How to evolve our defence to gain promotion

[FulhamStu]

Button and Ream are our most improved players and have meant we can win promotion without buying another defender.  Odoi is another reason for this as he has been able to cover central defence.  When Soares is fit, we will be able to judge if he is worth a starting place but right now I don't know.  With Ryan Sess being encouraged to attack, we must cover our left and Ream is going a great job here.  Sess needs to improve his heading which is where Soares may improve the defence.  We can't play a big traditional type central defender the way we pass the ball out of defence, imagine Burns coping with those short goal kicks !  We will always be vulnerable with our high risk policy but last night we did defend a lead, all be it, only just. If you want to play as we do, then this is the price you pay and I think we will continue to need to score more than 1 to win.

[colinwhite]

Good posts stu agree with just about alll of it.Was thinking of writing a post about cairney and how important he is to us ,and im not talking about his `final ball`.

[JimmyConway]

To say we don't need a defender/s is not correct what about injuries or suspensions just look at our cover it's very weak and even if you play Odoi as a makeshift it's showing how thin we are on the ground with centre backs and not fancying the other options. Not all central defenders need to be like Burn you can have good defenders who play with the ball at their feet and know how to defend.
We seem to be the victim of modern football and modern managers attack being the best form of defence. Little seems to have been done improving certain individuals defensive capability's since they've joined the club but attacking ability has improved Fredericks prime example.
If you take Ream as an improved player why is it after two or three seasons he still has that mistake/s in his game the answer is either the coaching is not good defensively or the player is of a certain level.
With what we have right now I don't see us as a top two team on the basis we have decent to good defenders and not very good defenders. I know some are saying Soares is good I'll settle for him to be a better defender than another player whose better going forward than defending. The best teams who go up or win leagues are normally the ones with the best defences over a season.

[hovewhite]

The way we play think we are always vunrable to concede a goal no matter whos in our defensive unit,for what its worth i believe we are better defensively because of our settled defence as a collective!

[FulhamStu]

To say we don't need a defender/s is not correct what about injuries or suspensions just look at our cover it's very weak and even if you play Odoi as a makeshift it's showing how thin we are on the ground with centre backs and not fancying the other options. Not all central defenders need to be like Burn you can have good defenders who play with the ball at their feet and know how to defend.
We seem to be the victim of modern football and modern managers attack being the best form of defence. Little seems to have been done improving certain individuals defensive capability's since they've joined the club but attacking ability has improved Fredericks prime example.
If you take Ream as an improved player why is it after two or three seasons he still has that mistake/s in his game the answer is either the coaching is not good defensively or the player is of a certain level.
With what we have right now I don't see us as a top two team on the basis we have decent to good defenders and not very good defenders. I know some are saying Soares is good I'll settle for him to be a better defender than another player whose better going forward than defending. The best teams who go up or win leagues are normally the ones with the best defences over a season.

Jimmy, loved you as a Fulham player and glad you didn't go to Leeds in the 70's mate.

Anyway regarding the quality of our defenders, I think you will find all defenders, esp at this level have a mistake in them, Dunk who would have been a perfect buy does and so do Man City players who are able to buy whoever they want.  The perfect error free defender does not exist.

As to poor backups, well I consider Madl decent and as for Djalo, not sure but have not written him off.  Top defenders will not settle for being backup at Fulham.

[hopper]

To say we don't need a defender/s is not correct what about injuries or suspensions just look at our cover it's very weak and even if you play Odoi as a makeshift it's showing how thin we are on the ground with centre backs and not fancying the other options. Not all central defenders need to be like Burn you can have good defenders who play with the ball at their feet and know how to defend.
We seem to be the victim of modern football and modern managers attack being the best form of defence. Little seems to have been done improving certain individuals defensive capability's since they've joined the club but attacking ability has improved Fredericks prime example.
If you take Ream as an improved player why is it after two or three seasons he still has that mistake/s in his game the answer is either the coaching is not good defensively or the player is of a certain level.
With what we have right now I don't see us as a top two team on the basis we have decent to good defenders and not very good defenders. I know some are saying Soares is good I'll settle for him to be a better defender than another player whose better going forward than defending. The best teams who go up or win leagues are normally the ones with the best defences over a season.

Re: Ream, he used to drop a complete clanger per game - normally one which we would concede from. I can't remember many times this season he has done that. There have been several occasions where he has impressively saved the defence.

Must say I'm quite astonished at his improvement!

[JimmyConway]

Hence why I said modern football the art of good defending is not coached unless your Conti nowadays or Graham Paisley or Clough where having a great defence was the platform for success. The best defences will always see out.
Why did Spurs let Walker go to a rival for £50m he can't defend great going forward though.