15 Feb 2021 14:54:34
I've seen a few comments about how it was our attack that let us down against West Brom and that the issues in defence are a miss direction.

While in that isolated case there is definitely an argument to say we should be able to create more goals against a side like West Brom. Overall it is obviously our defence that is the problem.

So far this season we are actually the top goalscorers. We have 50 league goals with City second best in the goals scored collum with 46.

Even if you knock 5 goals off from the freak 9-0 battering of Southampton we are still joint second for goals scored.

However, only Liverpool (who have had every first team CB out for large parts of the season) have conceded more goals than us in the top 10 of the EPL. With us conceding 31 goals to Liverpool's 32. Leeds United down in 11th are the first team other than Liverpool to have conceded more than us.

While both Burnley and Brighton sitting in 15th and 16th have conceded fewer goals than us. With Fulham in 18th place and one of the favourites to be relegated having conceded 31 goals the same number as us.

So while we still clearly on occasion have trouble breaking down low blocks and tough defences. It is our porous defence that is letting us down and will cost us.

After spending 162m on CB's (Maguire, Lindelof, Bailly, Rojo) and a further 136m on full backs (Shaw, AWB, Blind, Dalot and Telles) . We still look an absolute shambles, and under no manager have we looked defensively sound, plagued by individual mistakes which is down to the poor quality of the individuals more than the system played.

Until we have at least one world class CB and someone to organise our defence we will struggle for consistency.

1.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 15:09:19
I agree defence is an issue Shaps, I’ve just posted about it myself. But our front players are all over the place. I have no issue conceding 2 if we score 4 and that is how we got to be top, but right now we can’t score and look like we have no idea.

If we had created a few more chances and converted 1 of them, we would have beaten West Brom, Liverpool, Arsenal, and certainly wouldn’t have lost to Sheffield United.

2.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 15:32:02
the defense is a shambles if teams took there chances we wouldn't be 2nd, lucky for us they didn't. something needs to change we are conceding easy goals and if city win they go 10 clear.


martial is hindering the front 4

greenwood should be starting rw every game and rashford cannot play on the right he has no left foot.

3.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 15:53:02
shappy i think one of the main reasons we are struggling to break teams down is because we are tooooooo slow with the ball.

we don't play fast. its all static and sideways.

4.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 16:01:42
The issue with the goal we conceded yesterday is that we gave West Brom something to hang on to.

You don't let a Big Sam team take the lead. They went 1-0 win their cup final and then put 11 men behind the ball for the majority of the game.

The irony then is that they actually had the better chances to score again afterwards, despite having about minus 4 percent possession.

Shappy you rightly highlight how many league goals we've scored and I think it shows that our forwards have been burdened by our defence. We continue to concede first over and over again, and it's then down to our forwards to create something. When the forwards don't deliver there's a good chance we drop points because you know full well we're going to concede.

5.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 16:04:40
Tony, in the West Brom game I agree we needed to create more. But it was a typical Big Sam set up and we gave away a soft goal in the second minute. They were always going to play with 10 men behind the ball from then on. While i actually think we missed Pogba in that game as he is one of the few midfielders we have with the passing range to mix it up, or the dribbling ability to beat a man and open things up.

I agree the attack looks out of sorts, Martial particularly looks all at sea atm. He just doesn't have the mentality to deal with competition for his place. Rashford has been shunted to the right to make space for Cavani centrally with Martial displaced to the left.

Bruno also looks tired and he needs help, it can't always be on his shoulders to do something.

6.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 17:14:54
Remember the van Gaal era? Now that was sloooooowwww sideways passing.

7.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 19:00:50
Shappy. The manager and the coaches have had investment and time to sort out the defence. The book stops with them. We're poor coached all over the pitch.

8.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 20:41:08
Mumbles, do you honestly believe Pep or Klopp could turn Maguire in to Beckenbauer? If so can I have a glass of what your drinking?

9.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 21:08:03
Shappy

What Pep and Klopp would do is have a defined pattern, the defence would know what was expected and would be highly coached, they would coordinate with midfield, full backs would know their positions, I highly doubt either would play Lindelof alongside Maguire.

Looks to me like we only conceded one goal, yet it sounds like everything is down to the defence, a defence the club spent vast amounts on for Ole. Yes there are problems at the back yet it wasn’t the defence at WBA, the team further up looked clueless, endless passing across the pitch, watching Martial do nothing. The lack of pattern, clueless tactics not creating anything, the CB isn’t there to create goals, but loudly blaming the defence deflects from the obvious issues in the game.

10.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 21:17:41
shappy what system are we plaing. apart from i hope bruno scores.

11.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 21:30:18
Who said he has to be Beckenbauer? You're making excuses for the manager. You're giving him a complete free pass and absolving him of all responsibility.

He had 6 months to evaluate the squad before the first summer window. I don't think Maguire is that bad I just think we were rinsed in terms of value. So the manager spends 6 months and is happy to sign Maguire and AWB. He's then happy to get Telles in. Why sign the players if "no manager could improve them"?

He already had a group of defenders there that finished 2nd with Jose and won some cups. There's a player there with Bailey albeit with his downsides. Lindelof done well under Jose. Smalling was let go while Jones was given a 5 year contract.

I know all this isn't the managers remit, but he must have some say in it.

Right now our defence is woeful. The worst it's been since Fergie left. The manager decides to play two DMs to make up for it, sidelining our more technical players.

You said last year "Pep and Klopp are the two best managers in the world. So no manager could have done better than 3rd" now in a long winded way "no manager could make this defence better" it's all absolute nonsense!

