Match Day Thread Pompey v Coventry City

It's Southend all over again

 

Honestly takes off a midfielder to bring on a defender to go 5 at the back when winning against 9 men.

Jackett has had an absolute shocker. ****ing terrible.

I've defended the bloke recently but starting to loose my patience.

 

Who goes defensive and sits back when winning against 9 men?

Mental.

 

I don't know why some managers are so ultra defensive. Ultra defensive managers don't tend to do so well, e.g. Paul Hart and Richie Barker

 

Woopert´s will tell us more tomorrow when our head have cleared. I do feel PFC´s result are going to be erratic for the first half of the season and we may be outside a play-off place at Christmas. So long as there are no stupid loans in the transfer window, and KJ has faith in this squad, Whatmough will hopefully be back to match competitiveness by then, I think the second half will be a lot better and we´ll end up in the play-offs again in 4th or 5th place. This is a good squad, in theory a bit better than last season´s. It has its faults, KJ is sometimes less than clever with his substitutions both in personnel and timing, but who amongst us would be better? PFC need to improve their levels of concentration to close out games when leading.

 

Just maybe Coventry were going long ball and with some very physical, athletic guys just went for it. KJ felt the need to protect the lead. It didn´t work out. There are pluses and minuses to take out of the game. Let´s work on both, This PFC team will get better.

 

Will improve for sure but you don't go defensive when winning against 9 men.

You keep hold of the ball and see it out.

He just invited pressure.

He's lost a lot of fans tonight.

 

Is it better? Not so sure.

Offensively yes but defensively I'd say no.

 

This is the game to look back on if we miss out on promotion or playoffs by a point!
I hope KJ had the hairdryer out in the dressing room at full time

 

Given he's the one who cost us the game with his ridiculous substitutions, I wouldn't count on it.

 

He is the manager and these kind of things should be drilled into players. Keeping the ball when 3-1 against very able opponents even when down to 10 and then 9 points. Really the question he should have asked the players is what "we" should have done. Maybe his own decisión-making wasn´t so brilliant. Would it have been more prudent to send on Cannon in order to improve possession? Well they have a week to think about these things before encountering QPR (not a happy hunting ground for Pompey as I cannot recall one victory there in my memory) and then Blackpool.

PS: Is there any room for one more player - either a creative midfielder, Hesketh would be my choice, and/or another CB? Perhaps one of Chelsea´s many reserves.

 

I get the feeling this season could well be similar to that of 1981/82 when the squad was good but performances were meh.

 

Well KJ is the longest serving PFC manager since the great HR came back for a second spell. With 15 minutes left KJ was KJ, now he is getting a hard time, all because of a bad 15 minutes. Maybe in this day and age, a manager´s time at a club usually comes to an end after two years. If Deacon was the chairman, then KJ´s days would be numbered, but I am not so sure with these guys, but if performances continue to remain poor, then even these guys will start to ask questions but I don´t think he will be sacked this side of Christmas because if these guys are as patient as they say they are, they will give KJ time to improve.

 

Clearly the final result was a disaster.
I have only seen the highlights and read newspaper reports and the associated comments so my remarks may be out of line.
Firstly, there appears to have been some positives. Apparently Haunstrup played well after he came on and, as Woopert says, Harness continues to impress.
I think the critism of the manger should start with the initial selection. Three changes are a lot to make in a side that had had two wins and put up a good performance at Sunderland despite losing.
I agreed with continuing the experiment of replacing Walkes with McCrorie after the latters promising cameo at the Stadium of Light. It was logical but my impression is that McCrorie displayed some defensive weaknesses against Coventry.
Making one change in the back four was enough. Burgess appears to be playing as well as any of the central defenders and dropping him seems as if it may be more related to giving the new recruits the opportunities they were promised at the time of signing - which was not particularly fair to Burgess or in the best interests of winning the game at hand.
I have been a little critical of Burgess for his propensity to 'hoof ball' over the mid field. This was not the case at Sunderland however, and ironically I have read critism of Downing and Raggett for doing this excessively against Coventry.
Of course the 'hoof ball' is inevitable if the central defender looks up and cannot see a pass to the mid field which brings me to dropping Cannon. The ball did move well into the mid field against Sunderland and this in some part I believe to be because of the running contribution of Cannon either making a spare man or drawing markers off other players. The good mid field performance of the last three games should not have been tampered with ( despite Cannon's replacement Evans contributing a very well taken goal).
With regard to bringing Burgess on, at least Jackett provided some explanation. He said the plan was to strengthen the central defence so the wing backs could make use of the extra space wide which usually occurs when the opposition is short of numbers. There is some logic there although it is not logic I agree with.
Passes to wing backs frequently come from the goal keeper and central defenders so possession has to be won deep in defence to utilise them. Better to win mid field possession which allows a counter attack that does not have to go the length of the field.
So I believe Jackett is due some critism although it may well have been overdone. There is inevitably the odd game that seems unforgivable to lose.
I would also comment that the penalty goal was an isolated individual error by Close that cannot blamed on the defensive formation or selections.
I would like to hear your comments on the above Woopert and Sharpe since I think you are the only ones on the forum that saw the game.