Saturday 27 November 2010

Where have all the defenders gone?




What the hell is happening in the Premiership? Has a rule been secretly passed that states defenders are not allowed to mark? I know tackling has all but been banished from the game, but the space strikers and midfield runners are being afforded is incredible.

Blackburn may have had seven players ruled out (we know how that feels) but the space Berbatov, Nani and Rooney were allowed was insane. The same applies to Arsenal at Villa. With 35 goals scored in just 8 games, it was more like the results from an under 10 league, with nine year old keepers in full size goals!

The results this season have been amazing. 0-0 draws are virtually unheard of. And this all follows a boring World Cup where organised defences largely suffocated creative play.

People say this is a weak Premiership but results in the Champions League suggest otherwise. Teams just seem to be going for it more, trading punches rather than hiding behind raised arms, whilst ducking and diving and playing for a points decision or a late haymaker knock out punch.

We won 3-1 but Wigan missed a penalty and had a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside, so it should have been 3-3.  Even more amazing was West Brom's result at Everton. What in God's name is going on? Simple, the game's gone crazy!

5 comments:

H4MM3R said...

Well, if you count the penalty you should count Piquionne's miss, too ;)
4:3

Hammersfan said...

Yep 4-3 then.

Hammersfan said...

What about the Richards turn and finish? If a Brazilian had done that, we would see it over and over and over again. Not bad for an English born defender who is afraid of the ball!

Sav said...

Gabbidon was our "star" defender once again! He gave away yet another penalty and totally lost the attacker who gave the assist for the Wigan goal. I don't think it is possible to keep a clean sheet with Gabbidon in our defence. And we can't be scoring 3 goals every week in order to secure three points!

Stani Army said...

Apart from the pen Sav, Gabbidon had a very good game for someone playing out of position. There was one excellent tackle in the first half. He didn't lose the man for their goal. Watch it again and you will see Behrami get in the way and mess it all up. It's clear, but you can disagree if you want. I would still rather have Gabbidon at left back than Ilunga.

Piqu missed two great chances no? The header....great leap but any side of the goal and it was in. He hit it straight at their keeper. Then there's the other miss, the one he should have taken with his right foot.

I think some smaller teams are finally starting to believe in the notion that they have 11 with two legs each, we have 11 with two legs each, we're made of the same stuff so why can't we win?