Why always me? (explained)

comment by righteous1 (U7048)
posted 12 minutes ago
It's not about individuals.

We have good individual defenders, it's the coaching/set up that is the problem.

Sakho has been just as bad as anyone else in our set up, so was Agger.

Buying more defenders won't solve anything, even if we signed John Terry and Kompany.
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Its both. The coaching and set up is definitely a problem but there are individual issues that need to be addressed. Mignolet is not commanding, which means the defenders don't know what he's going to do. This means uncertainty for the centrebacks., which leads to mistakes/poor positioning. This is a problem with an individual. We need a more commanding keeper. Mignolet isn't good enough in my opinion. Both Lovren and Skrtel need to use their size and strength more. They should quite easily be winning headers if they attack the ball. At corners it's as if they wait for the ball to come to them. You could blame this on coaching but for me it is basic defending. You get to the ball first as a defender at set pieces. There are lapses in concentration by all of our defenders, there are poor decisions being made regarding positioning, when to attack the back, when to sit back. These are individual errors. You can coach a team as much as you want, drill them, but if on the day they continuous lose concentration or are out of position then what is a manager supposed to do.

How many teams play with a DM? Did Real?

At the end of the day Rodgers can't coach a defence. It really is that simple. The shape is awful, disorganised and square.

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This is looking likely unfortunately.

We enjoy the good bits such as he technical players, the fast attacking football (when we play well), and the high tempo pressing.

Unfortunately the flip side appears to be an inability to organise a defence with any sort of consistency. Rather like Wenger has been in the last decade.

I agree FJM that Mignolet is an issue

Getting a new keeper won't solve our problems though unless the unit are coached properly.

Two banks off four to sheppard the ball wide and make players play through the lines which is hard to do as it squeezes space. Done.

Flat line of 6 and you'll get done.

Fjm

comment by righteous1 (U7048)
posted 5 minutes ago
I agree FJM that Mignolet is an issue

Getting a new keeper won't solve our problems though unless the unit are coached properly.
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It won't solve all of our problems but it will help.

As a centreback, if you know you have a commanding keeper behind you, who will more often than not make the right decision, then it makes your job easier. At the moment I don't think Skrtel and Lovren know what Mignolet is going to do. They continuously have to second guess him. Will he come out and collect, will he stay on his line? They have to worry about their defensive duties and about the goalkeeper.

We've had our fair share of dodgy keepers in the past. Its no coincidence that when we were at our best defensively we had a quality keeper in Reina. Dudek was a decent goalkeeper; we conceded 41 goals in 2004-05. The following season with Reina in goal and pretty much the same defence in front of him, Finnan, Carra, Hyppia, Riise we conceded 25.

Hyppia

Is doing a poor job at Brighton

Keepers can make a big difference as defenders do rely on them a lot.

comment by TalksRubbish (U3303)
posted 39 minutes ago
The problem with our defence is a number of things coming at once.

A lack of confidence. Both as individuals and as a collective. The players are panicing and thats causing fellow defenders not to trust them, hense you get two players going for the same ball because they dont trust the other to get it.

A lack of cover. Gerrard simply isnt a good, and mobile enough DM to cope with a side like Real. He can 'do a job' there against the more defensive sides that wont commit many players forward but we need a natural there for these sort of games at the very least.

Nothing up front. Yes yes, its easy to blame Mario, but do you know why. Because he has been rubbish. We have no threat up front, and other teams feel that. It allows them to play the ball around, gain confidence and build pressure which in turn puts more pressure on our back line. If we had a genuine attacking threat teams would be less willing to commit players forward which would take pressure off our defence immediately.
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I think you have it nailed on there