The Defence

[Snowball]

We screwed up against Scunthorpe with the first bizarre goal and then poor marking for their second goal.

Boro, all bets were off with that 24-second goal (funny that Boro then let one in at Watford after 17s) but
we did cut out chances and try to make a game of it.

For the rest we've won or drawn, so seems to me that Mac has it about right.

[Ryn]

What Floyd said about the intent of the opposition rings true for me.

If it's 0-0 after 80 minutes against a side who are hanging on for the point, you must surely push for the win.

0-0 and you have crafted very few chances all game, then certainly hang on for the point.

1-0 down I would always push for an equaliser with 5/10 minutes to go, I would rather lose 2-0 and have a chance of rescuing a point (which as mentioned would have saved us during the second Prem season) than sit back and accept a 1-0 defeat. It's not very common for teams to get relegated on goal difference, usually it's the points total come end of season.

2-0 down for me becomes damage limitation time unless something drastic happens.

[Snowball]

WELL, THAT'S FOUR CLEAN SHEETS IN THE LAST FIVE GAMES

[floyd__streete]

Mills can be inspired he can also be volatile and an utter liability who will miss plenty of games through suspensions.

Credit to Pearce, Harte and Cummings who all performed admirably tonight in securing that fourth clean sheet in five. No thanks to the captain.

[Kitson12]

I'm looking forward to a Pearce/Zurab CB pairing at the weekend. I hope MaccyD throws the books at Mills for his stupidity.

[Snowball]

Pearce-Zurab v Preston

Zurab-Ingi for the next game?


(I'm presuming it's Pearce's turn to be sent off...)

[Ryn]

In Matt Mills we have a player who is capable of getting us into the playoffs, or leaving us mid-table or worse.

On his day he is inspired, on a bad day (like last night) he is torture.

McD needs to stamp this attitude out of him, calm his frustration, and get him playing consistently if he is going to be an effective captain and tool for our back line.

[Snowball]

Considering Reading let in five goals in their first four games they
are doing VERY well to be joint fourth best defence in the Championship.

I find the stats slightly odd because they seem to do some awful things.
the "ricochet" v Scunthorpe, Zurab at Preston, The awful header "to Feds"
Mills' back-header etc etc. But the facts remain, we are keeping the goals out.

1 10 3 goals conceded 0.30 per game 8 Clean Sheets Queens Park Rangers
2 10 8 goals conceded 0.80 per game 5 Clean Sheets Burnley
2 10 8 goals conceded 0.80 per game 4 Clean Sheets Cardiff City
4 10 9 goals conceded 0.90 per game 4 Clean Sheets Reading
4 10 9 goals conceded 0.90 per game 3 Clean Sheets Ipswich Town
4 10 9 goals conceded 0.90 per game 1 Clean Sheets Nottingham Forest

Reading are mid-table in terms of goals scored but 5th in the league in terms of goal supremacy

1 10 +21 Queens Park Rangers
2 10 +09 Watford
3 10 +08 Cardiff City
4 10 +07 Burnley
5 10 +05 Reading

[Ian Royal]

I'll agree it's unnerving that a fairly makeshift defence - in terms of how unsettled it is - has such a good record given how manyof the goals we have conceeded seem to be really quite soft.

Cut half the stupid mistakes and suddenly we're looking pretty firm play off contenders, IMO. Question i, will it improve or get worse.

[Snowball]

As we are currently 7th, only out of contention on GD,
I guess we are pretty much "contenders" right now, after
almost a quarter of the season, even WITH the silly errors.

Zurab at Preston, didn't need to happen.
Fedders home to Forest didn't need to happen
The ricochet goal v Scunthorpe?
Unlucky goal (OG?) at Pompey

Had we had a run of luck there, or more professional defending
we might have beaten Preston, Pompey, Forest and got the draw
versus Scunthorpe. We'd be clear second on 23 points!

