Anton McElhone

We've also just conceded 13 goals in our last 4 games. So no improvement defensively, which is by far our biggest issue

 

A lot of the goals are down to individuals not been good enough we can’t change that till January chicksen and O’Connor were awful in Tuesday and Henry let the Plymouth striker score two Saturday by not marking him properly

 

I certainly agree with that. However, I still say that the manager/coaching staff should be making a better fist of organising us much better defensively. Dropping Wood for Chicksen is a mystery to me too.

 

I know you were, and I agree with that. But it's still factually incorrect to say that werew leaking more goals than ever.

 

We are sh1t all over the pitch, but at the back we are at our sh1ttiest best oop:

 

I know. If you read my first post above I say as much. But I don't think we'll make much improvement defensively until we can bring in a couple of better defenders in January. It's not Joplin's coaching or tactics that are causing us to leak goals, it's defenders failng to do basic marking or making individual errors.

 

I'm not one for digging a player out but Chicksen is a liability now. He is so poor and how he gets in instead of Wood is, so far, Hopkins biggest mistake.

 

Is it?

Wood is better than Chicksen? Really?

 

From what I've seen of him this season, yes he is. Infact I'd say he's much better than Chicksen.

Chicksen's been here for 2 season's now and have shown very little in the games he's played. For me he's the weakest link in the weak link of the weakiest link of a back 4.

 

He is but O'Connor is up there for being a major liability for us.

 

Janis or Scott?

 

I'm still not sure, but I get where you're coming from.

Chicksen got torn inside out by Peterborough, and you can see that all there goals came from the right side in some form or another - but the defence didn't perform any better with Wood in it, did it?

 

Chicksen is crap - but theres very little evidence to say Wood is definitely better - it's just that he's not in the team so his ability has increased.

seriously though - he can't be much worse. pick him, I say.

 

To be fair the 2nd Toney goal came from a fantastic cross from the left but he was terrible again on Tuesday night.
Not sure if they were better goal difference wise but we look tighter and better defensively when Wood plays. Plus we didn't have Caddis playing when Wood played and we are definitely better on the right hand side with him in the team.

 

the only evidence we have is that Wood looked better when he played and was getting better with every game. I don't know if he is better but he definitely looks it and like you say I don't think he could be worse. That possibly impossible.

 

The problem is that Hopkin prefers a back 3 which means either Chicko or wood at Left back, If we moved to a flat back 4 then Mellor could play in place of either of them at full back, A much tighter formation

 

Yes, Really !!

 

We have always conceded goals for fun but not scored like we have. Just wondered if the new no2 is having some positive impact on our attacking front? Defensively we are poor at best. No arguement there.

 

I think this is the issue, im not saying our full backs are world beaters by any stretch of the imagination but they arent helped by the system we are playing.. If we are playing a flat back four, ordinarily with hopkins tactic, this means there is no genuine winger in the team on either flank, our midfield three narrow leaving either full back massively exposed. If he goes 5 at the back, wanting us to play with wing backs, then its highly likely that either full/wing back could be anywhere down the line. If we lose possession, more often than not then that gap will be targeted making it look like either defender isnt where he should be. There arent many full backs at this level good enough to play a wing back role, in fact i havent seen many teams come to VP and even attempt to play with them. Most full backs who can play the role to a good consistency will soon be snapped up at championship level a la meredith.
Football at this level, is played with footballers with a basic skill set, and as such the styles/formations have to follow suit. Hopkin has bemoaned our recruiting of wingers, hence he is doing what he can to make do, but i still think even a make shift winger would plug the gaps and issues been forced upon the defence

 

I'm not sure if it's not another romantic notion of a young player being better than he actually is.

We conceded a boat load with Wood. We conceded a boat load with Chicksen.

For me, we have two reasonable right backs in Mellor and Caddis - but we have two below-par left backs in Chicksen and Wood.

I'd like to see Wood go on loan, and bring in a better left back in the mould of Caddis.