The Case For The Defence

Everyone is concentrating on the individual defenders but just as big a problem if not more so is the poor organization and structure in our defence

Even with average defenders you should be able to organize them into a decent defensive unit
This has to be priority number 1 for LvG now as it doesn’t matter how good your attack is if your defence is leaking goals at this rate

One thing I noticed about our defending is that players follow their man all over the pitch and vacate their defensive position
For example in Leicester 3rd goal Rafael was in front of our centre backs because he has followed his man into there and abandoned his right back position
I also noticed Blind following his man into other parts of the pitch and leaving that position in front of the back 4 exposed
It’s clearly something they’ve been asked to do but it seems to me to just create complete disorganization at the back

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

Everyone is concentrating on the individual defenders but just as big a problem if not more so is the poor organization and structure in our defence

Even with average defenders you should be able to organize them into a decent defensive unit
This has to be priority number 1 for LvG now as it doesn’t matter how good your attack is if your defence is leaking goals at this rate

One thing I noticed about our defending is that players follow their man all over the pitch and vacate their defensive position
For example in Leicester 3rd goal Rafael was in front of our centre backs because he has followed his man into there and abandoned his right back position
I also noticed Blind following his man into other parts of the pitch and leaving that position in front of the back 4 exposed
It’s clearly something they’ve been asked to do but it seems to me to just create complete disorganization at the back

Well spotted - I noticed this too

Originally Posted by crockster

Any idea when Jones is back?

Blind & Jones paired together as CB might work well

Hamstring, it could be anytime

Yesterday's implosion wasn't so much about the individual players not being good enough - it was more to do with basic defensive organisation and discipline as Van Gaal alluded to in his post match interview.

I've seen defences made up far worse players than we had our there yesterday perform better simply because they are a well drilled unit and confident in each other. It was a collective meltdown brought about by an inexperienced defence which is constantly being chopped and changed. None of them had any clue how to organise themselves when the shit hit the fan, none of them communicated, instead they all just completely lost the plot. I include the goalkeeper in this too, by the way.

This doesn't mean players like Rojo are bad defenders, it just means they have a ton of work to do on the training pitch in order to bed in. It also means our manager has to play our £27m left back as a £#%&!ing left back and start trying to forge some kind of regular central defensive partnership. Whether we'll happen upon this by accident due to the constant £#%&!ing injuries or not I don't know

There's no way we were going to just throw 6 or 7 new players in the first team and everything be hunky dory. There's a hell of a lot of work to be done on the training pitch and I should imagine the players are all being made to watch and analyse that horror show yesterday. Either way the manager has a hell of a job on his hands to pick them up after that because they all must be feeling completely shell shocked.

I don't see and I've never seen silva show any intelligence in his role. Smalling has shocking feet too. I know it's a bit of a wild one but I think a back 4 of Valencia , jones rojo and shaw would be our most disciplined back line. If rojo continues to be rash then blind drops back in until January. Rojo would be cover for shaw

Originally Posted by wonky no

I don't see and I've never seen silva show any intelligence in his role. Smalling has shocking feet too. I know it's a bit of a wild one but I think a back 4 of Valencia , jones rojo and shaw would be our most disciplined back line. If rojo continues to be rash then blind drops back in until January. Rojo would be cover for shaw

Valencia is a terrible full back. Terrible.

Originally Posted by dunk

Valencia is terrible.

Corrected

Originally Posted by Sparky***

Yesterday's implosion wasn't so much about the individual players not being good enough - it was more to do with basic defensive organisation and discipline as Van Gaal alluded to in his post match interview.

I've seen defences made up far worse players than we had our there yesterday perform better simply because they are a well drilled unit and confident in each other. It was a collective meltdown brought about by an inexperienced defence which is constantly being chopped and changed. None of them had any clue how to organise themselves when the shit hit the fan, none of them communicated, instead they all just completely lost the plot. I include the goalkeeper in this too, by the way.

