Pilchards Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 I find it funny how Ralph mentioned that Adam Armstrong is not getting games as he’s not able to defend. Laughable considering he bought him as a striker. Anyway the last 7/8 games our defending has reached a new poor standard. Watching players falling over each other, passing it out to strikers, being out of position, not marking the obvious strikers. Is it not time to bring in a defensive coach expert to work alongside the manager? Finally what three words summon up our current defending? ‘TOTAL FCUKING AMATEURS.’ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 I can only assume that Salisu has been sucked down to the Bednarek level after playing with him for so long, Salisu certainly isn't as bad as he's showing right now. It seems most of the time Bednarek and Salisu get in each others way, lack of communication maybe or Bednareks' shitness just expelling over those around him. VVD and Fonte, Fonte and Toby and Fonte Lovren were great partnerships. Strong defensive partnerships is where the success of the team starts. We've gone from that to Jack Stephens, Jan Bednarek, Vestergaard, Hoedt...just what the fuck. We didn't do that for free either! Is it any wonder we concede 60 a year when we've been playing with that absolute shit. Yoshida wasn't great, but I'd have him starting every week right now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 Our press ain't all that. Midfield don't provide enough pressure on the ball or cover, full backs out of position all the time leaving big gaps, offside trap non existent, and we don't even bother defending free kicks. A general lack of pace at the back. A lack of pace across midfield... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunglasses Ron Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 I thought we’d made such progress earlier this season, plenty of clean sheets and generally restricted defeats to a single goal or two. Now look at us, the most porous defence out there right now. We seem a bit like a turbo charged Renault 5, mixing it with the big boys only for the turbo to break down and being ruthlessly exposed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErwinK1961 Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 8 minutes ago, Chez said: Our press ain't all that. Midfield don't provide enough pressure on the ball or cover, full backs out of position all the time leaving big gaps, offside trap non existent, and we don't even bother defending free kicks. A general lack of pace at the back. A lack of pace across midfield... I think it’s already been said, but just feels like we’re missing another body in the centre of midfield. Asking two CM’s to play this way, press, cover every blade of grass etc. just isn’t going to succeed over 38 games. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Grandad Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 All over the place yesterday, no shape or cohesion. Rolling around like a tray of marbles on a ship in a storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemi Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 I feel like our defense is always trying to do too much. Constantly flinging themselves around, charging out at people, always looking desperate and flustered. Got to go back to basics and tell them to maintain shape, don’t try and win every ball and just be difficult to get past. Surely it can’t be very difficult to coach that? Van Dijk is one of the best defenders not because he tackles or intercepts a lot, but he’s just always there. Our defenders are the complete opposite - too busy flying into tackles in the halfway line, while the opposition attackers are clean through on goal. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Grandad Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 Just now, Nemi said: I feel like our defense is always trying to do too much. Constantly flinging themselves around, charging out at people, always looking desperate and flustered. Got to go back to basics and tell them to maintain shape, don’t try and win every ball and just be difficult to get past. Surely it can’t be very difficult to coach that? Van Dijk is one of the best defenders not because he tackles or intercepts a lot, but he’s just always there. Our defenders are the complete opposite - too busy flying into tackles in the halfway line, while the opposition attackers are clean through on goal. Spot on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Appy Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 Bednarek didn’t even want to play for us against Man City in the cup, has continued to be awful but yet continually gets picked, which shows how weak Ralph is but also how bad the others must be. