Rafa Benitez discussing our defence on Sky

Topmodtony said:
We were talking about it at work and wondered whether the England duty’s just putting too much strain on him. Theres a bit of comment on here that Callums gone all billy big bollox since getting an England call but maybe the truth of it is that its the extra physical demand he’s struggling with?

Might not be a coincidence that Vardy is back on great form following international retirement - even though he barely got any playing time and was second fiddle to Kane. And now Callum’s got that slot in the squad.
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Think the benefit of rest for footballers is a bit under valued given how much spare time they achave. As Bitzer says,maybe a mental thing. Interesting that 3 recent hamstring issues have gone to international players ake, king and Wilson.

As for attitude, good to see Callum still go through the front and sign autos and do selfies pre and post match....unlike some afcb players.
 
AFCBade said:
Think the benefit of rest for footballers is a bit under valued given how much spare time they achave. As Bitzer says,maybe a mental thing. Interesting that 3 recent hamstring issues have gone to international players ake, king and Wilson.

As for attitude, good to see Callum still go through the front and sign autos and do selfies pre and post match....unlike some afcb players.
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Well said. Fraser and King can't be bothered anymore.
 
Is his analysis really a surprise .
Eddie Howe has coached what are technically L1 or Championship defenders to survive in the Premier League, by hard individual work & getting 110% out of them week in week out both in games and training , the physical toll of that shows at times with our injury list.
The back four who finished on Saturday would be a mid table championship defence at best,. Simply because thats what we can afford then have to rely on bringing them up to PL standards.

Some one mentions above note how Mepham plays better for Wales.
Well guess what !!? Hungary, Slovakia, Azerbaijan and even Croatia do not have anything like the caliber of front lines or engrained patterns of play of Tottenham, Man City and Liverpool who arguably have 9 of the top 15 forwards n the world, who dont they score more than 1 goal against ??

I fear EH leaving but kind of look forward to how some people un here deal with the unravelling of things without him . You could get Benitez, Klopp, Guadiola or any articulate posters on this board and i am adamant they would not fair well without millions.
Benitez bleated on about $$££ at Newcastle , let’s put that into perspective they were so hard up Matt Ritchie took a league drop to get a decent pay rise !!!
 
Dansouth said:
The back four who finished on Saturday would be a mid table championship defence at best,. Simply because thats what we can afford then have to rely on bringing them up to PL standards.
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Even then, I've still seen Simpson have more good games for us than bad. How many first team appearances has he made for us now, 18 or so? Maybe 3 or 4 in there where he looked out of his depth/bad; people forget how good he was in his breakout season, or against City last season (and the year before, where he won our MoM at the Etihad).

Give him a run of games in a consistent back 4 and then judge him; not in a patchy, bitty display in unfamiliar partnerships with our best defenders absent, against the best team in the world! The same goes for Mepham too.

Our fans are so unbelievably hypocritical when it comes to younger players. Simpson has progressed from our academy and has played well plenty of times for us in the past, in the Premier League no less. Yet a few bad performances later and he's immediately deemed not good enough by loads on here- so many are begging for Kilkenny to be given a chance by EH, and yet they can't even give players like Mepham and Simpson that same luxury?? How long would you give Kilkenny before he's only deemed fit for Forest Green by our fans?
 
Dansouth said:
Is his analysis really a surprise .
Eddie Howe has coached what are technically L1 or Championship defenders to survive in the Premier League, by hard individual work & getting 110% out of them week in week out both in games and training , the physical toll of that shows at times with our injury list.
The back four who finished on Saturday would be a mid table championship defence at best,. Simply because thats what we can afford then have to rely on bringing them up to PL standards.

Some one mentions above note how Mepham plays better for Wales.
Well guess what !!? Hungary, Slovakia, Azerbaijan and even Croatia do not have anything like the caliber of front lines or engrained patterns of play of Tottenham, Man City and Liverpool who arguably have 9 of the top 15 forwards n the world, who dont they score more than 1 goal against ??

I fear EH leaving but kind of look forward to how some people un here deal with the unravelling of things without him . You could get Benitez, Klopp, Guadiola or any articulate posters on this board and i am adamant they would not fair well without millions.
Benitez bleated on about $$££ at Newcastle , let’s put that into perspective they were so hard up Matt Ritchie took a league drop to get a decent pay rise !!!
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Completely disagree. We’ve spent millions on our defence over the last 5 years. No one is expecting our defence to be able to compete with the likes of Tottenham, Man City or Spurs. Given the outlay, why is our defence significantly worse than the likes of Burnley, Brighton and even Sheffield United.

All sorts of theories have been put forward for why our defence has been so poor. Ranging from the formation, wingers not tracking back, pressing too little, players not good enough, pressing too much and the lazy pundits favourite “its the way they play”. None of these arguments have been particularly convincing to me.

I found Benitez’s comments interesting as it’s the first time I’d seen someone give a technical analysis of why we might be letting in goals. The focus on long balls is a bit of red herring. If he is correct that our defenders are in the wrong body shape / positioning, it could well be a factor in many of the other types of goals we let in.
 
What our defence was like three and four years ago is of no real relevance. I'm bothered what it's like today, and as long as we can continue to have the tenth-best defence in the league I'll be happy.

