Lay off our defence

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: Lay off our defence

You choose to ignore the obvious failings in this squad/manager. That's your choice.
However, you have no right to demand that others ignore them, or stop talking about them on a public message board!!!

Please show where I've demanded or requested people stop taking about such things on a public message board.

As for obvious failings in the squad/manager, at the risk of repeating myself, I think it's a bit incongruous to be so overly critical when we've got one of the best defensive records in the country. If things were as bad as you have painted, we'd be leaking goals left, right and centre. Yesterday wasn't a good day at the office, sure, but it's hardly time for armageddon. You might be interested to know that, before yesterday, we faced 15 attempts on target at our goal in 7 league games. As I've mentioned before, only a few sides have faced less shots at goal than we have. Only 1 side in the bottom 3 divisions has more clean sheets than us, yet you moaned that we didn't manage that yesterday.

No matter what stats you use, your description of us having a "leaky defence" is utter nonsense.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: Lay off our defence

True but we can't defend corners and dead ball crosses at the moment.

We've faced 36 corners and conceded from 1. 3 of the goals we've conceded have come from free kicks. I don't have stats on the number of free kicks that have been crossed in the box. 2 of the other 4 goals we've conceded have come from crosses in open play.

In open play we have been excellent defensively. I don't think it's so much a lack of height that causes a problem, more that we seem to switch off, particularly with free kicks.

[Ninja]

Re: Lay off our defence

We shipped 2 goals yesterday. A better team would have stuck more on us.
If that's not something to be concerned about then I don't know what is!
You know as well as I do that the stats you use are flattering us.
I'll have to agree to disagree with you on this one. Stats never tell the full story, I'd rather judge by the performances I'm watching with my own eyes.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: Lay off our defence

We shipped 2 goals yesterday. A better team would have stuck more on us.
If that's not something to be concerned about then I don't know what is!
You know as well as I do that the stats you use are flattering us.
I'll have to agree to disagree with you on this one. Stats never tell the full story, I'd rather judge by the performances I'm watching with my own eyes.

So, because of one game, we've got a shit defence? Is that your argument?

[Ninja]

Re: Lay off our defence

So, because of one game, we've got a shit defence? Is that your argument?

You know damn well it's not.
Ng isn't strong enough in a back 4, and Nkounkou looks like he'd be better suited to the left side of midfield. Thus, 50% of our back 4 yesterday looked somewhat problematic and I would consider a potential liability.
But you knew all this already didn't you? :thumbup:

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: Lay off our defence

You know damn well it's not.
Ng isn't strong enough in a back 4, and Nkounkou looks like he'd be better suited to the left side of midfield. Thus, 50% of our back 4 yesterday looked somewhat problematic and I would consider a potential liability.
But you knew all this already didn't you? :thumbup:

I'll agree that Nkounkou looks a liability at left back in a defensive state. Morison will know this.

As for Ng, he's been a regular part of one of the best defences in the football league. If he was that hopeless we wouldn't have the defensive record we have. Kipre is good but he's not a one man defence.

[Ninja]

Re: Lay off our defence

I'll agree that Nkounkou looks a liability at left back in a defensive state. Morison will know this.

As for Ng, he's been a regular part of one of the best defences in the football league. If he was that hopeless we wouldn't have the defensive record we have. Kipre is good but he's not a one man defence.

I wouldn't describe Ng as useless, I like him. He's a bit better than he should be at centre-back really, given his lack of physical presence.
He's not a proper centre-back though and we all know this. We got away with it in a back 5 but he's exposed more in a 4.
He got bullied yesterday too which is a big concern. It also means less height for set pieces.
I would be more than happy to keep Ng as a right-back, he plays well in that position in a 4. I would just prefer to have better centre back options than him.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: Lay off our defence

I wouldn't describe Ng as useless, I like him. He's a bit better than he should be at centre-back really, given his lack of physical presence.
He's not a proper centre-back though and we all know this. We got away with it in a back 5 but he's exposed more in a 4.
He got bullied yesterday too which is a big concern. It also means less height for set pieces.
I would be more than happy to keep Ng as a right-back, he plays well in that position in a 4. I would just prefer to have better centre back options than him.

