Just hear me out, hopefully a bit of sense to the circus.....

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

Confident Jags will come good. Think McCarthy is escaping criticism at the moment when he's been at fault for a couple of goals too.

I agree, I think he's contributed to the goals against column

 

[EverBlue86]

We didnt score 7 either...

Yes but from us not scoring martinez went out and got us lukaku to address the problem.

How come he has failed to address the defence problem of 10 goals conceded in 3 games?

I said it last night and I stick to my belief that he is worried about changing our defence in the hope it remains rock solid, let's be honest the defence he built at Wigan was awful and I'm sure he may be anxious to change our CB'S in case it goes wrong and he gets criticism, although he will get criticism if we continue to defend like idiots whilst not addressing the problem in the transfer window.

 

[Mogwai]

First of all just a little reminder that last season we didn't record our first win in the league until the 14th September (versus Chelsea 1-0) prior to that fixture we had drawn with Norwich, West Brom and Cardiff (another note 2 out of them 3 got relegated)

I am not at all happy either at the way our defence has been shaping up however it will come together confidence just needs lifting and I really don't think there are many other managers as good as ours for raising morale (correct me if I am wrong)

Duffy leaving and these shouts of getting in a centre back. Well yes Distin is getting on a bit but he is still going to do a job as good as Stones and Jagielka. The problem for me so far has been I personally believe the error is our best defensive partnership seems to be Stones and Distin. As Jags is Captain and I use the term loosely 'fit' he has to be first choice...but why does he? he needs dropping and quickly he looks out of shape and unfit. We also have to make use of the other youngster maybe in the up coming League Cup.

Look lads (and our growing continent of ladies) all I am saying is that if we signed someone yesterday it would have been a poor signing the majority of fans get on the Sky TV Circus bandwagon, Roberto has got who he wants and you have to look at the bigger picture.

We started poorly last season and we have this season, however we are stronger this season than last. The only thing we need to do is be patient and don't forget Oviedo Baby will be back soon too. To finish off one word Eto'o

Nicely written

 

[elf]

It doesn't matter how many goals we score if we can't stop hemorrhaging goals then it is like filling a bucket with holes in its just going to circle the bottom... I fear we could do a Swansea from last season

 

[rochdaleblue]

Is very, very,very right.

Same goes for if Coleman misses any significant time.

This is the biggest area of concern, should Coleman get injured, stones looks all at sea playing football and Hibbert doesn't look he has the legs to play there anymore. Fingers crossed we stay lucky with Coleman's fitness.

 

[Tree13]

Confident Jags will come good. Think McCarthy is escaping criticism at the moment when he's been at fault for a couple of goals too.

Whilst McCarthy has not been brilliant, he at least has been better than Barry. Genuinely surprised Besic hasn't featured more thus far, because Barry has looked badly fatigued in the second half of every game so far.

 

[Boss_Blue]

First of all just a little reminder that last season we didn't record our first win in the league until the 14th September (versus Chelsea 1-0) prior to that fixture we had drawn with Norwich, West Brom and Cardiff (another note 2 out of them 3 got relegated)

I am not at all happy either at the way our defence has been shaping up however it will come together confidence just needs lifting and I really don't think there are many other managers as good as ours for raising morale (correct me if I am wrong)

Duffy leaving and these shouts of getting in a centre back. Well yes Distin is getting on a bit but he is still going to do a job as good as Stones and Jagielka. The problem for me so far has been I personally believe the error is our best defensive partnership seems to be Stones and Distin. As Jags is Captain and I use the term loosely 'fit' he has to be first choice...but why does he? he needs dropping and quickly he looks out of shape and unfit. We also have to make use of the other youngster maybe in the up coming League Cup.

Look lads (and our growing continent of ladies) all I am saying is that if we signed someone yesterday it would have been a poor signing the majority of fans get on the Sky TV Circus bandwagon, Roberto has got who he wants and you have to look at the bigger picture.

We started poorly last season and we have this season, however we are stronger this season than last. The only thing we need to do is be patient and don't forget Oviedo Baby will be back soon too. To finish off one word Eto'o

Forget all that. What about the growing CONTINENT of ladies following us?

*Books plane ticket

 

[Del]

First of all just a little reminder that last season we didn't record our first win in the league until the 14th September (versus Chelsea 1-0) prior to that fixture we had drawn with Norwich, West Brom and Cardiff (another note 2 out of them 3 got relegated)

I am not at all happy either at the way our defence has been shaping up however it will come together confidence just needs lifting and I really don't think there are many other managers as good as ours for raising morale (correct me if I am wrong)

Duffy leaving and these shouts of getting in a centre back. Well yes Distin is getting on a bit but he is still going to do a job as good as Stones and Jagielka. The problem for me so far has been I personally believe the error is our best defensive partnership seems to be Stones and Distin. As Jags is Captain and I use the term loosely 'fit' he has to be first choice...but why does he? he needs dropping and quickly he looks out of shape and unfit. We also have to make use of the other youngster maybe in the up coming League Cup.

Look lads (and our growing continent of ladies) all I am saying is that if we signed someone yesterday it would have been a poor signing the majority of fans get on the Sky TV Circus bandwagon, Roberto has got who he wants and you have to look at the bigger picture.

