Centre Half Video Nasty

[Harrowram]

2 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

You are typing rubbish. I follow Fulham closely because they are my son’s team, and McDonald has probably never ever played at centre back. Cairney never plays holding either - he and Johansen play in front of McDonald. Carry on slagging off Keogh if you like, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but be sure on matters you state as fact.

I am not typing rubbish. Keogh was a liability in the first half and was very fortunate to get away with some basic errors. If Derby are going to play out from the back they really need players who are comfortable on the ball and Keogh clearly wasn't.

[i-Ram]

1 minute ago, Harrowram said:

I am not typing rubbish. Keogh was a liability in the first half and was very fortunate to get away with some basic errors. If Derby are going to play out from the back they really need players who are comfortable on the ball and Keogh clearly wasn't.

He might have been poor first half, but you were comparing him to a good quality MIDFIELDER. Not sure your earlier post could have been much more rubbish. 

[Harrowram]

I apologise for my ignorance. However the distribution from the back was poor and Ledley was of no great assistance. Clearly a fit Huddlestone is required to pass a football accurately to a player on his own side. Failing that then sign Woods from Brentford or someone else who can pass a football with accuracy. Keogh isn't Franz Beckenbauer and will give Lampard and the rest of us a heart attack if he continues in the role of play maker.

[i-Ram]

7 minutes ago, Harrowram said:

I apologise for my ignorance. However the distribution from the back was poor and Ledley was of no great assistance. Clearly a fit Huddlestone is required to pass a football accurately to a player on his own side. Failing that then sign Woods from Brentford or someone else who can pass a football with accuracy. Keogh isn't Franz Beckenbauer and will give Lampard and the rest of us a heart attack if he continues in the role of play maker.

Well l think we can agree Keogh is no Beckenbauer; that was obviously Buxton ?

Ledley had a poor game on Friday, but when on their game both Ledley and Huddlestone are the equal of McDonald.  Keogh and Davies are good defenders at this level. They were forcing matters on Friday because too often Ledley wasn’t offering them the easy link. 

[Cam the Ram]

24 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

He might have been poor first half, but you were comparing him to a good quality MIDFIELDER. Not sure your earlier post could have been much more rubbish. 

I like Keogh, but he clearly can't play the role Aguero plays for Man City

[Cam the Ram]

19 minutes ago, Harrowram said:

I apologise for my ignorance. However the distribution from the back was poor and Ledley was of no great assistance. Clearly a fit Huddlestone is required to pass a football accurately to a player on his own side. Failing that then sign Woods from Brentford or someone else who can pass a football with accuracy. Keogh isn't Franz Beckenbauer and will give Lampard and the rest of us a heart attack if he continues in the role of play maker.

Woods would be amazing but it seems he's close to joining Swansea. Hopefully Evans is a good fit for us because I think Ledley lacks the passing ability and Huddlestone lacks the defensive ability for that holding role. And don't even get me started on Johnson being used there ?

[Harrowram]

11 minutes ago, Cam the Ram said:

Woods would be amazing but it seems he's close to joining Swansea. Hopefully Evans is a good fit for us because I think Ledley lacks the passing ability and Huddlestone lacks the defensive ability for that holding role. And don't even get me started on Johnson being used there ?

I forgot about Evans. Is he a centre half or a defensive midfielder or can he play in both positions? If he can pass, is fit and reasonably mobile he might fit the bill

[Cam the Ram]

4 minutes ago, Harrowram said:

I forgot about Evans. Is he a centre half or a defensive midfielder or can he play in both positions? If he can pass, is fit and reasonably mobile he might fit the bill

I've got a mate who supports Reading and this is how he described him:

"He's a good passer but plays too safely at times. He's an okay defender and has played centre back on occasions for us, but it was in a back 3. He's not very athletic. Of our 3 defensive midfielders from the past 2 years he was the best despite being the youngest. He's a solid player at this level but nothing special."

Sounds like his best position is in the holding role, but can do a job at centre back and possibly in the Bryson role too

[Harrowram]

19 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

Well l think we can agree Keogh is no Beckenbauer; that was obviously Buxton ?

Ledley had a poor game on Friday, but when on their game both Ledley and Huddlestone are the equal of McDonald.  Keogh and Davies are good defenders at this level. They were forcing matters on Friday because too often Ledley wasn’t offering them the easy link. 

I am not sure in which position Ledley was playing. He didn't make himself available to the centre halves to take the ball, in fact Bryson started to come deep to get the ball. Ledley fell over and lost the man he was tracking which gave rise to their goal.He didn't look very fit. His signing made a difference last season but he doesn't appear to be very mobile.

