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Central Defence

Central Defence

Gordon Bennett

Gordon Bennett

Still at large
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
Messages
13,264
Just wanted to point out that we’ve conceded 1 goal in 5 games with this central defence:

OFFIAH - STOREY - HUGHES

That’s phenomenal. All three of them deserve huge credit, half this forum wanted two of them out last Summer but they’ve said fuck that and showed they are well worth their places.

Hughes is having his best season for us, Storey has been a revelation at CCB and Offiah is looking like a Rolls Royce. The wingbacks have also done great defensively and in the unlikely scenario the ball gets past them there’s still Daniel fucking Iversen to save us.

Hopefully Gibson will be back soon and we’ll add another CB this month.

I rest my case for our defence, m’lud.
 
Gordon Bennett said:
Just wanted to point out that we’ve conceded 1 goal in 5 games with this central defence:

OFFIAH - STOREY - HUGHES

That’s phenomenal. All three of them deserve huge credit, half this forum wanted two of them out last Summer but they’ve said fuck that and showed they are well worth their places.

Hughes is having his best season for us, Storey has been a revelation at CCB and Offiah is looking like a Rolls Royce. The wingbacks have also done great defensively and in the unlikely scenario the ball gets past them there’s still Daniel fucking Iversen to save us.

Hopefully Gibson will be back soon and we’ll add another CB this month.

I rest my case for our defence, m’lud.
Click to expand...
Spot on
 
Gordon Bennett said:
Just wanted to point out that we’ve conceded 1 goal in 5 games with this central defence:

OFFIAH - STOREY - HUGHES

That’s phenomenal. All three of them deserve huge credit, half this forum wanted two of them out last Summer but they’ve said fuck that and showed they are well worth their places.

Hughes is having his best season for us, Storey has been a revelation at CCB and Offiah is looking like a Rolls Royce. The wingbacks have also done great defensively and in the unlikely scenario the ball gets past them there’s still Daniel fucking Iversen to save us.

Hopefully Gibson will be back soon and we’ll add another CB this month.

I rest my case for our defence, m’lud.
Click to expand...
Dont think its just the defence. Look at Whiteman...think its just a good group of players who are being coached by an exceptional manager and coaching team.
 
potsie66 said:
Dont think its just the defence. Look at Whiteman...think its just a good group of players who are being coached by an exceptional manager and coaching team.
Click to expand...

I don’t disagree, but Whiteman has been an ever-present though.

The defence has been great all season (and it’s a whole team effort), but 1 goal in 5 games when these 3 are our centre backs is really exceptional.
 
Gordon Bennett said:
Just wanted to point out that we’ve conceded 1 goal in 5 games with this central defence:

OFFIAH - STOREY - HUGHES

That’s phenomenal. All three of them deserve huge credit, half this forum wanted two of them out last Summer but they’ve said fuck that and showed they are well worth their places.

Hughes is having his best season for us, Storey has been a revelation at CCB and Offiah is looking like a Rolls Royce. The wingbacks have also done great defensively and in the unlikely scenario the ball gets past them there’s still Daniel fucking Iversen to save us.

Hopefully Gibson will be back soon and we’ll add another CB this month.

I rest my case for our defence, m’lud.
Click to expand...
Completely agree. These three have all been immense. Shows just how good Hecky and McCall are that Jordan looks like the best centre half in the division. If you'd have said I'd have been struggling to get Gibson back in the team I'd have laughed. Great problems to have.

Offiah is a joke and, if nothing else, will make us some serious money.
 
Gordon Bennett said:
Just wanted to point out that we’ve conceded 1 goal in 5 games with this central defence:

OFFIAH - STOREY - HUGHES

That’s phenomenal. All three of them deserve huge credit, half this forum wanted two of them out last Summer but they’ve said fuck that and showed they are well worth their places.

Hughes is having his best season for us, Storey has been a revelation at CCB and Offiah is looking like a Rolls Royce. The wingbacks have also done great defensively and in the unlikely scenario the ball gets past them there’s still Daniel fucking Iversen to save us.

Hopefully Gibson will be back soon and we’ll add another CB this month.

I rest my case for our defence, m’lud.
Click to expand...
Jordan has to be our most-improved player. On the way out when with Weds. but now so important; does the dirty stuff well, sticks his body on the line. Offiah - like Gibson - is a rolls-royce player - absolute class and his pace can turn defence into attack . Hughesy is a revelation. Long may it continue
 
Storey's improvement since moving central has been monumental. There's no need for Lindsay to ever play for us again once Gibson is back.

3 big improvements over last year. Offiah is a big upgrade on Storey at RCB, Storey/Gibson are a big upgrade on Lindsay in the middle, and Iversen is a huge upgrade on Woodman.

