Defence (specifically back 3)

[Attilio1905]

We were blessed with the foundation of Guehi-Lacroix-Richards and were never going to replace them with similar quality, but to go from that to the utter shambles we have now is totally unacceptable.

Appreciate we still have Richards, but tbh he's very mediocre and only looked good alongside the quality of Guehi and Lacroix.

Canvot is raw and shouldnt be a starter. Lerma a back up at best.
Tomiyasu a crock with zero pace and to rely on a Chelsea loanee that couldnt get anywhere near their first team, and another loanee youngster was never going to be enough.

No quality at all, but even worse than that - and this is where Sage and the coaches have failed - is organising them into any semblance of an effective unit. Average players playing worse than the the sum of the parts.

Needs sorting or else we are in serious danger of going down this season.

 

[park the bus]

We were blessed with the foundation of Guehi-Lacroix-Richards and were never going to replace them with similar quality, but to go from that to the utter shambles we have now is totally unacceptable.

Appreciate we still have Richards, but tbh he's very mediocre and only looked good alongside the quality of Guehi and Lacroix.

Canvot is raw and shouldnt be a starter. Lerma a back up at best.
Tomiyasu a crock with zero pace and to rely on a Chelsea loanee that couldnt get anywhere near their first team, and another loanee youngster was never going to be enough.

No quality at all, but even worse than that - and this is where Sage and the coaches have failed - is organising them into any semblance of an effective unit. Average players playing worse than the the sum of the parts.

Needs sorting or else we are in serious danger of going down this season.

Chancer Parish saw he could cash in and thought he could wing it until the January window with a motley bunch of loans, frees, and sick notes. After all, it's always the manager who carries the can!

 

[maddog]

Chancer Parish saw he could cash in and thought he could wing it until the January window with a motley bunch of loans, frees, and sick notes. After all, it's always the manager who carries the can!

That should be his name now “Chancer Parish”.

Or maybe “13 years in the f*cking Premier League and counting but still in the eyes of some a chancer Parish”?

 

[Dogburger]

We were blessed with the foundation of Guehi-Lacroix-Richards and were never going to replace them with similar quality, but to go from that to the utter shambles we have now is totally unacceptable.

Appreciate we still have Richards, but tbh he's very mediocre and only looked good alongside the quality of Guehi and Lacroix.

Canvot is raw and shouldnt be a starter. Lerma a back up at best.
Tomiyasu a crock with zero pace and to rely on a Chelsea loanee that couldnt get anywhere near their first team, and another loanee youngster was never going to be enough.

No quality at all, but even worse than that - and this is where Sage and the coaches have failed - is organising them into any semblance of an effective unit. Average players playing worse than the the sum of the parts.

Needs sorting or else we are in serious danger of going down this season.

So basically we dont have any centre backs that we can confidently rely on ? Pretty much what every other post in 30 pages in the Brighton match thread have been saying .

 

[Willo]

Besiktas have been free-scoring in some games in the 'Europa League'. They beat Marseille 4-1 at home and last week recorded a 3-2 victory at Hoffenheim.
In their ranks they have erstwhile PL players Leandro Trossard and Wilfred Ndidi.

 

[Attilio1905]

So basically we dont have any centre backs that we can confidently rely on ?

You can't have watched many Palace game this year if you're still putting a "?" at the end of that sentence.

 

[Dogburger]

You can't have watched many Palace game this year if you're still putting a "?" at the end of that sentence.

You wouldn't have needed to watch any to know that to be true , The ? was for your benefit ,in that you have stated the bloody obvious .

 

[Aray]

We need to go 4 at the back. We don’t have enough good players for a back 5.

 

[doombear]

We need to go 4 at the back. We don’t have enough good players for a back 5.

Which two CBs are good enough to be the CBs in that system? I wonder whether we might not be better adopting a 3-5-2 system so as to beef up midfield and cover the wide areas - not that I know anything about how systems work or don't work.

 

[ASCPFC]

Which two CBs are good enough to be the CBs in that system? I wonder whether we might not be better adopting a 3-5-2 system so as to beef up midfield and cover the wide areas - not that I know anything about how systems work or don't work.

The point of the back four is the full backs will be defenders. So Mitchell and maybe Mingueza will be defensive full backs with two central defenders and our back four narrow, defending.

We could use any of our various wingers for width - on their correct side to put crosses in.