Having said that Millwall, Leicester in particular missed a lot
of very good chances, and Preston could have scored a few
early on from our mistakes.

So it all evens up.

What's good is that these are mostly "silly errors" or individual mistakes
as opposed to a defence being outplayed/torn-apart, so a small
improvement and we can look forward to a small goals-against column.

[Hoop Blah]

Our players make silly mistakes because they're at that level where they will make plenty of them.

We've had a few sloppy goals for us too haven't we? Or are they all well crafted via football just too good for our opponents?

[Snowball]

Our players make silly mistakes because they're at that level where they will make plenty of them.

We've had a few sloppy goals for us too haven't we? Or are they all well crafted via football just too good for our opponents?

Not this season in the league.

3 Kebe's three were all very good goals.

4 HRK's on-the-break goal also excellent.

5 Church's nifty deflection of Karacan's shot from a flicked on corner.

6 Karacan's screamer.

8 Two penalties.

9 Harte's excellent free-kick.

10 Gylfi's delicate chip over the diving keeper, an excellently-worked goal (Leicester)

11 Gylfi's run and shot v Scunthorpe. Good goal.

12 Mills brilliant header v Leicester

13 Kebe scrambles in from a corner. Not pretty but not a defensive howler.

14 Alex Pearce fires in from 6-7 yards. Again no "howler"



So this season in the league, so far, we HAVEN'T benefited from a crass error by the opposition

[Hoop Blah]

I've not gone back to work it out, and my memory of most of our goals is a bit limited, but the goal mouth scrambles for Pearce's goal(s) were (in my opinion) mistakes by the opposition, I'd say the total lack of marking for Mills' header at Leicester was an error, etc etc. Not howlers perhaps, but goals I'd be disapointed to concede.

[Stranded]

I've not gone back to work it out, and my memory of most of our goals is a bit limited, but the goal mouth scrambles for Pearce's goal(s) were (in my opinion) mistakes by the opposition, I'd say the total lack of marking for Mills' header at Leicester was an error, etc etc. Not howlers perhaps, but goals I'd be disapointed to concede.

Pearce's v Forest, you would certainly have to look at Forest's defence as they had chances to clear before the goal and should have done - agreed not a howler but definitely a defensive error.

[Snowball]

I've not gone back to work it out, and my memory of most of our goals is a bit limited, but the goal mouth scrambles for Pearce's goal(s) were (in my opinion) mistakes by the opposition, I'd say the total lack of marking for Mills' header at Leicester was an error, etc etc. Not howlers perhaps, but goals I'd be disappointed to concede.

Don't disagree. In one sense, EVERY goal is a mistake.

But I'm talking about total bloopers/gifts like Feds to Earnshaw
or a dumb back-pass like McAnuff at WBA, or Zurab at Preston
and those two dire back-headers that we got away with.

[Hoop Blah]

What if our players just aren't good enough to force them into those errors and capitalise on them when they make them?

In the build up to Gylfi's goal at Leicester Long closed down the defender who made a bit of a rickett by not passing/clearing the ball. The rest is history and we had a player of Sigurdssons ability and class to make the most of the error. I'm sure oppo's have made a few howlers against us this season that we've not punished....not that I can actually think of any though!

[Snowball]

What if our players just aren't good enough to force them into those errors and capitalise on them when they make them?

In the build up to Gylfi's goal at Leicester Long closed down the defender who made a bit of a rickett by not passing/clearing the ball. The rest is history and we had a player of Sigurdssons ability and class to make the most of the error. I'm sure oppo's have made a few howlers against us this season that we've not punished....not that I can actually think of any though!

Fedders kick-out blunder
The Armstrong failed header to Feds
The Mills failed back-header to Feds
Zurab's failed shield the ball for a goal-kick

etc


These are real BLUNDERS (less so the last one), different from imperfect defending (like Mills failing to pick up the guy for Scunthorpe's second goal.)

I'm talking about "gifts" rather than imperfections.

I don't think we've had any presents this season.