Seriously what’s gone so badly wrong with the defence in the last 3 games? Prior to Brentford, I thought we were a poor side that barely looked like scoring but the one saving grace was that we looked solid enough at the back in general, nothing special but nothing like the disaster we’ve been since. We’d almost held Leeds who are as good as anyone in the league, only conceded one at Forest and got a clean sheet at Wigan. Is what’s changed? I’m baffled.
Ben Williams had a shocker yesterday. He was out of position for the first four goals we conceded- not that the others were blameless.
Ben Williams wasn’t good enough in League One nevermind this league, doesn’t explain the sudden drop though.
There are too many in our current squad who are currently not quite good enough for the championship. Ben Williams is one. Jacob Brown has been finding it difficult to beat full backs. The centre backs including Sibbick and Diaby lack experience at this level. I think that Wilkes and Chaplin ca make the step up. This puts too big a burden on the more experienced players Mowatt, Woodrow and to a lesser extent McGeehan and Jordan Williams. We need an experienced defender to take charge at the back. Let's hope the recruitment policy can be tweaked and such a defender brought in for 1 January 2020.
For the first two it was definitely Jordan Williams who needlessly gave the ball away, nothing to do with Ben Williams.
U need to watch the goals and see where Ben Williams is... Hes out of position when he is a full back
Perhaps we should set up a crowd-funding page, so that we can pay Big Mick a consultancy fee in return for sorting out our defence. I have no idea what the coaching team are doing each week, but they don't seem to know the first thing about defending.
I've watched it mate. For the first Jordan Williams falls over and passes straight to their man; for the second, he chips it straight to their player. Both errors led to their goal. Against Brentford, their first goal and the Brentford player turns him inside out far out on the wing. Very poor. Nothing to do with Ben Williams' positional play. If J Williams hadn't given the ball away we would be looking for the high press. Individual errors are costing us dear. Giving the ball away in such an easy fashion close to the halfway line is unforgivable.
Correct, again. Ben was caught upfield because that's what he's asked to do - to form part of a high line and push on when we have the ball. Unfortunately, Jordan loses possession and thus the backline are all caught out. It's a massively risky way of playing and at this level you're more likely to be punished. That said, I don't think it was a coincidence that we looked the most defensively sound in recent games away at Forest, when Pinillos played. But even that day we were done for the goal by getting caught out when pouring forward. Tactically we are naive.
Exactly, I completely agree. And there's a bit of noise on here saying Pinillos is 'too slow' for this league. I think Pinillos is actually a sound, reliable and experienced left back. And he doesn't necessarily have the pace but that's no bad thing because he's less likely to bomb forward and be high up the field if/when we get caught in possession, which keeps happening so often in recent games. Personally I would go with our most experienced full backs Pinillos and Cavare. This continues the momentum from last season. We are clearly lacking at centre half, but at least have some experience out wide where we continuously give the ball away at present.
Both full backs bomb forward but trot back. Ben Williams in particular is caught too far forward quite often when the ball us on the opposite wing. A break in play and hes missing. It may not be his fault the ball was lost but he has no capacity to run back. I watched Quest last night and most teams have 5,6 or even 7 men in the box to cut out any danger. For all the goals against Preston we had 1, 2 or at most 3. Ben & Jordan Williams were nowhere in sight for most of them and Sibbick also goes on walkabout on occasions.The first priority must be to get defenders to defend.
That is the point, how many games this season have our fullbacks been caught out of position, they're being asked to push on and apply the width. In the championship you're going to get caught out doing that. From a coaching perspective the players have been hung out to dry.