Duffy

[S.F.Sorrow]

Nice to know that Duffy is available as cover, if called upon he should do a good job alongside Ream or Diop.
However against Sunderland we finished with what looked like a shakey defensive line up of:-

                                                                    Rodak
                                BDR              Duffy                      Tosin           Kurzawa
                                                        Cairney          Reed
Not sure where the weakness was but as a unit it was being taken apart by young Sunderland players.

We could start our best defensive line-up and still look exposed with Cairney-Reed in our midfield. Until we get better CBs we need our midfielders to be strong defensively. Cairney is an amazing footballer but he is weak defensively. This is the reason why Cairney can't be a regular starter for us in the PL (well that plus his knees). He's not really an alternative for the AM position either as he can't keep up Pereira's pressure for 90 minutes and this is crucial for Silva's tactics.

Reed-Palhinha offers far better protection for our defence. In the PL we need two DMs (in reality one pure DM and one defensively minded box-to-box player) to avoid losing too many games. In the Championship where we needed to win enough games for promotion a midfield of Reed-Palhinha would perhaps be a bit too defensive. I think Silva got his tactics spot on for our first season in the PL, unlike Jokanovic who thought he could keep us up with the same attacking football that looked so impressive in the Championship.

I'm not saying our CBs are horrible btw. They're just not up to the standard of the best PL teams which means our midfielders need to be strong defensively when we're facing world class attackers.

[Sting of the North]

Nice to know that Duffy is available as cover, if called upon he should do a good job alongside Ream or Diop.
However against Sunderland we finished with what looked like a shakey defensive line up of:-

                                                                    Rodak
                                BDR              Duffy                      Tosin           Kurzawa
                                                        Cairney          Reed
Not sure where the weakness was but as a unit it was being taken apart by young Sunderland players.

We could start our best defensive line-up and still look exposed with Cairney-Reed in our midfield. Until we get better CBs we need our midfielders to be strong defensively. Cairney is an amazing footballer but he is weak defensively. This is the reason why Cairney can't be a regular starter for us in the PL (well that plus his knees). He's not really an alternative for the AM position either as he can't keep up Pereira's pressure for 90 minutes and this is crucial for Silva's tactics.

Reed-Palhinha offers far better protection for our defence. In the PL we need two DMs (in reality one pure DM and one defensively minded box-to-box player) to avoid losing too many games. In the Championship where we needed to win enough games for promotion a midfield of Reed-Palhinha would perhaps be a bit too defensive. I think Silva got his tactics spot on for our first season in the PL, unlike Jokanovic who thought he could keep us up with the same attacking football that looked so impressive in the Championship.

I'm not saying our CBs are horrible btw. They're just not up to the standard of the best PL teams which means our midfielders need to be strong defensively when we're facing world class attackers.

I think TC did more than fine paired with a proper DM yesterday. The same against Man United earlier in the season. He is without a doubt good enough to start, but doesn't offer the same things as Reed (and it is clear what Silva has preferred so far).

Agree that TC and Reed doesn't work though, because no one will properly cover the area in front of the back four in that set up.

[S.F.Sorrow]

Nice to know that Duffy is available as cover, if called upon he should do a good job alongside Ream or Diop.
However against Sunderland we finished with what looked like a shakey defensive line up of:-

                                                                    Rodak
                                BDR              Duffy                      Tosin           Kurzawa
                                                        Cairney          Reed
Not sure where the weakness was but as a unit it was being taken apart by young Sunderland players.

We could start our best defensive line-up and still look exposed with Cairney-Reed in our midfield. Until we get better CBs we need our midfielders to be strong defensively. Cairney is an amazing footballer but he is weak defensively. This is the reason why Cairney can't be a regular starter for us in the PL (well that plus his knees). He's not really an alternative for the AM position either as he can't keep up Pereira's pressure for 90 minutes and this is crucial for Silva's tactics.

Reed-Palhinha offers far better protection for our defence. In the PL we need two DMs (in reality one pure DM and one defensively minded box-to-box player) to avoid losing too many games. In the Championship where we needed to win enough games for promotion a midfield of Reed-Palhinha would perhaps be a bit too defensive. I think Silva got his tactics spot on for our first season in the PL, unlike Jokanovic who thought he could keep us up with the same attacking football that looked so impressive in the Championship.

I'm not saying our CBs are horrible btw. They're just not up to the standard of the best PL teams which means our midfielders need to be strong defensively when we're facing world class attackers.

I think TC did more than fine paired with a proper DM yesterday. The same against Man United earlier in the season. He is without a doubt good enough to start, but doesn't offer the same things as Reed (and it is clear what Silva has preferred so far).

Agree that TC and Reed doesn't work though, because no one will properly cover the area in front of the back four in that set up.

He did fine (in fact he was outstanding) against a Championship team. Against high pressing PL teams his defensive weaknesses will leave us too exposed IMO.

[Sting of the North]

Nice to know that Duffy is available as cover, if called upon he should do a good job alongside Ream or Diop.
However against Sunderland we finished with what looked like a shakey defensive line up of:-

                                                                    Rodak
                                BDR              Duffy                      Tosin           Kurzawa
                                                        Cairney          Reed
Not sure where the weakness was but as a unit it was being taken apart by young Sunderland players.

We could start our best defensive line-up and still look exposed with Cairney-Reed in our midfield. Until we get better CBs we need our midfielders to be strong defensively. Cairney is an amazing footballer but he is weak defensively. This is the reason why Cairney can't be a regular starter for us in the PL (well that plus his knees). He's not really an alternative for the AM position either as he can't keep up Pereira's pressure for 90 minutes and this is crucial for Silva's tactics.

Reed-Palhinha offers far better protection for our defence. In the PL we need two DMs (in reality one pure DM and one defensively minded box-to-box player) to avoid losing too many games. In the Championship where we needed to win enough games for promotion a midfield of Reed-Palhinha would perhaps be a bit too defensive. I think Silva got his tactics spot on for our first season in the PL, unlike Jokanovic who thought he could keep us up with the same attacking football that looked so impressive in the Championship.

I'm not saying our CBs are horrible btw. They're just not up to the standard of the best PL teams which means our midfielders need to be strong defensively when we're facing world class attackers.

I think TC did more than fine paired with a proper DM yesterday. The same against Man United earlier in the season. He is without a doubt good enough to start, but doesn't offer the same things as Reed (and it is clear what Silva has preferred so far).

Agree that TC and Reed doesn't work though, because no one will properly cover the area in front of the back four in that set up.

He did fine (in fact he was outstanding) against a Championship team. Against high pressing PL teams his defensive weaknesses will leave us too exposed IMO.

You seemed to have missed that I mentioned that he was also very good against Man United, which is a PL team. And he has done very well in almost all of his sub appearances. And all PL teams are not high pressing.

[McBrideOfFrankenstein]

Like him, but it looked a half hearted effort to block Clarke's goal bound shot.

Agree and imo it's a moment where Tosin would have closed him down. I like them both but still see Tosin as our third CB.

[FishaPrice]

In the dying minutes of the game when we are trying to park the bus and bring on a third CB to hold onto the point we have... Duffy > Tosin.