Tuanzebe plays extremely well against PSG and then never sees the light if day again. Bailey does well when he plays only to be dropped. The manager has a really bad habit of sticking with his favourites even though they're not playing well.

I bet you there are countless managers who have the skill set to improve the defenders at our club. Making excuses like "no manager can improve us" as a backwards way to back Ole is a joke.

12.) 15 Feb 2021
15 Feb 2021 22:16:44
I think there is a defined pattern of play the issue is that we make too many individual mistakes and we lack creative players in the final third.

Our style is clear, defensively we stay narrow and compact, our full backs tuck in to provide cover for our slow CB's.

Our midfield is workman like, McFred close space and work as stoppers and shuttlers. They close off space then carry the ball to break the lines and make space as they don't have the technical passing skills to do so by passing.

We don't have any creative wide players, just wide forwards who tend to look to cut in and shoot. Martial when played as a striker tends to drop deep to collect the ball then turn and run at the defenders. This actually vacates space for either wide player to run into.

The issue is that Bruno is the only creative outlet to pass the ball to our runners.

Our pattern of play leans too heavily to the left hand side as we don't have a top class right sides player. While Shaw is the only creative option from wide when he overlaps but to do so Fred drops in to offer cover.

Stopping us is fairly simple, block off Shaw on the overlap and man mark Bruno. From that point onward we have no creativity. None really on the bench which to changes things with. Just more players who offer the same but with less quality.

13.) 16 Feb 2021
16 Feb 2021 00:13:41
Imagine being in Charge of Man Utd going into the 3rd year, spending over £300 million quid and all you need to do to stop us is to stop our left back getting forward and man marking our best player?

Do you think that's acceptable for a manager to be easily figured out Shappy?

14.) 16 Feb 2021
16 Feb 2021 00:24:15
Red Man spot on. Its a diflection from the real problem.
We played second from the bottom team, our striker not for once was in a goal scoring position, their keeper only made 1-2 decent saves and the quality of our chances were equal to less than 0.5 expected goals. 0.42 i think.
We were crap, its unbelievable that we are hearing the same excuses over and over.

15.) 16 Feb 2021
16 Feb 2021 09:40:59
Mumbles, if it was that easy to make any player great then why has Pep and Klopp made wholesale changes to the squad they inherited. Why did Pep bother spending 60m on Dias in the summer when he had other CB's, surely as the greatest manager currently in the game he should be able to turn players the club have spent millions to sign into the top players he needs rather than going and spending more money.

Simply put some players work out others don't. We have had more misses than hits, which is why 99% of fans want us to sign a new CB because the players we have aren't good enough.

You're right the club have spent over 1bn since Sir Alex left, and at least 90% of that has been poorly spent, maybe even wasted.

That isn't one managers fault, but a clear club sized issue that has predated the current manager and will still be the major issue once he has gone.

We have been told we are run by rank amateurs, and the evidence in front of us proves this to be true.

As for the question of whether Ole's tactics and should they be so easily figured out. Well again that is simple Jose was easily worked out, so was LvG so was Moyes. Managers tactics are difficult to work out, especially for clubs that spend maybe as much as a million pounds every year on analysts whose job it is to just analyse the opposition.

The difference is the most successful managers have the best players who are so good at their job it doesn't matter that you know what they are going to do, you can't stop it because they are the best at it.

Ultimately they are better at doing their job than you are at doing yours.

16.) 16 Feb 2021
16 Feb 2021 09:59:39
Herrera, Red Man says it's a deflection because it suits his agenda. He has spent nearly 20 years coming on here telling us that the Glazers are the problem, a cancer to our club. Then when Sir left he has said the Glazers are the problem, them and their "stooges" who they have put in place to run the club.

He said that under Moyes, he said that under LvG, he placed the entire blame of how Jose left at the owners and the boards door.

Since Ole has been manager, nothing about the owners, nothing about the board. Suddenly every issue at the club is Oles fault.

It's as plain as day that Red Man has a real issue with Ole and is prepared to ignore what he himself has been saying for over a decade just to put the boot into Ole.

When Ole has done well, he has spent hours researching articles from when Ole was Cardiff manager to find the tiniest snippet to write a post bashing the manager during a time the club was playing well and winning games.

I don't know if Ole refused to sign a shirt for Red Man or whether he's done something to upset him.
Or if it's a simple as displaced anger. Like a child who hates their new stepdad even though he's a nice guy, but the problem is he just isn't their dad.

Red Man praises the ground Jose walks on and maybe he's just bitter about how things ended and Jose left. So he feels displaced anger at the man who replaced him.

I don't know, what I do know is Red Man posts on here like it's a personal vendetta against Ole, while whenever this is brought up and he deflects.

While Ole might not be the right manager for us, he is not the root cause of our problems. Sacking the manager is just filling the cracks in the wall when your house is suffering from subsidence. Yeah the cracks are gone for a while but they will continue to open up.

17.) 16 Feb 2021
16 Feb 2021 13:27:39
I didn't agree with Red Man in the Zose debate but i can't blame him for this Shappy.
Win lose or draw i too don't see a progressive style and patterns. I see it at Braighton or City or Liverpool or Southampton or Leipzig Glandbax
I never said that "we will win nothing with Ole" because win or lose is depending not only on us but the others too. But in current circumstances we will never be as good as we could be. We won't see a team that plays without fear dominating all matches and be favourites.
For me winning something this year makes little to no difference. I can see Liverpool with 1000 problems and a hell a lot of bad fortune playing better and dominating . You can see the pattern, faces can change (because of injuries) but you can see the progressive style and patterns. The only difference is they are not so effective. I would be over the moon if that was the case with us and played well but individual mistakes costs us but that's not the case.