I agree with that, though I'm not necessarily sure that a lack of height causes a huge problem. 36 corners and 1 goal suggests we don't have that much of an issue. Falling asleep at free kicks is, though.

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Lay off our defence

We've faced 36 corners and conceded from 1. 3 of the goals we've conceded have come from free kicks. I don't have stats on the number of free kicks that have been crossed in the box. 2 of the other 4 goals we've conceded have come from crosses in open play.

In open play we have been excellent defensively. I don't think it's so much a lack of height that causes a problem, more that we seem to switch off, particularly with free kicks.

Agreed on defending in open play, we are almost the reverse of last season, where we were relatively good at defending set plays, corners free kicks and crosses and terrible at conceding from open play, mostly shots from just outside the box where players seemed to find a gap between the midfield and defence and have the freedom to shoot at will.

Your stats will include Collins, we are much weaker defensively now that he is injured, in the last couple of games the defence hasn't looked as tight.

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Lay off our defence

We shipped 2 goals yesterday. A better team would have stuck more on us.
If that's not something to be concerned about then I don't know what is!
You know as well as I do that the stats you use are flattering us.
I'll have to agree to disagree with you on this one. Stats never tell the full story, I'd rather judge by the performances I'm watching with my own eyes.

The stats look better because Collins was excellent, also with O'Dowda we were attacking down that side so the opposition were attacking us much less down that side of the pitch.

Hopefully we will look a bit better defensively when O'Dowda is back

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Lay off our defence

I have no firm opinion either way of Ng, I just know that we've been relatively tight at the back overall.

Whether we continue in this vein, I don't know, but if we end up conceding 46 goals when it comes to the end of the season, defensively it will have been a success. We've kept more clean sheets than any side in the Championship bar Preston. Only 5 other sides in the Championship, League 1&2 have as good a clean sheet record as us.

I have read Bob's blog as always, and he's right about us being bullied. I said it after a recent game and it's more worrying for me that teams will have worked this out. For all the passing, we don't do the ugly things well enough.

Last season we were regular poor starters but one of the best at turning games around. This season we haven't managed an equaliser yet and every 1-0 deficit has seen us lose our heads and turn it into a 2-0 deficit. We have once lost a lead (and lost the game eventually). That suggests we are lacking in confidence.

Yesterday's goals were disappointing, the second one was dreadful by one player. Whether that's a trend that will continue, who knows? All I know is that we'd been solid enough at the back for the last 2 games to have been a blip defensively.

For me the biggest worry is still that we're not taking our chances. Had we not hit the post from point blank range and taken the lead, it might have turned out differently. Of course, if my aunty had bollocks she'd be my uncle.

I said this last season, that we were constantly going behind and making it hard for ourselves, that trend is coming back and without our height advantage from long throws, corners and dead balls it's hard to see where the goals will come from to get us back into the game. Now we are easy to play against, bully us, stop Wintle high press then get everyone back in position as we move the ball forward so slowly, if we go down one nil, the Manager team and crowd are all worried.

[Cardiff Ultra]

Re: Lay off our defence

The statistics don't lie, less goals conceded than Reading in 3rd and Bristol in 4th. The problems in defence are minor niggles compared to our complete inability to create clear cut chances and take the few that we do create.

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: Lay off our defence

The statistics don't lie, less goals conceded than Reading in 3rd and Bristol in 4th. The problems in defence are minor niggles compared to our complete inability to create clear cut chances and take the few that we do create.

The stats flawed they include Collins and O'Dowda, do the stats since Collins was injured as he's out for the season.

It was also early season before teams had spotted our weakness, crosses, corners free kicks from the side we are weak defending those, and clubs will target free kicks and corners as we were doing last year.