England's back four

[Robinho_Is_GOD]

RIG, this thread is about England and their defence, Keep OT and dont bring the club manager into this.

I am discussing Englands defence and how the England manager organises that defence.

[ant london]

RIG, this thread is about England and their defence, Keep OT and dont bring the club manager into this.

I am discussing Englands defence and how the England manager organises that defence.

of course you were

as Shawzy highlighted. Your original post was a fucking disgrace and you have predictably moved on to banging your favourite tiresome drum.

You should be ashamed of yourself for the opening offering though. City fan my arse

[Robinho_Is_GOD]

RIG, this thread is about England and their defence, Keep OT and dont bring the club manager into this.

I am discussing Englands defence and how the England manager organises that defence.

of course you were

as Shawzy highlighted. Your original post was a fucking disgrace and you have predictably moved on to banging your favourite tiresome drum.

You should be ashamed of yourself for the opening offering though. City fan my arse

It wasn't a disgrace at all, Englands back up players are crap.........stop twisting words around to suit your argument or trying to fashion an attack on someone that is not even mentioned.

In his words, get your fucking lenses on and learn to read, cockney boy

[Robinho_Is_GOD]

Ok about the back four Brown shit, Upson did ok but not that good, Lescott ok overall not outstanding, Bridge did he play just utter shit should not be on a football pitch not at fullback anyway, finally Englands manager with what he has to work with England preformed better then one would expect. Now then who will be the first to accuse me of having a go at the not so special one

[irblinx]

Ok about the back four Brown shit, Upson did ok but not that good, Lescott ok overall not outstanding, Bridge did he play just utter shit should not be on a football pitch not at fullback anyway, finally Englands manager with what he has to work with England preformed better then one would expect. Now then who will be the first to accuse me of having a go at the not so special one

Didn't see this game but the venom being aimed at Bridge lately is astounding, he's made a couple of mistakes for us this season but overall has been our most consistent defender by a mile, much improved over last season and in a couple of games the best player on the park.

[Robinho_Is_GOD]

Ok about the back four Brown shit, Upson did ok but not that good, Lescott ok overall not outstanding, Bridge did he play just utter shit should not be on a football pitch not at fullback anyway, finally Englands manager with what he has to work with England preformed better then one would expect. Now then who will be the first to accuse me of having a go at the not so special one

Didn't see this game but the venom being aimed at Bridge lately is astounding, he's made a couple of mistakes for us this season but overall has been our most consistent defender by a mile, much improved over last season and in a couple of games the best player on the park.

If he as been our most consistent we are clearly in need of a left back there must be some playing this Sunday on any Sunday football pitch

[irblinx]

Ok about the back four Brown shit, Upson did ok but not that good, Lescott ok overall not outstanding, Bridge did he play just utter shit should not be on a football pitch not at fullback anyway, finally Englands manager with what he has to work with England preformed better then one would expect. Now then who will be the first to accuse me of having a go at the not so special one

Didn't see this game but the venom being aimed at Bridge lately is astounding, he's made a couple of mistakes for us this season but overall has been our most consistent defender by a mile, much improved over last season and in a couple of games the best player on the park.

If he as been our most consistent we are clearly in need of a left back there must be some playing this Sunday on any Sunday football pitch

Honestly fella, at times you seriously haven't got a clue

[Chipster]

RIG are you sure your not watching womens netball or something cos you are a clueless WUM!!!

[Nige]

Just picked up the NOTW and can't believe some of the player ratings from last night.

Upson was shite and desevered nothing more than a 4. Slow as fuck and turns like the 216 bus on the old road.

Lescott was pretty good I thought. Much more mobile and confident than I've seen him in a City shirt (yet). Much better than the 4 he was awarded.

Bridge - as per Lescott. Didn't work well with Milner but defensively sound.

The only goal came from a decent ball from some turkish based brazillian :( and the forward just nipped in between wes orange and upson. Our boys were nowhere near the play.

SWP also had a good game.

Anyone have a view on Barry? Not sure if I'm just watching for his mistakes these days but he seems sluggish. Maybe carrying an injury because he wont attempt any 'sprayed' passes across the pitch at the moment. Prefers to take 3 touches, turn inside and play back to his centre half.

[Robinho_Is_GOD]

Just picked up the NOTW and can't believe some of the player ratings from last night.

Upson was shite and desevered nothing more than a 4. Slow as fuck and turns like the 216 bus on the old road.

Lescott was pretty good I thought. Much more mobile and confident than I've seen him in a City shirt (yet). Much better than the 4 he was awarded.

Bridge - as per Lescott. Didn't work well with Milner but defensively sound.

