Obvious Weakness being targetted

[Toffeelover]

I noticed yesterday that we consistently brought Deulofeu back to defend corners yet left Lukaku on the halfway line. Could someone please have a stab at why this might be?

Even though we have defenders who can't head and a goalkeeper who cannot cut crosses out, I still do not see what is the point of bringing Del back. What really can he do in the way of defending?

 

[ToffeeDoug]

Even though we have defenders who can't head and a goalkeeper who cannot cut crosses out, I still do not see what is the point of bringing Del back. What really can he do in the way of defending?

It happened every time. Deulofeu ran back and marked space on the edge of our penalty box, so really contributing nothing. Under orders, obvs.

 

[riddick]

No fn way. Is that real? Holy crap if it is..

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

No fn way. Is that real? Holy crap if it is..

His starting position for the Giroud one was dead funny.

 

[Toffeelover]

No fn way. Is that real? Holy crap if it is..

No Mate it was down to a bit of clever photoshopping.

 

[riddick]

No Mate it was down to a bit of clever photoshopping.

you just never know with Howard honestly...

 

[catcherintherye]

This is what I said in the Martinez discussion post a couple of weeks back. (slightly paraphrased)

https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/roberto-martinez-discussion.57212/page-1006#post-3925514

"If you watch us defensively our problems are very clear. We are overly susceptible to balls into the box. We lack dominant Centre Halves to deal with this and with two attacking fullbacks are always vulnerable to back post deliveries. Alongside that our fullbacks are not good enough to prevent enough crosses coming in. That is a recipe for disaster."

I have been saying this over and over since December last year. It is clear we struggle to defend balls into the box. It is close to becoming a crisis point for us.

Something has to give.

 

[Yorkie]

Apart from Howard when did you last see one of defence heading a cross away.

Alcaraz and Coleman scoring boss OGs at Southhampton the other year might have put the others off

 

[Pabbers]

Since 2 of our best defenders have come back into the team, we have shipped 5 goals in 2 games.

 

[Nymzee]

I think we might fare better defensively with Funes Mori and Joel in the team for the next few games. Joel seems - surprisingly - more confident commanding his area nowadays compared to Howard and unlike Stones and Jags, Ramiro looks like a bit of a warrior. Some of his defensive headers in the games he's played lately have been very impressive. We lack real height and presence in the middle of defense (inc. keeper) and it's obvious how to attack us for even the amateur football fan.

 

[Arteta2391]

we are short of more cowbell

 

[deipnosophist]

Not looking forward to the West Ham game...that big lug Carroll will have a field day.

 

[daz4matty]

Not looking forward to the West Ham game...that big lug Carroll will have a field day.

Every game seems hard these days

 

[Toffeelover]

Since 2 of our best defenders have come back into the team, we have shipped 5 goals in 2 games.

 

[streeky]

Our main problem with our defence at the minute is that we are way too deep. The centre half's are right on top of the keeper ,the holding mid's are where the centre half's should be, so any ball into our box causes chaos. If Martinez dropped this latest flavour of the month football(counter attack) and pushed his back four up 20yds everyone could do their job without getting in each others space. We never had this chaos when balls where played into our box when we were pushed on taking the game to teams.