Sullivan and Gold - The Case for the Defence

It's all very well bringing in all these strikers, but have Goldfinger and Basher never heard the saying, "You build from the back"? It's almost as we have changed sport and think the game works like basketball. So what we've conceded, let's charge up the other end and put one in the opposition net.

Happily football doesn't work like that! Our greatest ever player was, of course, a defender and, for me, the single best bit of skill in last night's game between Bern's Toddlers and Tottenham was a brilliant tackle on Roman Pavlova in the box. That tackle had to be timed perfectly or it was a nailed on penalty, especially the way the Russian dives, and it was executed superbly.

At Villa we saw how poor we are defensively. Yes the whole team played badly but, just like Tottenham against the Tiny Tots of Bern, and England against Germany, we were cut to ribbons at the back. We shipped 66 goals last season and cannot afford to repeat that this year. Saturday was not the best of starts!

So why are we ignoring our defensive frailties. Yes we have signed Reid and Ben Haim but are either a proper solution to our crying need for a quality right back? Not in my book. Poor Reid suffered a baptism of fire but he was burnt badly and rival managers would have taken note. Teams have been targeting our right flank for three seasons now and still nothing has been done about it. Why?

So Caicedo fine, Santa Cruz great if we get him on loan, but the real priority is to sort out our defence. Faubert, Spector, Reid and Ben Haim are all options but I thought Avram was the manager, not Hobson!