Tsunami Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Just seen the game, and I do think a lot of people are over-reacting. We weren't that much better or worse than for the other games I've seen this season. I feel a bit sorry for Cacapa. He's not the quickest or strongest, but usually gets by through his reading of the game. For the second and third goals he got exposed one-on-one, moving backwards and he wasn't able to handle it. In the first instance, Faye gave the ball away with most of the team upfield, and in the second instance, Taylor misjudged a header, the ball looped backwards and Cacapa was caught on the turn. He didn't too well, but his team mates landed him in the s*** somewhat. Zoggy and Milner did all right on the 'opposite' wings. I think people are just looking for something to complain about there. We lacked penetration in the final third. The Pompey defenders handled our strikers quite comfortably. Owen had one of those games where he isn't offering much. Pompey's passing through the midfield was better than ours and that was the difference. [/]b A lot of what you said was quite true, but the last bit about Pompey's passing being better brings up a whole load of other issues. Pompey's passing was probably better through better movement, better running, more pace.....you get my drift. All very true. We'll never really know how wrong BS got his tactics as the games was over after 11 minutes. If I were Cacapa I'd have given Faye & Taylor a royal kicking afterwards as they exposed his weaknesses for the 2nd & 3rd goals as both times (not through his fault) he got isolated as the last man too high up the pitch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG32 Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Pompey's passing through the midfield was better than ours and that was the difference. Like a hot knife through butter at times. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnypd Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Pompey's passing through the midfield was better than ours and that was the difference. Like a hot knife through butter at times. indeed, look at the run through the middle by diop and muntari that forced the corner for pompey's first, very direct and very fast. those two don't have a lot over barton and butt in terms of technical ability but in pace and power it is men against boys. the pompey team for the first 15 minutes was playing at a hectic pace and we just never got the grips with it. they pressurised and closed us down brutally, they moved quickly on and off the ball, always giving options, providing decoy runs to take markers away, players dovetailing with one and two touch football, always getting the loose balls and knock downs first, always blocking off channels, thundering into challenges and so on. we didn't have the strength or speed to take it off them, and we didn't have the technical ability to knock it around them, or strength to hold them off. same story for the 2nd goal, diop gets space to hit the long ball because the pompey players are busy pulling the our midfielders apart and blocking them off, benjani starts his run 5 yards behind cacapa, overtakes him with ease so that cacapa must resort to a desperate, off-balance lean to get inbetween ball and benjani, who inevitably shrugs him aside. 3rd goal too, we're pressured into making a mistake with the header, Utaka is the most alert and fastest breaker from midfield, closes down cacapa for a 50:50, then steamrollers him. people have chalked the goals up to individual mistakes but when you look at them in the overall context of the play they were errors waiting to happen because of specific advantages pompey had over us as a side. the same can be said for the long-ball to owen and smith, which was often forced because our defenders were closed down too quickly and had to get rid, or because there were no options in midfield with the pompey players dominating the territory. Geremi is the closest we have to the kind of things Pompey were offering, not that he is particularly fast or powerful, but he moves around the pitch intelligently, moves the ball on quickly and is always available to receive a pass. emre also offers this to an extent and has the technical nous on the ball to find space in a congested midfield. sadly both of them were on the bench while we had the hopelessly out of their depth butt and barton, who provide neither technical assurance or physical dominance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChezGiven Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 True Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thespence Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 When David James gets the ball, two players a flank each sprint as far wide & as forward as possible, then he does his mega throw to either one them. Other end Harper picks its up & the game stops the opposition regroups its defensive lines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsunami Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Diop dominated the midfield. We had absolutely nothing to stop him. Take away the first 11 minutes & I think we would still have struggled regardless given the formation, line-up & tactics we started with. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skirge Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Diop dominated the midfield. We had absolutely nothing to stop him. Take away the first 11 minutes & I think we would still have struggled regardless given the formation, line-up & tactics we started with. He did and we should have moved Faye in there to try and combat that problem.