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CB Worries

For me the Korean lad at £14m looks a deal worth making
Korean meteorology from what we have seen is very very strong
And he is an absolute unit too
And anyone with the confidence to tackle then Meg Dembele is a player with prospects

Central defence is all about communication though.
If we get him it, he will a few months at least to know what Dier or whoever is telling where to go on the pitch.
There's no way Mourinho is getting in a player with no experience in any major league.
This would be a Levy value gamble.
 
Thank goodness there's something to steer the narrative toward negativity and collective well diving.

I was getting in a rather happy mood over all the good things going on this week, like the acquisitions of Bale and Reguilon and the spectacular, incisive play that produced such an entertaining win, a great response to the Everton game - plus it's the start of a gorgeous sunny week here and both my big, buxom indica and sativa plants are almost ready for harvesting with huge sticky buds - and really needed something to pull me back from the brink of giddiness.

Good try, you nattering nabobs of negativity. I'm still smiling and patiently expecting Great Leader Levy to back his manager. He is, in the estimation of former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon, "...a master of running a football club. He knows the market well and how to take advantage of the situation he’s in." ( a quote from an article in The Athletic written by two ardent gooners, by the way). Levy's done that so far.

Once Doherty and Reguilon get settled in, once Hojbjerg gets in sync with his midfield partners, once Tanganga gets match fit again, we're gonna have a pretty capable and competent group of defenders. Defence is mostly reliant on cohesion, awareness and anticipation. Hard to achieve in the short term with new faces arriving at critical positions and an abbreviated pre-season.

I'd like to think if we'd seen sparkling defensive play and clean sheets in all three games thus far, you lot would be sternly muttering "It's too soon. It's too soon."
 
Central defence is all about communication though.
If we get him it, he will a few months at least to know what Dier or whoever is telling where to go on the pitch.
There's no way Mourinho is getting in a player with no experience in any major league.
This would be a Levy value gamble.
As opposed to buying a Portuguese lad who may struggle with comms too?
I agree by he way but the logic has to be the best available low risk option
 
Quick comparison from last 3-5 years (as a high level summary):

Walker - Jan - Toby - Rose

Doherty - Dier - Toby/Sanchez - Davies

Our backline has gotten considerably worse. That is a massive concern. Davies and Dier were not even first choice players in defence in the peak Poch era, now both are currently first choice in our First XI? That is woeful.

Might work if, as posted elsewhere, we switch to 3-4-3 with Reguilon coming in, and therefore adjusting to Sanchez, Toby, Dier - that may be the answer we're crying out for. But playing Dier in a back 4, useless.
 
I think it's pretty obvious that Jose is looking for a leader, a rock in defence. A Terry, Carvalho, Ramos...someone that shouts orders, organises and lays his body on the line when things get tough.

He wants that to be Dier, Dier has all that BUT I think he's worried that either his actual footballing performances are finding it hard to reach a consistency and/or he's not as comfortable at LCB.

So I think he's hoping a new LCB will help with that balance BUT also if the new player has the 'Terry' type qualities more the better in case Dier doesn't work out.

I don't think he can rely on Sanchez or Toby to become a leader type? imo
 
Mou likes "talkers" that will continually organise, cajole, praise, demean, shout, encourage, complain to the ref to get decisions i.e. Hart, Dier, Hojbjerg (Kane Lloris) as his spine.
 
I think it's pretty obvious that Jose is looking for a leader, a rock in defence. A Terry, Carvalho, Ramos...someone that shouts orders, organises and lays his body on the line when things get tough.

He wants that to be Dier, Dier has all that BUT I think he's worried that either his actual footballing performances are finding it hard to reach a consistency and/or he's not as comfortable at LCB.

So I think he's hoping a new LCB will help with that balance BUT also if the new player has the 'Terry' type qualities more the better in case Dier doesn't work out.

I don't think he can rely on Sanchez or Toby to become a leader type? imo

Agreed. Sanchez certainly isn't a leader and time isnt on Toby's side. No idea whether the Swansea chap could develop into a leader?
 
I think it's pretty obvious that Jose is looking for a leader, a rock in defence. A Terry, Carvalho, Ramos...someone that shouts orders, organises and lays his body on the line when things get tough.

He wants that to be Dier, Dier has all that BUT I think he's worried that either his actual footballing performances are finding it hard to reach a consistency and/or he's not as comfortable at LCB.

So I think he's hoping a new LCB will help with that balance BUT also if the new player has the 'Terry' type qualities more the better in case Dier doesn't work out.

I don't think he can rely on Sanchez or Toby to become a leader type? imo

I think that Dier is his first choice CB. A new CB coming in is likely to play alongside him.
 
I find the cb situation a bit strange really. I feel we have acctually been defensively solid the last few games, but we are conceding more than a goal per game on average. Saudi Sportswashing Machine couldn’t get a sniff before the stupid penalty. United barely tested lloris except for a stupid penalty, macabi hafia scored from a cracking shot and another stupid handball penalty. But even so I don’t trust our defence..
 
Jose sets us up either to press high (this has taken some time to take hold) or we defend in the box. This season our box defending has gotten better but it does 9n the surface level make us look vulnernable as the opposition will have a decent amount of the ball in and around the area. The aim is to not let them have a clear crack on goal limit to lot shots such as the ones It's had one Sunday. I think we will see over the course of the season fewer and fewer teams getting 1on1s or clear quality chances against the keeper barring any defensive lapses from the CBs. I'm basing this primarily on Jose's preferred defensive lineup throughout his career and what I've seen us do so far. As well as the interest in Skrinniar who is very much a box style defender.
 
The handball rule, might actually force Jose to be more on the frontfoot than normal...at least in terms of trying to get 2-0 up in most games befoire half-time BEFORE we start sitting back.
Teams with constant low-blocks could really suffer more than most in terms of those teams who will target just crossing to he arms imo
 
I find the cb situation a bit strange really. I feel we have acctually been defensively solid the last few games, but we are conceding more than a goal per game on average. Saudi Sportswashing Machine couldn’t get a sniff before the stupid penalty. United barely tested lloris except for a stupid penalty, macabi hafia scored from a cracking shot and another stupid handball penalty. But even so I don’t trust our defence..

Think it's 5 goals conceded, 3 were penalties, 1 a ridiculous shot from outside that pinged the bar on way in, other was the classic ex player great pass (KWP -> Ings) to in form striker (defense should have done better there). If I look at that, the Sanchez penalty and Ings goal are the only bad mistakes and even those aren't a calamity type disaster.

The more we push teams and score big, the less danger we will be in, teams will not overcommit with Bale, Son, Kane +2 FBs pushing up able to punish them for any mistake. Pool's defense isn't/wasn't that amazing, but teams had to cover the transition which minimizes the threat going the other way.

What I think Jose is looking for is
- A more physical presence, potentially good in air (identified weakness, the only one of our defenders decent in air is Dier)
- A left sided CB (Toby, Dier, Sanchez all prefer to play on right of the CB pair)
 
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