Nev.

The back 5 are a problem. That's the back 4 and Kasper.

It's no surprise even you were praising Kasper when he had a solid 5 man defence in from of him. Now we have lost a man and height from set pieces he does look back to his jittery worst from art peices.

But it's not just him. We have defensive issues full stop that we need to resolve. The great escape can't happen every game!!

As for our attacking play when Mahrez, Vardy, Dyer and Albrighton are on the pitch though, well that's just some of the best football I've ever seen us play.

But as a former (not very good) keeper i know that the defence is built around the keepers skills and ability. If the defenders know that Kapsers not coming then they have to alter their game accordingly. He does not command his 6 yard box let alone the penalty box.

Playing three at the back means he has cover and also makes the cetnre halfs look better because they have cover. But we then have to Rely on Vardy as we do now to get us out of trouble.

Its not like just replacing a centre half or fullback its more fundimental than that.
Southampton played on it and got two goals from that weekness.

If you want clean sheets and score goals we need to be able to play 442 4411 432 to fit in the attacking players you mentioned Ferry boy.

352

Agree Nev - if we persist with a 4, we need to change the personnel. I would be prioritising a centreback and right back over a goal keeper though.

Hey Mersey we disagree but thats a good thing change the keeper and we might not. Don't change the keeper and who evers there the problem does not go away.

Take the second goal yesterday because he was so far back on his line and on his heels he looked complete numpty when the goal went in.

Our defence looked stupid for both Nev, nothing to with Kasper.

Morgan's fault got the first and the defence switched off for the second plus he was clearly way offside.

"he does look back to his jittery worst from art peices"
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Less time in training, more time at Tate Modern should sort that problem – or does it mean Southampton will be presenting one of their corners as the British entry at the next Venice Biennale?

Seriously though, he doesn't look brimming with confidence at the mo does he?

Fact is if your not one of the best teams in the league (which we aren't) and we want to score a lot of goals (which we do) we are going to concede a lot of goals (which we also do).

Im not convinced a new defender or 2 will make a huge difference.

What about Victor Valdes? He's not getting a game and was willing to go to Newcastle so I'm sure he'd come but is he still good?

I agree with you Nev about the centre halves adjusting their game to the keeper. I've played with keepers who don't come for crosses so you know it's down to you to head it away. I've played with keepers that can't kick so then you know not to pass back under pressure.

So yeah you do have to adjust your game accordingly but if you're good enough, then you can cover your keepers weaker points, the trouble is our defenders aren't good enough. Kasper has his frailties but he also has a lot of quality attributes too and with better defenders around him, he wouldn't be so bad.

Kevin Poole never commanded his box very well and he was under 6ft, only 5'10", but he had centre halves like Walsh in front of him, who put their head on the ball and attacked everything in the box and we had more height throughout the team with Sticks up front and Iwan Roberts etc so it didn't matter that he didn't come for crosses and he was a good keeper but with a smaller team, he would have been found out a lot more often. Kasper isn't that bad, it's the defenders that aren't really up to it.

I think at the top level you don't get so much luxury in the adjustment of your game. I know there's a lot of love out there for Kevin Poole, but he was a second tier goalkeeper. In that league, the likes of Walsh are able to help you out more because the attacking threat around them isn't so strong and clinical.

Now granted the 3-5-2 helped with this last year - specifically because the whole formation freed up Robert Huth to deal with such issues. As the fulcrum of the three centre backs, he was able to drop off, sweep and was very rarely dragged out wide. Essentially, when the ball came in high toward our box, he could attack it and he was ready to do so. This season he's been far more stretched, dealing with individuals and having to cover the full back position at times. I think he's being a bit over-criticised for his job so far as he's been pretty good when I've seen him, but with our style he simply has too much to do and we can't expect him to be everywhere.

As such, (and I've put this elsewhere), I'd like to see him alongside Benalouane in the next match and give Morgan a rest. Benalouane looks like the kind of player who can get around the pitch more, is comfortable with the ball at his feet and has got pace to get back - all things that are weaker in Huth's game. Also Huth may be able to compensate for the weaker elements of Benalouane's game - particularly positioning. With Fuchs on one side and Huth on the other, there are two experienced campaigners there who should be able to help or even bail him out with that on occasion.

Granted that doesn't particularly solve the issue of set pieces, but it might help to counteract the pace in the Palace side.

It's about personnel not formations.

If you're having to play 3 central defenders to keep a clean sheet then you need to address this in the transfer market.

You don't have to play 3 at the back to be able to defend set pieces or indeed keep a clean sheet. What you do need in this division is a very good holding midfielder, a commanding keeper and pace in your central defence

We don't really have this at the moment. Kante is still developing and he has all the assets to be a top defensive mid, but he struggled on Saturday. For the first goal he was marking Fonte despite being half a foot smaller. He got out jumped for the first goal.

He got outmuscled in a way cambiasso didn't on a number of occasions and didn't offer the required protection Huth benefitted from last season.

Additionally, dunge is right, Huth needs a defensive partner with pace, because he has none.

These are all personnel issues - inler was brought in to do the job cambiasso did, Fuchs to improve on konch etc. What we didn't do in the window was invest in either a top central defender or goalkeeper which I expect the club to address.

3-5-2 may paper over some cracks, but it won't be for long

I agree in general, BlackStarr.

A couple of points on Kante though: Having glanced at the match thread as the game was progressing, I was surprised to hear Matt Elliott announce Kante as a MOTM contender. (He went for Vardy, but may not have done if not for the equaliser.)
My concern - if you can call it that - about Kante is that, while his tackling is excellent and he can clearly play a bit on the ball as well, his positioning leaves something to be desired and this is very important for a holding central midfielder. I'll be interested to see whether this improves as the games roll on.

Also, from the replays I've seen I think the primary blame or the opener lies with Morgan for losing his man. Kante wasn't marking him as such - he was... well, I'm not entirely sure what he was doing, but if he was in the "first man" position near the front post then I think the team needs a review of why we're putting this responsibility on our smallest player.

You're right about the first goal DM, I mentioned it earlier, Morgan list his man quicker than Lanour dos the next election.

I would say Kante was the 'first man ' and not marking Fonte at all.

' lost his man quicker than Labour did the next election! '

I think the Labour machine was getting to your keyboard there, TB.

I could only use my very far left finger !

The rest were demonstrating.

Yep good points on Morgan, whatever was going on it suggested that no one is really co-ordinating the marking very well defensively. Kante should never have been picking up Fonte but perhaps felt the need to cover for Morgan who was on the near post

No, Morgan lost Fonte who came across Kante, Morgan lost him far to easily although it looked like a training ground practice move by Fonte to lose his marker which worked.

Is the defence shaky? Yes, we've yet to keep a clean sheet. I'm not overly bothered about it at present, we need 5 points from the next 5 games to be on target for 40 points with the 5 following 'bonus' games in hand up to half way.

I can't be too critical when we are 5th in the table -
P9 W4 D4 L1 and on 16 points.

And there was me thinking it was all RDL fault...

we got palace at home this Saturday and last season they scored 3 goals against us 0-1 at home and 2-0 away. all from set pieces.

It's certainly a good time Nev...nice post. All the best.

This makes me feel very warm:

"We were desperate [in the second half]," Ranieri admitted. "I told the players, 'If we lose 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, it's the same, we're still losing'.

"They believe, our fans believe, and this is very important."

I tell you what. As much as I don't like having Simpson in my team, it is nice seeing two full backs on the pitch that can defend!!

Fuchs is potentially my new hero.

Its also Mersey that the full backs solid as they are have some cover now with Albrighton and Kante defending starts at the front too. Every time Vardy or Oki chase down a defender looking to clear the ball that gives the defence more time.

Fuchs will become a legend imo