The consensus of opinion is that, our attack is as good, if not the best forward line in the league… our midfield rebuild is generally considered to have been a success but it is clearly still a work in progress and as such is having some teething problems but overall big potential.

However, whilst it was our midfield that was under close scrutiny last season, this season that focus has now rightly shifted onto our defence… as our defending this season hasn’t been at the level of previous seasons.

It has to be said that the incidences of Sunday league defending we have witnessed this season is a real worry and you do begin to worry that the mainstays of our defence,VVD, Robbo, Gomez and Matip have not only all lost a bit of confidence because of of last seasons woes, they have also all lost a bit of pace, and as a result as a group they have all dropped one or two levels defensively.

With this in mind I have revisited all of our goals conceded this season and unfortunately I think this season we have been our own worst enemy at times…

This season we have actually conceded 11 goals this season, 9 in the league, 1 in Europe and 1 in the Cup.

Of these 11 goals, the goal conceded against Lask was a bit of a worldie, the goal conceded against West Ham was a well worked goal but the other 9 goals were either just poorly defended or individual errors.

I appreciate that all good teams concede goals but the three examples of our defensive lapses we have experienced this season, against Chelsea, the 1st goal against Spurs and Wolves were tbh really cheap goals to concede… just poor poor defending.

However, more worrying is the six costly avoidable individual errors made in the opening 10 games ..

VVD’s pass to Trent at home to Bournemouth. (Won)

Salah’s pass to Trent against Newcastle. (Won)

Tsimikas failure to control and then compounding it by feigning injury against Leicester. (Won)

Matip’s schoolboy failure to side foot the cross out for a corner against Spurs. (Lost)

VVD’s pass to Macca against Brighton. (Draw)

Robbo’s decision to not even attempt to side foot the free kick out for a corner against Brighton. (Draw)

I think it’s absolutely mad that we have all witnessed 6 clear individual errors in our opening 10 games, but if we can just learn to cut out all these costly individual errors and just learn to be more alert and defend a bit more solidly, all of our supporters defensive concerns will just ebb away and in turn our defenders confidence in their own ability will return, which in turn will give us the platform to hopefully have a really successful season.

If we can do this, we are genuine title contenders, if not, we are going to struggle to finish in the top four.