After giving it some time to reflect here are today's ratings. Meslier - 4. Distribution ok. That first goal is the one we've seen multiple times. Polo mint goalkeeping as the ball just finds a way through him. When will the "potential" surface in to the goalkeeper promised. Bogle - 5. A mixed bag. Going forward he looked a real threat. Got to question his positioning for the first goal and the rear naked choke for the third. Rodon - 5. Probably his worst game in a Leeds shirt. Poor header back central resulted in the 2nd goal after he initially gave the free kick away after getting wrong side of his man. Struijk - 6. The best defender on the day but by far short of his best. Some real unnecessary challenges resulting in free kicks. Firpo - 6. Wandered all over the park. A real strange one. Good forward play and OK at the back. Dunno if it was a tactical thing but he can't be popping up on the right wing on occasion if he is playing left back. Ampadu - 8. Battling display. Him and Gruev controlled the midfield area mostly. Snuffed out lots of little dangerous attacks before they really turned in to chances. Gruev - 7. Worked in tandem with Ampadu and was tidy on the ball. Hit the woodwork with a great free kick. Corners were a mixed bag. Tried to get us on the front foot but struggled to unlock the defence. Georginio - 7. Started brightly but Pompey soon crowded him out and pulled him down at every opportunity. Was given no protection by the referee and still isn't clever enough to lay the ball off and run in behind for a return ball. Got his first assist. Gnonto - 8. A handful. Superb equaliser but became a little predictable with his finishing. Unlucky to go off but he did have a rat moment as he wandered off the pitch shaking his head and having a sulk. James - 8. Pressed well, worked his socks off. Loads of pace. Won the penalty. That performance will do me all season. Mateo Joseph - 7. Held the ball well, had good movement, lacked service but when the chance came he froze. Willing to give the lad the benefit of the doubt on that chance. Once he gets off the mark he might settle. Subs. Rothwell - 7. Didn't really improve things but kept the ball moving and quick thinking created a good chance. Piroe - 7. Good attitude. Good workrate and a decent assist for Aaronson. Aaronson - 7. Not sure he is any stronger physically but his desire was certainly an asset. Scored a neat goal to equalise. Should have sealed the win in the last seconds. The booing needs to stop. Bamford - 4. Some might put it down to missing pre-season rustiness. Some will say the usual performance. Farke - 7. We had enough chances to win 4 games. Dominated but he can't put the chances away himself. Subs didn't quite work but at least he rolled the dice but making big changes when we needed a goal. Two of the four subs combined to score the late equaliser.
Oh and clearly our depth wasn't poor because we finished above the mighty Leeds, with the mighty squad depth!! You are not as good as you think and last season showed that. You're good against teams that attack you and play open, expansive football (like us) You struggled against any side that showed a bit of defensive nous against you. McKenna got both games wrong against you imo but hopefully it's something he will learn!
I wouldn’t disagree with that. I said earlier our subs bench is weak as it was against Valencia. Some thought stronger than last year but that’s opinions. It’s clear having seen them come on that when we inevitably pick up a few injuries we’ll be in trouble. That squad needs serious strengthening in next three weeks in my opinion. Not convinced it’ll happen. Btw I though our corners were better than last few seasons
I'd still prefer him. Meslier can pull out worldy reaction saves but he's too prone to ****ing up the basics. We've probably conceded more from his basic ****-ups than he has saved with his worldies.
Evening all. I could only watch the highlights but it looked like we could have had a hat full. There's lots of doom and gloom but it's only one game. Who was it that said "judge it after 10 games?" As Farke said, it's not good to play newly promoted sides early on. They're used to winning and that needs to be beaten out of them. I do think.Mes was poor for the first and Bogle had a nightmare debut but it's just one game.
Pretty much agree, but got some comments (predictably). You mentioned Firpo on the RW. This was during a spell when him & Bogle switched wings for a bit (to no particular advantage, as far as I could see). Around the same time, our wingers changed wings for a while (again, no idea why). Gnonto often came off the LW to play in the middle as a 10. Not sure if planned, but it reminded me of Tyler Roberts when he started at first - no positional discipline. Could've been planned, but it was sporadic if it was. Meslier. I wonder if he is actually a victim of the Bielsa era. One of Bielsa's priorities was to keep the ball out of our area, & prevent shots on goal. It was very successful, but I wonder if it was actually the opposite of what Mellier required to develop him further. He didn't have a traditional goalie's workload to deal with, with us, so that part of his game is stopped developing as soon as he left France. And it shows. As one of his greatest supporters, even I think he must be replaced, unless he gets his **** together sharpish. Also thought that the game died on us a bit with the subs. Can't say I was impressed that both wingers were whipped off, as they seemed most likely to score & were still doing the business. I stopped totting up the yellow cards that should have been shown when I hit double figures. The fouls were unbelievable at times. I remember on in front of the ref where Rutter was literally rugby tackled, & dragged the defender along with him until he fell. No yellow. Or the ball being kicked away - again in front of the ref - when we were awarded a free kick. I can't recall the EFL rescinding the edict that such an action deserved a yellow. Suspect it hasn't, unless you're a really crappy ref. And this one was.
