General Footballing Centre Backs

[The mighty Aldo]

Does anyone else think that our lack of creativity and certainly goals could be down to our centre backs.

KR has been extremely fortunate in the last three seasons or so having players like Dickie,Atkinson and Mc Nally all comfortable on the ball and confident in bringing the ball out of defence, being able to draw a player in and then release the ball to Branagan, Henry or one of our wingers who then had more space to do damage.
What we now have are centre backs who can mabye defend well but have very little ability on the ball. When teams play us they press us more and let’s be honest our defenders and keeper look like rabbits in the headlamps.
Consequently our play from the back is much slower and trying to find a player in space is really difficult. Not having decent wingbacks doesn’t help but I fear we are in for a turgid season of football

 

[Paul Cannell]

Even less movement from forward players may be a contributing factor as well.

 

[Manorlounger]

Another contributing factor would be the inevitable hoof ball over the heads of defence and midfield (and often forwards as well)

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Even less movement from forward players may be a contributing factor as well.

Yes I’ve noticed that too

 

[The mighty Aldo]

Another contributing factor would be the inevitable hoof ball over the heads of defence and midfield (and often forwards as well)

Interesting isn’t it that when we play against forwards in the Taylor mould the opposition aim balls into the chest or feet of that player because they know they will get little change out of Moore,Brown or Mous. Eg Marquis BRFC
Wheras Taylor and Joseph lose out all day long because the ball is too high.Taylor is brilliant when we play the ball to his chest or feet he either controls the ball and lays it off or is fouled. Surely we can do better

 

[JOHN BOY]

Footballing Centre backs are few and far between in league one that's why we haven't been able to keep the three we've had .

 

[Coffin dodger]

Interesting isn’t it that when we play against forwards in the Taylor mould the opposition aim balls into the chest or feet of that player because they know they will get little change out of Moore,Brown or Mous. Eg Marquis BRFC
Wheras Taylor and Joseph lose out all day long because the ball is too high.Taylor is brilliant when we play the ball to his chest or feet he either controls the ball and lays it off or is fouled. Surely we can do better

Trouble is he's usually offside

 

[holdsteady]

When you have got Seddon and Henry wide, Bate, Bodin and Joseph as your three furthest forward I reckon you could have Matthias Sammer and Franz Beckenbaur at the back and it wouldn’t make much difference.

People focusing on the defenders not being good enough going forward is strange, on Tuesday those five offered no pace, not a lot of movement (Joseph excepted) and very little quality, McGuane had a few runs after winning the ball himself and breaking the lines and he would find himself with no one to pass to because of how poor our attack was.

 

[isibuko]

Sort of agree but I think it's very possible to be a good footballing side with a pair of non-ball-playing lumps at centre back and a stopper in goal. You just have to be set up well for it and play to the strengths of the team. I think the challenge is:
- We are playing long ball but don't have good hold up/outlets up front, so the long balls just come back.
- We are not playing to the players that we have, we're playing for players we used to/wanted to have. It makes me nervous that we're trying to convert Easty to play out from the back or Findlay/Moore to play out properly from the back. I don't think that will work, and that's making the defence look nervous and not play to their strengths. I think Findlay has looked really good at what he's good at, but has got some unfair stick for not being a ball-playing defender. No he isn't, so we shouldn't pretend that he is.

 

[DevilsAvocado]

Goalkeeper distribution not good enough.
Center backs have limited passing ability.
Midfield seem to have lost their sense of positioning/making themselves available for an easy pass.
Strikers unable to win punts from defence.
Bodin has gone awol, Henry has been a bog standard 6
Bate looks like he needs more time to settle in and get up to speed, Joseph still quite raw.
Zero training ground routines, i would love to see something simple even for a throw in.
Can add a lack of pace to that list, other than that though, its all good.

 

[m]

When you have got Seddon and Henry wide, Bate, Bodin and Joseph as your three furthest forward I reckon you could have Matthias Sammer and Franz Beckenbaur at the back and it wouldn’t make much difference.

People focusing on the defenders not being good enough going forward is strange, on Tuesday those five offered no pace, not a lot of movement (Joseph excepted) and very little quality, McGuane had a few runs after winning the ball himself and breaking the lines and he would find himself with no one to pass to because of how poor our attack was.

This seems remarkably obvious to me too.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

Does anyone else think that our lack of creativity and certainly goals could be down to our centre backs.

No.

 

[The mighty Aldo]

No.

Fair enough, probably just me then. But for some reason our centre backs are lumping the ball forward much more than last season and part of that must be their inability to find a mid fielder to pass the ball to yet on paper Brannagan and Mc Guane are the best we’ve had for some time

 

[Marked Ox]

Fair enough, probably just me then. But for some reason our centre backs are lumping the ball forward much more than last season and part of that must be their inability to find a mid fielder to pass the ball to yet on paper Brannagan and Mc Guane are the best we’ve had for some time

I think they are having to as when the likes of Dickie and McNally would run forward it meant that opposition couldn't press as hard as they could be bypassed. Now the opposition can press harder is that is unlikely to happen. Although Sam Long did it once or twice vs Burton and Golding did it when previously playing centre back so we have players that can do that if encouraged to.

 

[Swaby39]

Fair enough, probably just me then. But for some reason our centre backs are lumping the ball forward much more than last season and part of that must be their inability to find a mid fielder to pass the ball to yet on paper Brannagan and Mc Guane are the best we’ve had for some time

It's not an unfair suggestion in the same way that defensive records shouldn't be entirely down to your centre backs and goalkeeper. Defending starts from the front much as attacks start from the back.

I don't think we can complain too much at Cam, McGuane and Bate since they are always showing for the ball and happy to receive it under pressure. It's a conscious decision being made by Eastwood and the centre backs to play long balls and I think they all look uncomfortable. Findlay looks far more comfortable in the left channel, Mous is arguably our best distributor of the ball and Golding is also, for me, as good as any of our other centre backs and it's time his age was put aside. That would be my back 3 to fix this issue.

I think Joseph gets a bit a free pass given his work rate which I too admire very much but we shouldn't forget he is the focal point of the team and if we're being honest, it doesn't stick to him often enough and Tyler Goodrham was the only player I can remember winning a header in their half on Tues. Smallest guy in the ground. In times gone by that's not been majorly important for us but if we're now building a game on longer 'passes' then it is vitally important.

Cam and McGuane wouldn't look out of place in a top half championship midfield. Give them the ball. Let's try Gorrin in there with them and put Browne up there with Joseph. Try something... I'm still relatively calm about our situation for many reasons. But I've not enjoyed a single performance this season as a spectacle and in all KR's previous seasons this has been something that made me proud to be an OUFC fan and go to as many games as I can. We would go anywhere and try to play. We're not ourselves at the moment.

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

Stevens

Long Moore Findlay Brown

Gorrin

McGuane CamBran

Goodrham Taylor Browne

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

Bodin Seddon and Henry shouldn’t be starters given the quality they’re dishing up. Not even close.

Joseph can feel hard done by in some respects but I think Taylor will hit form at some point as he always does.