fixtures

Our defence will be sorted out fairly soon. Many players are coming back. I should only get better.
Persie's presence is magical...Must stay healthy.

+ Don't be surprized if we buy an additional defencive player in January.

comment by RedReason (U5677)

posted 7 minutes ago

we can have all defenders fit and playing, however if we dont keep the ball better then teams like cfc will always outplay us
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Most of our goals conceded have been from crosses or bad marking on defenders. We kept the most possession in the league most games, its just that like against nearly every team it seems it just goes in. We defended great but rooney gave a needless freekick away for 1st goal. 2nd goal though just better marking stops it. I think out of all the top teams we have done the least defending as we are on top most games.

hafijur - think that is slightly misleading tbh.
most teams park the bus and try and get us on the break. with success recently too

however teams who come to ''play'' its a different story

the second goal today was scored with carrick and cleverley around the player

In the first 20 minutes or so, we were basically playing counter attacking football which worked really well, let them have possession, win it back high up and counter at pace.

However when they got hold of the game and started making us rush, we seriously struggled, especially the last 10 minutes or so the first half. Really need to improve keeping hold of the ball under pressure.

look at when tottenham won against us with no real ball possession. Anyway I am more worried with half our defence missing especially big players in last 2 seasons.

hafijur - cannot comment on the spurs game as I didnt watch the whole game due to an emergency

all I am saying is that against teams like cfc who come to play we just look pressured and loose the ball inviting pressure onto the back 4, undue pressure

it seemed at times we would pass to degea who would hoof it forward for respite

I will get slated for this but we need better than cleverley and rooney when teams like cfc come to play. Play rooney as an out and out forward not someone coming deep. we know he can score but he cant keep the ball for toffee

carrick isnt great under pressure but playing clev with him adds pressure if he (clev) makes sloppy passes and loses the ball continuously.

I think Rio and Evans are doing ok, but the back 4 isn't always getting enough protection from the midfield in front. Of course Vidic in particular is a big miss, but I think Rafael has done well with a run of games and is improving all the time.

I think that after such a long consistent run at LB, Evra is now starting to finally wear down. His positional sense seems to have gone missing recently and he is beaten too easily these days. The problem is that as a defender Buttner does not seem much better - a typical modern full back who looks good going forward, but let's not forget that his first duty is to defend, but there is still time for him.

Overall the team needs to improve defensively - we have so much firepower that we are urently getting away with it, but there will be matches when we are not always banging them in.

i actually thought we defend quite well today until chelsea made it 2-1. for the first half an hour we bossed the game, away to a side that were unbeaten and picked them off at will. had valencia's shot at 2-0 gone in we could have clocked up a cricket score and overall, i thought we were the better team and deserved the victory.

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