pommpey
THE FUTURE ... AS IT USED TO BE
- Banned
- #1
Jesus. Warnock once said on a radio interview after the Leeds at home victory, "If we're gonna do it, we'll do it the hard way, eh?"
Tonight was that. After a pretty groundbreaking destruction of Peterborough on Saturday (save for two fuck ups), a result should have been on the cards tonight. When Berge banged in our second I thought, 'Yes! We've fucking done it! Now ... onwards ... beat Hull and it's nine from three and us on the doorstep to the top ... '
Then I remembered who the fuck I was supporting.
Like Brighton last year, we give away a free kick in the dying moments and fail abysmally to clear the fucking thing and the opposition take two points off us. As soon as Billy fouled the player I am sure we all thought, 'It couldn't happen again, could it?' Of course it fucking could. Two more points tonight would have put us twelfth or so, drawing clear of the trapdoor and ignominy. Another three against Hull on Saturday and we are tucked up favourably behind the pack and ready to up our pace mid to late season for at least the playoffs.
So what about the game? To me we still have a couple of yanks on the chain before the floaty bits of Chris Wilder which have been defiantly bobbing back up finally fuck off round the U-Bend. Tonight we still wanted to pass the ball to Norwood who still wanted to smack it to George or RND who still ended up boxed in, in the crossing zone. Back it comes, tippy tappy triangles and we are either up the other wing or we lose it and they are on the break. This has been going on for months and months now, and I doubt we've scored much from it. But it all starts with Norwood being this mercurial 'pivot', one so predictable now that opposition teams are actually yawning now as they send three players out wide to halt anything coming up the touchline. The ball hardly gets crossed successfully these days anyway from these regions yet still our core game is based on this tactic. Yet once it drifts inside to MGW or Ndaiye, they are heading toward goal, in a threatening manner. We are seemingly caught between two conflicting systems. Wilderball, which is dyed in on 60% of the team, and Slavball, which is based on his recent signings.
Great start for us though tonight. Well taken goal by the bright spark that is Gibbs-White who shows some pleasing attributes of talent. It was well worked too but fuck me we have that grab a goal/give a goal in us still, don't we? We did it against Peterborough and we did it tonight. I have some muted sympathy for C3PO. He is playing to the maximum of his ability but it isn't enough and once again he must be driving back tonight from Bramall Lane conscious that unforgiving supporters like me want him out. But c'mon. The last decade has seen a parade of liabilities in McEveley, Collins and Nosworthy, so why should he escape censure? He was fucking bobbins tonight for much of the game and did cost is the points we should have had, and for that, he is and should be history now. Seeing him even on the bench as an option on Saturday would be fucking ridiculous.
The rest of the game though was huff and puff, wasn't it? We really should have been home and hosed, and had a firm grip on what was, once again, a fairly unimpressive PNE side. The more we huffed though, the less we looked like fucking scoring, despite rare forays by MGW and Ndaiye as they watched it pushed out wide. Good pressing and passing got Berge the goal his performance deserved, but what the fuck are we doing allowing PNE to pump it into the box and ball watch it into the back of the BL goal?
Unforgivable.
Olsen 6/10: Some good interceptions and stops. Partially to blame for their first but he has Robinson playing in front of him and the only way he can counter for that doofus is to play three metres behind him, just in case his restraining bolt fails or summat
Baldock 6.5/10: Decent, if unproductive outing for Furious. Up to his usual combative self, rough and tumble antics but settling into the Right Back role
Egan 6/10: Trying to cover for a multitude of potential fuck ups and failures around him and again, trying to settle into the new backline system
Robinson 2/10: Ran ragged by Johnson and Riis. Oil running down his golden casing. His servos whirring and overhearing and his eyes flashing. We need to sell the fucker to the Jawas for fifty Imperial credits or summat.
RND 6.5/10: Made some interesting if unsuccessful forays up the left flank trying to beat his man. Was largely in the right place but like Baldock, doesn't get the early cross into the area where Billy makes his mark.
Freeman 7/10: Like this bloke now. Okay, some of his ideas are read easily but he then makes great efforts to sin it back and stay in the game
Norwood 5/10: A middling performance from Norwood. Some of his ground passes were excellent, but then he fucking ruins it with a pointless punt to the wings which has, once again, to come backwards. Ollie - here's a hint: just in front of you are two fairly well-skilled attacking midfielders who will latch onto one of your well-placed balls on the deck, and run on to threaten their goal. Try fucking running into the space in front of you as well. Leave the demonstration stuff for the park, eh?
Fleck 6.5/10: John is still there, thank fuck. Loses a whole point for the one-on-one miss though
Ndaiye 8.5/10: Another good outing from him. Intelligent runs but sometimes beaten in possession but fuck me has he got style, determination and skill? Not sure what the recurring injury stuff is and the conditioning team need to work on him to make sure he's good for 100 minutes because our side looks poor without him
Gibbs-White 9/10: Again, stellar stuff from this kid. My fear is that Wolves will want him back at some time and players like Freeman or Osborn won't have the potatoes to fill his role. Brilliantly taken goal. Who needs tens of millions spent on McBurnie and Brewster?
Sharp 8/10: Makes a change our frontline getting high marks, doesn't it? Sharp has recently attracted 4s, 5s and maybe 6s simply because those playing around him or behind him give him fuck all to do. Tonight he was busy as fuck, keeping their back three occupied and doing more off the ball than can be described. