Match Day Thread Portsmouth v Norwich City, Tues Dec 10th ko 7.45 Fratton Park.

Another yellow

 

Nunez with a big lunge but he makes no contact with the Portsmouth player

 

Luckily for Nunuez the referee was consistent, otherwise he could be off for that!

I will be amazed if this finishes 11 v 11

 

Argos coming on

 

Onel, Slimane and Fisher look to be coming on

 

Hernandez coming on - he could make a difference. Barnes off and Crnac up front?

 

I would assume to take place of Barnes, Nunez and Stacey

 

Do we really want Stacey off? He’s looked the source of most of our threatening attacks. I find that weird other than the yellow card issue

 

This break in play for a bloody nose, we didn’t get this on Saturday for Sainz, the ref played on through several phases, the ball even went out of play several times while

 

On a yellow against Murphy though

 

The refereeing has got worse

 

I didn't think that was possible, but I agree

 

I'm sure the independent Regulatory Commission will follow up on that with appropriate sanctions

 

Marcondes just cleaned out with an elbow (worse than McLeans) nothing given

 

Battling display, had to show that we wouldn’t be bullied. Better spells in the second half but probably the right result.

Another **** ref

 

Duffy did well to deal with the aerial bombardment

 

Dispossessed stats (bottom right) tells a story.

 

That reminded me of watching City at Carrow Road in the 1960s, as far from Hoffball as you can imagine apart from one or two brief passages of play in the second half. Portsmouth were as poor as we've faced all season, but we chose to drop to their level rather than play our own game. Two points surrendered rather than a good point scrapped for IMO. Pass success rate of 70% our lowest of the season so far I believe; and if we are going to clear long rather than play out from the back, we need a keeper capable of far greater accuracy with his kicking than Gunn (50% accuracy).

 

It's hard to judge the impact of the QPR game on JHT's thinking, but the wider range of tactics is interesting. Are other sides working out how to counteract Hoffball like they did with Wagner's tactics last season? That may be a temporary change though and it will be interesting to see how we play against Burnley and Sunderland at home.

Portsmouth may have had 15 shots to our 5, but only 1 of theirs was on target compared to 4 of ours. They were limited mostly to long shots which posed little threat. Considering that they beat Bristol City 3-0 in their previous match, at least our defensive performance was an improvement, but how much that owes to their poor shooting may be a moot point. The other similarity with last season is the long absence of Sargent. His presence last night could have made a big difference.

 

I’m really struggling to see what Barnes brings to this side. His hold up play isn’t great, he lacks the pace to stretch a defence, doesn’t press particularly effectively, isn’t a very good finisher, not really tall enough to be an aerial threat, his link up play is ok at best