Inability to defend

Quoted from acko338

Andy Smith was the holding CB who cut many of these chances out last year.

His sense of positioning and timely tackles often saved us from conceding goals.

Sorely missed this season as none of the CB's seem to cover or hold that role presently.

Except he didn’t.

Smith was also often caught under the ball or out of position.

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

Except he didn’t.

Smith was also often caught under the ball or out of position.

Yep, prime example of that here, bang on 1:00.

It’s Rodgers’ poor position and failure to anticipate that was as much of a contribution to Morecambe’s first goal as Maher’s ill-executed header.

Quoted from mimma

People were moaning about being defensive,  not looking to attack but defend. Now we've gone the other way as they were advocating they are moaning that we are conceding too many.
What do you want, attacking football leaving gaps at the back, or defensive football, setting up to not concede but not score?
Is attack the best way to defend?

What we want is an attack-minded team, that can defend. Grimsby  Goals 23:28  GD -5, Stockport 37:18 GD+ 19. It's not rocket science, just difficult to achieve.

Quoted from GrimPol

What we want is an attack-minded team, that can defend. Grimsby  Goals 23:28  GD -5, Stockport 37:18 GD+ 19. It's not rocket science, just difficult to achieve.

Whilst I agree that’s what everyone wants, Stockport are very much the best team in the division and i’d go beyond that and say one of the best L2 teams i’ve seen over the years. They and Mansfield are very much an outlier in terms of the fact they score goals and are defensively very good. Most teams in the division have conceded above 20, Barrow are the only team below a 1 goal conceded per game but have only scored 20 goals in the league, which means every other team in the league concede at least 1 goal per game. We are defensively poor but it’s very much a league wide problem and I believe stems from our change of style, it’s all about finding that balance between defence and attack. Notts County are the perfect example, for them to play the way they do going forward means they have to play exceptionally high and that’s the way they see fit. Luke Williams wont go away from those principals because that’s how he wants his teams to play going forward but it also leaves them very susceptible at the back. We saw it with Ange recently, everyone called it bizarre when Tottenham were playing the exceptionally high line with 9 men against Chelsea.. it’s how he wants his teams to play and won’t move away from those values no matter who they’re playing or the circumstances.

In the last two matches we have, by general consent, defended appallingly.

Yet we've collected 3 precious league points and progressed to the next round of the FA Cup - by the cunning strategy
of scoring more goals than the opposition. I think we may be onto something there   .

Preferable to "one-up-front-at-home" - hoping for a clean sheet and maybe a goal from somewhere?

If we can win whilst defending poorly, the future looks good for us once we solidify at the back.
Think we might need at least one acquisition in January though, so we'll need to be patient.

UTM

Quoted from ska face

Well yeah obviously there’s an individual error in there, but I don’t understand how 2 midfielders are then allowed to stroll through so easily. The scorer starts 5 yards behind Holohan when Maher makes the header, by the time he scored he’s 10 yards ahead. It’s Andrews’ man who plays him through, also stood the wrong side of him.

Similar story where runners aren’t tracked against Tranmere, Barrow, Swindon, Crawley twice, what should’ve been a goal v Mansfield, as well as loads of chances given away in the same fashion. It’s not like these are quick breaks from us being in attack; it’s generally a long punt and if we don’t deal with the first one, we’re not switched on in midfield or set up across the back to deal with it.

Maybe it’s an easy fix, but I’m just some ārsehole on a message board who barely ever goes to games, so who knows.

I'd hazard a guess, and this is based on having played a bit too, that when the balls coming down and the midfielders are looking at the scenario, they see absolutely no reason why Maher doesn't get that right. I wouldn't be thinking of a need to drop or track a runner because I'm expecting that header to go forward, and I've got half my mind on where it's likely to drop in front of me and ready to react to the next ball. Their midfielder, facing the right way reacts quickest and puts himself at an advantage to win the ball.

Our defence then has to try and regroup from a stretched position which they can't do in time. You can fix it by saying track your runners etc and focus on the possibility of a mistake/error, but then we'd end up doing exactly what the majority of people here take offence to, and worry about the opposition. We could set up with attacking intent, but if the midfield drop deeper every time a ball goes up to plan for the possibility of a missed header, then there's no-one in a position to react to the knock down when it does go right.

Again, it's all balances. One seemingly tiny action affects the next action and so on and so forth. Some times it goes right, sometimes it doesn't. How you balance to mitigate one problem that is evident (currently our leaky defence) against another problem (our previous inability to score goals) hinges on marginal and subtle differences. As I said, it's not impossible but even with Notts County, they're fantastic going forward but are defensively worse than we are. Mansfield are defensively solid but have only scored 6 more than us and Sutton, who sit bottom of the table.

I'll happily concede 5 or 6 every week aslong as we score 6 or 7  

Quoted from LocalLadGTFC

Whilst I agree that’s what everyone wants, Stockport are very much the best team in the division and i’d go beyond that and say one of the best L2 teams i’ve seen over the years. They and Mansfield are very much an outlier in terms of the fact they score goals and are defensively very good. Most teams in the division have conceded above 20, Barrow are the only team below a 1 goal conceded per game but have only scored 20 goals in the league, which means every other team in the league concede at least 1 goal per game. We are defensively poor but it’s very much a league wide problem and I believe stems from our change of style, it’s all about finding that balance between defence and attack. Notts County are the perfect example, for them to play the way they do going forward means they have to play exceptionally high and that’s the way they see fit. Luke Williams wont go away from those principals because that’s how he wants his teams to play going forward but it also leaves them very susceptible at the back. We saw it with Ange recently, everyone called it bizarre when Tottenham were playing the exceptionally high line with 9 men against Chelsea.. it’s how he wants his teams to play and won’t move away from those values no matter who they’re playing or the circumstances.

I good case to look at is the Championship with Leicester 29:10  and Ipswich 36:21 both on 39 pts taking 1st and 2nd place. Ipswich very attack minded but leaky at the back.
There is no right or wrong, but a tongue in cheek, lets score more than we let in wouldn't go amiss at this moment in time.
We are too near the drain to worry about what elegant style we should play, because, frankly, we just need points.

That goal was 99% Maher's fault. He misjudged an easy, unchallenged header and effectively flicked it straight to their striker. Our midfielders were expecting the ball to be heading back upfield so I don't blame them much. A gamble taken by their player to keep running forward and it paid dividends.