Defence

[CW 90+3 02/05/16]

Defence. Goalkeeper. Midfield protection of defence.

McCann is quite simply going to have to sort them out and get them organised in order to keep us out the bottom 2.

There's no two ways about it.

We're 33 league games in to a 38 game season and the trying to outscore the opposition first and foremost and to hell with the defence or protecting it simply hasn't worked. Only twice in 33 games have we scored more than 2 goals but have let in an average of 1.6 goals a game whilst scoring less than 1 a game.

Our goal difference was worth an extra point over the bottom two before Saturday. It's now the second worst in the league with our third 4 goal tanking of the year already. We barely have the strikers to score 2 goals most games never mind the 4 or 5 goals that would be needed to take points from these games.

It seems like the most obvious thing in the world, but keep it tight and aim for clean sheets and you only have to score between 0 goals and 1 of 2 goals a game at the most to take a point or three whereas we're currently having to score between 2 and 5 in the vast majority of games to take something.

It won't be pretty to watch, but we're the team that the bottom 2 are chasing so we need to remain above them by any means possible and if that means grinding out horrible to watch 0-0s or scraping a 1-0 win whilst not playing great then so be it.

Of course, all of the above can go out the window if the strikers suddenly start banging in the goals but they've shown nothing to suggest in the previous 33 games that they will.

The league table doesn't lie and we're deservedly above the bottom two just now, but continue to let in goals for fun in the last 5 games whilst Ross County have suddenly hit form and Partick might (although it seems unlikely) turn the corner any game at long last, then all bets are off.

 

[CW 90+3 02/05/16]

Forgot to add.

Hearts have kept 19 league clean sheets this season and have been horrible to watch.

We've managed 4 (15 less) and are apparently a good watch.

We are 16 points behind them.

[WeighorstsWang]

"Dundee should ditch the defensive line up and go at Rangers, nothing to be afraid of." 

Dundee ditch the defensive line up and get walloped 4-0. 

"It's an absolute embarrassment our GD, trying to outscore teams doesn't work, we need to work on our defending!"

Welcome to the world of Dundee Football Club fans, world. 

[CW 90+3 02/05/16]

Just now, WeighorstsWang said:

"Dundee should ditch the defensive line up and go at Rangers, nothing to be afraid of." 

Dundee ditch the defensive line up and get walloped 4-0. 

 

Anyone who thought that is extremely naïve to put it quite politely or wasn't at Ibrox for the earlier game this season.

 

2 minutes ago, WeighorstsWang said:

 

"It's an absolute embarrassment our GD, trying to outscore teams doesn't work, we need to work on our defending!"

 

This is a lot closer to the mark.

[harry94]

I think Saturday has been exaggerated quite a bit and a lot of the tactical analysis of the game has been a tad overstated IMO, I've seen plenty of recklessly attacking setups this season but I don't think that's what we had at all. We tried to keep it tight (similar to the Celtic game) but didn't have McGowan to glue things together and when we went behind, we obviously pushed on and tried to get back into the game and got caught out, it's a natural thing that can kind of happen at those grounds and turn a tight 0-0 game to 4-0. We maybe overcommitted with a couple of set pieces going forward but generally, the personnel we had were actually back in their own half but outmanoeuvred by some really good movement which Celtic didn't provide that much of midweek. Despite the scoreline being similar, I thought it was a completely different game and setup to the last game there.

I could see the argument that it's maybe better to have contained the game when we went 1-0 down and only lost by a couple of goals but there were genuinely good chances in the game. I'm pretty sure players like Boyd, Main, Schalk etc would have buried one of our half chances and completely changed the dynamic, that's been a big issue in our season IMO. Obviously, our goals against column isn't all down to our failure up front but the amount of pressure the lack of goals adds on the backline does intensify things much worse. We can put in a really good defensive shift, do everything right and play to our abilities but still get unlucky and go a goal behind but we really need something in the way of a return when we do go behind and need to go forward. I'm pretty sure this is the main contributor to the stat of us being one of the poorest teams when we go a goal behind. The guys are trying hard and doing a lot of good work but our final product is woeful at this level.

The big takeaways for me on Saturday are that summer priorities is to sign another industrious midfielder of some sort to bring into those sorts of games and hopefully cover for McGowan and also another attacking option. I don't think there is some massive tactical readjustment required, I simply think quality in certain areas of our squad means that a thumping at the Old Firm (especially with one or two absences and 90 intense minutes just over a couple of days before) is generally quite likely.

[WeighorstsWang]

2 minutes ago, CW 90+3 02/05/16 said:

Anyone who thought that is extremely naïve to put it quite politely

Well, yes.

And quite rightly - we were picking up points. It could have all come crashing down in itself but at this point, in our predicament, you stick to what is working. 

 

 

[Dondeh]

35 minutes ago, harry94 said:

I think Saturday has been exaggerated quite a bit

But it's not about Saturday.

[harry94]

12 minutes ago, Dondeh said:

But it's not about Saturday.

It is being used for this narrative though.

[blueboy]

Our defence is good enough to see us through. Saturday just went horribly wrong.

What's up with Gowser BTW?

[harry94]

5 minutes ago, blueboy said:

Our defence is good enough to see us through. Saturday just went horribly wrong.

What's up with Gowser BTW?

Not sure of the nature but when he come off at Celtic, he limped a bit and instantly got an ice pack on.

[Billy Campbell's Ghost]

Parish flogged two in my book. One he went down in instalments and one he played to a team mate and what we said all season would happen did.

[Parcbara]

Our defensive record worsens without McGowan. Spence is absolutely no replacement for him. McCann needs to sort that out by getting in cover.  We are particularly good to watch by opposing fans when we buckle because we get a tanking from them. Other teams bore everyone to tears but don't lose so many goals. McCann needs to tighten up for the last five games and grind out survival. Most attending fans now only care about that. Trying to continue with attractive open football may kill us in the games to come. We cant outscore anybody with what we have up front so we need to stop losing goals and maybe grab 1-0 wins. We will struggle with season ticket sales now anyway. The damage has already been done by the woeful home defeats this season.  Relegation will  reduce all types of income.  Survival is imperative