Getting into the Premiership is always a huge challenge.

Do you stick with the system that got you out of the Championship – while knowing that there were times you did it by the skin of your teeth (as Derby did) – or do you try and develop a system that you know works better in the long term?

My observations this year for what it’s worth is that BD has changed his system of defending.  Last year, by packing the box and closing down opponents in our own half, with lightening breakaways (we had eleven 1-0 wins last season), BD created a team (remember this time last year we were all talking about how mid-table would be nice, play-offs a dream) to stay up in the Championship.  So he built a team hard to beat, with lots of spirit.  Suddenly we went up, with less money than everyone else, less time to buy in players, a non-existent backroom team that needed to be brought in, and now we’re getting hammered (bad pun) regularly.

BD quite rightly – I think – decided that last year’s tactics weren’t going to work so he changed the system.  I believe we are now trying to defend by passing more.  Witness the Reading game where we tried to slow down the game and out-pass the Royals.  It makes some sense as most Premiership teams have attackers capable of unlocking defences – even Reading have Doyle.  We can’t rely on locking the opposition out for the whole game and relying on breakaways.  What I think BD is now trying is keeping the ball and then breaking away using our attackers to open up opposing defences.

The trouble is it’s not working.  And we’ve now got ourselves into a situation where we can’t defend properly, nor can we open up opposing defences.  So we lose against West Ham reserves and would probably lose against Arsenal Academy.  And in the process the players now seem to be utterly dispirited and confused.

So what’s a manager to do?  Try and build a team that will develop or stick with what you have as Aidy Boothroyd of Watford did and fight adversity with fire knowing all the while that you will go down anyway?  This Watford mentality – the idea that: “We’re going to lose but we’ll make it as difficult as possible”.  That kind of thinking sees losing 1–0 against Arsenal as a triumph.   Watford won few friends with that approach but they won loads of admirers for their fortitude and determination.

Whatever is decided and it needs to be done quickly, we have to learn how to defend properly.  Somebody has to make sure that the likes of Bowyer don’t get unchallenged running into the penalty area, and I don’t mean fouling them as that will mean free-kicks floating into the goal with Bywater flapping away as if trying to catch a bluebottle fly.

Brazilian teams used to defend by using tactics of fouling around the halfway line to break up opponents’ attacks.  As a tactic of defending it was startlingly successful as it meant that teams never got a tempo going when on the attack.  Nowadays it’s less effective as with the lighter ball teams have learned how to score from free kicks close to the halfway line.

Italian teams tend to go for Catenaccio, or a variant of the system.  The system is a man-to-man marking system that requires a libero at the back with great positional and organisational attributes, not a quality often found in English football.

Arsenal under George Graham perfected zonal defending while Liverpool under Benitez took this to a different level two seasons ago.  It’s a very difficult system to get right and if players change from week to week, then the chances are someone somewhere will forget their role and the whole system breaks down.  No wonder most English teams employ a flat back four and a marking system when facing free kicks from wide or corner kicks.

Then there’s the pressing game that was supposedly created by Arrigo Sacchi who won the European Cup twice with Milan by defending in the opponent’s half, pressing on the man who had the ball in their own half.  As a tactic, it required players with immense energy – such as Frank Rijkaard who roved all over the pitch. A variation of the earlier catenaccio, it also required a libero – the majestic Baresi.

But the pressing game also requires intelligence otherwise you get teams being pulled out of shape, and with the speed of thinking currently in the Premiership it’s easy to get drawn out of position – sound familiar?

The problem, of course, is that your defence is only as good as the players you have. And ours were brought in with the aim of surviving in the Championship – not the Premiership.  So, naturally, they are outclassed week in, week out.

The difficulty is the same as it was last season – not enough players who can defend – nearly all our midfielders are poor at defending.  And those that are ‘proper’ defenders are nearly all Championship level players. 

I don’t envy BD his job in the next few weeks – he’s got to ride out the howls of derision from his own ‘fans’, he’s got to keep working with his own backroom team, he’s got to convince his own players that things will get better, and he’s got to find a way to stop us getting punished so badly so often. And he’s got to keep the fans coming in - somehow.

But getting the defence sorted out would be a start.  So instead of losing 5–0, let’s try and start losing 1–0.  That way, we might avoid a few unwanted records and a half empty Pride Park for the rest of the season.

Photo: Action Images

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