[Daz]

I hate it when fans slate a player specifically, but our defence really isn’t good enough. Some of the individual errors this season have been school boy stuff. Is it a confidence thing with a keeper too? I don’t know, but it’s clear changes are needed. We fold like a pack of cards.

[Daz]

I’ll also add the amount of absolute sitters with just a defender on the goal line to beat we manage to miss really is unbelievable.

We need to spend about 1,750,000 to sort this defence out

Sturrock had Sloop as defensive coach. We need a coach who really understands defending ffs. Lowe and Schuey were both attackers.

I can kind of accept a player being just a bit crap.
But stopping when the ref doesn't give a goal kick, then walking into position, then not even moving a neck muscle as the ball goes past you and into your side of the goal.
I'd be having Canavan in at 5 am tomorrow to watch that piece of footage on repeat until the rest of them get in for their individual briefings

[Daz]

I can kind of accept a player being just a bit crap.
But stopping when the ref doesn't give a goal kick, then walking into position, then not even moving a neck muscle as the ball goes past you and into your side of the goal.
I'd be having Canavan in at 5 am tomorrow to watch that piece of footage on repeat until the rest of them get in for their individual briefings

Yep, just lots of consistent errors leading to goals. Not good enough.

Agree about a defensive coach too. There is something missing there.

I can kind of accept a player being just a bit crap.
But stopping when the ref doesn't give a goal kick, then walking into position, then not even moving a neck muscle as the ball goes past you and into your side of the goal.
I'd be having Canavan in at 5 am tomorrow to watch that piece of footage on repeat until the rest of them get in for their individual briefings

That's the frustration. They're not a world beating defence, but the mistakes aren't solely down to player quality., Sunday league players know to play to the whistle.

I can kind of accept a player being just a bit crap.
But stopping when the ref doesn't give a goal kick, then walking into position, then not even moving a neck muscle as the ball goes past you and into your side of the goal.
I'd be having Canavan in at 5 am tomorrow to watch that piece of footage on repeat until the rest of them get in for their individual briefings

That's the frustration. They're not a world beating defence, but the mistakes aren't solely down to player quality., Sunday league players know to play to the whistle.

They might know it but I bet they don’t always do it.

The biggest concern is Lowe is 100% behind his defenders!!

The only crumb of comfort to come out of last night is that Lowe and Schumacher can't possibly still think Wootton and Canavan are League One standard. They were poor signings when they first came in: Wootton had just been part of a relegated defence and Canavan wasn't even playing for struggling Rochdale. It's fair to say both have lived up to their low-key billing.

That said, I could see why Lowe kept them around in the summer. Even though neither of them convinced me last season, they had clearly earned RL's trust and helped win him a promotion. It would have been ruthless in the extreme to let them go after that.

But it's now obvious to all and sundry that League Two is their ceiling. In fact, Wootton is probably National League standard, and even then his levels of concentration are so poor that he'd still make mistakes even in that league. I've lost track of the number of times he gets caught ball-watching, letting his man run off him in behind (just like he did last night in the build-up to Rochdale's third - it was almost comical).

As a defender, it's not really about how many headers you win or tackles you make, that's your fundamentals of defending and any professional should win his fair share of those (it's like saying a goalkeeper is a "good shot stopper"; of course he bloody is, that's why he's in goal). There's so much more to it, though: mentality, concentration and focus are what separates the good players from the bad ones. Wootton scores low on all three and needs to go to a league where his lack of focus won't cost his team too many goals.

You get stick on Pasoti for constantly criticising a player, but I like to think I've always been fair on Wootton and given him his dues when he's had a rare good game. I praised him for his first-half at Leyton Orient earlier this season, when he was excellent (though he inevitably dropped a clanger in the second-half that cost us the game), and towards the tail-end of last season when he seemed much more composed on the ball and even his distribution was vastly improved. Unfortunately he keeps reverting to type, and it's now obvious that he's only ever going to be a liability for us if we stay in League One. He isn't up to it. Simple as.

All that said, unfortunately both Wootton and Canavan signed new deals last summer so I'd imagine we're stuck with them until 2022 - unless they only signed one-year deals. Maybe we can find someone willing to take one or both of them for free, but I won't hold my breath.

Sturrock had Sloop as defensive coach. We need a coach who really understands defending ffs. Lowe and Schuey were both attackers.

Well, the attackers are not doing much better. That's the worry. A cr@p defence is one thing but we are short of quality up front too.

[Daz]

Sturrock had Sloop as defensive coach. We need a coach who really understands defending ffs. Lowe and Schuey were both attackers.

Well, the attackers are not doing much better. That's the worry. A cr@p defence is one thing but we are short of quality up front too.

Its poor how many decent chance we miss within the 6 yard box.

Last night for their second you knew he was going to bury it as it was a decent chance, i'm not sure any of our players are confident enough to do that at the minute and i'd bet they would have put it in the Devonport end.

[PL2 3DQ]

I think we miss the experience and leadership of Gary Sawyer. Watts is playing well but he's no leader.

Sawyer, Wootton, Canavan and Palmer had the third best defensive record and most number of clean sheets in League Two last season so you can see why Wootton and Canavan have been given a chance this season.

If you add in a rookie keeper, the absence of Sawyer and playing in a higher league against better strikers it's fair to say it's not working.

There's also the midfield which didn't help out. Fornah can have the odd good game but it seems our best defensive midfielder is Macleod who has somehow disappeared.

All of a sudden the January transfer window looks important.