Quote Originally Posted by jackal2 View Post
Just watched the Sutton goals back. I think without exaggeration this is a fair description:

1st goal - Nemane fails to win a tackle, Warner fails to stop the cross and Jodi Jones gets beaten to the ball on the back stick.

2nd goal - Baldwin shows he's learned absolutely nothing from his similarly sloppy error against Shrewsbury earlier in the season, and the goalkeeper doesn't do much to save Aden's blushes either

3rd goal - Not enough pressure from Crowley (for one) to stop the forward ball from midfield, Rawlinson done like a kipper by a simple change of direction from Harry Smith, Nemane ambling back and spectating just behind the play when a short sprint could have given him a chance of helping Rawlo, goalkeeper probably unlucky his parry went straight to a Sutton player.

4th goal - two attackers (jones and Macca) trying and failing to do a defender's job against their winger who beats them easily on the edge of the box causing Crowley to panic and dangle a leg for the penalty.

The consistent theme is players who aren't natural or very good defenders showing exactly why they aren't.

In one sense it's positional: our wing-backs are wingers who simply don't have the defensive skills and instincts to cope under attack

In one sense it's personnel: almost every game there are centre-halves - who are supposed to be able to defend - either getting straight up beaten man-to-man by their opponent or literally gifting possession in ridiculous areas.

We need to get back to basics. Every game starts at 0-0, make sure it doesn't get any worse. Get that right and our attacking talent will usually get us at least one goal.
The wing backs have been defensively dreadful all season. So many goals have come from Nemane and Jones being completely unable to defend. Jones is arguably worse than Nemane in that he just doesn't want to do the tracking back, always wrong side of his man.
I'm not sure what the answer is I look at the team sheet and bench and there's some glaring weaknesses.
Last night we had three defenders and maybe Robertson who's defensively minded. That's six attack minded players on the pitch in a team that can't defend.
We're now more gung ho than last season against better teams as we had Chicksen and Palmer in there last year helping the defence and also Scott who defended from the front.