Looking at our team and the balance throughout it, it is clear that some areas in our defence are where are current problem stems from. We have some very good attacking players and when they are given the licence to attack they can be very effective, hence why we seem to play well when coming from behind. My theory is that we get set up to play a defensive conservative game because our defence can't be trusted when hit on the break, this i beleive is down to the fact 2 out of our 4 starting defenders are very slow. If we had a pacy back line we could play a lot more positively without the worry that we will get spanked on the counter if we lose the ball. If we could get Stones or in a dream world Varane and play either along side Zouma, we also need to find a solid left back and move dave across to the right. I think this would make u huge improvement and would enable us to set up more positively and make better use of our talented attacking players.

Will be interesting to see if Guus dips into the market this transfer window, we can only hope!

If Guus continues to keep putting Ivanovic at RB and Dave at LB it doesn't matter who is in the middle.

We need to give Baba a run of games, and if (based on training) he really isn't good enough, I'd even be inclined to give Aina a few starts.

Arsenal did it with Bellerin and it worked out great for them. I went mental when I saw Ivanovic ball watching for their third yesterday. If he doesn't even do his part at set pieces anymore, what good is he really? He's been a monumental player for us in recent years, but sadly it's time for him to step down now. 

 

Come on Guus, it's up to you!

Bring home Christiansen from the bundesliga hes doing a fantastic job over there i think him & king kurt would definitly hold their own in the pl.....KTBFFH!!!

Ivanovic needs to be dropped, no question about that.

 

Zouma I think should be rotated a bit more, he still worries me sometimes. He's great at recovery tackles, using his pace and strength, but positioning is sometimes off, and the last few games when the pressure has been on toward the end, he's really struggled with it, making mistakes. 

 

Baba, if we're not going to play him it's just a total waste of money and a shirt number. Sell him or give him games.

 

 

Ideally we all want Dave at RB and a quality LB, but for whatever reason it just doesn't seem likely to happen for the next 1-3 years, until Ivanovic retires or doesn't have his contract renewed.

 

 

Personally, for next season I would want us to go with 2 players for each position:

 

LB: Baba, Ake

CB: Terry, Cahill

CB: Zouma, Christensen

RB: Azpilicueta, Ivanovic

 

 

For me though, as bad as the back 4 have been on occasions, the main issue is no shield from the DM position. Doesn't seem to matter who plays there, they never help them out much.

 

Matic + Fabregas = They both tend to wander forward, Fabregas especially, leaving big gaps.

 

Mikel + Fabregas = Mikel does stay back a lot more, but he offers poor protection because he is often very easy to get past, as he stands square as players are running at him, so a simple knock past him and they are running at the back 4.

 

Mikel + Matic = Same as above really, except Matic is always in the wrong position now. They play too close together, so if the opposition beat one of them, they've beaten both of them.

 

 

The problem also lies with having 2 DMs. It means neither of them have the 100% respsonibility to shield the back 4, so they leave it to the other one. We need to go back to having 1 DM just sitting in front of the back 4, not going forward. Like Makelele used to do, and like Mikel used to do when we played that formation. You have 1 less player in that space, but that 1 player knows his job. it also means 1 extra player farther up the pitch to help with pressing the ball, and hopefully stopping it even reaching the DM position quite as often.

 

 

So that means heading back to the old 4-3-3, or 4-1-2-2-1 or however you want to write it.

 

Courtois

 

Baba

Terry

Zouma

Azpilicueta

 

Mikel

 

Fabregas

????

 

Hazard

Costa

Willian

 

 

The "????" I really think we need a new combative CM, unless Matic wants to remember how to play. Someone in the old Essien or Ballack mould. Pogba would be ideal, but the price and the lack of CL football makes that virtually impossible.

 

That system also means the 2 CMs will be arriving later in the box, like Lampard used to do, so we won't have that extra AM sitting on the edge of the box and we will see less of the sh*tty passing it back and forth, trying to work a way through the wall of defenders, as we will be using proper wingers to really stretch opponents and get some crosses in.

 

 

But what do I know, i'm just an armchair fan.

The defence... Our defence... Is absolutely hopeless at the moment.

Zeta has a point on the midfield point of it as well.

Looking at our team and the balance throughout it, it is clear that some areas in our defence are where are current problem stems from. We have some very good attacking players and when they are given the licence to attack they can be very effective, hence why we seem to play well when coming from behind. My theory is that we get set up to play a defensive conservative game because our defence can't be trusted when hit on the break, this i beleive is down to the fact 2 out of our 4 starting defenders are very slow. If we had a pacy back line we could play a lot more positively without the worry that we will get spanked on the counter if we lose the ball. If we could get Stones or in a dream world Varane and play either along side Zouma, we also need to find a solid left back and move dave across to the right. I think this would make u huge improvement and would enable us to set up more positively and make better use of our talented attacking players.

Will be interesting to see if Guus dips into the market this transfer window, we can only hope!

 

My thought too but I think you underestimate the complication of dropping those 2 legends.. We don't want to deal with unnecessary off field problems, we have enough as it is..