. We're kidding ourselves if we think they can be.
I'm also getting increasingly worried about AWB's poor passing. It feels like the opposition are specifically putting pressure on him when he has the ball as they know his passing ability in tight areas is very poor.
If we can get a proper backline this team can go places.

Dont forget 2 defensive fullbacks / or 1 defensive fullback and Shaw being a balance.

Also sometimes we have our DM playing because he's tall (McTominay) to help out the defence

It reminds me of when we were stacking our midfield so that Roy Keane could still play for us when his legs had gone, only our CBs have never been as good as Keane

 

[croadyman]

We're not great defensively but the back 4 gets no protection from the midfield unless both Fred and Mctominay are playing, and even then we're hardly rock solid. We need a top CB and top DM.

I know the club will just wait until the summer but really wish we would sign a fast CB in Jan who also had those leadership qualities to bail out for Maguire's serious lack of pace, don't even get me started on seemingly no interest whatsoever in a DM which absolutely staggers me when it's such a huge issue.

 

[croadyman]

When you need 3 or 4 players there just to babysit Lindelof-Maguire, then it's far from being fixed.

You have absolutely nailed it right there about our midfielders needing to babysit two CB's. What I also really can't get my head around is how we had one of the best defence in the league last season yet this season our back 4/5 have just fell off a cliff and looks so nervy and susceptible to conceding goals.

 

[The United]

Maybe someone can dig a stats for this.

From what I remember, the amount of aerial duels we lost or missed the ball completely in this game was insane. Out of 4, only Harry was reliable tonight.

It is a big concern especially with our shit record with defending (and attacking) set peices.

 

[croadyman]

Maybe someone can dig a stats for this.

From what I remember, the amount of aerial duels we lost or missed the ball completely in this game was insane. Out of 4, only Harry was reliable tonight.

It is a big concern especially with our shit record with defending (and attacking) set peices.

Such a ballache that none of our top CB targets are going to be available in Jan because like you say we are absolute garbage at defending set pieces and need someone commanding to come in and sort that out

 

[red woppit]

Our defensive organisation is shit.

I don't think it's about the players, or even that transfers will fix anything. The problem is the distance between the defenders and how easily they're dragged out of shape.

Maguire and Lindelof have been very good this season. Shaw and AWB are fantastic defenders in their own rights. But none of them are playing on the same wavelength right now.

Agree to a degree. I haven't got total faith in Lindelof, I think he can struggle against big strong forwards. I think we need an out and out defence coach to organise our back four/five, and how they integrate with our midfield.

 

[VivaRonaldo85]

What doesn’t help is Maguire and Lindelof never have any competition for their place based on performance. I mean what on earth is the point of having Rojo, Jones, Bailly & Tuanzebe on the books if they can’t keep themselves injury free for more than a game or two (if we’re lucky). It simply cannot keep coming down to luck for all four players.

Agree AWB, Lindelof and Maguire are nothing like top class but at least they can play twice a week every week. Over the next two transfer windows, we need to dispose of 3 of the 4 CBs listed above and buy one world class option and one squad CB with very good fitness records. That would make such a difference to us.

 

[FrankDrebin]

I think long term the idea is to possibly have Lindelof and Axel as the two main back-up options while having a new and stronger CB alongside Maguire.
This will only be achieved once we've (finally) moved on Jones, Rojo and Baily.

 

[croadyman]

I think long term the idea is to possibly have Lindelof and Axel as the two main back-up options while having a new and stronger CB alongside Maguire.
This will only be achieved once we've (finally) moved on Jones, Rojo and Baily.

Well we can thank Judge for giving Jones that stupidly long contract worth over £100,000 a week and now we are lumbered with him because understandably no one is stupid enough to pay him daft money like that

 

[arthurka]

Difficult to blame the defence today. An error from our up and coming keeper and a corner that was never a corner.

Maguire and Lindeløf was good today

I am not shifting blame here but why the feck was Harry passing it back to Henderson? He had no clear angle to play to, plus a player pressing him. If Henderson's next move was to lump it up field why didn't our captain just lump it himself? Every single game we are conceding from a set piece. We don't win headers and again corner to our near post ends up in the net. Comical

 

[croadyman]

I am not shifting blame here but why the feck was Harry passing it back to Henderson? He had no clear angle to play to, plus a player pressing him. If Henderson's next move was to lump it up field why didn't our captain just lump it himself? Every single game we are conceding from a set piece. We don't win headers and again corner to our near post ends up in the net. Comical

Yeah absolute keystone cops stuff and teams are rightfully targeting it as a weakness

 

[Ekeke]

I think long term the idea is to possibly have Lindelof and Axel as the two main back-up options while having a new and stronger CB alongside Maguire.
This will only be achieved once we've (finally) moved on Jones, Rojo and Baily.

That might be the idea now but it certainly wasnt when we signed Lindelof, or more importantly Maguire.

We show no intention of moving Jones, Rojo and Bailly

 

[A-man]

Maybe someone can dig a stats for this.

From what I remember, the amount of aerial duels we lost or missed the ball completely in this game was insane. Out of 4, only Harry was reliable tonight.

It is a big concern especially with our shit record with defending (and attacking) set peices.

It was quite even. We won 20 aerial duels and they 19.

Aerial duels won:
Lindelof 5 (lost 2)
McGoldrick 4 (lost 7)
Maguire 4 (lost 3)
Pogba 3 (lost 2)
Burke 3 (lost 3)