Mayo's defensive dilemmas

KEVIN MCSTAY didn’t shy away from how excited he was about putting his own stamp or his own ‘version of Mayo’ together when he took the job.
One of the first major structural changes he and his management team engineered was the positioning of Conor Loftus at centre-back.
It raised eyebrows initially; Loftus being a natural forward all his life.
But as we began to see a pattern of what McStay wanted his Mayo team to do, the Loftus move, in theory, made more sense.
He’s a strong kickpasser over 40 yards so can play that quarter-back role and deliver first-time ball into the full-forward line. His pace and ball-carrying ability can also help break lines from a high press and a blanket defence coming from deep.
Obviously his weakness is defending, but with Mayo playing more bodies back and having a ‘plus one’, there shouldn’t be issues where he’s isolated one-on-one in dangerous situations.
However, one of the crucial moments in last Sunday’s defeat against Cork occurred in the 56th minute when Colm O’Callaghan drove hard at Loftus and brushed him aside much too easily before going to ground and winning the penalty that changed the game.
It must be said the penalty was very soft, but the defending in the lead up to it was poor.
By that stage Loftus had been steady without being spectacular in a centre-back/sweeper role.
In his only other one-on-one defensive play he did quite well, managing to hold up Cork’s Eoghan McSweeney with a near hand tackle as he bore down on goal with only Loftus in his way in the 14th minute. It was an important challenge at the time.
Outside of this, Loftus found himself filling space more than cutting out ball, and he made no interceptions or turnovers throughout the 70 plus minutes.
Cork were more comfortable carrying the ball past halfway instead of kicking direct so this doesn’t give a full reflection of the stat.
On the ball the Mayo number six found himself in possession a total of 30 times, 15 in each half – ending with three assists. Most of the possessions were in the middle of the field and off-loaded latterly, particularly in the first half as he was sitting deeper.
On four occasions he attempted a penetrative run from deep through the Cork defensive line in the first half, leading to one assist in the 15th minute – handpassing to Ryan O’Donoghue who won a converted free.
His first opportunity for a shot fell in the 33rd minute as he cut back inside from underneath the stand and looked to pull the trigger before deciding against it and recycling it to James Carr who was done for over-carrying.
One wondered if a confident Conor Loftus playing his football regularly in attack would have taken it on?
In the second half he looked to get forward and carry the ball more often as Mayo needed to search for scores.
He was turned over in possession on the 36th minute, but aided in doubling and tripling up to win the ball back and Mayo converted the resulting free.
Loftus broke the next kick-out before getting in possession four times in quick succession and assisting for Jordan Flynn’s point from play in the 42nd minute.
A minute later he registered his one and only shot in the game – a left footed effort that dropped into the keeper’s hands.
And five minutes later, Loftus delivered his only direct ball inside the 45 metre line to O’Donoghue, who used all his cuteness to win a free he then converted.
Overall, it was one unconvincing display amongst many and poses one of a number of big questions about McStay’s version of Mayo going forward.