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diabolus Ex Machina Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 1 hour ago, Nemi said: I feel like our defense is always trying to do too much. Constantly flinging themselves around, charging out at people, always looking desperate and flustered. Got to go back to basics and tell them to maintain shape, don’t try and win every ball and just be difficult to get past. Surely it can’t be very difficult to coach that? Van Dijk is one of the best defenders not because he tackles or intercepts a lot, but he’s just always there. Our defenders are the complete opposite - too busy flying into tackles in the halfway line, while the opposition attackers are clean through on goal. We have four forwards (two strikers, two 10's), fullbacks that are told to bomb forward down the wings and two CMs who are told to press high. The defense has to move around and out so much because they are literally the only one's back there when we are pushing for a goal so when we lose the ball and a counter starts there's is literally no help once the ball is played past the half way line (which can be as simple as a ball over the top a lot of the time). The answer is to simply stop committing so many men forward all the time - have at least one CM sitting consistently deeper and have the fullback who's side the offense isn't going down also sit back a bit. Slow down the attack to allow everyone to get back in position and set up a proper defense. It isn't rocket science but it goes against Ralphs high pressing philosophy so we continue to throw men forward, get stone walled by a tightly packed defense then hit on the break. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cat Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 1 hour ago, Appy said: Bednarek didn’t even want to play for us against Man City in the cup, has continued to be awful but yet continually gets picked, which shows how weak Ralph is but also how bad the others must be. I'd rather have Stephens in there. At least he can shithouse a few strikers along the way and seems to actually care. Bednarek averages out about one good game in 3 or 4, then reverts to type and makes silly mistakes. Lord knows what he was doing for the second goal yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nta786 Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 1 hour ago, Appy said: Bednarek didn’t even want to play for us against Man City in the cup, has continued to be awful but yet continually gets picked, which shows how weak Ralph is but also how bad the others must be. Yep, but let's not forget that Bednarek blew smoke up Ralph's arse when he said something along the lines that Ralph could manage a big club or Man Utd (or something similar) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemi Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 53 minutes ago, Diabolus Ex Machina said: We have four forwards (two strikers, two 10's), fullbacks that are told to bomb forward down the wings and two CMs who are told to press high. The defense has to move around and out so much because they are literally the only one's back there when we are pushing for a goal so when we lose the ball and a counter starts there's is literally no help once the ball is played past the half way line (which can be as simple as a ball over the top a lot of the time). The answer is to simply stop committing so many men forward all the time - have at least one CM sitting consistently deeper and have the fullback who's side the offense isn't going down also sit back a bit. Slow down the attack to allow everyone to get back in position and set up a proper defense. It isn't rocket science but it goes against Ralphs high pressing philosophy so we continue to throw men forward, get stone walled by a tightly packed defense then hit on the break. If you’re having to change your philosophy because you can’t coach your team properly then you probably shouldn’t be manager. There are plenty of coaches who can get their team to press high while maintaining some sort of shape. If a coach’s philosophy is to press high it shouldn’t really be too difficult to get his team pressing cohesively in order to maintain some sort of structure whilst doing it. Saying that Bednarek has been liable for kamikaze defending his whole time here. You’d expect that was something that could be coached out of him. Salisu seems reasonably liable too - I’m not sure if this is something he did in Spain too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derry Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 We need to play to our limitations. We are not Manchester City. Stop aimless possession from the back and get the defenders to get the ball forward quickly and keep a solid back four with Romeu holding. Everybody else attacks the ball. We keep numbers at the back, press hard from the front and first and foremost become hard to beat. Watching Bednarek and Salisu uncomfortably tippy tappying and eventually chipping the ball forward to nobody in particular or passing back to Forster frustrates the hell out of me.. We had 60% possession yesterday and most of that was five yard tippy tappying in our own half. The more possession we have the worse the performance and final result. The quicker we get the ball forward the fewer defenders the forwards have to contend with. Yesterday it was mostly ten defenders because we were so ponderous and slow. Possession at our level doesn't equate with success. