SouthCoastShankly » Mon Feb 24, 2014 1:43 pm wrote:RedAnt » Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:59 pm wrote:People should remember the term 'defend from the front'. Once upon a time, way back in the history of football, there was no such thing as a defender. You had a GK and a load of guys trying to score. But those guys also had to stop the other guys scoring (in fact originally there wasn't even a 'keeper). The idea of positions came later. Someone once said "here's an idea, you hang back and if they get the ball, you're already back there". It didn't suddenly become that mans job to stop the other team scoring. He was there in case. It's still the job of the team to defend. Goalkeepers too were an added tactic. If the guy at the back (what's now known as a defender) didn't clear the danger, he wasn't blamed. He was a last resort anyway. It's the teams fault for letting the ball get up there. Of course the more times the team fails to stop the ball getting up there is more times the guy at the back has to deal with it. Some players are better at defending than others, but it's still a team game and need to take the pressure off our defence higher up the pitch.
Skrtel's not a bad defender. None of them are. We need the team as a whole to reduce the amount of situations our defenders need to deal with. Dosent matter who our defenders are, no defender can be expected to deal with the amount of attacks ours deal with and be expected to remain error free.
Not sure I agree with that.
A large element of our playing philosophy (this season) has been counter attacking football. When you playing a counter attacking style you openly invite attacks and pressure in the knowledge that when they make a mistake or possession switches you can capitalise with pace.
I prefer Rodgers stance that our defence are making the wrong choices that lead to mistakes.
To counter attack effectively you have to press the opposition and force a loss of possession. That is the first line of defence.