Centre Back Pairing

[William the White]

Mills looked slow, very, but steady, and improved as the game went on.

Zat Knight will have an excellent season.

This will not stop his detractors on this and other sites.

We kept a clean sheet.

Knight and Mills for now, safe in the knowledge that we have another problematic pairing available (tho different problem).

[Prufrock]

Just one?

[m_taylor]

Am i right in thinking that Mills hasn't played a league match since February since his isolations at Leicester? That might be the sharpness that wan't there on tuesday. I think he will come good. Reminds me a little of Gary Cahill in some ways. I also thought Knight was excellent but that might be his one good game for the season gone.

[Worthy4England]

Looks the most comfortable so far, and dare I say it seems to be taking responsibility more now....

When did we last have a centre back that could be described as the leader of the back four? (Not that it's an overriding prerequisite of keeping a clean sheet.)

It isn't, but remembering back a long way to when I played (at not a very decent standard ) every team had a defence leader, who controlled generally where the defence were parked on the pitch, be it from a free kick, or whether to play the offside trap etc. Ensure that people were picking up the right man from corners and the like.

It may well be that they do all this in pre-match now, but if that's the case it isn't fecking working, so they should have a voice on the pitch in that role. I think on "when did we last have", Robinson used to try and do that, but the downfall was he was usually directing people to tackle the geezer that by rights should have been his to fecking tackle.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Mills looked slow, very, but steady, and improved as the game went on.

Zat Knight will have an excellent season.

This will not stop his detractors on this and other sites.

We kept a clean sheet.

Knight and Mills for now, safe in the knowledge that we have another problematic pairing available (tho different problem).

I've slated Knight plenty times mostly because he seems so laid back but if he's taking responsibility and showing a bit of agression he is the best we have at present. He does seem to need responsibility. Paired with Mills is frighteningly slow. Can only work if we defend deep and it becomes more important than ever to have a decent scrapper infront of them. Wigth the current line up it feels like an accident waiting to happen.

With a 442 you generally want a dom /sub pairing ie one with pace who can think and pass plus an attack dog. More flexible as it allows pushing up to some degree.The best pairing we have as BWFCi mentioned earlier is probably Knight and Ricketts but Alonso and Knight on the left is dangerously slow. Not heard anything about us trying to get a LB tho so just like the previous 3 seasons we have a nice bleeding obvious weakness there. I still think Alonso has a future infront of the cbs but like most coyle signings he isnt good enough to play in the position he was signed for in a 442.

If Ricketts is going to be stuck out at left back and we arent signing anymore defenders then all we can do is hope and pray that either Ream comes good or coyle gets a decent destroyer and learns the value of defending deep when your cbs have all the turning speed of the Titanic.

The more you look at coyles signings the more you wonder what he's on. If he likes 442 and highlines so much you'd think he'd have some idea of the type of players you need to make the system work. Most of his signings suit a 5 man midfiield and defending deep.

[officer_dibble]

Zat Knight will have an excellent season.

This will not stop his detractors on this and other sites.

Narr fairs fair Billy; I've seen a different Knight the last two matches and he'll carry on going up in my estimation. He looks like he wants responsibility.

[Worthy4England]

Mills looked slow, very, but steady, and improved as the game went on.

Zat Knight will have an excellent season.

This will not stop his detractors on this and other sites.

We kept a clean sheet.

Knight and Mills for now, safe in the knowledge that we have another problematic pairing available (tho different problem).

I've slated Knight plenty times mostly because he seems so laid back but if he's taking responsibility and showing a bit of agression he is the best we have at present. He does seem to need responsibility. Paired with Mills is frighteningly slow. Can only work if we defend deep and it becomes more important than ever to have a decent scrapper infront of them. Wigth the current line up it feels like an accident waiting to happen.

With a 442 you generally want a dom /sub pairing ie one with pace who can think and pass plus an attack dog. More flexible as it allows pushing up to some degree.The best pairing we have as BWFCi mentioned earlier is probably Knight and Ricketts but Alonso and Knight on the left is dangerously slow. Not heard anything about us trying to get a LB tho so just like the previous 3 seasons we have a nice bleeding obvious weakness there. I still think Alonso has a future infront of the cbs but like most coyle signings he isnt good enough to play in the position he was signed for in a 442.

If Ricketts is going to be stuck out at left back and we arent signing anymore defenders then all we can do is hope and pray that either Ream comes good or coyle gets a decent destroyer and learns the value of defending deep when your cbs have all the turning speed of the Titanic.

The more you look at coyles signings the more you wonder what he's on. If he likes 442 and highlines so much you'd think he'd have some idea of the type of players you need to make the system work. Most of his signings suit a 5 man midfiield and defending deep.

I seem to recall us trying to play a halfway line, high line a couple of times last year. Wheater got sent off in one (possibly unfairly) and should probably have got sent off in the other (more fairly).

Not sure we have a combo that's capable of playing it - which is, as you say all the more mystifying that we try to.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

In short, I expect Tim Cahill to score roughly 300 goals for New York next season.

Oh no, that feckin' celebration....