Our Defence

Smalling and Jones were excellent.

Problem today was Herrera and Matic. They were terrible. Our midfield needs an overhaul, not our backline.
 
Smalling was probably MoM today. All the lazyness was in midfield.. Alright Young's first 30 minutes was bad
 
Our defenders have been easy targets for years. No doubt even today we will get the "if we had ball playing defenders, suddenly Matic would look 25 again, Pogba would be focused and Herrera would be more than average" but they often get little help.
 
Today we defended individually very good - collectively very poor
 
A major problem are also the people in front of it. Matic seemed to always be where no one else was, never cover any dangerous areas and Herrera was chasing shadows all game long. These two also need to do a better job. But it's not only them, the pressing of the front four players needs to improve, we let our opposition all the time in the world to pick out passes. The opposition should be scared to get on our patch and not feel like they are having a nice exhibition match where every opposition player just does some polite escorting.
 
Ekeke said:
Great today. Our 3 best outfield players on the pitch, Jones, Smalling and Shaw
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Agreed. Jones and Smalling looked genuinely pissed off with Matic and Pogba and how much pressure they were putting them under.
 
What a baffling bump. Our midfield was a disaster today, defence was very good apart from Young.
 
I think our midfield is the biggest problem for us. Then we need better wingers. Defense is the least problem we have right now even if we could need a better right back over Young.
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
Smalling and Jones were excellent.

Problem today was Herrera and Matic. They were terrible. Our midfield needs an overhaul, not our backline.
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Watford midfielders overran Matic and Herrara today ( not surprisingly , no help from Pogba and Mata defensively there ). Pogba is not a midfield. He is a #10 , Baggio type of playmaker. He cannot defend and tackle because his defensive positional sense is so poor he is always 10y away from the ball. Ole has to play him higher, relieved him of any defensive duty.
 
So, everyone in this thread has wiped out Young's existence? He was one of the worst players on the pitch. Not to mention the chuckle brothers couldn't pass 5 yards which meant our midfielders had to try risky things to get out (especially Pogba).

The standards of defending have fallen so much that any semblance of defending is praised. Defenders should be able to do the basics of defending and make intelligent plays with the ball.
 
Bobcat said:
We defended well against attacks yes, but except Shaw none of the defenders today know how to pass so it almost becomes impossible to build from the back. Watford could just press high and it ended with a hoof every time.
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None of our midfielders or attackers did either. Seems weird to blame the ones who have least to do with the problem
 
Both centre backs today were a big part of the reason we were under so much pressure. They're uncomfortable pushing forward with the ball and nervous of getting caught out without it. They camped out on the edge of our box and gave the midfield a massive job to cover all the space that created, and against a strong centre forward like Deeney the last thing you do is risk second balls dropping on the edge of your own box.

Couple that with Ashley Young whose only forward pass is to boot it straight back to the opposition and Matic who looked knackered even if he didn't have half the pitch to cover.
 
Midfield was our problem for a long time. Defence takes the blame everytime though
 
yeh. If only we had the like of Thiago Silva and Kimpembe on defence, we wouldn't concede any goal.
 
Isotope said:
yeh. If only we had the like of Thiago Silva and Kimpembe on defence, we wouldn't concede any goal.
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It's all a bit messed up at PSG. Kimpembe wouldn't even make the team, but they are playing Marquinhos in midfield because Rabiot has been frozen out.
 
Devils11 said:
Watford midfielders overran Matic and Herrara today ( not surprisingly , no help from Pogba and Mata defensively there ). Pogba is not a midfield. He is a #10 , Baggio type of playmaker. He cannot defend and tackle because his defensive positional sense is so poor he is always 10y away from the ball. Ole has to play him higher, relieved him of any defensive duty.
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Agreed
 
settembrini said:
What a baffling bump. Our midfield was a disaster today, defence was very good apart from Young.
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Agreed, I was wondering whether Dalot should have come on for Mata because Young was getting the run-around by Deulofeu.
 
Our back 4 were immense in defence. Their only goal came from jones being wildly out of position leaving perreira to cover his position which led to the only proper chance at goal for them.
 
You guys were right. Our defence is impeccable.
 
Smalling and Jones have never been good enough and Lindelof would be a third choice CB back when we were a good side.
 
If we had a decent attack, midfield that can keep the ball then our defence wouldn’t be exposed much. I rather we spend a shitload on the attacking side than sort out the defence.
 
The fact that the chuckle brothers still are at the heart of our defence after all these years is mind blowing.
 
Only Shaw is anyway good enough.
The rest are all mid table players.
 
We have to be the weakest team in the league. Physically and mentally
 
Dalot's on a one man mission to answer the question 'Would he have done any worse than Young against Barcelona?'
 
Smalling. Just not good enough, no composure.
 
Our defence is shocking, lower table level. No leadership. No composure. They look totally lost week in and week out.
 
So obvious what the problem is. Let our cbs have the ball, all they're capable of doing is giving it to each other, the full back directly next to them, or a cm has to literally run beside them and take it from them. We need centre backs to break the lines
 
Me and a few others were ridiculed for saying Dalot is worse defensively than Young - hm...I wonder
 
Shaw is the only one that’s good enough. I like Lindelof but even he isn’t really of the quality we should be looking at. Smalling and Jones are trash pandas.
 
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