Defensive overhaul

[Señor]

We severely need it if we want to win anything. Only Shaw is good enough to start in a top PL side. Rafael is also good enough but he's always injured so what fecking good is that?

Then you've got the triumvirate of the fecking idiots that can't defend nor are they ever fit - Jones, Smalling and Evans. You've also got loose cannon Rojo who I'm not entirely sold on but it's early days from him but he's only gone and fecking injured himself! You couldn't make this shit up?!

McNair and Blackett are bright points to our defence, particularly the former, but they're young and learning and I'm not sure I'd trust them to start against the likes of City and Chelsea just yet.

What I can't forgive is the holy trinity of shiteness. I'm still holding out hope for Jones but the other two I've long lost hope for. They're not exactly young either which Jones is. The last time either of the two played well is a distant memory to me.

I'm being totally serious when I say that two of Evans, Smalling and Jones need to leave in the summer, preferably the former two, and be sufficiently replaced. Actually it's not even hard to find players that aren't worse than our current defenders in their current form.

 

[caisenma]

There is no doubt in my mind that when we get our shit together with signings in the back, we will be a force to be reckoned with. Our attacking players simply cant do their thing as it stands.

 

[kouroux]

Holy trinity of shitness

 

[Getsme]

Yet again the defence is coming into criticism, our attacking play at the moment is just as questionable. They are getting off lightly due to everyone focusing on our defence.

 

[Kostur]

We severely need it if we want to win anything. Only Shaw is good enough to start in a top PL side. Rafael is also good enough but he's always injured so what fecking good is that?

Then you've got the triumvirate of the fecking idiots that can't defend nor are they ever fit - Jones, Smalling and Evans. You've also got loose cannon Rojo who I'm not entirely sold on but it's early days from him but he's only gone and fecking injured himself! You couldn't make this shit up?!

McNair and Blackett are bright points to our defence, particularly the former, but they're young and learning and I'm not sure I'd trust them to start against the likes of City and Chelsea just yet.

What I can't forgive is the holy trinity of shiteness. I'm still holding out hope for Jones but the other two I've long lost hope for. They're not exactly young either which Jones is. The last time either of the two played well is a distant memory to me.

I'm being totally serious when I say that two of Evans, Smalling and Jones need to leave in the summer, preferably the former two, and be sufficiently replaced. Actually it's not even hard to find players that aren't worse than our current defenders in their current form.

I agree though. And agree with @Getsme, shit up front, Rooney, Januzaj, ADM, all shit. Only RVP's been somewhat decent today with that shot at goal after a good play.

 

[OneUnited24]

Evans and Jones are the ones that have been the bigger loss for me. Say what you will about Evans but hes had a torrid time with injuries this season and i think in the early part of the season he was playing through it, until it finally snapped. Smalling i've said for a while needs to go... Next Vidic my ass.

If we get a proven CB i think we'll be fine

 

[Raees]

It is a joke, not a week goes by without one of them injuring something or being suspended. The byword for defenders is consistency.. none of our RB or centre-backs have that. At the moment it feels like Luke Shaw and whoever the feck we have available alongside him.

 

[Kevin]

Smalling and Evans can feck right off. Jones may be a back up defender and we need a capable right back to rival the brazilian crock.

 

[Señor]

Yet again the defence is coming into criticism, our attacking play at the moment is just as questionable.

I actually agree as we don't look particularly convincing going forward but our defence is twice as shit as our attack is. On their day, our attacking force is lethal but our defence will always be shite. We could have conceded 10 today. Really.

 

[LeChuck]

Quick word on Shaw-

Tbh, Shaw has been decent, but compared to Evra's attacking contribution, he has a lot to do. Evra contributed so much to our attacking play that Shaw doesn't. Defensively I'm not sure he's been up to standard, he's given away a penalty not long ago, he sometimes ball watches. However, he's only 19 and I'm happy to give him time.

But it is glaringly obvious how potent Evra used to be on that left flank for us.