The only goal came from a decent ball from some turkish based brazillian :( and the forward just nipped in between wes orange and upson. Our boys were nowhere near the play.

SWP also had a good game.

Anyone have a view on Barry? Not sure if I'm just watching for his mistakes these days but he seems sluggish. Maybe carrying an
injury because he wont attempt any 'sprayed' passes across the pitch at the moment. Prefers to take 3 touches, turn inside and play back to his centre half.

Defensively sound

[Robinho_Is_GOD]

RIG are you sure your not watching womens netball or something cos you are a clueless WUM!!!

Now Bridge could be good at that he plays like one

[irblinx]

Anyone have a view on Barry? Not sure if I'm just watching for his mistakes these days but he seems sluggish. Maybe carrying an injury because he wont attempt any 'sprayed' passes across the pitch at the moment. Prefers to take 3 touches, turn inside and play back to his centre half.

I've been thinking the same lately, since the Villa game (or maybe the previous match) he seems to have been out of sorts a bit, the only explanation that made sense to me is that he's still suffering since his virus or that he's had a slight knock

[Chipster]

Without any form of bias, I thought all the city boys along with shrek were the better players, Barry not himself but very assured and whilst he did nothing fancy he did the simple things well.

[everyonehatesus]

I thort that both Lescot and Bridge did very well as they were left wide open at times by Brown and Upson. The latter 2 were bloody awfull last night and not enough poeple seem to realise that the 2 City lads had to cover tomany times. Along with this i also think that Bridge has had more good games than bad for us this season, the player bashing on this forum has got out of hand.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

There is a tendancy to expect high quality ,almost perfect performances all the time and indeed anything less does seem to attract the " player bashing" which seems second nature to so many people nowadays. Over at the "other" site it is absolutely rife and is almost the main hobby for many posters.

I thought our 2 defenders did OK last night without being special but the others were pretty dire and making the key mistakes which made Brazil look better than they actually were. Even for the goal, whilst it was a great ball and header the only way it would have been a goal was if the keeper came off his line just enough to let a fairly loopy header go over him.

For us this year Bridge has been playing pretty well and getting mostly good reviews on here. Again nothing special but good and then as soon as he has a poor game he gets slaughtered. Lescott is a good defender but definitely hasn't played very well yet. He deserves some criticism but not the bashing he has got which suggests he is an awful player. I have seen some better signs of late and if he settles into a partnership with the same centre back i think he will go from strength to strength.

[ant london]

Into the naughty corner Higginbottom and you shall stay there until you stop talking sense you complete and utter nincompoop

[Slim]

How is Lescott in training Doug? I thought he was a very good defender at Everton, but we haven't really seen that at City yet. My thought was that we have signed two ball playing defenders and we perhaps need a "everything for the cause" tackler as their partner. Maybe that the two we have are too similar in style that they fail to compliment each other.

[Mr Miyagi]

I realize today is a friendly, and a good chance to give players who are in the squad but not normally in the starting eleven a chance to play. But if this were a qualifier and Terry and Rio were hurt as they are now, I really wonder how sad things are if Lescott is the 4th best choice in the middle, considering his current form. On top of that with Bridge playing the way he has, is he really the next best left back after Cashley?

England are arguably playing one of the top 3 teams in the world, and 1/2 of City's porous back line (and arguably the weakest of the normal 4) are starting this match for country. I am just wondering how disconcerting this is.

In fairness in the first 15 both Lescott and Bridge have made some good saving tackles, but I am still not sure this is who England would like to trust their world cup hopes in case of injury.

I think this was a fairly good point to raise in a thread. I know Bridge cops a lot of criticism but I don't have the same fears about left back compared to other parts of the team. Personally I think we have a terrible weakness at right back. Wes Brown? sorry not good enough. I look at the options: Waste Brown, Glen Johnson.... we have a major weakness there and opposition managers will be rubbing their hands. Compared to the left back we have Cole / Bridge which is far more reassuring than the right back position. All Bridge is missing from his game is the desire to tackle :-)

As for Lescott: since when did he start playing like someone skating on ice? I've never seen a player concentrate so much on simply staying on his feet. At least it seems that way. Gravity seems a real problem for him. He tiptoes around the pitch.

[AlanBallsHat]

They are good players getting used to new teammates and demands. My brother is a diehard toffee and was distraught when Lescott went. Not become a bad player overnight. Patience and faith.

[Rag_hater]

I thought the back four did ok last night and the goalie was the weakest link for me.
Our two boys hardly put a foot wrong.
And it was rather a good goal that caught them out if the goalie had been better placed maybe he would have had a chance but I still think it would have been unlikely.