Critch’s Quandary - The Defence

N

northstand

Well-known member
Looking at things now you would concede the defence is going to be Critch’s missing piece of the puzzle and frankly the area that we have spent the least amount of time trying to sort up to now.

We seem to have made some strange decisions including keeping Nottingham and Turton whilst allowing Macdonald to go out on loan. We’ve tried different centre back combo’s, big Marv shows promise but seems to let his nerves get the better of him with his occasional lapses in concentration.

So what would everyone do between now and Stoke to get the balance right?

Personally I haven’t got a clue 😂
 
Thought Marv was better second half, and the trialist was good considering he was on trial and dind't know the team, loved him getting forward. Think they need more depth a good CB would be great. However, the forwards are going to score so many, not as worried about the odd lapse. Don't forget today was against Prem attackers, maybe 4 or 5 errors. Maxwell only made 1(?) save
 
Still think we need another centre back, left back and right back. Plus back up keeper.
After todays performance I'm happy with midfield and up front
 
The missing experienced CB is glaringly obvious at the moment and possibly the final piece of the jigsaw. We won't be playing the quality of the Everton forwards week in and week out but it does need sorting as confidence is built from the back.
 
I would be surprised if there is room in the budget for a CB who would go into the starting 11 without a couple of players leaving first
 
I’ve been saying it for a few weeks now, but the last two pieces of the puzzle for me are a dominant tall centre back to partner Thornily, and an experienced central midfielder with a defensive head on his shoulders.

Think Big Marv and Nottingham still have a bit to prove yet. We have all the legs and thrust going forward, but there have been a few time’s not only today but all preseason where we’ve become panicked in central mid and not picked the correct pass or put it into row Z when necessary. We need that experience there to guide Virtue and communicate with the young lads of the
 
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SeasideMac said:
Still think we need another centre back, left back and right back. Plus back up keeper.
After todays performance I'm happy with midfield and up front
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No creativity in the midfield. If Anderson got injured then the midfield would be completely barren
 
Let's consider how much players have improved, in a few pre season games. Defenders will too, and are doing. Defence is a difficult art, and it takes a while for a defence to come together. I think both Ekpiteta and Nottingham could become capable right sided central defenders. Maybe Turton too. And Thorniley and Husband on the left side. With coaching and time playing together. Otherwise, why have we handed contracts to all these players?

Bit of patience.
 
If needed I would be happy to start with this defence There is not scope to add many senior players so we would be relying on young premiership want to be's to improve defence. There will be better defenders in L1 but those we have appear to be capable and the more time they spend together the better they will gel as a unit
 
Seaside_Hawk said:
I would be surprised if there is room in the budget for a CB who would go into the starting 11 without a couple of players leaving first
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I think we will be losing Garrity, Yuseff and Devitt so there should be scope for a couple more in.
We still need a third goalkeeper don't forget.
 
Insider said:
I think we will be losing Garrity, Yuseff and Devitt so there should be scope for a couple more in.
We still need a third goalkeeper don't forget.
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Agree. Sounds like Garrity is going on loan and Devitt being sold/loaned. Yousef they need to offload and I wouldn't mind seeing Howe loaned to L2 to play a full season to get experience. I think we need to do everything we can to get a quality left side CB. Would like to get somebody experienced who is commanding and has a voice. We seem to have ok depth in numbers, I'd rather sign a real quality (even captain material) in this position opposed to signing another 3 similar to what we have.
 
If we're serious about promotion, we still need a centre back, a defensive midfielder and a striker, imo. It is a long old season, especially playing Saturday/Tuesday more often.
 
Insider said:
I think we will be losing Garrity, Yuseff and Devitt so there should be scope for a couple more in.
We still need a third goalkeeper don't forget.
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I cannot see any of the 3 you mentioned being anywhere near the team. Equally I do not think anyone will take them on.
Do we bite the bullet and pay up at least one of their contracts to allow other senior squad players to be signed. Surely none were on big wages so we should still have headroom to the salary cap
 
thedevilsadvocate said:
Nottingham has impressed me so far and Marv is learning. Three goals conceded today, one an unlucky deflection, one a silly mistake for the pen and he'll learn from that and one a worldie ! We were the better team against a strong Everton side for 60 mins imo. Not too much to worry about.
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Plus we were disrupted by making 7 changes before they got that free kick. Continuity and stability in the XI will help the defensive shape.
 
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