Villa defeat showed defensive weakness

By cphilpotts

THAT was a difficult defeat for the West Brom fans to take last week.

We lost at home to Aston Villa who are not in my opinion a team full of superstars and world beaters.

The worst thing in my opinion was not the way we played but that we were let down once again by the way that we defended.

Their first goal was a shocking one to concede.

We were caught ball watching at the back and that is not good enough at this level.

If you are ball watching how can you know where your man is?

That is exactly what happened on Sunday and it left John Carew with a free header – which he took superbly.

The second goal, although was blamed on Leon Barnett, actually summed up where we are going wrong.

Barnett did well to get something on the ball but where the midfielders tracking back to help him out.

That left Agbonlahor with a free run on goal and he got lucky that his shot went through the defenders legs and then into the net.

We did well to get a goal back but it was asking to much to once again get two or three goals.

We cannot keep leaving ourselves with that big a task as we will be in trouble.

Against the likes of West Ham you may be able to get three goals but the bigger teams will not give you those sort of chances.

We cannot rely on bagging a load of goals every game just to get a point.

The main thing in this league is make yourself hard to beat and at the moment we are not that.

We remind me of Crewe when I used to play a little bit as we are becoming the kind of side that teams enjoy going to.

We are not an ugly side like a Millwall, who you know will give you a hard game.

Teams know that we play football in the right way and that we will give them chances.

That is where the likes of Stoke have got the advantage over us this year so far.

Stoke are not a great side to watch and you can guarantee that no one will look forward to going there to play.

We need to get a bit of that into our play and then we should be ok.

The problem is Tony Mowbray will now have to chop and change his side in order to create the right blend.

We have a big chance over the next few weeks to get some points on the board – starting with Middlesbrough.

They are not a great side but do play decent football so it is the kind of game we can get points from.

We need to really get wins in games like this to give ourselves a chance this season.