Was waiting for a report from someone who was there and have to say that’s pretty much what I saw on my 40”
On the ref. Very odd decision making at times but overall not terrible. Thought the Portsmouth player that took Dan James out should have seen red (if you compare with the Rodon yellow). Thought the penalty decision was a joke as the forward was backing in to Bogle (he literally penalised Joseph for the same thing in the first half) but despite all that we should have had the game won before they got anywhere near our goal. Need a decent keeper before the window shuts. Sorry but Mes is awful.
Tbh he's the one player that I get nervous about.... he's been 1st choice for to long without serious competition and it needs addressing, will it happen no, and that might just cost us in the long run ... no time for careless hands
Well I think you need a 65-inch mate as, there were some good play off to the sides, Meslier is a liability and needs the boot
I'm with you! Our telly has a starting handle, Channel 3, Channel 10, & the presenters have all got posh voices!
Missed the game just watched it. same old shyte loads of chances and giving the opposition very little in the way of chances but somehow they score 3. its like we shoot with a lead ball. Our finishing is very very poor just like last season. We need someone who can actually put power in shots. Our set pieces still shyte. This game should of been over in 15mins yet we went in the break 1-2 behind mindboggling. First game in all that so not going to slag anyone off. but, there was some below par efforts out there yesterday. It seems we don't wake up till we go behind. even so we should be sitting with 3 points but the shooting is a big worry, very powder puff strikes that aren't directed its like the ball is transformed into a cannon ball when it leaves the foot. some of them had so much time to even take a moment and decide to place it or put their laces through it. yet many did neither they were more like a back pass back to the goalie.
We still have most of the players who couldn’t finish or cross or shoot for last few seasons. Why would they have learned new tricks over the summer
Okay, maybe a bit controversial but I think Aaronson might be good at this level. I know he should have scored that winner but he got the equaliser and he seems one of the few midfielders we have who can make the late run into the penalty area beyond the forwards, Dan James being the other if you consider him a midfielder. I can’t think of many players over the past few seasons that have played centrally that have done that. Yes, he’s still a rat but if he can get us promoted we can then get rid for a decent fee. Same with Wober because wasn’t Rodon struggling a bit towards the end? We will score goals all be it that we’ll need a stack full of chances but my main concern is that we have one of, if not, the worst goalkeepers in this division. I’ve tried to stick with him as he’s young but I’m done. Never seen a keeper beaten so many times on his near post as Mes, a liability who is starting to undermine the confidence of his defenders.
On the goalkeeping issue he’s as good as he’s ever going to be given the number of games under his belt. Would a better keeper want to play in championship though or have we even tried to sign a new number 1. The pompey keeper by the way was also useless on two of our goals
And yet he still made more saves, at the moment we just need a decent championship keeper because I seriously don’t think we have one now and I don’t think Darlow is any better.
The dust has settled and the draw still feels painful, if it had not been for the post at least twice then we’d be feeling different today, fine margins. We know we’re in the market for two more players, if Wober remains we possibly have a better defender on the bench, we’re stuck with the keeper but get the defence right and we know we can keep clean sheets. Again though, I question if the balance is quite right, we have two very attacking full backs who are questionable at defending, with Ampadu, Wober, Struijk, Rodon it screams 5 at the back and allow the full backs to attack. We need two up front, Piroe, Jospeh, Rutter any two would be fine, Bamford as back up. But the middle, Aaronson, James, Gnonto, all attacking wide players and we’re trying to sign another. It feels we have a nearly team for 5-3-2
Still doesn’t address the fact our finishing is still abysmal. Ok we hit the woodwork three times but two of those were from point blank range and must go down as misses. Our two goals from play were hardly bullets and any keeper would be disappointed not to save them. We need players who can kick a ball, I’m fed up saying it, whether it’s a corner, a free or a shot from outside the box hit first time
I'll Meslier point.... He's ****ing useless. I was watching one of the Ipswich games at the back end of last season and their 30+ year old keeper had better reaction times. Meslier was ranked 18th in the stats league last year. I keep on seeing people coming out with horse **** like we have a better squad coming in to this season compared to the back end of last season. I beg to differ in fact I think we're weaker without Gray and Summerville. Personally I think the squad is too small. I think we need about 5 more signings or we're going to suffer come mid season when injuries rack up. Something interesting my wife noticed a few times last season and then commented on again yesterday. We only seem to 'play' when we go down and start to lose any other time and it's like we're playing 5 a side with our mates down the park. Interesting after that display yesterday we suddenly get linked with Bashir Humpries at Chelsea.
