The defence

[michael]

Yes-its a personal bugbear of mine ,but it really does getting me pulling my thinning hair out .

 

what does it take to make it better ?

 

Is it simply players who can obey management instructions and do the basics ?

 

to be fair-it was ok yesterday-and the best games that i have seen both wilson and green play-green defended well as well as attacked well-back to psf form for him-and wilson looks fit at last,and showed he really cared.

 

Its in the centre of defence that constantly bugs me.

I was pleased to see Johnson back,as i think he is the most consistent and less error prone of our three central defenders ;and whilst i thought he was very complacent in the first half-CW had a very good second half, when he stopped pretending to be Beckenbaur (for those who remember )

 

I don't expect pefection ,and understand mistakes will occur-but surely we can eradicate some of the mistakes.

 

3 tims in first half-CW was last line of defence and opted to 'play football' as opposed to hoof-particularly on a bumpy pitch - and three times he made a bit of a hash-albeit on each occasions recovered/got away with it.

as i say-in second half he resorted to basics and looked like the good player he is-but why take any risks?

 

why when attacking set pieces do we usually have just two defenders marking two attackers -especially when we are not blessed with pace .

indeed-on one occasion at,all bar one player went upfield tfor a corner and on the half way line oxford had 3 attackers ready for the clearance against one defender.Surely thats a basic which is sorted before players go on the pitch-what gets into their heads ?

 

WE still give too many unnecessary free kicks awaY-WERE UNDER PRESSURE AT END OF MATCH, AN OXFORD ATTACKER HAD BALL ON EDGE OF BOX-HE WAS Surrounded by 3 margate players-was going nowhere-but on of our bright sparks decides to foul him on the edge of the box-we got away with it-but why do it in first instance -madness.

 

yes-when you are playing-you can get carried away a bit-but the mental side is part of it.

just drives me nuts and we just don't improve at it .