 

[Sammyjunn]

Jones, Smalling, Evans, all unreliable defenders, and I would add Rojo to them, Yaya should have got a penalty and probably a red card, it's time to get us some new ones.

 

[Jacob]

Sick and tired of all these injuries. We keep going one step forward and then two steps back. Just stop training all together and see if that helps.

 

[Eyepopper]

Yet again the defence is coming into criticism, our attacking play at the moment is just as questionable. They are getting off lightly due to everyone focusing on our defence.

You don't think being so suspect at the back impacts on our attacking players?

 

[Sammyjunn]

Quick word on Shaw-

Tbh, Shaw has been decent, but compared to Evra's attacking contribution, he has a lot to do. Evra contributed so much to our attacking play that Shaw doesn't. Defensively I'm not sure he's been up to standard, he's given away a penalty not long ago, he sometimes ball watches. However, he's only 19 and I'm happy to give him time.

But it is glaringly obvious how potent Evra used to be on that left flank for us.

That penalty should never be a penalty as he played the ball, was a mistake by the ref.

 

[footballgirl07]

What happened with Evans? I know he got injured v Lei but he seems to of disappeared?

 

[thejtrain]

Shaw was excellent today. For me Smalling has always been good defensively, but no doubt he cost us the game today. Absolutely stupid for his first yellow. Rojo has been a bit underwhelming I thought.

I still think the forward and midfield didn't do enough for me. Did we get behind their defense once in the 1st half?

 

[Sammyjunn]

You don't think being so suspect at the back impacts on our attacking players?

Ofcourse it does, but di Maria not being able to pass his man, or our attacking players not being able to give a through ball for our striker to get 1 vs 1 is just also a huge concern.

 

[Kostur]

And there goes the continuity of back four by the way, last week when we played Chavski somebody's made some kind of a table where they've shown CB pairing for both teams. 'Pairing' applies only to Chelsea, untill that match Terry and Cahill played all matches in EPL together while we've had like 6 or 7 combinations for CBs and that's excluding such shit as Valencia at RB or Reece James at LB.

It hurts our whole defensive cohesion and hits DDG in the face as well.

 

[Revan]

At-least two central defenders should come and at-least two should leave. Then we should also sign a right back either as backup, or preferably as competition/upgrade for Rafael. It is beyond joke now. We might lose on UCL because our central defenders combined have a total of zero cells and are injured most of the times. Rafael at-least plays usually decent when is fit (for around half of season). Something that we cannot say for our trinity of shiteness.

Rojo has been very underwhelming so far. Passing ability of Chriss Smalling, defensive awareness of David Luiz, rackless tackle ability of Phil Jones and attacking threat of Rio Ferdinand.

 

[bosnian_red]

Jones, Smalling and Evans are all too injury prone. I'd keep Jones as he's still 22 and has shown promise at times. But only as a squad player. Rojo doesn't seem too great but he's a new signing so who knows. I'd still like to bring in 2 more to replace Evans and Smalling, who I really hope get sold. Both have made too many unforgivable mistakes and are way too injury prone.

 

[An Irish Red]

Jones, Smalling, Evans, all unreliable defenders, and I would add Rojo to them, Yaya should have got a penalty and probably a red card, it's time to get us some new ones.

I thought Rojo did pretty well today. He has potential, I think he'll end up being a decent signing.

Still, we should really try and get a Vidic-esque defender in. We need a leader back there (especially with both our fullbacks being young as well).

 

[Ixion]

I was saying this back in the transfer window when all the talk was about Vidal, our defense is the biggest problem especially after losing Vidic, Rio and Evra all in one go. Only United fans think Smalling, Evans or Jones are top quality centre backs. They're all liabilities.

 

[Raoul]

Shaw and Rafa are perfectly fine. McNair looks promising. We need one top class CB to come in and lead the way.

