Case for the defence and stats tell the sorry story

By Claret and Hugh follower Matt COYI Briard

I think we can all agree this season has been a total nightmare and the quicker it ends the better.

We have won seven PL games this season, of which five were won by not conceding a goal. I have been looking at the stats for this season so far and two clubs in the top ten, Sheffield Utd and Crystal Palace have scored five and seven goals less than us but sit eighth and 10th respectively.

The problem is we have conceded 23 and 18 goals more than both teams in the games we have played! Doing some more research in the last five seasons we have been in the bottom six every season for goals conceded including the last season at UP.

We are currently joint fourth worst with Southampton and they conceded nine in one game! So our recruitment policy has been to buy flair players (Anderson, Yarmo, Wiltshire, Lanzini and Fornals) when we have clearly needed defenders and box to box midfielders.

We have neglected the defence and running power in the centre of midfield and in the process are paying a small fortune in transfer fees and wages. We are NOT Man City and can play with luxury players (who still put in a shift ), we need eleven committed players who will run and run not much to ask is it?

Take Sheff Utd- a team of bang average Championship players,  who, apart from Henderson is one from and from whom most of us would not wish to sign any players.

But given their team formation, the desire shown by every player, and playing for the manager with no big egos they have been brilliant. So we don’t have the personnel and the next move is to change the formation.

Declan is a country mile our best player so play him in a three man defence with Diop and Ogbonna and let’s try and tighten the ship at the back.

Declan is not going to score goals or get assists, so let’s make the most of him to save our season. We don’t concede we don’t lose, yes it’s a BFS mantra, but it’s true; the teams that concede the most goals go down last four out of five  seasons – FACT.

If we are to stay up we need to stop conceding goals and  work much harder from front to back. We keep seven clean sheets we stay in the PL. Whatever happens at the end of the season, the squad needs a big overhaul and it needs to start with the defence.