The Defense

Bosingwa: Crap in defending but works well in Villas-Boas's system. Unfortunately his defensive part makes him a weak link sometimes like today. Granted he didn't have Ramires helping him out because he was busy with guarding the central midfield but he should have done way better. He was also at fault against Swansea and he simply hasn't improved his defending. In my opinion he should start in games where the opposition won't threaten as much and we should start Ivanovic in the big games. But then that means our current system might not function well. In conclusion we simply need someone who is a mixture of both.

Terry: His position isn't in doubt but the high line clearly doesn't suit him. Which I'm sure Villas-Boas wasn't surprised with.

Luiz: I really hope Villas-Boas continues to start him because he is very important for the high line. He was good defensively against Valencia and he needs to keep performing. He'll continue to be a great help for Terry.

Ivanovic/Alex at CB: I think Villas-Boas sees Alex as basically our fourth best defender. I simply do not want to see Ivanovic at CB because IMO he isn't that good in covering attacks. Also we know for sure that Terry would not be dropped, and we also know that having two 'slow' defenders with a high line is suicidal. Therefore Luiz would probably be permanent with Terry.

Cole: In my opinion his decline has started. He isn't as fast as before, no surprise since he's almost 31, but at that spot your game relies on pace and if he starts to slow down then it greatly reflects on his performance. Because of that he hasn't been that good defensively, although his attack hasn't been bad. He is by no means in bad form or in a deep stage of decline, but I'm starting to wonder how he will be by next season. Also it's likely that he might get injuries seeing the amount of games he plays and his age. Van Aanholt, anyone?

Then again our defense hasn't really cost us points this season so far. And anyways the defense usually becomes less important if you want to play with flair, and that's not necessary a bad thing as long as it is not absolute crap. But a good cheapish RB would be welcomed.

Hard to argue with any of that bar the Cole one.

He was given the run around by Nani at Old Trafford but then again he was given zero protection by Mata in the game. You should watch the Swansea game again mate he was outstanding in that match and was heavily involved in 2 of our goals.

PVA will be Cole's future replacement. Still needs polishing defensively but he's as good as Ash going forward and he actually has an end product to his game. Amazing athlete as well.

Gil wrote:
PVA will be Cole's future replacement. Still needs polishing defensively but he's as good as Ash going forward and he actually has an end product to his game. Amazing athlete as well.

Was solid defensively against Tottenham and Everton.

Too early to say how he'll fare later on though. If he keeps his defensive game up then I'm sure Villas-Boas would rotate him next year (seeing as he'll be pretty much identical to Cole).

Well, tbh I'm happy with Bosingwa so far. IMO our defense has been leaking goals mainly cos our line is a bit high than before.

iNFINITY9910 wrote:Well, tbh I'm happy with Bosingwa so far. IMO our defense has been leaking goals mainly cos our line is a bit high than before.

Basically our defensive struggles comes down to AVB tactics to play high line defense. Our defense needs time to adjust.

Yeah.. hopefully it does before January lol

I'm pretty worried seeing our defending at set pieces, it really scares me when Swansea have no issue scoring against us from a freekick

Agree with that Izza.

I think we've been more comfortable with the high line in recent games but our defending from set pieces is dreadful. It'll improve with Drogba back in the side as he's the best player in the World in those types of situations but we definitely need to learn to sort out those balls in the box without him in the team.

Your wide CB + Mikel dropping as 5th CB isnt working well,over the top balls can easily destroy that tactics.I noticed that in all chelsea matches too,Mikel and terry are not fast enough to play that tactics.

Conceded the same type of goal again SMH.

Ade wrote:Conceded the same type of goal again SMH.

I'd rather win 5-1 than 4-0.

I called it

I don't get what is going wrong though, we have Drogba, Terry, Luiz and still can't clear it out

*bleep* annoying to be honest. Really hope AVB sorts it out.

I disagree with the OP.

Bosingwa and cole are better than stated. Overall that is.

PVA will take over from cole. No need to buy. RB could be some what of a problem but w have known this for a while.