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The Case for the Defence


Kmcalpin
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With one more home game to go before the first round of fixtures is complete, we've now shipped more goals at home, 10, than any other team in the league and we're in 3rd place. Yes, we have deficiencies up front such as the lack of an out and out striker,  but I think our main weakness lies in our defence.  Sunday's game in Glasgow will also prove a severe but interesting test.  Tellingly , all our goals against at home have been conceded to other top 6 sides.  We've recorded clean sheets against bottom 6 opponents.

Its not all down to the back 5 though.  Defence does start further up the pitch.  Our central midfield seems to lack confidence and sits too deep and perhaps doesn't put in enough effort off the ball in closing players down.  Saturday's 3rd goal illlustrates this well.  Aberdeen take a throw in deep inside our half with our midfield sitting very deep.  No-one covers at the throw in and the Aberdeen lad can move inside unhindered and fire off a shot on target without a tackle. Our wingers don't protect the full backs.  Our full backs sit far too deep and infield making it easy for opponents to get to the by line or fire in crosses.  Whilst our centre defenders aren't world class they're not too bad, or at least Gallagher isn't.  I'm not sure we have the right partner for him though.  The above mentioned weaknesses makes life difficult for the centre defenders and Gillespie.  They're left exposed to runners and crosses, avoidable corners and shots coming in.

Now our defensive frailty could also be due in part to tactics i.e. getting caught on the break. 

Our defence does seems to be short of top 6 standard. Its concerning too that many of our defensive weaknesses have been apparent in games against bottonm 6 teams but fortunately their attacks haven't been good enough to punish us.  Overall we've done well this season so far to reach 3rd place so thats the overall context of my post, but there is undoubtedly scope to improve our defence considerably.

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59 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

With one more home game to go before the first round of fixtures is complete, we've now shipped more goals at home, 10, than any other team in the league and we're in 3rd place. Yes, we have deficiencies up front such as the lack of an out and out striker,  but I think our main weakness lies in our defence.  Sunday's game in Glasgow will also prove a severe but interesting test.  Tellingly , all our goals against at home have been conceded to other top 6 sides.  We've recorded clean sheets against bottom 6 opponents.

Its not all down to the back 5 though.  Defence does start further up the pitch.  Our central midfield seems to lack confidence and sits too deep and perhaps doesn't put in enough effort off the ball in closing players down.  Saturday's 3rd goal illlustrates this well.  Aberdeen take a throw in deep inside our half with our midfield sitting very deep.  No-one covers at the throw in and the Aberdeen lad can move inside unhindered and fire off a shot on target without a tackle. Our wingers don't protect the full backs.  Our full backs sit far too deep and infield making it easy for opponents to get to the by line or fire in crosses.  Whilst our centre defenders aren't world class they're not too bad, or at least Gallagher isn't.  I'm not sure we have the right partner for him though.  The above mentioned weaknesses makes life difficult for the centre defenders and Gillespie.  They're left exposed to runners and crosses, avoidable corners and shots coming in.

Now our defensive frailty could also be due in part to tactics i.e. getting caught on the break. 

Our defence does seems to be short of top 6 standard. Its concerning too that many of our defensive weaknesses have been apparent in games against bottonm 6 teams but fortunately their attacks haven't been good enough to punish us.  Overall we've done well this season so far to reach 3rd place so thats the overall context of my post, but there is undoubtedly scope to improve our defence considerably.

How do we compare with the rest of the league as regards goals lost in away games? I don't know the answer I was just wondering.

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at aberdeens 1st goal on saturday when we were down to 10 men tait was away up the park supporting attack when if he had been in line with his central defenders the pass into inside left channel would not have been as easy. Our full backs get caught out attacking at wrong times. Tait was also out position at celtics 1st i think with grimshaw out position at ross county. Saturday was really disappointing due to fact we were down to 10 men and someone should have been saying right lets hold the ball till we are back to 11. We are all being a bit too harsh i feel on everyone as saturday and ross county were both imo decided by lack of experience which you only get by playing. Maguire still has loads to learn obviously and although campbell has played lots of games now trying to hold the ball in the position he was in on saturday was crazy. also gallagher should never have passed to him. The 3rd goal was a great strike and 9 times out of 10 i would fancy gillespie not getting beat from that distance. Charles dunne at left back is most solid option for us defensively as hes not as keen to charge up the park but unfortunately he will not be for a while due to injury.  Because our midfield is imo lightweight and we play with 2 wingers i feel we need 2 defenders at full back rather than the ones we have which primarily want to attack

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The main duty of a defender is to defend … anything that they offer going forward is a bonus 

As said above we have a midfielder playing at right back whose positional sense in the position leaves a lot to be desired and a right back playing at left back !!!!

A back four needs defends as a unit and having two out of the four struggling in with positional sense of the role we are in bother 

Also with only playing 3 in midfield if as was the case on Saturday young Campbell has an off day [ normally does the work of 2 men in there ] we struggle defensively 

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