This doesn't mean players like Rojo are bad defenders, it just means they have a ton of work to do on the training pitch in order to bed in. It also means our manager has to play our £27m left back as a £#%&!ing left back and start trying to forge some kind of regular central defensive partnership. Whether we'll happen upon this by accident due to the constant £#%&!ing injuries or not I don't know

There's no way we were going to just throw 6 or 7 new players in the first team and everything be hunky dory. There's a hell of a lot of work to be done on the training pitch and I should imagine the players are all being made to watch and analyse that horror show yesterday. Either way the manager has a hell of a job on his hands to pick them up after that because they all must be feeling completely shell shocked.

I agree, but this is for the short term i.e. until the next transfer window. Evans, Jones, Smalling and the liability Rafael are not good enough.

In all my years of watching United I´ve never seen a defence collapse on the same scale as yesterday.

Panic set in and even at 4-3 our lads at the back could hardly wait to hear the final whistle.

We were humiliated by these gutless, clueless out of their depth players.

I've always had high hopes for Smalling, pretty clear he's £#%&!ed though. Confidence completely shot and not pushed on since his first 2 seasons, needs to leave and play regularly somewhere with less pressure.

I like Evans, but he's injury prone and really needs a senior CB alongside him.

Jones will be a top quality CB for us, if he can actually stay fit for any length of time.

Blackett needs time and games. Reckon he'll have to leave United soon tbh, he'll be replaced at the first opportunity and will either stagnate or get out.

And that's it. I have nothing to say about Rojo as a CB, as I've never seen seen him play there.

The only other options are Blind and Carrick, both of whom are also required to aid our ailing midfield.

What a crock of shit.

when you have 8 men in the opposition half and one of them is mata giving the ball away, it seems harsh to blame the centre backs.

our defence would look a lot better with a solid midfield in front of it.

I really don't need to see blind trying volleys on the edge of the opposition box.

van gaal needs to wake the £#%&! up.

Originally Posted by jem

when you have 8 men in the opposition half and one of them is mata giving the ball away, it seems harsh to blame the centre backs.

our defence would look a lot better with a solid midfield in front of it.

I really don't need to see blind trying volleys on the edge of the opposition box.

van gaal needs to wake the £#%&! up.

Pretty good volley tbf

Originally Posted by jem

when you have 8 men in the opposition half and one of them is mata giving the ball away, it seems harsh to blame the centre backs.

our defence would look a lot better with a solid midfield in front of it.

I really don't need to see blind trying volleys on the edge of the opposition box.

van gaal needs to wake the £#%&! up.

I understood the theory behind bringing Mata on, but surely it had to be for Rooney or RvP? He's far too slow and weak to be thrown into a game like that as anything but a forward.

Why was Di Maria taken off? We're playing once a week, surely he can manage 90 minutes once a week?

Originally Posted by jem

our defence would look a lot better with a solid midfield in front of it.

Revolutionary.

Some awful decisions and events happened last season, but none more so than letting Vida, Rio and Evra all leave


Good job Woody. At least convince one of them to stay ffs.

Originally Posted by bigMikeA

Some awful decisions and events happened last season, but none more so than letting Vida, Rio and Evra all leave


Good job Woody. At least convince one of them to stay ffs.

He knew before anyone that Moyes was done. Why didn't he move hell and high water to get Vidic to stay

Vidic schmidic. He'd have been slaughtered on yesterday's showing. Not prime era Vidic of course but he's long gone, the Vidic of the last couple of seasons would have.

Originally Posted by bigMikeA

Some awful decisions and events happened last season, but none more so than letting Vida, Rio and Evra all leave


Good job Woody. At least convince one of them to stay ffs.

And we have the yellow tooth stained #@&%! Moyes for losing Vida.

Jesus, when I think about Motes´antics last season. Ferguson has a lot to answer for his part in all of this.

Originally Posted by andyroo

Vidic schmidic. He'd have been slaughtered on yesterday's showing. Not prime era Vidic of course but he's long gone, the Vidic of the last couple of seasons would have.

Or he may have been able to organise the defence to prevent the catastrophe that befell them? Just a thought

Originally Posted by Jethro

Or he may have been able to organise the defence to prevent the catastrophe that befell them? Just a thought

Exactly, even as a sweeper he´d have been around to get some sort of much needed discipline into that piss poor crew at the back.

Originally Posted by Jethro

Or he may have been able to organise the defence to prevent the catastrophe that befell them? Just a thought

He could have, but when did he last do that?