Cyrus Christie

[Dodger53]

IMO he is not a very good player, he cannot defend and yesterday although one of his better games maybe even his best he isn't as fast as we have been told. He was the player most at fault for both goals but our style (Parker style is our biggest problem and Parker cannot see that) of slow sideways football was the real problem (again) yesterday. Too many passes to get anywhere and often what I call a full stop pass in the middle of a passing sequence that killed the speed of forward play. Parker is the problem not the man to sort out our problems.

[Dr Quinzel]

If he plays three games for us, he is likely to have one good, one OK and one very bad. That's his level really. Surrounded by better players and coached suitably he shouldn't be a problem, but with bad coaching/tactics his defensive issues really show.

[HV71]

Okay the defending was pretty poor for both goals but I did think Ejaria was a very tricky opponent. His deceptively languid style and quick feet made it difficult to tackle him ( especially when we allowed him into our box) .

[Deeping_white]

The first goal wasn't even his fault, he was outnumbered 2v1 because Knockaert didn't track the runner who he'd initially run back to cover off. Granted he was beaten 1v1 for the second goal but he was outnumbered so many times throughout the game because he has no cover in front of him

[Dodger53]

The first goal wasn't even his fault, he was outnumbered 2v1 because Knockaert didn't track the runner who he'd initially run back to cover off. Granted he was beaten 1v1 for the second goal but he was outnumbered so many times throughout the game because he has no cover in front of him

Christie was dauldling around out of position up field, ran back and then covered absolutly no body while taking a breather, knock got back and got involved. I am not a knock lover but Christie is our full back and supposed to be fast, he isn't either.

[SG]

Both full backs are defensively weak. First job is to prevent balls into the box. They don't get tight enough to block the ball. Second job is to watch/block blind side runs when the ball is coming across. They don't particularly Bryan. These things can be sorted with decent coaching but doesn't seem to be addressed. Until they do we will continue to concede soft goals. Our record when going a goal down this season is dreadful. That speaks volumes

[Matt10]

Okay the defending was pretty poor for both goals but I did think Ejaria was a very tricky opponent. His deceptively languid style and quick feet made it difficult to tackle him ( especially when we allowed him into our box) .

Agreed, it was a tricky match up. Probably one of the toughest opponents for anyone on the pitch. Some complaining about why Christie didn't get tighter, well, the second goal is a reason he contained him the majority of the time.

Overall, the defending was too passive by those not near the ball, such as Ream and Odoi. If Christie is beat, then Odoi and Ream need to block off passing lanes. Instead, on the first goal for example, you see both Ream and Odoi drop back closer to the 6-yard box to block a shot. Odoi especially is hugging the endline for no reason.

For the second goal, lack of aggression by StefJo allows the ball in again after Christie dug in and missed.

Our defenders seem to be instructed to contain versus dig into challenges. We've seen this from the very first match against Barnsley when Mawson was standing closer to Betts than he was the forward.

We've seen our defenders play aggressively before, so one can only think it's instructions, whether that be Parker or Stuart Gray, who knows. I'd say at the end of the day, it's on Parker though.

[JimOG]

Spot on SG. Christie is only serviceable as a wing back in a 3-5-2 formation (probably so is Bryan). I watched Christie closely v Luton trying to cope with Lua Lua. Each time he got near he didn't close the space so the Hatters winger had time to get another cross across our box. If we only add 1 player in this window it's got to be a tough tackling quick right back