Fotmob for starters. I'm a fan of the eye test personally but i know many on here love the stats unless they don't suit. Over the course of the season Dasilva has the lowest rating.
I'm struggling to understand how giving the ball away in honking positions, being a bomb scare with an opposition player in close proximity and running like you have a weighted belt on aren't parts of defending tbh.
Kitching and Thomas are very good at things that aren’t defending and under Lampard that matters as we attack more than defend. I would drop Lats next game because of this. But that doesn’t change that they are two poor defenders (lowercase d)
I accept we all have our likes and do not likes so i won't flame you too much for that but i think you'd need to accept you would be in a staggeringly low minority when it comes to preferring Lati over the other 2.Personally not a fan of Opta ratings as it’s just an amalgamation of individual stats and I don’t think that’s a good way of rating a player but that’s for another time.
Yeah Lats runs like he shots himself but he doesn’t give the ball away in bad positions and more than the other two CBs. As I say if we’re under the cosh defending our box I’d rather Lats than any of the others.
This is faint praise Thomas and particularly Kitching are to me what Sheaf was to ESB.
I don't agree with all of that but although he throws in the odd stinker, MvE is a Rolls-Royce at this level and will be perfectly fine in the Prem imo. As long as he's rested occasionally.Can I come clean and admit I don't rate any of our defenders apart from MVE?
Thomas, Kitching, Dasilva, Woolf, Bidwell and Lati are all terrifying to watch as a Cov fan. They all have a howler in them.
Twice last night Kitching ran forward with the ball, lost it and dived, and Millwall nearly scored. TWICE. Once is forgivable but twice is just stupidity.
Then we had the JDS back header that gifted Millwall a 1-on-1. They might all be genuinely braindead.
I accept we all have our likes and do not likes so i won't flame you too much for that but i think you'd need to accept you would be in a staggeringly low minority when it comes to preferring Lati over the other 2.
You can give them a send off like ESB gave to Sheaf when they leave if you like, would be amusing at least.
My send off to Lati would simply be a huge sigh of relief.
He is. He is a down in the trenches sort of guy, throwing himself into challenges and trying to block everythingAre we saying Lati doesn't go flying in and completely miss the ball?
I think he's best when it's back to the wall head and kick the ball clear.
You are correct, Grimes and Rudi were both quite poor last night as well as the back 4. Eccles was the only one in there playing well and the front 3 were pretty lively. We did well to win with so many off it.Defence is awful but not helped by the constant gaps in midfield.The away games they shouldn't be bombing up the pitch just defend first and foremost.FL does seem to struggle to get the balance right between being attacking and defending on certain games.I think we were lucky against Millwall as we gave them far to many chances,other teams may well take them better Rudoni needs to stop drifting onto the wing he doesn't need to be there sometimes we have one person in the box when crossing. Last season, he drifted in the box to convert crosses this year he's trying to put the crosses in.Saying all this we are top of the league but please let's make us harder to create chances against.
Our defence isn't our strength, but that's mainly due to tactics, instructions and perhaps lacking a little athleticism in midfield..
You reckon MVE can defend well?Can I come clean and admit I don't rate any of our defenders apart from MVE?
Thomas, Kitching, Dasilva, Woolf, Bidwell and Lati are all terrifying to watch as a Cov fan. They all have a howler in them.
Twice last night Kitching ran forward with the ball, lost it and dived, and Millwall nearly scored. TWICE. Once is forgivable but twice is just stupidity.
Then we had the JDS back header that gifted Millwall a 1-on-1. They might all be genuinely braindead.
Lats runs like he shit himself but he doesn’t give the ball away in bad positions any more than the other two CBs.
His pace gets him out of trouble - which is a big part of defendingYou reckon MVE can defend well?
True gets him out of trouble sometimes. But he really can't defend well.His pace gets him out of trouble - which is a big part of defending
We are weak defensively wide and through the middle. We lack defensive pace and have a lack of discipline on JDS, MVE going forward.Tactically defensively the way set up exposes our full back a lot. We're set up to force teams out wide and to then cross it in to the six yard box where Tomas, Kitching or Rushworth deal with it. The problem with doing this is it relies a lot on the wingers, Esse and EMC, to track the late run back and take over closing down the opposition. EMC and Esse don't do this very well. It leaves Milan and Jay in 1v1 and 2v1 situations all game.
