How are we going to sort out this cruddy defence?

It's been a pain in the arse all season, looking incredibly shaky.

Is it down to personnel, injury issue, tactics or something else?

For me, Clichy has been very poor and Kolarov is far from adequate backup. I believe we need a top class LB that can slot in in January. The problem is that I don't think MP will buy British (Leighton Baines) and someone else will have to adapt to the PL which can take some time.

Micah hasn't cut it yet this season, probably because he has been injured and needs a few games under his belt. Zabba has been a let down for me, but I think that these two are good enough to sort this out.

Lezza looks on his way out. Unfairly in my opinion, but it will happen probably in January as he's out of the England equation and hardly playing for City. The writing is in the wall for him and has been for a while. Nasty has looked too comfortable at times, making seriously dodgy tackles and has been culpable for a few bad goals.

Kompany is a good organiser, but makes too many rash tackles and is injured far too much.

Garcia - absolute bollocks as a DM and even worse as a defender.

Boyata, doesn't fill me with too much confidence but he's hardly been given a chance.

DM looks alright, but he won't be getting any faster and always makes one dangerous mistake per game.

All in all, are we fucked this season and should just be happy getting in the top 4 and building for next season?

We're only 11 games into the league season and we've played, what, sixteen games in total?  But I agree, the defense has been a bit of an issue for us, not helped by injury and definitely not aided by the fact we've only once played the same back four in consecutive games (I think I've got that right)

Kolarov has been better than Clichy so far this season, which is weird.  Clichy used to be so reliable.  Pellers should be encouraged to buy British because, if we let Lescott go, we're going to fall foul of the 8 man home grown rule.  Baines would be the best bet.

Zabba hasn't been great either.  I can't help but wonder if he, like Clichy, is struggling with the pressing game.  It doesn't seem to suit either, because they're not as quick and zonal does seem to suit them better.  Richards has been a disappointment.

The centre back pairing is the keystone to the defense and to keep changing it around is killing us at the back.  It's small wonder we've had Nasty making mistakes, he's never entirely sure of who is with him or where they're going to be, so he looks like a man who feels like he's the last man and it's a lot to pile on a young lad.  Micky does appear to at least keep an eye on him, but Nasty isn't good enough yet to hand-hold Boyata and Garcia may as well be a cone for all the difference he makes.

My thought here is to keep Micky and Nasty as a pair at least until Vinny is fully fit.  At least there's a chance we can develop a working partnership, which will help massively.

But we need to keep Garcia as far away as possible.

To be fair it was not the defence that failed yesterday,it was the mid field and attack.They were non existent for a team that is supposedly going for the title:P