Original Dub wrote:City64 wrote:The fact that our defence is far worse than any ref and we continually give away school boy shit goals is the bigger issue today .
I don't think any issue is bigger than a ref missing something that results in the opposition being a man down.
And against Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal that happened.
If we played against ten men in all those games I don't think we'd have to worry about our defence half as much.
So while I agree we have issues, none are as big as bad officiating.
One thing is most likely related to the other OD.
See my earlier post regarding how we are officiated.
I think our overall defensive game has suffered through the team going out there knowing they are playing under a different set of rules. We are far too timid and passive at times.
This is causing us an awful lot of unnecessary turnover in possession.
The defenders we have are not good enough, instinctively, as pure defenders.
But we cause a lot of the pressure on them through ineffective midfield play.
I'm thinking no small portion of this is the uncertainty and sometimes inaction and confusion is from our team not knowing what they can get away with in the tackle and choosing not to contest.
This is a direct result of how we have been consistently officiated throughout games.
That doesn't even take into account the big decisions that have gone against us.
Psychologically, I think it is affecting our overall performances.
But as City64 points out, none of that above has anything to do with the fact that we can't defend basic set pieces.
Our defenders are not instinctively good st defending.