not because our defence has just turned shit, but because we got a manager only a few short weeks ago.
It’s a bit soon to give up on his ability to improve things. Surely you see that?
Personally, I reckon Hutch’ll improve our defence - obvs not as quickly as just getting Phil Jones in and pairing him with, you know, what’s his name - the good one.
For me, a team defends and a team attacks - individuals are involved and errors creep in, but the more the team keeps its discipline, the fewer errors you tend to see.
Coaching a team into a formation that defends and attacks as one stops centre-backs coming under pressure out of nowhere and improves the rating that fans give those centre-backs. The players can stay the same but the apparent improvement can be immense.
The signings that most improved our central defence in my recent memory were Victor Wanyama and Mauricio Pochettino. You may remember them. One is a CM and one a Manager. So neither signing was a CB but they definitely improved our defence.
Cahill is a good shout, mind. Wages (I’ll queue them up, you hit them out of the park) might be a problem, as might our status in a relegation fight.