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Defensive drop off

There's loads of factors.

People dismissed the xG data as 'a load of shite' when we were flying but the data showed we weren't creating chances and were giving up chances. Fast forward a few months and we've had one of the leakiest defences over a long period and are struggling for creativity.

Fatigue is a factor. We were told we'd fall away during AFCON but we didn't, but we did play through the busiest period of the season with half a team missing and there was a drop off in intensity in February and March where we picked up a lot of injuries and the players who'd played through seemed to struggle.

We were an unknown package earlier in the season and our best defensive performances were against the better teams when we put bodies on the line and stayed disciplined. We've lost a bit of that in trying to get more of a balance at the other end - Mukiele bombs forward at right back and leaves gaps where Hume didn't, Ballard and Alderete like to advance with the ball into midfield/attack, the wide players aren't tracking back.

Maybe a bit of complacency? Roefs, Alderete and O'Nien have made terrible errors in recent games passing the ball straight to the opposition deep in our own half, two of which directly cost goals. Playing out from the back is a perfectly valid strategy against teams who play with one striker and has mostly served us well all season, it isn't effective against two strikers though as the whole idea is that you have three passing options but the striker can only cover one. Forest played with two (arguably a front 4) and pressed us high up the pitch but we continued to do the same thing rather than knock it long to Brobbey. RLB talks about players finding solutions - in the Championship these mistakes aren't as costly, in the Premier League if you switch off for 20 minutes you end up 4-0 down.
 
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Has there been that much of a drop off? It's 9 goals in two games I know, but we had a clean sheet before that. The only goal we concede against the Mags is a gift wrapped error which doesn't reflect the overall defensive performance. The Brighton goal is a bit of a fluke, but it comes from a weakness we've had all season - defending the second phase of a set piece. And we keep a clean sheet at Elland Road.

But it we are to accept there has been a significant drop-off...

There's been a lot of disruption to the back 5 lately. Roefs out injured for a spell. Comes back, gets the shits. Makes a shocking error after being excellent all season. O'Nien's come in for a few games. Ballard's come back and struggled Friday night. Alderete's played a lot of football and is managed a knock. Mandava's been out, then come back in, then left out again for Hume, who's filled in on both side. Mukiele likewise - long spell out, just come back.

Then there's getting the balance right in front. It's clear we're trying to be a bit more attack minded now the results aren't as critical, but it's left us exposed a bit. And despite everyone's best intentions, there's a natural drop-off in our intensity.

It's multi-faceted. There's no one correct answer.
 
TZMouk said:
I'd be starting all three.

Hume and Reinildo at wing back. When Mukiele goes forward, Hume drops central.

Diarra drops to the bench and go with Isidor and Brobbey up top. Could easily transition to a 541 if needed too.

Roefs
Hume Mukiele Ballard Alderete Reinildo
Le Fee Xhaka Sadiki
Brobbey Isidor

​
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Wouldn't mind that.
 
RLB took rigg off against forest and change formation, look solid, more dominate but couldnt score, that where the problem is....
Thats why RLB use this system for months.

What I like about RLB, he took risks and try it.
 
chriswallace85 said:
Has there been that much of a drop off? It's 9 goals in two games I know, but we had a clean sheet before that. The only goal we concede against the Mags is a gift wrapped error which doesn't reflect the overall defensive performance. The Brighton goal is a bit of a fluke, but it comes from a weakness we've had all season - defending the second phase of a set piece. And we keep a clean sheet at Elland Road.

But it we are to accept there has been a significant drop-off...

There's been a lot of disruption to the back 5 lately. Roefs out injured for a spell. Comes back, gets the shits. Makes a shocking error after being excellent all season. O'Nien's come in for a few games. Ballard's come back and struggled Friday night. Alderete's played a lot of football and is managed a knock. Mandava's been out, then come back in, then left out again for Hume, who's filled in on both side. Mukiele likewise - long spell out, just come back.

Then there's getting the balance right in front. It's clear we're trying to be a bit more attack minded now the results aren't as critical, but it's left us exposed a bit. And despite everyone's best intentions, there's a natural drop-off in our intensity.

It's multi-faceted. There's no one correct answer.
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Just like Port Vale (O'nein pass back) the Brighton goal came from an absolute brain fart from Hume passing it out of play

A few of the goals we've conceded post Jan have come from big fuck ups that are easily avoidable
 
People talking about being too expansive, when the problem (for me anyway) is too many square pegs in round holes.

Playing 5 CM's offers up no pace or directness out wide, and we're often quite pedestrian. We're passing the ball too much in our own half until it gets turned over, due to the slow build up from playing out from the back, which instantly creates pressure on ourselves, especially if the opposition press.

Teams are starting to mark Brobbey with 2 defenders, which should make space, but there's nobody remotely close to him to play off or work the space created.
 
chriswallace85 said:
Has there been that much of a drop off? It's 9 goals in two games I know, but we had a clean sheet before that. The only goal we concede against the Mags is a gift wrapped error which doesn't reflect the overall defensive performance. The Brighton goal is a bit of a fluke, but it comes from a weakness we've had all season - defending the second phase of a set piece. And we keep a clean sheet at Elland Road.

But it we are to accept there has been a significant drop-off...

