Is defence or Lucas our weakness?

Goal 1 - Good closing down from Johnson and when their player was pushed back up the field by that good closing down, Suarez completely neglected his defensive duties and letting an easy cross drift.

well said Leiva
cant argue with any of that.

I think we miss a leader in defence/ defensive midfield.

We miss carra's organisation skills IMO. And although SG is cprt he has never been a vocal leader or organiser this is why him and Carra worked so well together. There are many recollections from lots of players of Carra 'talking' players through a game and he recently spoke of his frustration when Enrique wouldnt listen to him

Somebody in there needs to step up and take over this role.

Lucas a d gerrard togrther is horrible, gerrards defensive game isnt very good either

We've not had a settled back four this season which I has played a part in our defensive frailties. Only twice this season have we played the same back 4 in consecutive games - right at the beginning of the season in the Stoke and Villa games, where we played Johnson, Toure, Agger and Enrique, and then more recently against West Ham, Spurs and Cardiff we played Johnson, Sakho, Skrtel and Flanagan. Other than that we have had to play different players in each game. Agger has been injured, Enrique injured, Johnson was out for a bit, Sakho is injured now, Flanagan is injured.

A solid defence is based on familiarity and partnerships. You look at the best defences in recent years and they are usually a settled defence.

We've been a little unlucky with injuries to our defensive players ad there has been al ittle unnecessary rotation from BR. We need to pick our best 4, and barring injuries we need to stick with that back 4 for a run of games.

^ true enough a settled back four is definitely required, but... Fair play to Rodgers for bringing in Sakho and Toure.

Goal 1 - Good closing down from Johnson and when their player was pushed back up the field by that good closing down, Suarez completely neglected his defensive duties and letting an easy cross drift.
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To be fair, it’s not easy stop a cross from that angle, if the ball is played back, and then brought inside for the cross. Nobody can stop 100% of crosses, and crosses from that angle ought to be easier to defend than crosses from the goal-line, so many coaches would settle for a cross from that angle, so long as we stop them going down the outside and crossing from the goal-line.

But as Carra pointed out, as soon as they play it backwards like that, it’s standard for defences to step up a few yards (so that Crouch would have been further out when he headed it),

This is fairly basic stuff, I’ve seen Sunday league teams doing it, and it makes you wonder about our defensive coaching, because we seem to concede from fairly bog-standard approach play. And our centre-backs are agonisingly slow to close down.

At the other end, we get in loads of crosses from that angle, but the opposition's centre-backs always seem to deal with them.

Fair points Wessie

my only objection was that somehow Johnson was at fault, when as far as I could tell he was the one person who did his job right

Wessie, again I think this comes down to the fact that we very rarely have played with the same back 4 this season. A settled back know exactly when to step forward, press higher up the pitch or defend deeper.

LIke you say, so many of our goals have come from silly mistakes, basic defensive errors, bog standard stuff that we should be able to deal with, but with all the changes in the back line means that we are a little frail, and we're making these basic errors

Also with all the changes to the back, especially in central defence, no one is taking charge of teh defence. Who is the leader at the back? .

my only objection was that somehow Johnson was at fault, when as far as I could tell he was the one person who did his job right
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The odd thing about Johnson is that his reputation is for being weak defensively, and good in attack, whereas I tend to think it's the opposite, these days.

Very few get around the outside of him, and the number of goals that originate from his side of the pitch is proportionately small. Going forward, he looks the part, with his pace and balance, but nothing much ever seems to come from it.

On balance, though, I prefer it that way around. We're plenty creative enough, anyway.