It's the attack that concerns me more
 
“ significantly worse” than those , just how are we quantifying that fact ? Did you see Burnley’s first choice defence on the weekend ?
If you don’t expect them to compete , why critique having just played 2 of those 3 in 7 days ??
 
Dansouth said:
“ significantly worse” than those , just how are we quantifying that fact ? Did you see Burnley’s first choice defence on the weekend ?
If you don’t expect them to compete , why critique having just played 2 of those 3 in 7 days ??
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I very clearly mentioned my critique of our defence was over the past 5 years rather than 2 weeks but happy to clarify that again. I also mentioned there is much more to it than the goals conceded from long passes in these games.

Of course a defence of Simpson, Mepham and Francis is going to struggle against Liverpool. That was so obvious I didn’t even feel the need to debate that.

l’m trying to understand why we have struggled defensively for so long. A couple of clean sheets or a thrashing for one of our rivals proves nothing. Long term is the key rather than the past 2 weeks.
 
Tinpot Club said:
I very clearly mentioned my critique of our defence was over the past 5 years rather than 2 weeks but happy to clarify that again. I also mentioned there is much more to it than the goals conceded from long passes in these games.

Of course a defence of Simpson, Mepham and Francis is going to struggle against Liverpool. That was so obvious I didn’t even feel the need to debate that.

l’m trying to understand why we have struggled defensively for so long. A couple of clean sheets or a thrashing for one of our rivals proves nothing. Long term is the key rather than the past 2 weeks.
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You did my apologies
Long term I think this is some way down to the way we play by the players who are asked to play it and the risk vs reward involved , do I want that changed absolutely no way , entertainment value is through the roof compared to other teams I watched while working in other regions
. That said I did see some stats last year where we had conceded the most vs shots faced so maybe before this year goal keeping was a problem or those shots were in particularly good scoring positions .
 
NWCherries98 said:
Even then, I've still seen Simpson have more good games for us than bad. How many first team appearances has he made for us now, 18 or so? Maybe 3 or 4 in there where he looked out of his depth/bad; people forget how good he was in his breakout season, or against City last season (and the year before, where he won our MoM at the Etihad).

Give him a run of games in a consistent back 4 and then judge him; not in a patchy, bitty display in unfamiliar partnerships with our best defenders absent, against the best team in the world! The same goes for Mepham too.

Our fans are so unbelievably hypocritical when it comes to younger players. Simpson has progressed from our academy and has played well plenty of times for us in the past, in the Premier League no less. Yet a few bad performances later and he's immediately deemed not good enough by loads on here- so many are begging for Kilkenny to be given a chance by EH, and yet they can't even give players like Mepham and Simpson that same luxury?? How long would you give Kilkenny before he's only deemed fit for Forest Green by our fans?
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Yup. Lots of moans here on this board and many different views about whose ‘fault’ it is! Yet ‘we’ can’t all be right can we...How can that help? So much division and negativity. I would rather everyone here start again and give the players our full support because cracks in our unity can only rub off on any player who may happen to read this. Lots of the new and comparatively new players in the team, through choice or force of injury need to see undivided support and constructive comments if they’re to feel truly welcome. They all have quality and attributes that if combined can see them through this sticky patch. It wasn’t so long ago many on here were saying how much talent we have in the squad. I was one. I really think it’s time to start afresh and praise them for the good things they can do.
 
Tinpot Club said:
Completely disagree. We’ve spent millions on our defence over the last 5 years. No one is expecting our defence to be able to compete with the likes of Tottenham, Man City or Spurs. Given the outlay, why is our defence significantly worse than the likes of Burnley, Brighton and even Sheffield United.

All sorts of theories have been put forward for why our defence has been so poor. Ranging from the formation, wingers not tracking back, pressing too little, players not good enough, pressing too much and the lazy pundits favourite “its the way they play”. None of these arguments have been particularly convincing to me.

I found Benitez’s comments interesting as it’s the first time I’d seen someone give a technical analysis of why we might be letting in goals. The focus on long balls is a bit of red herring. If he is correct that our defenders are in the wrong body shape / positioning, it could well be a factor in many of the other types of goals we let in.
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Of the three teams you mentioned, Burnley are "significantly worse" by two goals, Brighton "significantly better by the same amount. Only Sheff Utd really are doing that much better.
 
RobTrent said:
Of the three teams you mentioned, Burnley are "significantly worse" by two goals, Brighton "significantly better by the same amount. Only Sheff Utd really are doing that much better.
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As per above I’m discussing the long term and how our defence has fared. If we really want to get pedantic I’ll remove Sheffield Utd because obviously its only based on this season.

I don’t know. Have I misread all the league tables showing us as one of the leakiest defences these past few seasons?
 
Tinpot Club said:
As per above I’m discussing the long term and how our defence has fared. If we really want to get pedantic I’ll remove Sheffield Utd because obviously its only based on this season.

I don’t know. Have I misread all the league tables showing us as one of the leakiest defences these past few seasons?
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But my point is that stats history is irrelevant unless it points to a trend and is then used as a basis to make improvements and reverse that trend. What our defence did last year is completely irrelevant now, just numbers on paper.

If you want to look at trends, we seem to have improved this year (10= rather than bottom 3 in terms of goals conceded, fewer hammerings), so it could be argued that the club has taken action based on that long term issue
 
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