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smirking_Saint Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 I think the main issue is Ralph still continues to play his high risk press, without our forwards having the energy or will to carry it out, our fullbacks continue to push to enable the transition but it eventually fails, the ball gets turned over and then we get countered Diallo was terrible defensively yesterday but even Oriol has struggled to get around the pitch as much since Feb Im not excusing Bednarek, he’s been terrible, and yesterday was the worst Ive ever seen him, Toney had him on strings… positionally awful, weak in the tackle and just all over the place. BUT, our insistence to play a failing press hirts us even more 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiberalCommunist Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 I hope Rlph reads what you just wrote. He seriously needs a wake up call. The problems are glaring. # The solutions are not even being looked at. The rinse and repeat level of execution is going to get Ralph sack at some stage. Just wake up ffs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 41 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said: I think the main issue is Ralph still continues to play his high risk press, without our forwards having the energy or will to carry it out, our fullbacks continue to push to enable the transition but it eventually fails, the ball gets turned over and then we get countered Diallo was terrible defensively yesterday but even Oriol has struggled to get around the pitch as much since Feb Im not excusing Bednarek, he’s been terrible, and yesterday was the worst Ive ever seen him, Toney had him on strings… positionally awful, weak in the tackle and just all over the place. BUT, our insistence to play a failing press hirts us even more Didn't we ditch the intensive high-press approach at least 5 games ago? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cat Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 4 minutes ago, trousers said: Didn't we ditch the intensive high-press approach at least 5 games ago? We seem to do it in patches, but have definitely eased off it as a full on tactic. Probably don't have the fitness at this point of the season to keep it up, bearing in mind that every single player has to be fully on it to make it work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smirking_Saint Posted 8 May, 2022 Share Posted 8 May, 2022 2 hours ago, trousers said: Didn't we ditch the intensive high-press approach at least 5 games ago? Its eased but we still set up to play it, far too often against Brentford we ended up with Salisu/Bednarek exposed against Toney, Wissa and Mbuemo I imagine tactically you’d want Diallo to drop and support but he didn’t, and once you don’t ‘trap’ or win the ball high in their half it just turns over and you’re in the shit Currently I don’t really know what are tactics are, we aren’t pressing to any real degree (Id argue you either commit or you don’t, a half arsed press just causes your shape to dissolve), we do nothing in possession, we seem to build up, play wide, cross early, lose the ball and repeat Its just tired But back to my main point… its not JUST that Bednarek/Salisu are having a hard time, its also a lack of any significant shield or defensive organisation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skintsaint Posted 9 May, 2022 Share Posted 9 May, 2022 Eriksson had the freedom of the pitch on Sat, was sitting between out midfield and defence and just spraying the ball to their three quick attacking players. Rest of their team basically just sat back for the most part. So easy to play against. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smirking_Saint Posted 9 May, 2022 Share Posted 9 May, 2022 9 hours ago, skintsaint said: Eriksson had the freedom of the pitch on Sat, was sitting between out midfield and defence and just spraying the ball to their three quick attacking players. Rest of their team basically just sat back for the most part. So easy to play against. Noticed this too, he didn’t have to work hard to find space at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainchris Posted 9 May, 2022 Share Posted 9 May, 2022 On 08/05/2022 at 09:40, ErwinK1961 said: I think it’s already been said, but just feels like we’re missing another body in the centre of midfield. Asking two CM’s to play this way, press, cover every blade of grass etc. just isn’t going to succeed over 38 games. Nail on head….. After three years though Ralph is yet still pressing the repeat button…. It cannot be allowed to continue.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teddeer Posted 9 May, 2022 Share Posted 9 May, 2022 Our defending makes the Keystone Cops look organised. It is a complete shambles and Ralph needs to explain what is going wrong and how he intends to put it right. I get that he's not on the pitch making the embarrassing errors and cock-ups but the buck stops with him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadhall Saint Posted 9 May, 2022 Share Posted 9 May, 2022 On 08/05/2022 at 09:39, Sunglasses Ron said: I thought we’d made such progress earlier this season, plenty of clean sheets and generally restricted defeats to a single goal or two. Now look at us, the most porous defence out there right now. We seem a bit like a turbo charged Renault 5, mixing it with the big boys only for the turbo to break down and being ruthlessly exposed. That’s what I find weird - the defending at the start of the season to the end it’s like we have brought in different personnel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKsaint Posted 10 May, 2022 Share Posted 10 May, 2022 For me I think it is all due to decline of Salish in form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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