anyone else think hes completely inept defensively or is it just me? always seems to be targeted by opposition teams.
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Disagree…he isn’t the greatest defender but he brings a lot to the team. See my comment on the other thread regarding his passing ability. If some of the others had passed as well as him yesterday we would not have lost!!!
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I have praised him this season and he has improved a lot but he’s still weak defensively. For all of his nice passes, it’s his errors mostly that lead to conceding goals which inevitably then leads to losses. So whilst it is easy to look past his errors when we kept going undefeated, hopefully yesterday is a little bit of a reality check for everyone that some simply aren’t League One standard and I can’t wait until Keates can sort out the defence next summer.
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Can’t remember who it was but someone mentioned the mentality creeping in regarding silly errors at the end of games resulting in us conceding. Something to the effect that it is an issue as our luck will run out and we will get a tonking.
Correcto! I think that result will bring every one back to earth a little…Leahy has improved slightly but is still an OK player and nothing more.
Leahy and Devlin are awful. They have improved since last season - but that wasn’t hard was it?
1 clean sheet this season tells you everything. They are detrimental to our style - but we are going to be hamstrung this season due to the effects of the Whitney catastrophe.
As Dan said, this is going to take a year to sort out - defensively that is.
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He’s looked slightly better this season, but much of that is due to Keates making us more compact when we don’t have the ball meaning the full-backs are less exposed.
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He’s improved but if I were an opposition manager he’d be the first player I’d target. Decent going forward but all over the place in defence.
completely agree it will be next season before this defence can be sorted out properly due to Mr whitney and his awful signings last season.
A point I made before the Season started, when some were moaning about the lack of signings.
Keates hands are tied until these 2 year deals expire.
And as I said in my comments regards the opening day victory, its the same back 5 as last year and their limitations will be tested(no matter how much good will and effort they put in)
It shows how Keats has improved the side that we have done so well with what was a very poor defence last season
Leahy and Devlin have improved under Keats but both are still a long way from being proper full backs instead of wing backs.
In my opinion we will need a completely new back 4 next summer. If a couple of those signings were of the solid experienced type like a Neil Pointon/Richard Green/Andy Tillson I’d be more than happy. I think the Wrexham captain will be a target. He’s out of contract in the summer so imagine if he doesn’t sign a new one before then Keates will be sniffing round him.
What’s wrong with Guthrie? I think he’s been magnificent since the start of this season and towards the end of last. K Roberts still to come back too.
And it was only a few games ago that everybody was loving on Leahy. One bad performance and we need a whole new back four (again).
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The sudden turn on Leahy by some is mental. He’s played very well for most of the season. He’s twice the player of last year. Yes he still makes mistakes but he’s definitely made a positive contribution this season. Fickle bunch on here.
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Think Guthrie is growing into an excellent centre half at this level, his distribution and reading of the game really have improved to.
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Guthrie has been superb !
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I personally don’t rate Leahy, one of his greatest critics. But as quickly as I give criticism I will give praise, I think he’s twice the player of last year. I think the added benefit of Ginnelly as cover, helps massively.
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The way Guthrie is playing we may well lose him anyway to a Championship club…as for the others I think they are doing an ok job. They are not the best we have ever had but not the worst by a long way. I thought Leahy was good on Saturday…some of his passing was excellent and the ball through to Ginnelly for the first chance of the game was sublime.
Think it’s important to remember that the football side of the club is still recovering from two seasons of mismanagement and this team is nowhere near the finished article Keates will have in mind. We’ve had an impressive start to the season but mid-table security remains a reasonable benchmark for progress.
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Guthrie won’t make the Championship he’s not good enough on the ball … but he’s certainly playing well.
some interesting opinions do agree he offers something to the team but defensively still very shaky and always out of position for me so narrow when defending for a left back.