[Harrowram]

24 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

Well l think we can agree Keogh is no Beckenbauer; that was obviously Buxton ?

Ledley had a poor game on Friday, but when on their game both Ledley and Huddlestone are the equal of McDonald.  Keogh and Davies are good defenders at this level. They were forcing matters on Friday because too often Ledley wasn’t offering them the easy link. 

McDonald is a decent player. However he was playing for a team which had a very defined system of playing which was fluid ,attractive to watch and their players were comfortable with it. The played around quickly and used the width of the pitch. Our system on Friday night was narrow and the passing was slow and ponderous.

[Harrowram]

15 minutes ago, Cam the Ram said:

I've got a mate who supports Reading and this is how he described him:

"He's a good passer but plays too safely at times. He's an okay defender and has played centre back on occasions for us, but it was in a back 3. He's not very athletic. Of our 3 defensive midfielders from the past 2 years he was the best despite being the youngest. He's a solid player at this level but nothing special."

Sounds like his best position is in the holding role, but can do a job at centre back and possibly in the Bryson role too

At the age of 23 he has the potential to improve and perhaps can do what George Thorne used to be able to do which was run the show.

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

Reading sat on our midfield first half and credit to Clement for that. Keogh was our first outlet and therefore had problems. No excuse for the two or three horrendous passes but our midfield were not at it first half. The pace and energy of reading in closing down surprised them. lesson learned I think. Now watch us go against Leeds.....can't wait.

[RoyMac5]

 

[RamNut]

16 hours ago, Cam the Ram said:

I like Keogh, but he clearly can't play the role Aguero plays for Man City

Thats probably why we are after joe bryan then.

[Dethorn]

On 04/08/2018 at 08:02, irobinson said:

the hardest and best striker of a ball I've seen.....amazing midfielder

 

I did used to think it was between him and Jimmy Case for destructive left foot.

Guessing Pearce was up there too, later

[Dethorn]

First half and we could have been killed off, never been a Keogh fan but convinced I must be wrong as manager after manager keeps picking him.

I am however a Davies and Johnson fan and they both made howlers too.

I would suggest take the 3 points and move on

No one really stood out for me - disappointed with Mount and Lawrence too despite the goals.

Wilson and Ledley were average and even Nugent failed to get on the end of things, I put this down to service until Bennett came on !!

Bennet, Bryson and to some extent Lowe (he made a couple of errors though) were the best of the outfield bunch imho - but our MoM has to be Carson, kept us in it.

[cheron85]

On 04/08/2018 at 06:44, irobinson said:

Tell you what I was amazed by our centre half performance last night - surely a better team would have punished us 3/4 times over!!

If I was FL I would be showing that video footage to them and say WTF!! Astonishing!!

Keogh looked like he had never played football at all in his life for about 25 minutes....my hand was in my mouth...thought he might pull him off he was so bad

Be interesting to hear everyones else thoughts....but my investment after that performance would be a new centre half - not up top...we are doing alright there...thought Mason was excellent when he came on.

I'm sure someone else will have made this point but I'm feeling too lazy to read the whole thread

The problem wasn't the centre-backs on Friday it was the Midfield - Every time Keogh and Davies got the ball in the first half Ledley legged it up the field - Bryson and Mount dropped in the pick up the ball and then play from there - However the high press of Reading kept catching them out and then there was no midfield cover - Cos Ledley was up in the number 10 spot - I can only assume this was because they don't think Nugent can win a header and maybe needed a 'route 1' fallback option?

Noticeable that we were miles better in the second half when Ledley sat deep and stayed there - The Reading goal came from out wide cos even in the first few minutes they realised there wasn't a route through the middle any more

I think a tactical experiment from the management team which went wrong - They corrected it and hopefully learnt a lesson

[cheron85]

15 minutes ago, Dethorn said:

No one really stood out for me - disappointed with Mount and Lawrence too despite the goals.

Bryson for me - Energetic, kept it simple, got around everywhere, loads of little 'terrier' tackles in the opponents half which set us up to play at them, got into the box, supported the attackers and the defence - The all-round Bryson performance which was a joy to watch

I suspect as the rest of the team get up to speed he'll look even better too

[cannable]

On 05/08/2018 at 13:52, Nuwtfly said:

I think we're going to have a lot of the same problems Fulham had last year. Managers will set their sides up to press and mark Keogh out of the game because he's our distributor back there. It's when Davies is seeing a lot of the ball that you should get really worried.

This system of Frank's would work so well if we had two ball-playing central defenders. 

Which is exactly why I would have sold Davies!