Ted Hughes wrote:carl_feedthegoat wrote:Ted Hughes wrote:Both were very lucky to get away with some pretty awful defending at times.
It's absolutely true that they are the best partnership, but not for the right reasons imo. They know Pellegrini's drill better than Managala does, so hold the offside line better etc, but as soon as pressure comes, Vinny in particular is losing concentration & charging about like a headless chicken, in a state of utter panic.
The composure of the Kompany Lescott partnership, where one would go for the ball & the other try to cover for him, has largely disappeared, but these do both manage to get in some last ditch tackles, & have to.
But the biggest difference between both & Mangala was sheer luck. MDM was skinned by the geriatric, useless RVP (the only thing he did in 90 mins) when it seemed the player had nowhere to go. Somehow Demi managed to allow him into our box, exactly as he did Soldado for the pen. Absolutely shocking defending both times. Not to mention him passing straight to the rags when they were all swarming in our half.
Also Vinny being nutmegged by that fat fucking sloth was like watching Gerry fucking Taggart at his worst. Pathetic (as well as Zabba falling for his great big dummy prior to that; what the fuck!!??). And the way Vinny let Boghead get away from him to get in a free header, was also just piss poor defending.
The pair of them were fucking lucky to get away with some real shite vs the rags, & the captain's lack of composure & organisation was the main reason Utd got a sniff in the game; the rest are folowing his lead. The cbs are having to make last ditch heroics because of their own lack of composure causing all manner of shit in the first place.
It's no wonder Managala is struggling when the best cb in the world is hopping around like a cat on a hot tin roof as soon as we come under any threat. If he had the opportunity to play next to the Vincent from 3 years ago, it would be a lot easier for him to find his feet.
At the moment, it's better he is kept out of it whilst they all calm the fuck down.
Just about every fuckign thread about our defense you have to bring up the fuckign crab ,time and time again.
Give it a fuckign rest Ted.....lets discuss what we have and leave past players where they belongs ffs !!
He has fucked off...
I'm comparing our defence when it was the best we have had, to what it is now. Just because you had no idea how good they were, doesn't mean I have to go along with it.
We haven't been as good at the back, since our first title win. We need to get back to that level of defending & then build a better level of protection in front of it. At the moment, we could lose any game where we score less than 3. And yes, releasing Lescott was a mistake. As releasing Demichelis will be if we do it next season. The best teams hold on to their experienced defenders as long as possible, just in case the shit hits the fan. I also wish we still had Nige & Tevez for that matter.
i agree with what you are saying Ted, and I even think that Mangala and Vinnie are a little too similar in their tendencies at the moment to make a solid partnership without any protection in front (obviously we play 2 in mid instead of 3 now). Mangala and Vinnie both have the instinct to step forward and be more 'proactive' about defending. That is the type of partnership that can take a long time to develop the right understanding for, on top of Mangala being new to the league.
Let's also not forget that Lescott was gash when we first bought him. So was MDM. Lescott wasn't even new to the league ... but he was new to the pressure and expectation that go along with being a big money transfer. Mangala has to deal with that now, and without the luxury of a defensive system to protect him.
for what it's worth, I don't think we'll ever return to the level of protection / 'defend first' mentality, it's just not the way our organization is setting itself up. We'll see how our defensive instability gets addressed, as it's not just the fans that are aware of it.