Centre halves

[Pedro de la Rosa]

According to Riza he is in charge of the attacking setup he was an attacking player, so that makes sense. the other coaches organise the defence, most of whom he had little say in them being there.

We've scored 40 goals in 39 games...

[PontBlue]

I said months ago we should have brought in Morrison as an organiser at the back once we'd got him fit even at his age he's better than Goutas

[North Cardiff Blue]

I said months ago we should have brought in Morrison as an organiser at the back once we'd got him fit even at his age he's better than Goutas

I think he would have been a good influence as a defence coach and given them some confidence, but he's obvo well past it.

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

I said months ago we should have brought in Morrison as an organiser at the back once we'd got him fit even at his age he's better than Goutas

It would have been a disaster attempting to get Morrison fit and playing for us.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Our best centre half is a left back who was playing in the Belgian 2nd tier last season. Burnley have centre halves worth 10m+. You can only coach someone so much, I don't see how you can coach Daland to be significantly stronger, Fish to switch on etc, this is basic stuff and they can't do it

Quite. I don't get why this is a mystery to some, that it's just a case of having an experienced manager to plug the leaks.

There's an old saying that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Last season Bulut realised we had a crap defence and went more and more defensive to try and help that. This season Riza has tried the opposite approach that attack is the best form of defence.

This season has been one of the worst ever for keeping clean sheets. While it's easy to blame the manager and suggest this would be easily solved by having an experienced gaffer, at some point the penny has to drop and we realise that our defenders are just crap at this level. When we won promotion from the third tier last time we had Gabbs and Prior at the back. Both of those (from the time) would walk into our side. It's that bad. If we go down we need new centre backs.

[Pembroke blue]

Plus Lee Baddeley

Forgot Lee Jarman

And James Collins

[Eric the Half a Bee]

We've scored 40 goals in 39 games...

42. We had scored 33 in the previous 39 league games....

[PontBlue]

It would have been a disaster attempting to get Morrison fit and playing for us.

And our defence isn't?

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

And our defence isn't?

So you want to compound the problem, rather than try and make it better?

[Undercoverinwurzelland]

Just looking back at the centre backs selected to start our Championship matches this year:

Fish Chambers
Ng Fish Daland
Fish Goutas Daland
Fish Bagan
Fish Bagan
Ng Fish Bagan
Goutas Fish
Goutas Bagan
Ng Goutas Bagan
Fish Ng
Ng Goutas Bagan
Goutas Bagan
Goutas Fish Bagan
Goutas Daland
Goutas Daland
Goutas Daland
Goutas Daland
Goutas Daland
Goutas Daland
Goutas Daland

It was settled in January, when we won 2, drew 4 and lost 0, but then we lost 7-0 to Leeds and we haven't seen that partnership again. In our 13 games since then we've had 10 different combinations, switching regularly between 2 & 3 CBs and the CB selection has only been unchanged once. It's not the only defensive issue, and of course sometimes it's influenced by injuries and suspensions, but it's not helping is it.