 

[Ryan7]

It really is shocking how a Carrick, who's a midfielder, who hasn't played a competitive game all season and a McNair who's not played for the senior team for a while and is young, are a better combination than our most senior centre backs.

 

[Insanity]

Keep Shaw and McNair, and fire the rest of them. Seriously, how long will we to have to wait for Evans, Smalling, Jones and Rafael to overcome their injury troubles? Evans has been in the team since 2008, same with Rafael. Smalling and Jones have also been here 4 or 5 years now. Rojo looks a terrible defender, so much so that I would take Blackett ahead of him at the moment.

We definitely need an overhaul. Actually, it has been due for a couple of seasons now.

 

[NoLogo]

I agree we need to get rid of at least two of our injury prone CBs and bring in players that don't get injured every other game. That being said I don't feel Smalling was too bad before the sending off which admittedly though was borderline retarded.

 

[Eyepopper]

The problem with our defence is it's too young and inexperienced, even De Gea, as good as he is is only 23 and doesn't really direct his CB's with the authority of an older keeper.

Thinking about selling any of our defenders right now would be stupid. We need to add an experienced beast of a defender back there to shore things up

 

[Kag]

Quick word on Shaw-

Tbh, Shaw has been decent, but compared to Evra's attacking contribution, he has a lot to do. Evra contributed so much to our attacking play that Shaw doesn't. Defensively I'm not sure he's been up to standard, he's given away a penalty not long ago, he sometimes ball watches. However, he's only 19 and I'm happy to give him time.

But it is glaringly obvious how potent Evra used to be on that left flank for us.

Evra couldn't defend and quite simply couldn't be arsed half the time so we've upgraded that position immensely. Shaw's attacking play will improve but defensively he's lightyears ahead of the imposter we were watching for the last few seasons.

 

[Roboc7]

Two centre halves and another right back are essential if we want to improve, Rafael needs competition and none of the other centre halves can be trusted to either stay fit or play well enough on a regular basis and I don't see that changing.

 

[Cee90]

LvG will hopefully promote a few good youngsters from the reserves as well as picking up a quality defender or two in January.

Otherwise we're really not going to make the top 4.

 

[El Zoido]

It's causing us huge problems. All great teams are built on a solid back four that plays every week, you need to be organised and have understanding with each other.

We're being FORCED to play different players every week, through injuries and suspensions. Teams will continue to cause us problems until we can have a settled defence.

 

[footballgirl07]

Rafael will be back next week. He was training a day after he got the knock, so can't be serious. Jones and Evans, not sure what is happening with them in terms of length of injuries. Smalling was stupid today and tbh, that is not something you can usually blame him for especially in terms of the first yellow. We do need another CB though for sure. McNair did well when he came on though. One for the future.

 

[Señor]

McNair has really impressed me so imo he should be only behind Jones in the pecking order for right centre back position until January where hopefully we buy somone, or if not then, the summer.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

We need to buy an experienced world class CB in January, then we will be well balanced.

 

[stubie]

Is Tuanzebe ready for the first team squad yet? Have heard positive things about him this season.

 

[legball]

Moment of absolute stupidity by Smalling, but I still think he's a good CB, better than Jones. Rojo is the one I don't trust, was never thrilled with his signing, we do need defensive reinforcements and strong characters in midfield.

 

[Leg-End]

Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra all leaving in one summer, you would expect one of those we already had to step up and take their chance.

Blackett and McNair are the ones that have increased their stock, Evans, Smalling, Jones have all failed one way or another to take it, be it mistakes or injuries. LvG doesn't have any ties to these players, he will replace them if they aren't up to it rather than try convince himself they will make it.

 

[FromTheBench]

They keep getting injured and we cannot get any sort of consistency going.

That and LVG not able to instill defensive organization to play the risky high line he wants is a problem.

 

[Someone]

I think all of our defenders are fine but not good enough to start together, we really need a leader in the middle of this defense, we also need a good back up for rafa.

 

[footballgirl07]

Anyone know where Blackett was today? Wasn't on the bench.