We started poorly last season and we have this season, however we are stronger this season than last. The only thing we need to do is be patient and don't forget Oviedo Baby will be back soon too. To finish off one word Eto'o

Distin is getting on a BIT? He 37 ffs

As for the "We started slowly last season" excuse, It was his first three games in charge, The team was getting used to his tactics and way of playing, They have had a full season and two pre seasons to adapt, He also didn't have McCarthy, Lukakau and Barry in those first 3 games

The defence is all over the shop and we have 4 CB's worth mentioning, Three are over 30 and the other is still learning his trade, One of the over 30's is never fit and when he has played he's looked awful

Then we have the problem at RB, Coleman gets injured long term and we have Tony frigging Hibbert to replace him, Imagine that for one second

Martinez since arriving has signed 11 players and only one of those is a defender, When you have 3 ageing CB's and no decent cover at RB for me its a daft move and one that could cost us this season

 

[Durham Toffee]

I'm inclined to be patient and wait this out. I think we have a potential in us that could even surprise the most optimistic of fans here (myself included.)

I have a good feeling about where we will be come the end of the season. I hope and believe we could be pushing Champion's League places.

Our attacking football is going to be something to behold. Yes, our defence can be weak at times, but if we're pinning a team into their half and pummeling them into next weekend, they're unlikely to cause us a whole load of trouble. I'm not saying we can do that to every team, and therein lies the rub. But we can do that to 50% of the Premier League...and that is promising to be enthralling stuff.

 

[toffeestillidie]

Distin is getting on a BIT? He 37 ffs

As for the "We started slowly last season" excuse, It was his first three games in charge, The team was getting used to his tactics and way of playing, They have had a full season and two pre seasons to adapt, He also didn't have McCarthy, Lukakau and Barry in those first 3 games

The defence is all over the shop and we have 4 CB's worth mentioning, Three are over 30 and the other is still learning his trade, One of the over 30's is never fit and when he has played he's looked awful

Then we have the problem at RB, Coleman gets injured long term and we have Tony frigging Hibbert to replace him, Imagine that for one second

Martinez since arriving has signed 11 players and only one of those is a defender, When you have 3 ageing CB's and no decent cover at RB for me its a daft move and one that could cost us this season

I completely agree with this, I've said from the start that once we secured Besic, Barry, and Lukaku, a centre back needed to be our priority. Toby Alderwield was available for loan, Michael Dawson isn't great but he's consistently average and would have been fine cover in that position.

Jags is clearly out of form, but he's always a little bit reckless and usually Distin bails him out with his pace. I actually think Distin should see the bench for the next game with Stones playing Distin's role. It will require more discipline from Stones than he currently shows, if you watch Distin's game he almost never goes to ground. For the last goal against Chelsea, I'm confident that last season Distin would have caught up to that and wouldn't have had to go to ground.

Jagielka is going to get back to his old self, but Distin is 37 years old. This is not a patch of bad form, his signs of decline have come about 4 years later than most would expect, but they're showing. I still think he's a great player, but it is madness to think we can depend on him for 38 games plus 3 cups this season.

 

[Del]

I completely agree with this, I've said from the start that once we secured Besic, Barry, and Lukaku, a centre back needed to be our priority. Toby Alderwield was available for loan, Michael Dawson isn't great but he's consistently average and would have been fine cover in that position.

Jags is clearly out of form, but he's always a little bit reckless and usually Distin bails him out with his pace. I actually think Distin should see the bench for the next game with Stones playing Distin's role. It will require more discipline from Stones than he currently shows, if you watch Distin's game he almost never goes to ground. For the last goal against Chelsea, I'm confident that last season Distin would have caught up to that and wouldn't have had to go to ground.

Jagielka is going to get back to his old self, but Distin is 37 years old. This is not a patch of bad form, his signs of decline have come about 4 years later than most would expect, but they're showing. I still think he's a great player, but it is madness to think we can depend on him for 38 games plus 3 cups this season.

People seems to believe that because we had a solid unit last season then we must have one this season

When you are talking about players in there 30's there legs can go very quickly imo

I think another problem is Barry playing 90 mins, He has not got the engine to do that and its blatantly obvious he's looking goosed after 60-70mins, Bring Besic/Gibson on to see the game out and give the back four some much needed help

 

[Tony Cottee]

For all the brilliant signings we have made in Rom, Eto, Besic etc I fear we will be let down by our poor defence which is a real shame as we could/should be challenging the top teams this season

 

[alpha1]

I must admit I would liked to have seen a decent CB come in, but mainly for the long term.
The back 4 is still the same group as those who were the 3rd best in the league so I'm sure they will come good.
Somebody like Van Dijk or Nastasic who are both fairly young would have been perfect for when Distin fades away though.
Looking back on the transfer window as a whole I can only be happy with the names who came in.
Nothing wrong with trying to better ourselves though (Bill and Elstone) so keep looking for better players all the time!

 

[applecrumble]

10 in 3 is awful

 

[Del]

10 in 3 is awful

Its fine mate, We had a boss defence last season