Great Start to the Season BUT...

[18efc78]

Is anyone slightly worried about us defensively?

Jagielka in particular has been partially at fault for two goals over the past two games and Howard could be more commanding in the area at times. Don't get me wrong I'm very happy with the start to the season but our defense from the past two games MUST improve...

[Major Clanger]

Is anyone slightly worried about us defensively?

Not really.

Our defending isn't any worse than it used to be, which is good enough for the time being, given the improvement in our attacking. I'm happy that Martinez implemented his changes without our defending suffering too much (which was a big worry after his Wigan career). To improve the two together would've been a miracle.

Of course you're always looking for ways to improve and I could probably find a couple of things to tweak in defence (and I'd expect Martinez to find several dozen of them) but so far I haven't seen anything worth worrying about much defensively.

[The Good Citizen]

No defence is perfect and last night the first goal was unstoppable, it fell to him, he shifted it and screamed it in the top corner.  For the second there we could have done better and we were punished.

I was looking earlier at the 3 league games where we have conceded 6 goals and the opposition has had 9 shots on target in those games. We were averaging about 60% possession before last night too. So we kept the ball well for almost 2 thirds of those games, and we restricted the opposition to 3 shots a game on target.

Unfortunately they have scored from  66% of those shots on target. You could say that was unlucky but I noticed last season the amount of games where we were massively on top and the other team had 2 shots on goal and scored 2 or 1 on target and scored 1. It was really frustrating. Do you blame Howard? Well I think the problem with keepers is they are seen as quite passive in the team; if they are not doing much wrong they are seen to be doing well, but a top draw keeper will make hardly any mistakes but also save his share of the 'unsaveable' those point blank shots that get tipped over the bar or whatever.

Keepers are relatively cheap compared to other positions but goals that 90% of keepers would have let in and pundits would have said "he had no chance of saving that", I think if you have a keeper who through reactions, anticipation, if they can save 10 of those a season on top of the bread and butter saves, that makes a massive difference. A goals a goal - hence 20 goals a season and you're worth £25 million but a save is subjective and not so easy to compare.

Anyway I guess I’m saying without Howard doing too much wrong, are we getting the most out of that position or should we look to spend £6-7 million and look to improve on it. Is he the best in the league? No, so why not look to improve.

[The Analog Kid]

McCarthy let Cabaye go and gave him space for his shot when he could have got tighter, but as mentioned, the shot was something else. The second was just a clumsy goal- shit happens.

[Shogun]

Not sure who was at fault for Cabaye's goal. Both McCarthy and Barry backed off him.

[blueski]

thought the first goal was mostly the result of an overall drop in workrate among the team rather than any one person

the first 3 games we seem to have been playing some variant of martinez's gameplan although at a considerably slower pace than we did in the last few games

now we seem to be coming out of the gate very hard but are tiring as a team in the second half

IMO I think we need to either improve our match fitness or find better ways of lowering our own intensity for short periods throughout the game to prevent such a fall off in the 2nd half (for example allowing the other team to have posession in non-dangerous areas)

[bacon sarnie]

Is anyone slightly worried about us defensively?

Jagielka in particular has been partially at fault for two goals over the past two games and Howard could be more commanding in the area at times. Don't get me wrong I'm very happy with the start to the season but our defense from the past two games MUST improve...

Jags looks a bit weak of late but he'll get it back and Howard is what you get for nowt & doing alright for it in my books.

[The Good Citizen]

thought the first goal was mostly the result of an overall drop in workrate among the team rather than any one person

the first 3 games we seem to have been playing some variant of martinez's gameplan although at a considerably slower pace than we did in the last few games

now we seem to be coming out of the gate very hard but are tiring as a team in the second half

IMO I think we need to either improve our match fitness or find better ways of lowering our own intensity for short periods throughout the game to prevent such a fall off in the 2nd half (for example allowing the other team to have posession in non-dangerous areas)

Be interesting to see the ground covered by the players who also played under DM.

DM used to set the team out to play some decent football, we always got it down and started well, then as the game went on we used to kick it away more and more. We also reacted massively to a goal, we scored one we went in our shell, we condeeded we came out of it again. I'm glad we didn't change our approach last night after Newcastle scored, we still played up the park, its a lot more open now so I would guess players cover more ground but probably wrong!

[duncandisorderly]

Not worried about the defending at all to be honest, bit concerned with not putting two halves of football at the same level as the first, similar to the 2nd and 1st halves last week at West Ham. Waiting for us to twat someone 5-0 and it should have been last night. The signs though are very, very promising.

[bluenose27]

We have the best home defence in the prem based on statistics and also had the best home record over the past 12 months. Until last night we had gone 7 league games without conceding a goal so we have to concede a couple sometime. Best time to do it is when you score 3!

[Mick 1995]

We've conceded 4 less goals this season compared to the same games last season (swapping Cardiff for Wigan) so i'd say it's looking OK.

The problem is that football fans seem to have a short memory.
Remember the poor run at the start of last season when people were howling at the defence and Heitinga/Howard in particular?
Yet by the end of the season we were considered our normal, solidly defensive selves.

It's the same with the media/fans getting all excited about us and Liverpool being in the top 4. I'm sure in previous seasons teams like Hull or Barnsley have been top of the league at this stage. The end of November is when you can start assessing the start of the season properly and make realistic predictions I think.

[blueski]

Be interesting to see the ground covered by the players who also played under DM.

DM used to set the team out to play some decent football, we always got it down and started well, then as the game went on we used to kick it away more and more. We also reacted massively to a goal, we scored one we went in our shell, we condeeded we came out of it again. I'm glad we didn't change our approach last night after Newcastle scored, we still played up the park, its a lot more open now so I would guess players cover more ground but probably wrong!

yes I think it would be interesting. I'd suspect the CMs at least cover noticably more ground under martinez than under moyes, baines is covering less and coleman more at the least. not too sure what the effect would be for the defenders; however the # of passes completed by the centre backs and goalkeeper is probably considerably higher

[farnhamtoffee]

 Our defence is doing fine,playing to a new system,they will get a lot better.Were playing more adventurous,attacking football,so inevitably,gaps will sometimes appear.Thank fuck we aren't near the bottom of the league,i would hate to see the moans then.

[Major Clanger]

yes I think it would be interesting. I'd suspect the CMs at least cover noticably more ground under martinez than under moyes, baines is covering less and coleman more at the least. not too sure what the effect would be for the defenders; however the # of passes completed by the centre backs and goalkeeper is probably considerably higher

I'm not quite sure about that, we pressed high and we pressed a lot under Moyes, which doesn't look like much running, until you try it

There's probably a lot more movement off the ball though now when we're in possession.

Maybe we should write to the Executioner's Bong fella to look into it.

[TheRam]

I dont recall us being a pressing team under Moyes.

One of his many weaknesses was how he set the team out to play deep.