 

[NEILLO]

Which two CBs are good enough to be the CBs in that system? I wonder whether we might not be better adopting a 3-5-2 system so as to beef up midfield and cover the wide areas - not that I know anything about how systems work or don't work.

Neither you or I need to be experts on systems working or not.

But I do think we can anticipate that a back three containing quality in the likes of Lacroix and Guehi has a better chance of success than a Canvot / Richards / Disasi / Riad / Ahanor permutation !

 

[PatrickA]

I think Disasi and Richards could work as a defensive pairing, but it would mean a wholesale change to the way we play.
They'd have to flanked by 2 defensively minded full backs with the whole back 4 sitting deep and with a defensive midfielder to act as a shield.
Regressive?
Yes, it's back to a Roy style approach - but we have to stop the easy concession of goals.
Personally I'd take a few 0-0s to get a solid foundation and instill some confidence.

 

[BromleyMonkey]

Chancer Parish saw he could cash in and thought he could wing it until the January window with a motley bunch of loans, frees, and sick notes. After all, it's always the manager who carries the can!

I think after blowing £85 million on two players In January we were never going to be spending big this summer.

 

[Username]

The back three is clearly not working, however I do think we also need to look at the way the midfield in front of them is helping to protect them. There has been lots of praise for Timber and Wharton is our most talented player. But for all the good stuff they do, they are also the midfield pair that teams seem to just waltz through quite freely at times?

 

[BromleyMonkey]

We need to go 4 at the back. We don’t have enough good players for a back 5.

Who’s to say we’ve got enough good players for four at the back, it’s worth a go as we’re now desperate, but I doubt it’ll be answer to all our problems, I believe having had a good look at most of the new signings now, we just haven’t got good enough players whatever formation we play. I suppose selling guehi LaCroix and Munoz it was always going to be the case at the back

 

[Attilio1905]

The point of the back four is the full backs will be defenders. So Mitchell and maybe Mingueza will be defensive full backs with two central defenders and our back four narrow, defending.

We could use any of our various wingers for width - on their correct side to put crosses in.

4-3-3 might work, with the 2 either side of the striker providing width.

Mingueza - Richards - Tomiyasu - Mitchell
Kamada - Timber - Wharton
Sarr - JSL - Pino

Not very adventurous and the back 2 still looks shaky, but should shore things up at least.

 

[Attilio1905]

Who’s to say we’ve got enough good players for four at the back, it’s worth a go as we’re now desperate, but I doubt it’ll be answer to all our problems, I believe having had a good look at most of the new signings now, we just haven’t got good enough players whatever formation we play. I suppose selling guehi LaCroix and Munoz it was always going to be the case at the back

The only proper solution is, IMO, buying 2 quality CBs.
Cant see that happening though as like someone said above, weve wasted the funds on the likes of JSL, Johnson and Nketiah.

 

[palace99]

The back three is clearly not working, however I do think we also need to look at the way the midfield in front of them is helping to protect them. There has been lots of praise for Timber and Wharton is our most talented player. But for all the good stuff they do, they are also the midfield pair that teams seem to just waltz through quite freely at times?

Agree, whilst Timber looks a decent addition positionally he is all over the place and needs to be more of a 6/8 rather than a 8/10. Even against Leeds i thought he was too far forward too often and against Forest 1st half and yesterday he left Wharton too isolated.

He might work better in a 433 but with the current formation he needs to be more disciplined.

The fact that Sage hasn't resolved this within a few weeks of him joining is a bit of a concern.

 

[Lanzo-Ad]

A back four works as unit of 4 defenders, you could see them training before every game, when it was a 4, that is why it is more solid, 3-4-2-1 is a hopeless formation, the 3 CDs don't work with the WBs, they are a unit of 3 not 5, it has to change to a 4, if not i think we could not win another game all season.

 

[PatrickA]

Agree, whilst Timber looks a decent addition positionally he is all over the place and needs to be more of a 6/8 rather than a 8/10. Even against Leeds i thought he was too far forward too often and against Forest 1st half and yesterday he left Wharton too isolated.

He might work better in a 433 but with the current formation he needs to be more disciplined.

The fact that Sage hasn't resolved this within a few weeks of him joining is a bit of a concern.

Timber is combative, energetic and is capable of turning away feim opponents.
Nonetheless, he often takes 3 or 4 touches of the ball and doesn't play many one touch passes.
There is little evidence of a developing partnership with Wharton.
Kamada and Hughes have a better partnership with Wharton as they play the ball first time to him in space whereas Timber wants too many touches.