Why is it that the defence is always first to be blamed after a defeat???. The back four have been doing great of late and I believe the midfield is the problem. We don't have a holding midfielder who can sit in front of the back four and protect them like vieira, keane, wise etc. At the moment we have dyer who is always up supporting the forwards and as much as I think Speed is a good player, he doesn't fit the bill as a holding man. Remember Batty??? he did the job very well and unfortunately Rob Lee isn't the player he once was. If we had someone in the above list who could just sit in front of the back four, then we would be a totally different team altogether. I don't like it that anytime something goes wrong the defence gets slagged straight away.

Anyone care to comment???

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000

Answers

Absolutely, I agree Karl. I always thought that we needed strong ball winner in midfield, haven't had one since Batty. perhaps YBR will take the likes of Dyer and Solano and send them off to "tackling school". Great going forward, but sometimes chasing back isn,t enough. You have to take the ball away from your man. I have always thought that even back in the KK days the defence was always left stretched with the midfielders not coming back enough. I see Shearer back a lot, which doesn't help his job of scoring goals. However, I have seen too many goals conceded because of silly mistakes, lack of concentration and ball watching by our defence. This appears to be coming together now, and we are almost able to play a "settled" defence now. I believe the defence can only get better as Hughes and Goma continue to form their partnership, and Dabs will be good cover for either when he's fit. Hopefully our midfield will also get it together consistently, every second or third game isn,t enough.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000

This is only a small straw poll, but the feelings in the Victory Pub opposite Sounthampton station among the Londonmags and the NUFC.Com contigent after yesterday's game were around the following:

GIVEN - A couple of great saves but often looked like a scared rabbit in the headlights

DOMI - Was caught napping for both of their goals and never really settled.

CHARVET - possibly the best of a bad bunch

GOMA - A couple of good runs, but didn't win a high ball all afternoon

HUGHES - Tried hard but looked out of sorts

SOLANO - May as well have not been there. Crosses were poor, free kicks were wasted and didn't look happy at all.

DYER - Did he play?

GALLACHER - Ran like hell in the first half, but his old legs can't keep it up all game.

SHEARER - That was six games with only one goal so far, and that was a penalty, just when does the season ACTUALLY start Alan?

CORDONE - Started well, but faded and disappeared after a couple of moves didn't work.

SPEED Not the commanding midfielder he has been in the last couple of games. His timing seemed all at sea.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2000

As much as I'd agree that the team seemed disinterested I thought some of the link up play with Dyer & Solano was the best I've seen. Dyer did chase after the ball and but for a bit support he & Speed could have tied the midfield up. They were not given an outlet, no movement making the hard ball the only option, Domi had a nightmare losing the ball in deep in their half a few times. After early promise Cordone hasn't done much in the past two games and I was disapointed to see him last the full game. The bottom line is they didn't play like a team and that is worrying.

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2000

Karl- Hopefully Bassedas can fill that midfield role...?

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2000

The main problem with the team at Southampton was that as soon as Southampton scored the heads went down and everyone stopped battling for the ball. Shearer looked as if he didn't know what he should be doing. Cordone flattered to deceive, Speed worked hard but couldn't impose himself on the midfield and kept gifting the ball away. Solano and Dyer looked promising when they moved forwards but there was no real belief that they would deliver. Charvet was the only squad member who kept battling in the second half. One thing I did notice was that we didn't win a ball in the air all match!

Oh well, the Victory pub still does good cod 'n' chips.

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2000

I can't agree Si.....I thought we looked crap in the first half as well....

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2000

I've just seen the goals and you can blame the midfield all you like but for both goals we were caught completely flat at the back. The back four were in a line (even if the second was offside). Sorry folks but it was bad defending that cost us the goals.

-- Anonymous, September 18, 2000