Defending

[CJ]

we seem to be poor at it.

are we missing lucas?

wrong defensive players for the system?

early days?

a bit of everything?

is there an answer

[Marina]

Yes, we are missing Lucas. Also our LB is ****e apparently. Not entirely sure but I think Robinson deserves a start one of these days. It can't be worse than Kelly at RB and Johnson played out of position. It hurts me to say it but I don't think MK is really suited for the system. I hope he gets the opportunity to play at CB at some point because I think his future as a full-back is limited. Otherwise, don't think we have the wrong defensive players for the system. Johnson, Agger, and Skrtel are all fine for it imo.

[dww]

I think it is more than the back 4. Lucas is a big loss but in general our pressing seems inconsistent.

I think a lot of it is getting the balance between possession retention and traditional defensive positioning right. It'll take time before we can say whether the players we have are suitable as we need time for the way we play to become embedded in players psyche. At the minute you can see players thinking/hesitating rather that working closer to instinct.

I think people are being a bit impatient. Personally I think the current first choice defence is fine personnel-wise.

[kubrickscube]

I think the constant demand to play the ball out along the deck puts more pressure on the defenders - at times Skrtel and Enrique have looked much more flustered in the final quarter than you'd expect (and I wouldnt have singled them out as hoofers in the past). You get the impression that in some situations they're more used to launching it long to ease the pressure.