Suddenly a defence that hasn't been a top half unit for nearly 10 years is the third tightest in the division, and actually pretty decent on the ball. All for a total outlay of around £2.5m.
 
Gordon Bennett said:
Storey has been a revelation at CCB
Click to expand...

No - Storey is now the player I have always said he would become the absolute lynchpin of our defence and there is nothing surprising about it. The only problem about the way he is now playing is the good one to have of what to do with Gibson when he returns. The answer to that I would say is that for the immediate future Hughes and Gibson should vie for the left centre-back position with Gibson obviously also available to step in to the centre of the defence if need be. Yes we still need another defender but not another left-sided one an agile pacy right-sided player who can act as back-up for Offiah.
 
Gibson is going to have one hell of a job getting back into the team. For me he come in and rotates with hughes at LCB.

If we had the play off final tomorrow and everyone is fit then its got to be Offiah - Storey - Gibson as your back three
 
ernest said:
No - Storey is now the player I have always said he would become the absolute lynchpin of our defence and there is nothing surprising about it. The only problem about the way he is now playing is the good one to have of what to do with Gibson when he returns. The answer to that I would say is that for the immediate future Hughes and Gibson should vie for the left centre-back position with Gibson obviously also available to step in to the centre of the defence if need be. Yes we still need another defender but not another left-sided one an agile pacy right-sided player who can act as back-up for Offiah.
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Have to laugh at his former detractors now lauding the guy because he’s stood ten yards to his left.

Obviously had a lot on his mind over the last year or two and this season must have felt like a real fresh start for him.

Beyond that, he’s the same defensively sound and increasingly more experienced player he’s largely been for a number of seasons.
 
justinr73 said:
Have to laugh at his former detractors now lauding the guy because he’s stood ten yards to his left.

Obviously had a lot on his mind over the last year or two and this season must have felt like a real fresh start for him.

Beyond that, he’s the same defensively sound and increasingly more experienced player he’s largely been for a number of seasons.
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Clearly helping him not to have the responsibility of progressing the ball from deep, it's a more limited role that suits his skillset better.
 
Storey has made that centre spot his own , was superb again yesterday

Wasn’t as solid at RCB but for most of his time there he had Lindsay to his left, most would struggle with that
 
justinr73 said:
Have to laugh at his former detractors now lauding the guy because he’s stood ten yards to his left.

Obviously had a lot on his mind over the last year or two and this season must have felt like a real fresh start for him.

Beyond that, he’s the same defensively sound and increasingly more experienced player he’s largely been for a number of seasons.
Click to expand...

Quite comical that you can't see a difference between his performances on the right vs in the middle. He'd had a solid enough start to the season, but was very poor against Portsmouth, QPR & WBA to name a few. Johnston, Murphy, Mehmeti, Dembele. Direct wingers have always caused him major issues, Offiah meanwhile has been absolutely dominant against those type of wide men.

Not to mention that in the last few seasons, sides would deliberately let him have the ball with 20 yards of space, because they knew all that was going to happen was a 10 yard amble before a pass half a yard behind the full-back. On the right hand side of the 3, Offiah gives us so much more playing out from the back.

The central role allows his to focus on what he's excelling at more and more, being physical, winning headers and making challenges. He's also been a rare success for our S&C department as he has been notably quicker the last few seasons. Having that pace in the middle has been big for us.

Our defence has what has held us back from mounting serious play-off challenges for years, and we have put more faith in Storey than almost anyone else. I'm glad to see we've found a role for him that suits his skillset to a T, but pretending he's actually always been wonderful is total bollocks.
 
Lee Trundle said:
Quite comical that you can't see a difference between his performances on the right vs in the middle. He'd had a solid enough start to the season, but was very poor against Portsmouth, QPR & WBA to name a few. Johnston, Murphy, Mehmeti, Dembele. Direct wingers have always caused him major issues, Offiah meanwhile has been absolutely dominant against those type of wide men.

Not to mention that in the last few seasons, sides would deliberately let him have the ball with 20 yards of space, because they knew all that was going to happen was a 10 yard amble before a pass half a yard behind the full-back. On the right hand side of the 3, Offiah gives us so much more playing out from the back.

The central role allows his to focus on what he's excelling at more and more, being physical, winning headers and making challenges. He's also been a rare success for our S&C department as he has been notably quicker the last few seasons. Having that pace in the middle has been big for us.

Our defence has what has held us back from mounting serious play-off challenges for years, and we have put more faith in Storey than almost anyone else. I'm glad to see we've found a role for him that suits his skillset to a T, but pretending he's actually always been wonderful is total bollocks.
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Really good post - said for what seems like for ages that we’ve been asking Storey to play the Sepp VDB role which is absolutely ludicrous given the difference in their attributes as players.

I felt sorry for Storey every time he had the ball and was being asked to put a cross in, drive forward etc.
 
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