Match Thread 5th Feb vs. Trinity 21:30 St. Columbas

LeixlipRed

But when do we ever have our strongest 4 playing Ed? Not once this season that I can recall. I think the defence is the weakest part of the team by far. We'll just have to agree to disagree on that. I agree that if we had our best 4 out there week in week out forming an understanding we wouldn't be having this discussion now. But that doesn't happen for numerous reasons. Also, it's debatable as to who the best 4 players to play back there are

homerjay2005

LeixlipRed wrote: »

But when do we ever have our strongest 4 playing Ed?

exactly, so what is your point? i know what our best back 4 is, so does des im sure and most would be able to see it. we dont need any understanding when that back 4 is playing cos its already there. we made changes to other lines lately and we have seen how disrupted they have got.

and yes, we have played games this year with our best back 4 on, 5 or 6 times in fact. and your missing the point, u defend as 11, not 4. our first game of the season, the 2 goals came from players loosing balls up the field and i also remember conceding 2 goals direct from free kicks that came from midfield. the only argument that is here is that we have been sitting too deep last 3 games and as a result, have lost creativity. not, as you point out,that our defence is S**te. your also forgetting that we have hardly had a shot on target since dans header from the corner over 2 games ago.

anyway, can we move on please? here is not the place to talk, its on the field.

Savman

Ed don't be so defensive (har de har) *badumtish

homerjay2005 wrote:

your only making excuses for failings in other parts of the team

Care to highlight the parts you mean?

Our defense has been mostly good, but with some silly errors that cost us goals. Ed, I play Centre Half every week so I know poor defending when I see it, we're not guilty of it all the time but it is definitely there bud.

That's not to dismiss what you're saying either, in fact it could be that what you're both saying is true. It's never a case of one or the other, we could well be "failing in other parts of the team" yet still be patchy at the back. The two are not mutually exclusive.

If being weak in defense was our only problem, we'd be winning games 6-5. As I already highlighted, we have problems going forward too that cannot be attributed to the Back 4. The Front 6 haven't been clicking lately tbh.

homerjay2005

Savman wrote: »

Ed, I play Centre Half every week[/SIZE]

wanna swap positions so?! im a striker afterall, though des never lets me play there!

Savman

homerjay2005 wrote: »

wanna swap positions so?! im a striker afterall, though des never lets me play there!

I'll play wherever I'm asked

Gileadi

I agree with Martin about us being only a few errors away from leaking 3+ goals even in matches where we were clearly on top. I couldnt make the 2 games previous to Tuesday but it seemed as though we had lost all the momentum we had built up in the few wins previous, it just seemed that people werent as motivated when going into 50/50s and there was abit more panic on the ball than normal.

Personally i had a shocker in the match, ill cut that bollocks with the throw ins out, it really just didnt help the situation at all.

I wont say much more but imo it really is just the mental attitude thats the difference between prexmas and now.

FrankGrimes

Ed, earlier in the thread we were bemoaning the lack of discussion, we now have a bit of discussion going on, albeit largely from the usual suspects, but we've also had a contribution from Michael and Simon. There's no need to be defensive or dismissive - if anyone is tired of the discussion they can opt out, but anyone else is still free to have their say.

Personally, I don't think there's much to gain from further discussion on the 'defence as defenders' as the defence is defending to their potential (and Ed's stats show that's quite reasonable).

It's my point below that I think has only been discussed by Sav so far and I feel its the one that is worth discussing cos it really does go the core of the issue - are we setting ourselves up defensively or attack-minded and does that suit the squad of players we have?

FrankGrimes wrote: »

when we have been at our best, the root cause has been the way our defence took responsibility to be our first form of attack and pushed up to press the opposition back so we play the game in their half which gives our excellent attacking unit more ball in the right part of the pitch.

The service to the strikers was woeful this week and that's for 2 reasons:
-1. Defence, particularly fullbacks were not pushing forward, that meant midfield were forced deep and strikers received the ball only around the halfway line. I have been coached by some pretty good coaches and the common theme was they all really highlighted the importance of setting your team up to squeeze the game into the opposition half. We didn't do that this week, that's not calling out blame, its calling out the reason in a constructive manner so that we can consciously address it.

-2. Midfield, and fullbacks were reluctant to get the ball direct to the strikers. I've been saying this for ages, but Tuesday it was the worst ever. I'm fairly loud so saying you didn't hear me screaming for the ball doesn't cut it, but I remember over 10 times shouting for what I felt was an easy ball to me and instead it went out wide and never reached me. That's frustrating as hell and means you get the ball only every 5-10 minutes and so when you do get it you feel rusty like a sub that's just come on. It also means the opposition defence cop on after a while and their fullbacks start attacking cos they know we won't play a direct ball to our strikers to bypass them, so they can throw more bodies in to boss the midfield. We're lucky to have some very good attackers, so give us the ball to give us a chance to either create something or at least bring the midfield runners into play with go forward ball.

Savman

FrankGrimes wrote: »

-2. Midfield, and fullbacks were reluctant to get the ball direct to the strikers. I've been saying this for ages, but Tuesday it was the worst ever.

Actually Jules it wasn't. It was about on par with the week before, the Coffin Dodgers was exactly the same. I'd swear I barely touched the ball second half.
I tried to get this exact discussion going after that match but nobody wanted to know and you and Martin were away so it was like I was discussing it myself. If we had've addressed these issues last week then maybe this week wouldn't have been more of the same.

Gileadi wrote:

Personally i had a shocker in the match, ill cut that bollocks with the throw ins out, it really just didnt help the situation at all.

That's all it is Simon, nobody suggesting everything is your fault but if everybody does one thing better next week then that'll be at least 11 things that will have been cut out of our game. The only thing I'd say to ye is that, other than the throw ins, make sure you get on the case of whoever's in front of you on the RW (probably Dave or Larry?) and make sure you push them right up the field. The closer you get to the halfway line the more it pushes him into the channels which is where he/they is/are most effective.

I'm a bit frustrated I won't be there next week but I'm gone to a better place

homerjay2005

LeixlipRed wrote: »

Clearly it involved a chick with an adam's apple or some sort of masturbation issue

what ever about your views on soccer martin, this is one of the funniest quotes i have seen on ere, going to use it as me sig for a few days seen as some **** keeps removing my bubsy babes one.....:mad::)

EDIT: now this one has been removed also, nothing about bad language, your not allowed to use quotes in sigs apparantly, what next ffs.

ah well, back to john o shea.