Was never going to happen... I'd already checked if my mate would give me a hand to move a body, should that become necessary. No intervention required though, as my daughter saw sense
So far we have conceded 8/13 shots on target in three games. We are slightly restricting chances, but the ones we give away are nearly all one on ones.
Saints and Aberdeen both lost by 3 goals at home today. I hate football. To rub my nose in it, Bevis Mugabe scored Motherwells last goal. Et tu Brute!
Um. Slightly speechless at the nature of that defeat. I'd call it Naive but that wouldn't be strong enough. 4 goals conceded to the same player in the same manner and 3 other chances that could have gone the same way. We look good going forward and we had plenty of chances to take the win, it could have been 3-1 at halftime with a bit more quality in the finishing. Ings, Adams and Djenepo all had good games. KWP and Bertrand were all very good. That's where it ends sadly. I don't generally overreact but we were a whisker away from another huge Leicester defeat and its only Game 2. Yes players kept stuffing up but we got away with three goals and we still persisted with the same defensive line. Mourinho knew what he wanted to do and it was so incredibly easy. Any casual observer should have known we were going to concede to balls over the top. To let Son score 4 was just embarrassing. We are suddenly back to where we started last season, who knows why or how. Its not fitness, that's bullshit. Defensive tactics need the workout.
Hope everyone has recovered by now. Time to move on and look forward to the next Match, eh against those mighty East Lancastrians. Believe it or not, there's a small hamlet just over the border there called Portsmouth.
The saddest part about today’s result is that I called it on Wednesday. Not the score but the nature of the defeat, with balls through or over the CBs. This fault in our defence was exposed by both Palace and Brentford, and if I can see it, Ralph should have.
Ralph has been pragmatic thus far, so despite glossing over it post match, he’ll surely put it right?
I always worried about my daughter meeting and falling in love with a Pompey fan. The closest she came was going out with a Bournemouth player in our League 1 promo season. We beat them 2-0 at home on the Saturday and he came round for Sunday lunch the next day. I didn't mention it (much) but we sat down for lunch and he opened his napkin (lol we don't normally do napkins, but bear with me) and as he placed it on his lap, he opened it up and it said "Can we play you every week" Nice guy actually and still keep in touch with him. He is in the championship atm. EDIT: wasn't our promo season as that was 3-1 we beat them...was 2010
Just copied this from a post on SW. Decent summary and spot on imo: Today, and in the Palace game it was far too extreme, with players in certain positions asked to do things they cannot do: Bednarek - is a defend your box CB who will win duels, make blocks and suits a deep defence. Vestergaard - as above Stephens - is a defender comfortable on the ball and who can help play out but who gets exposed by the better forwards. Romeu - suits a slow possession team where he can shield a deep back four. Very slow. McCarthy - is a shot stopper who claims crosses well but is one of the worst PL keepers with his feet and has poor judgement on when to leave his line. Forster - reactive shot stopper, poor at most other elements and awful coming off his line/ kicking Gunn - best suited stylistically but confidence shot after last season These players are the biggest problem we have as none really suit the way Ralph wants to play and their weaknesses are the type that won't improve on the TG. Summary: if we can't find a suitable no6 and GK especially then Ralph will need to tone down his ideal of how we can play, because the players just can't do it
They were only in league one during our promotion season weren't they? Got promoted from league two in 2010. We did play them 3 (league cup) times that season though iirc.