49 goals conceded: What is wrong with the defence?

[Dokaka]

De Gea was top 3 in the league last season for saved shots. Szczesny bottom 3. De Gea > Szczezzers, unfortunately. At this moment in time at least.

While De Gea had a good end to the season, you cannot judge 2 keepers on completely irrelevant stats such as those.

How often did De Gea have to make a save 1vs1? Man Utd's defensive organisation is leaps and bounds ahead of yours, making De Gea's job a hell of a lot easier.

De Gea saved a bucketload of long shots last season because Man Utd's defence was, as always, top 2 in the league.

I've criticized Szczesny a lot on here but saying De Gea was better is just not right in my opinion. A keeper can only work with what he's got, and Sczcesny was great on crosses last season, was commanding around the box, saved your ass numerous times and was, although never great, solid throughout the entire season.

De Gea was an absolute laughing stock for months before he turned okay. Saving a lot of long shots doesn't impress me, even if it does get your statistics up which means nothing.

 

[pikey2000]

After enduring Almunia and Fabianksi, Szcesney was exactly what i was looking for.

Solid, consistent if not outstanding.

Not every team can have a Schmeichal/Seaman in goal - that said, given time and the right coaching i have far more confidence in Szcesney reaching those levels than an Almunia or Fabianski.

Our problems lie tactically not with personnel for me.

A lot to pin on Bould but perhaps he will bring a new approach to the table.

 

[Anzac]

After enduring Almunia and Fabianksi, Szcesney was exactly what i was looking for.

Solid, consistent if not outstanding.

Not every team can have a Schmeichal/Seaman in goal - that said, given time and the right coaching i have far more confidence in Szcesney reaching those levels than an Almunia or Fabianski.

Our problems lie tactically not with personnel for me.

A lot to pin on Bould but perhaps he will bring a new approach to the table.

The question is whether he'd be allowed to or not - AW was pretty vehement in the press when pressed about the need for a dedicated defensive coach, and the answer was an emphatic NO because that's simply NOT his philosophy or approach & would detract from other focuses.

 

[pikey2000]

After enduring Almunia and Fabianksi, Szcesney was exactly what i was looking for.

Solid, consistent if not outstanding.

Not every team can have a Schmeichal/Seaman in goal - that said, given time and the right coaching i have far more confidence in Szcesney reaching those levels than an Almunia or Fabianski.

Our problems lie tactically not with personnel for me.

A lot to pin on Bould but perhaps he will bring a new approach to the table.

The question is whether he'd be allowed to or not - AW was pretty vehement in the press when pressed about the need for a dedicated defensive coach, and the answer was an emphatic NO because that's simply NOT his philosophy or approach & would detract from other focuses.

Agreed Wenger does appear very stubborn and would probably feel a stricter defensive approach would hinder our fluidity.

A new assistant manager and a new 1st coach on the staff this year surely must result in some new idea's bleeding through.

Add that to the "will have to wait and see list" along with

Will wilshere be fit
Will Diaby be fit
Will Gervinho step up
Will Sagna heal and stay healed
Will Giroud/Podolski settle in quickly

 

[kofigunner]

I said this on another thread. Essentially we conceded 17 goals at home vs 32 away. We were middle of the pack in away games and near the top in home games. The Man U debacle aside, we have a problem in away games. The Blackburn and AC Milan games are prime examples. By contrast, Man U conceded only 14 goals away and interestingly 19 goals at home. City conceded 17 away and 12 at home. Interestingly 49 goals conceded isn't that hugely different from last year. We conceded 28 goals away last season. Take the Man U result out because of the makeshift team and we're more or less at the same point. If you look at our goals conceded for the last 3-4 years, last season wasn't that much worse than the prior ones so we do need to have a better system.

 

[kofigunner]

This is what the data looks like(gotten year by year from soccernet.com and any mistakes are mine) and it's not pretty. We're heading in the wrong direction defensively.

 

[Anzac]

The last 2 seasons since we've sort of sorted the 3 CMs out, he's then looked to push us higher up the pitch to have everyone bar the CBs in the opposition half.
He's doing so to try to compress the opposition time on the ball,
but unless the players press in numbers across the pitch at the same time then it's pointless.
You MUST press from the front to make a high line viable,
but it's pointless to press in lines - 1 striker, then 3 AMs, then 2 CMs etc. Dortmund press the highest I've seen as they get the AMC to join the striker to press the CBs in tendem, whereas we fail to do so more often than not. Likewise we tend to only press the ball carrier & are not effective at closing down their support players, so again it tends to be disjoint.

Lastly when we've had to sit deeper either when we had Mert as CB or CBs playing for FBs, we've failed to adjust the shape or patterns & have tried to play the midfield the same way. The outcome is the space between the line opens up and there is no DM to compensate. IMO you need to proptect the hole if you open the space between your defence and midfield. That does not mean the player has to stay there, just that the space needs coverage when not in possession.

 

[GDeep™]

Has Terry Burton taken over as reserve team coach? I was listening to Talksport last night and Stuart Robson seems excited with Bould stepping up and Burton coming in as he sees them as strong vocal characters with strong opinions on our back 4 - claims he and Burton discussed our defensive issues a couple of weeks ago, before Burton was offered any role at AFC.

The way Robson was talking, Burton is defo coming in. He rates Banfield too.

 

[Galahad]

see the German team?
same formation with us 4-2-3-1, same personnel type (Khedira and Bastian as balance Özil AM, Muller the technical winger and Podolski the inside forward),
but their side has more discipline, and guess what? lower defense line.

Thats not a very good example tho...Germany has conceded 6 goals in 5 games in the Euros while being dominant in most of their games. I think Germany and Arsenal have a similar problem: Good individual players (not world class, but good) with an offensive formation and tactic. You will usually concede more goals when you play more offense and high up the pitch.

Defense, for me, is a team effort and have much to do with tactics and training. Thats why you see any of Mourinhos teams do well on defense, no matter the players. I think Greece is also a good example: Underwhelming players who perform pretty well on defense. Granted, they did let in a lot but when your grossly outmatched its difficult to keep a clean sheet.
Which brings me to the next point: We definatley lost quality over the years and as a result of it had less of the game and conceded more goals.

In my opinion, if we want to concede less goals we have to make do with scoring less. And we need a defensive coach and a lot of emphasis on defending in training and maybe adjust our gameplay. And maybe we also need a different manager...