I’d agree with this, to a degree, although I haven’t seen us play that often.Can I come clean and admit I don't rate any of our defenders apart from MVE?
Thomas, Kitching, Dasilva, Woolf, Bidwell and Lati are all terrifying to watch as a Cov fan. They all have a howler in them.
Twice last night Kitching ran forward with the ball, lost it and dived, and Millwall nearly scored. TWICE. Once is forgivable but twice is just stupidity.
Then we had the JDS back header that gifted Millwall a 1-on-1. They might all be genuinely braindead.
Kitching is terrible sometimes in terms of ball watching and not tracking his man.
Happened a few times lately. Shame, because i do rate him otherwise
Rated by who?
You realise when I say defender I mean purely the act of defending not the rest of the game?
Kitching and Thomas are very good at things that aren’t defending and under Lampard that matters as we attack more than defend. I would drop Lats next game because of this. But that doesn’t change that they are two poor defenders (lowercase d) and if we were under the cosh I’d rather have Lats defending than either of them.
he was terrible for that first half last night. Kitching did it twice when he was trying to drive up the pitch second half but Lati just passed it to Millwall in simple situations.
True gets him out of trouble sometimes. But he really can't defend well.
I weirdly think Kitching and Thomas could be decent in the Prem if we completely changed our tactic and dropped to a very deep low block and only asked them to be Head It/Kick It merchants like you see at Everton with Tarkowski and Keane or Forest last year when Murillo and Milenkovic were sat on the edge of their own penalty area for 90 mins.I am pleased by the tenor of this debate. Because we are top, people have been in a bit of a fools paradise. Rushworth and poor Millwall shooting saved us last night. Our defence is poor - end of
And nor is it Frank's fault or that of the attackers not tracking back. The defence has to take responsibility - its their job.
We will lose games by 4 or 5 goals in the Prem with that bunch.
His first 4 passes in first 15 mins went to opposition and they were not difficukt passes.I’m afraid
Lati runs like Will McKenzie walks. If you know you know.Fotmob for starters. I'm a fan of the eye test personally but i know many on here love the stats unless they don't suit. Over the course of the season Dasilva has the lowest rating.
I'm struggling to understand how giving the ball away in honking positions, being a bomb scare with an opposition player in close proximity and running like you have a weighted belt on aren't parts of defending tbh.
The goals we concede are invariably from where we've lost possession, we are fine in defending when the opposition has a lot of the ball.Our defence is odd:
MVE: Ok technical defender, pace gets him out of trouble, great going forward
JDS: Poor technical defender, decent going forward, but makes bad decisions when in possession defensively
Kitching: Good defender positionally but ball watches and doesn’t mark, gets booked for no good reason, distribution is good - but not as good as he thinks.
Thomas: As per Kitching, but maybe slight better
Lati: Very good defender, poor control, poor passing, can’t run very well
Hence why we need to control possession. For the 20 minutes Millwall & Leicester dominated I felt we could concede at any time
Better to rate players on your own bias eh?Personally not a fan of Opta ratings as it’s just an amalgamation of individual stats and I don’t think that’s a good way of rating a player but that’s for another time.
Yeah Lats runs like he shit himself but he doesn’t give the ball away in bad positions any more than the other two CBs. As I say if we’re under the cosh defending our box I’d rather Lats than any of the others.
This is faint praise Thomas and particularly Kitching are to me what Sheaf was to ESB.
It’s no coincidence a high percentage of the goals we concede come down our left hand side.You reckon MVE can defend well?
Lati runs like Will McKenzie walks. If you know you know.
Yeah agree with that. I thought Lati was poor last night overall, as was Kitching and Dasilva. His best game was the second half Vs Southampton when we were camped in our own box, and just had to worry about heading and clearing.Are we saying Lati doesn't go flying in and completely miss the ball?
I think he's best when it's back to the wall head and kick the ball clear.
Should give some credit to Millwall and Leicester, they both were good in transition.Yeah, this is about right. Not sure how to solve it. Onyeka or a similar player might sort things but without a shift in how we play, it might not. Don't think we have a CM that's told to just sit however we set up. Need to see us look 'solid' in a game!
Neither of Lats poor passes left us as exposed as Kitchings rushes of blood to the head.
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