Mael

Thing with Roberts is he escapes alot of criticism even when he's awful as he was good 10 years ago for us and in a side that got promoted. Even Saturday the balls going out for a corner any other defender at the club just clears the ball even academy players. Roberts turns he took so long to turn the ball had gone for a corner by the time he did. His pace as gone. His passings poor, he can't bring the ball out of defence.

 

Amazing how not playing enhances your reputation. The same happened for Watters when he was out.

Mael is not a good defender, he’s weak, he’s slow and has poor positional sense. Just because the defenders who played yesterday are poor does not make him any better.

 

He would have played if fit definitely mate as the others pull no trees up(Pines included ha). I know you big fan of his but apart from being able to bring ball out from defence he’s no better than rest. Those balls over the top last night that kept catching us out are typical of the ones he too can’t deal with. Earl, MDG and a return to form Roberts are our best back 3, which just goes to show that we haven’t got much quality available. This window was crying out for a good centre back signing but doubt it will happen. Clarke keeps saying he has 5 top centre halves, I am sorry to say that he his taking the piiisss if he really means that.

 

What annoys me most is pines was absolute ***** last season defensively, so were mael and earl who both gift the opposition at least one glorious chance per game and yet the only addition in defence was a 34 year old who had started just 4 games since the previous December.
We lost three wing backs in Williams, styles and cadden and replaced all three with a 20 year old who had only Scottish 19 league starts to his name.

And for some reason, despite us apparently being a statistics based team and the statistics showing who were clearly our better defenders, we still decided to send Shephard out on loan again virtually guaranteeing that we would be short of defensive options

 

I haven't seen any of our defensive combinations look solid yet. Cant keep a clean sheet full stop. Yesterday was like an under 8's game with headers straight up in the air, 3 yard passes straight to the opposition, inability to clear our lines, and panic scuffing balls in the direction the player faces. No composure, not leadership and no structure. By the way Killip did all he can and deserves some credit keeping it down to 2. Sorry no disrespect to under 8 teams.

 

We'll agree to differ. For me he just doesn't have the basics to be a regular centre half. Physically weak, dreadfully slow and very poor decision making.

I don't think we're helping ourselves by playing a high line with no recovery pace with wing backs.

 

I don't hate anyone, I just think he's an extremely poor defender, there's no reason to descend an opinion into the realms of irrational hatred.

 

I don’t mind Mael but he makes far too many mistakes to ever be a solid defender. I think in this case it is one of those times where a missing/injured player suddenly becomes better when not in the side.

I thought Roberts was good in the first half of the season and probably our best defender but since his return from injury, he’s looked way off it.

Pines has always had his strengths and weaknesses. Yesterday, ball in the air and over the top, should’ve been his type of game but he struggled massively. Maybe the conditions were a lot worse than how it appeared on the screen?

Earl is probably our best defender in my opinion. But even he has his moments where he looks about as agile as a wardrobe.

I read at the start of the window we were looking at a striker, left wing back and keeper. I hope the keeper part has changed to central defender.

 

Absolutely this.
MDG is just consistently consistent. His errors are probably magnified purely because of the amount of defending he actually has to do in a game. Which is unfair. We have totally missed him for 2 games.

As for Killip, we were all fairly unanimous that he was nothing more than a semi decent #2. But he is keeping things respectable week in, week out currently. It's unfair on him that he is having so much to do in a game.

 

I think we would have lost by more had he played. Probably 4 or 5.

 

I hope Mael is fit for the weekend. If that Roberts Red stands I assume he’s out for 3 games, so we could really do with Mael back. Some of our defending is atrocious, the ease at which that over the top ball killed us last night was daft. We concede far too many goals, needs sorting out.

 

Pines only played about four games last season & we were significantly better when he played.

 

Do you now agree with me when I say we need a brick sh£t house of a Defender rather than a striker this January.

 

I have been sounding like a long playing record ,when I keep saying we need a brick Sh£t house Defender.
This is the worst defence I've seen in 50 years of watching us.
Even John Saunders looks like Ronald Koeman compared to these Cowboy defenders.

 

Let's be honest though the bar hadn't been set very high for him to acheive that .

 

We missed a defender that can play at the right hand side of a back three last night. We didn't miss MDG though.

Quite how we have got into a position of having so many players yet so few who are capable of playing in the only system the club seems to allow us to play is beyond me.

 

I’ve never had an issue with him giving the ball away playing a forward pass & I don’t criticise him for bringing the ball forward. I think that’s his best attribute other than his brilliant fitness record.

There’s two things for me that I see as errors that he makes repeatedly that I’d expect to be coached out of him by now.

One is believing he’s a lot quicker than he is & trying to dribble out of most situations when he just needs to launch it. There’s no shame in going long or even giving away a throw in.

And the other one is a common failure of a wide centre back in a 3 which is getting caught out by the kind of balls Pines was last night. I feel like Earl used to get caught out by the same ball last season a fair bit but seems to have addressed it where as I think De Gevigney still gets caught out by it a bit too much.

Having said all that I still think he’s undroppable as I don’t think he’s got any competition for the role. We saw last night how much Pines struggled moving to right centre back. It takes a while to learn the position & even if he does he’s never going to be comfortable bringing the ball into midfield like De Gevigney can (& neither is Roberts).

 

I have just watched it back and completely agree it wasn't even a foul never mind a yellow or a red. I think the ref gave in to the baying home crowd and should be himself reprimanded by the PGMOL

 

I agree with you Baz, we are woeful mate. Don’t think we will sign one because Clarke claims those we have are gud uns ha. We need solid defender or two, bit like that rightback/centreback from Stoke other season, can’t remember his name, Edwards I think. Obviously we need strengthening up front too pal

 

We have defenders who are sh*t. Defenders as thick as a brick. Some who sh*t bricks.

I'm still not sold on the brick sh*t house defender need though.

We already have a big lump in Pines. I'd actually take a very average, consistent 6-7 out of ten unremarkable defender who does the basics without drama and has a bit of mobility.