With the emergence of Greenwood + Bruno

If we could rely on having all three of Martial, Rashford and Greenwood staying fit all season then sure, it's not a problem area. But it would be nice to have a top class player who can come in when someone in the front three isn't available or isn't quite firing.

I think a quality attacker, DCM, LB and CB are all important, for various reasons.

Sancho should still be the priority. Greenwood’s emergence has been fantastic but we still need more quality and depth in the attack.

If we can get Grealish as well we’d have one of the best group of attackers in the league. The defence isn’t amazing, but it’s competent enough. We’d probably concede fewer goals if we could kill teams off earlier, more regularly.

comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 5 minutes ago
Sancho should still be the priority. Greenwood’s emergence has been fantastic but we still need more quality and depth in the attack.

If we can get Grealish as well we’d have one of the best group of attackers in the league. The defence isn’t amazing, but it’s competent enough. We’d probably concede fewer goals if we could kill teams off earlier, more regularly.
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If teams are terrified of our attack, that takes more pressure off our defence than an uograded defender

RR, yep definitely. There’s also been times when we’ve got a bit desperate when trying to get a goal and left ourselves a bit open and out of shape by committing men forward. With a better quality and depth hopefully this shouldn’t need to be the case.

I personally think people obsess over our defence too much, and have done for years. There’s been loads of teams over the years that have won league titles that concede goals at a similar rate to what we have. Few win them with such a low amount of goals scored.

In an ideal world we would buy a rw, magic replacement and a CB but I just don't see us signing all 3 this summer window. Don't think there is a CB who is top quality and available anyway so we may have to make do.

The guy from Leipzig seems highly rated and young but rumours for him seem to have gone quiet. We may bring one in this summer but can't see it being or 4 coming in that we would need to really close that gap

comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 1 minute ago

I personally think people obsess over our defence too much, and have done for years. There’s been loads of teams over the years that have won league titles that concede goals at a similar rate to what we have. Few win them with such a low amount of goals scored.

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All very well having a free scoring team but some games will be tight, that's where you need a defence to keep things tight, helps by not having individual brain fart moments like Maguire and Lindelof seem to have more than other defences of the top 4.

I knew about Maguire's lack of pace but he was a decent defender, an organiser, good on the ball and a leader to a degree but you can't forgive basic errors we've seen in recent games.

De Gea is not helping either, his nervousness and errors are contagious. It's spreading.

All very well having a free scoring team but some games will be tight, that's where you need a defence to keep things tight, helps by not having individual brain fart moments like Maguire and Lindelof seem to have more than other defences of the top 4.
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Chelsea and City are even worse for this.

We don’t have a free scoring attack anyway. But it would be better if we did.

I’m trying to add a bit of perspective to the obsession with our defence. We’ve had leakier defences that have won titles because we had a good attack.

And I’ve given some reasons as to why I think we’ll concede fewer goals with a better attack.

Imran,

They also hold on to the ball better. Their emphasis is on ball retention and when not in possession they hunt in packs to win it back

It's not an obsession to ask your GK and defenders to do the basics and not always look to feck up the good work the attacking side of the team are doing.

It's a double edged sword. If the team know they have a solid foundation they are likely to take more risks, especially against top sides. It was only Bournemouth yesterday, against top sides it may have been worse

However, there's also validity in asserting attack is a better form of defence. Half of the psychological battle is won before the kick off simply by having the likes of Sancho, for example, in the line up.

But they concede more goals than we do, and it’s because of their dodgy defence and in Chelsea’s case a weak keeper. So it’s not true to say we have more individual brain fart moments than these sides when we don’t. Liverpool are the only side in the league that don’t.

Our defence hasn’t been a problem against top sides really either. We have the best record in the division after Liverpool.

It’s an obsession when people continually complain about it despite the attack clearly being inferior, and the rate at which we concede goals is comparable with most of our rivals and even title winning teams of the past.

It can be improved, of course, and needs to be. But it’s not as big an issue as sorting the attack. The stats have backed this up pretty much every year.