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsunami Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Diop dominated the midfield. We had absolutely nothing to stop him. Take away the first 11 minutes & I think we would still have struggled regardless given the formation, line-up & tactics we started with. He did and we should have moved Faye in there to try and combat that problem.. Too much sense there. Go down that road and you end up identifying the threat beforehand & start with Faye in midfield alongside Barton. BS obviously thought that Butt could do the job & is a good 5 inches/ 2 stone bigger than he actually is. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest newcastle4life Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Awful display by the team must be sorted before playing the mackems or there could be trouble will be plenty of unhappy fans. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Diop dominated the midfield. We had absolutely nothing to stop him. Take away the first 11 minutes & I think we would still have struggled regardless given the formation, line-up & tactics we started with. He did and we should have moved Faye in there to try and combat that problem.. Too much sense there. Go down that road and you end up identifying the threat beforehand & start with Faye in midfield alongside Barton. BS obviously thought that Butt could do the job & is a good 5 inches/ 2 stone bigger than he actually is. a tad simplistic. diop isn't great regardless of his size but yes he did dominate yet how many would have identified him as a threat beforehand ? bit like saying "we should really watch out for pamarot shooting from distance" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsunami Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Diop dominated the midfield. We had absolutely nothing to stop him. Take away the first 11 minutes & I think we would still have struggled regardless given the formation, line-up & tactics we started with. He did and we should have moved Faye in there to try and combat that problem.. Too much sense there. Go down that road and you end up identifying the threat beforehand & start with Faye in midfield alongside Barton. BS obviously thought that Butt could do the job & is a good 5 inches/ 2 stone bigger than he actually is. a tad simplistic. diop isn't great regardless of his size but yes he did dominate yet how many would have identified him as a threat beforehand ? bit like saying "we should really watch out for pamarot shooting from distance" The threat Diop can pose is well known. Big club moves had been mooted & he has caused us problems before. BS has has a wealth of information to draw from. He clearly thought Butt could do the job. There wasn't anything (other than a better clearance) that could have been done about Pamarot's shot so the likeness doesn't stand up. We got just about anything & everything wrong in Saturday's game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Diop dominated the midfield. We had absolutely nothing to stop him. Take away the first 11 minutes & I think we would still have struggled regardless given the formation, line-up & tactics we started with. He did and we should have moved Faye in there to try and combat that problem.. Too much sense there. Go down that road and you end up identifying the threat beforehand & start with Faye in midfield alongside Barton. BS obviously thought that Butt could do the job & is a good 5 inches/ 2 stone bigger than he actually is. a tad simplistic. diop isn't great regardless of his size but yes he did dominate yet how many would have identified him as a threat beforehand ? bit like saying "we should really watch out for pamarot shooting from distance" The threat Diop can pose is well known. Big club moves had been mooted & he has caused us problems before. BS has has a wealth of information to draw from. He clearly thought Butt could do the job. There wasn't anything (other than a better clearance) that could have been done about Pamarot's shot so the likeness doesn't stand up. We got just about anything & everything wrong in Saturday's game. i agree with that(in bold) but if you'd said before the game we must alter team selection/tactics etc because of diop you'd have been laughed at (and quite rightly). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PM Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Diop dominated the midfield. We had absolutely nothing to stop him. Take away the first 11 minutes & I think we would still have struggled regardless given the formation, line-up & tactics we started with. He did and we should have moved Faye in there to try and combat that problem.. Too much sense there. Go down that road and you end up identifying the threat beforehand & start with Faye in midfield alongside Barton. BS obviously thought that Butt could do the job & is a good 5 inches/ 2 stone bigger than he actually is. a tad simplistic. diop isn't great regardless of his size but yes he did dominate yet how many would have identified him as a threat beforehand ? bit like saying "we should really watch out for pamarot shooting from distance" Diop has always been outstanding for Fulham against us, therefore it would be clear to most that he would be a threat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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