Originally Posted by
the_anticlough
On the subject of central defence - is defending set pieces & playing out from the back mutually exclusive? And too much to ask at NL level, as someone said on here yesterday...
I don't think so. It might look like it from the last quarter of the season, but there were special circumstances.
IB was picking 2 or 3 from Ellis, Lacey, Rawlinson and Turner for his first 10 matches in charge. But we were losing games by getting done in the air and on the ground!!! The centre-backs looked confused, didn't take full responsibility, made errors as well as not playing it out well from the back. So what was there to lose by going with Brindley and Chicksen if we were getting done by set pieces anyway? Then the Wrexham game with Brindley-Ellis-Chicksen was our best defensive performance of the season. So you can be forgiven for sticking to that when the other options were failing anyway.
I think IB is enough of a pragmatist to deliver both next season. And you have to have both, so even if it takes a different formation or personnel, it'll get sorted.