Can you win the premier league without a defence??

[skiathospurs]

What a strange question for a spurs fan to be asking from a position of strength,especially in regards to our chances of winning a trophy?Lets face it we have never been in a position that I can remember where our foundations at the back are as good as anyone in the league for a couple of seasons now.However I saw a throw away quip on twitter that only chelsea and spurs have any resemblance of a decent defence,yes partially in reaction to liverpool conceding 4 at bournemouth and yesterdays 4 goals conceded smashing of city at leicester.Also lets face it after the family inheritance wenger got in george grahams back 4,he has hardly put a defence together that would acquit mother teresa.Mourinio`s bus at man united is more like a reliant robin despite the press hard ons for De gea best keeper in the universe,put simply united,city,arsenal,liverpool whatever their attributes as teams,do not defend fantastically well,and slip ups seem inevitable rather than uncontemplatable.

City have kept one clean sheet in all competitions,against WBA (i am not counting a CL qualifier!)
united have conceded more goals than boro and saints
liverpool have conceded 18 goals 2 more than united from a game less
arsenal have conceded 15,best of the top 4 as it stands but really a goal or 2 conceded is never out of the question.
More than just stats,they just dont look solid at the back any of them in my opinion,and best of the bunch arsenal with mertescker,gabriel,jenkinson (fpmsl) getting game time says it all.

So far it seems only us and chelsea have a semblance of a reasonable defence,does it therefore mean the title comes down to us vs them?Well thats a long shot,but stats are that normally the champions have the best or top 2 defence in the league (yeah fergies last season when no one else was good enough belies that stat i know!).
However our achilles heel this season of scoring is a better indication of our chances,as much as defensive frugalness is key,goals scored is probably more so and the team that has the best stats for one or both goals scored and conceded normally wins it or is there abouts.

So is it an easier task for us to score more goals or for the aforementioned defensive slackers to tighten up at the back??Well its immaterial because to have a chance of success we need to score more than the 24 in 14 games ratio at present.At this almost halway point in this season,we are halfway there,solid,best defence,now we just need to improve our goal scoring,Kane back,dembele,alli,eriksen all improving over the last weeks,we still have a shot,but have to keep the solidness but not at the expense of scoring
more.Easy eh!!

Can they improve their defence vs can we score more?if simply put like that we can catch up,because Pep,klopp,wenger just dont coach defence it seems.
Can Harry do it again is what it seemingly comes down to?its a lot on a young mans shoulders,but he has form!!

 

[Flump]

Didn't Liverpool try and outscore their defence under the tranny shagger and ultimately fail?

 

[skiathospurs]

Thought the game in manchester at the weekend showed us exactly what Dier brings to the party,He does his role, defend and move the ball on "quick as" to others,adds a better presence on set pieces and positionally he does the DM job attentively.
On sunday we played two deeper it seemed both mousa and wanyama,and yet neither had really sat in when we gave possesion away around the halway line.Yes fantastic they are looking to go forward,but we kind of had 2 sitting mostly and yet when it counted they were in no mans lands when herrara and minkystinkywotshisname combined for the goal.It may seem negative playing a DM but actually it allows dembele to play further advanced,take on a player and make a pass. And OFC when rose and walker bomb on we have 3 at the back until they return to position.We really missed that against united,not least for the goal we conceded..

 

[Glenjamin]

Thought the game in mancheter at the weekend showed us exactly what Dier brings to the party,He does his role, defend and move the ball on "quick as" to others,adds a better presence on set pieces and positionally he does the DM job attentively.
On sunday we played two deeper it seemed both mousa and wanyama,and yet neither had really sat in when we gave possesion away around the halway line.Yes fantastic they are looking to go forward,but we kind of had 2 sitting mostly and yet when it counted they were in no mans lands when herrara and minkystinkywotshisname combined for the goal.It may seem negative playing a DM but actually it allows dembele to play further advanced,take on a player and make a pass. And OFC when rose and walker bomb on we have 3 at the back until they return to position.We really missed that against united,not least for the goal we conceded..

I think this is one of the problems we are having at the minute. Problems a bit strong really as we are doing well but I feel dier would be a better fit right now than wanyama. Don't get me wrong here wanyama is a beast and has been a brilliant signing I just feel that dier knows what needs to be done.

1. Empty player on ball
2. Retrieve ball
3. Pass forward quickly to more skilled attacker.

Wanyama much like Dembele runs with the ball alot which means between the pair the ball doesn't progress forward quick enough. Dembele and wanyama is one or the other for me to be honest rather than both on the field. In which case dembele and dier all day long.

In regard to the original point yes I feel we could win the league with our defense back at full strength. Scoring alot of goals is fine but when u watch a team like Liverpool fly forward with complete disregard for a turn of possession and then get caught out you can be in a sticky spot. If we go forward with more grunt but have a wall if possession is lost that the opposition has to get through ultimately come season end we will have more points I reckon.

Think this is a big thing for Chelsea and also now why Leicester are doing so bad. KANTE. He breaks up any play that comes into Chelsea's half ultimately giving the defense less to do and therefore being more confident in what they do need to handle, and much the same as dier he knows his skill set and gets rid of the ball quickly.

 

[skiathospurs]

I think this is one of the problems we are having at the minute. Problems a bit strong really as we are doing well but I feel dier would be a better fit right now than wanyama. Don't get me wrong here wanyama is a beast and has been a brilliant signing I just feel that dier knows what needs to be done.

1. Empty player on ball
2. Retrieve ball
3. Pass forward quickly to more skilled attacker.

Wanyama much like Dembele runs with the ball alot which means between the pair the ball doesn't progress forward quick enough. Dembele and wanyama is one or the other for me to be honest rather than both on the field. In which case dembele and dier all day long.

In regard to the original point yes I feel we could win the league with our defense back at full strength. Scoring alot of goals is fine but when u watch a team like Liverpool fly forward with complete disregard for a turn of possession and then get caught out you can be in a sticky spot. If we go forward with more grunt but have a wall if possession is lost that the opposition has to get through ultimately come season end we will have more points I reckon.

Think this is a big thing for Chelsea and also now why Leicester are doing so bad. KANTE. He breaks up any play that comes into Chelsea's half ultimately giving the defense less to do and therefore being more confident in what they do need to handle, and much the same as dier he knows his skill set and gets rid of the ball quickly.

Totally agree with the dier/wanyama points,wanyama if you like is more a poor mans dembele with more bite in ball retrieval,when dembele and wanyama are paired its too similar,no one really holds or pushes forward,so we kinda have 2 players not quite protecting the back 4 and not quite supporting the front 3.Now it could be others in the system going wrong?i.e full backs not holding or the interchange of the players further forward,but i still say dier plays at old trafford that breakaway goal probably doesnt happen,who knows if we would have conceded two in a different way if he had started?but as you said he fills his role
1. Empty player on ball
2. Retrieve ball
3. Pass forward quickly to more skilled attacker.
and he is more of a threat from set pieces,should a corner eventually beat the first man!