Our Defence

[Sylar]

People will keep saying smalling is our best defender

But it's no surprise if you look at the early games under Ole we didn't have smalling but we had Jones and lindelof who could play triangles and quickly
Jones isn't the answer but smalling defo isn't

Lindelof is not a rb
I do wonder how many other big clubs play as many people out of position as we do

 

[Dr. StrangeHate]

Our defence is under pressure for more than 50% of the game. That is guaranteed more than any of the other top 6 sides. We have to take that into account before shitting on the defence. Our midfield as always is non existent.

 

[Samid]

Our defence is under pressure for more than 50% of the game. That is guaranteed more than any of the other top 6 sides. We have to take that into account before shitting on the defence. Our midfield as always is non existent.

Because they are incapable of playing it out from the back, forcing DDG to hoof it and lose possession.

 

[OldSchoolManc]

So, Jones has a bumper new contract, he’s gonna go back to the sick bay soon.
Mark my words.

 

[tjb]

Our problems started the minute smalling was reinserted into the team, and became worse when lindelof stopped being available in March's international break. This everton game at the moment is built on us not being able to get the ball up the pitch like we used to. Our attackers have always been suspect at holding on to possession, but because we were able to build it up from the back with lindelof under ole, we always had the opportunity to create chances, mostly through pogba. This jones and smalling reunion seems to have killed all the progress we had made. I am completely done with them. Bring up Tuanzebe, buy a new centre back and play him alongside Lindelof, its been 8 years with us, and they still offer nothing appealing.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Need to bring in 4 players at least. 2 centre backs who can pass, 1 decent right back & 1 deep playmaker.

 

[buckooo1978]

Need to bring in 4 players at least. 2 centre backs who can pass, 1 decent right back & 1 deep playmaker.

yeah can't disagree with this

I'm really hoping the reason why Jones/Smalling were extended was to make them sellable assets

 

[Ekeke]

Any defense looks worse with midfielders taking the day off in front of them. Fred has tried a little bit, Matic and Pogba have been on vacation

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

I'd rather see Rojo at CB than Jones at this point, that's how bad it is.

If at least one of Smalling and Jones isn't sold this summer then there's no hope, these pair of tits have been stealing a living at this club for far to long now..Tuanzebe shit's all over those two!!

 

[charlenefan]

Bump

So after spending 130m on the defence during the summer how do people feel about it now? Obviously points wise we're not doing good in the PL, only 10 points from 9 played, we've statistically got the '3rd' joint best defence in the league (Liverpool and Sheffield United with 7 goals conceded, Leicester with 8 and then us and City on 9) however the biggest defensive stat that goes in our favour is the xGA - we top that particular table with only 7.21 against (Liverpool are next on 8.17)

 

[FrankDrebin]

The defence would look even more assured,and one that would receive a decent amount of acknowledgement, if we had a attack and midfield that could fundamentally keep the ball better.

 

[Raw]

It's definitely improved but it's still prone to random individual errors which I hope will sort itself out.

It doesn't help at all that there's no protection from midfield either. Plus when we're scoring 1 goal a game at most, the defence is under immense pressure to keep a clean sheet as the opposing teams are always going to be chasing the winner/equaliser. Outside of the Chelsea game, we've never had a 2+ goal cushion to ease the pressure off.

 

[2cents]

Happy enough, individual mistakes have cost us but it’s not a problem area, although our full-backs obviously need to
contribute more going forward.

 

[Ekeke]

CB partnership is slightly better than Smalling + Lindelof, RB is a big improvement on Dalot or Young.

We probably got about £50 million of improvement on last season out of the £130 million spent

 

[Fosu-Mens]

The defence would look even more assured,and one that would receive a decent amount of acknowledgement, if we had a attack and midfield that could fundamentally keep the ball better.

Which is another approach to rebuilding a squad.

 

[FrankDrebin]

But ultimately I'm happy with the back 4. Its a position in the side that I can look at and say " y'know,that's a solid,balanced back four and I like it".

 

[FrantikChicken]

It's definitely improved but it's still prone to random individual errors which I hope will sort itself out.

It doesn't help at all that there's no protection from midfield either. Plus when we're scoring 1 goal a game at most, the defence is under immense pressure to keep a clean sheet as the opposing teams are always going to be chasing the winner/equaliser. Outside of the Chelsea game, we've never had a 2+ goal cushion to ease the pressure off.

I think this is a huge factor. The defence itself is doing just fine, we're not conceding a lot of goals and even the error/panic moments are now much more rare than they were in previous seasons.

If the attack was doing its job then we wouldn't even be thinking about the defence at this point. We need this team to start consistently scoring goals.

 

[Bestietom]

I think this is a huge factor. The defence itself is doing just fine, we're not conceding a lot of goals and even the error/panic moments are now much more rare than they were in previous seasons.

If the attack was doing its job then we wouldn't even be thinking about the defence at this point. We need this team to start consistently scoring goals.

I agree except for when Young is playing the defence gets more shaky.