There's been a lot of disruption to the back 5 lately. Roefs out injured for a spell. Comes back, gets the shits. Makes a shocking error after being excellent all season. O'Nien's come in for a few games. Ballard's come back and struggled Friday night. Alderete's played a lot of football and is managed a knock. Mandava's been out, then come back in, then left out again for Hume, who's filled in on both side. Mukiele likewise - long spell out, just come back.

Then there's getting the balance right in front. It's clear we're trying to be a bit more attack minded now the results aren't as critical, but it's left us exposed a bit. And despite everyone's best intentions, there's a natural drop-off in our intensity.

It's multi-faceted. There's no one correct answer.
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It's been a substantial drop off. We've gone from conceding 18 in the first 19 to conceding 27 in the following 15. After we'd passed the 40 point mark RLB said that we wouldn't be changing how we played as it was important that we continued to reinforce the foundations of the way we play.

Player availability, as you mention, can't have failed to have a negative impact and that's right from AFCON to the injuries that we've subsequently picked up throughout the side.
 
Mboma said:
People talking about being too expansive, when the problem (for me anyway) is too many square pegs in round holes.

Playing 5 CM's offers up no pace or directness out wide, and we're often quite pedestrian. We're passing the ball too much in our own half until it gets turned over, due to the slow build up from playing out from the back, which instantly creates pressure on ourselves, especially if the opposition press.

Teams are starting to mark Brobbey with 2 defenders, which should make space, but there's nobody remotely close to him to play off or work the space created.
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We're very short on wide options though, and it's debateable whether you can class Le Fee and Rigg as out and out CMs. The pair of them have had some of their best games for us in wide positions.

Even against Forest, the vast majority of our passes were in the middle and final third of the pitch.
 
chriswallace85 said:
We're very short on wide options though, and it's debateable whether you can class Le Fee and Rigg as out and out CMs. The pair of them have had some of their best games for us in wide positions.

Even against Forest, the vast majority of our passes were in the middle and final third of the pitch.
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We are short out wide, but it's stumped us in an attacking sense to support Brobbey. Neither Enzo or Rigg are wide men, although they aren't exactly slow. They are showing for the ball with backs towards goal and the ball just gets recycled backwards. Theres no outlet if and when Brobbey gets the ball.

Forest were happy to let us have the ball, especially in the 2nd half when the damage was done. Regis needs to get some fluidity into the side, it's far too mechanical at the moment.

Theres no zip on the counter and even when we do get to the oppositions box, it's painfully slow and they're already back in their positions to mainly deal with the ball that goes from side to side until we lose it.
 
All of them seem to be playing through injuries or only recently came back into the fold.

Ballard - just come back from a long lay off.
Alderete - often limping.
Reinildo - same as Ballard.
Mukiele - same as Alderete.
Roefs - also just come back from injury.

Those 5 are likely our strongest line up for goalkeeper and defence and all have been struggling with fitness the last couple of months. Not just one or two of them. All of them.

I think we’d be a lot more solid in a couple of weeks if no further setbacks.
one footed wonder said:
People asked RLB to take the handbrake off, we’ve been more open, more attacking and less structured and conceded 9 in 6 days 👍🏻
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They must be delighted with the higher XG figures though. :lol:
 
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Sid said:
It's been a substantial drop off. We've gone from conceding 18 in the first 19 to conceding 27 in the following 15. After we'd passed the 40 point mark RLB said that we wouldn't be changing how we played as it was important that we continued to reinforce the foundations of the way we play.

Player availability, as you mention, can't have failed to have a negative impact and that's right from AFCON to the injuries that we've subsequently picked up throughout the side.
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Two of those games account for 9 of those goals though, so it's a bit of a statistical anomaly. Take those out and the drop-off has not been substantial at all.

In the first 19 games we've conceded 0.94 goals per game. In the following 13 preceding Villa it's 1.38. Over the 32 games in total is 1.125.

Interestingly if you were to go back to the first 16 games, we were conceding 1.06 goals per game. And in the 16 games that followed preceding Villa, it's 1.18 goals per game. That's a lot closer don't you think?

And there's several things to consider in that period since the 19th game - or even the 16th game. AFCON, injuries to Xhaka, Mukiele, Mandava, Roefs, Ballard, even Cirkin as well which at times left us without a natural LB. We had several games in the January-February period where we shipped 3 goals a game whilst we were at our most stretched. It's a long season, it happens.

The last two games have skewed the numbers massively.
 
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As Reggie would say we need to find some solutions to the recent defensive frailties. Set piece defending in particular is a noticeable weakness and we're being targetted there.
 
North Yorks Mackem said:
As Reggie would say we need to find some solutions to the recent defensive frailties. Set piece defending in particular is a noticeable weakness and we're being targetted there.
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That's come about from our poor passing out from the back whilst being pressed. We can't afford to give teams that many corners or cheap fouls around our box. You could see Forests game plan from the off, but there was no attempt to change it until half time and 4 nowt down.
 
Mboma said:
That's come about from our poor passing out from the back whilst being pressed. We can't afford to give teams that many corners or cheap fouls around our box. You could see Forests game plan from the off, but there was no attempt to change it until half time and 4 nowt down.
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I did find the fact we did absolutely nothing to address the cause of our issues until half time on friday very frustrating. Think the manager needs to be all over that. And of course some of the issues are brought about by individual mistakes. Roefs had a total brain fart with the second goal and we lost it from that point on.

On set pieces though teams looks like theyre targeting Hume and we need to be mindful of that and address it.

Plenty of solutions to be found!
 
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