by the posts here may have to give saturday a miss-starting to get a bit embarrassing being a toothless tiger
I cant add to what has already been said by the one or two on here that went. We were dreadful, its as simple as that. Mannone was man of the match and that included his error for the first goal. In the 2nd half he kept the score down with Hobbs and Chesters assistance. I looked at the players and Im afraid the youngsters just didnt have the bottle or the heart to get stuck in and have a go. Fryatt has stated on a number of accasions that he hates the loan striker role yet NB wont change it and Fryatt keeps being subbed. Doesnt make sense to me. It has been said that we have played too many games in a short space of time, well, sorry these are professionals, it is their job. Porr form is one thing, lack of effort isnt and it is not acceptable. Trouble is that they kniow that they are always going to be selected because there is no one else. Lastly, you can say what you like about Frtton Park and the way the club is run, but those fans last night were excellent. It was a wall of sound all night and we could take some very good tips at what support is really all about from them. I cant say that I have heard fans support their club like they did for years.
I put last night amongst some of the other games that I have seen recently. We have a group of players who are individually ready for this league, but are not ready as a team. They lack the edge that older players have. Dawson is a stalwart but he was out of position for the first goal, Hobbs was two yards off the pace and there was no communication between him and Mannone who should have stayed near his line but came for a ball that he should not have had to defend. This was a planned and well excecuted move, that Pompey tried to repeat later. We lost shape and where losing possession time and time again. The number of throw in's that we took and gave back possession was far too many. The second goal was a stupid pass rather than clear effort. I could not understand why we continue to try to dribble and pass our way out of trouble. We are always trying to thread the needle instead of shooting for goal. There is also this ping pong header lark that we get ourselves into. We always lose! Pompey got in close and never gave us any time on the ball. As for the crowd, well I wish that we had half of the atmosphere, no scrub that, one tenth. It was actually a good night for them, not just the football, but the whole thing and I have to say that if I was a neutral I would rather go there than the KC. Even if we had won that would not have changed. The singing of "we want our money back" and the sight of a player giving his shirt to the fans in a gesture that had all the hallmarks of guilt sort of sums the game up. Nick Barmby really needs to see that a pace and fancy footwork does not get past a strong shoulder and quick boot. We needed Oli last night.
It is a fundamental basic of football that the objective is to score goals and yeah, why wouldn't anyone shoot last night? Simpson tried a couple, McLean tried to get himself into a shooting position as did King and Stewart and Evans twice could have and should have shot. But our build up was so slow their players had time to walk everyone slowly back into defence - not that they needed to worry. It was only a matter of time before we gave the ball away. I don't blame Mannone totally for the first goal and his second half display was outstanding. He kept us from being seriously embarrassed. My fear was that it was going to be one of our players who got man of the match for them.
the plastics know who they are and Mel U for one is not a plastic. If the Cap fits and all that westy......
It's hardly surprising though, paper thin squad = knackered players playing a lot of games in a short space of time = crap and laboured performances. And before you say Pompey have a tiny squad, they've also rotated a fair few players ahead of the loan deadline by sending their players out and bringing in players that haven't been playing elsewhere. Either PL players who are good, or Championship fringe players that are looking to use the games to prove a point to their parent clubs. All of them nice and fresh due to playing fewer games than our lads have. I'm surprised at you being such a neg head tickler.
its not that thin, garcia, olifinjana and simpson until last night have hardly had a look in despite being available.. adebola was available until he got sent out on loan, as was mcshane cairney has been starting games and couldnt even make the bench last night.. i know he may not fancy some or most of the above players, but they still have been there , if tiredness has been a problem then he should have used them
We have people who have contracts, but that doesn't mean we have good squad depth. I'll be more specific: Poorest performers in the last week or two relative to earlier in the season have been Rosenior and McKenna, two players who are undroppable due to us not having replacements. McShane offered cover for Rosenior earlier in the season when he didn't need the option of a rest, but has been unavailable for the heavy run of games due to his loan. When McKenna isn't able to protect the defence properly we're going to leak goals, and when Rosenior is getting tired he's going to struggle to support the already piss poor attacking play like he normally does. Cairney coming in for Evans would have been a suitable option, but because he doesn't help enough defensively we needed to do it whilst McKenna was still fresh and able to take up the extra work, knowing that when he was getting tired a fresh Evans would be returning to the side to help him out more. Unfortunately we left it until McKenna and Evans were both ****ed, which left us with a knackered McKenna playing alongside an unhelpful Cairney. Garcia has been kept out on account of us having 4 wide players ahead of him in the team (Brady, King, McLean, and Stewart), but that just means two positions are covered. Olofinjana was disastrous when he started (not that that is necessarilly worse than what's now happening), and Adebola can't even last a half in a 442 when he's got another striker to do his running, he's not going to last long on his own up front. With regards Simpson, we've been crying out for him to be given a couple of games so I agree he's possibly offering us something, but it's not really been McLean and Fryatt that have been looking tired, it's been the supply to them that's been the problem. If I was being really cynical I'd throw Koren suffering a muscular injury at the end of the run of games into the hat, but I think I'd be stretching it then. Firstly he's not exactly covering every blade of grass. Secondly you don't really get players that allow you to rest Koren very easily, the only way to do that is to sub him early in games and NB being the manager prevents that because he doesn't think he's up to being player manager so there's not a lot we could do about that.
nice to hear a bit of praise for our fans! we are like that pretty much week in week out and usually with a couple more on the attendance figures. I've grown up with it going down there since the age of 5 and it truly baffles me when i go away to the likes of ipswich, coventry etc where they just sit in near silence groaning until they score a goal then they pump out some music to make it sound like they have some kind of atmosphere. i hope your lot turn it around by saturday and put in a shift against coventry we need you to win that one! if we get at burnley like we did your lot this saturday and derby put in a shift over bristol we could be out of the bottom three by tea time!!!! all the best with the promotion push, a couple of wins can change things fast.
I agree so much with regards to Mckenna at his age to have managed this far it is unbelievable. However i am his biggest fan yet his last 3/4 games haven't being his usual self, thats down to the fact anyone ove rthe age of 32+ by this stage of the season would of expected to have a rest somewhere down the line, yet he hasn't had that chance. No-one plays his role, Evans can defend but he isn't smart enough to win the headers and tackles Mckenna does, and the little fouls that Mckenna does.
Agreeing with a good post hardly makes me a neg head does it as you said above. But it was poor @ pompey and there is no getting away from it, end of. Simpson should never wear the shirt again,,, imo.
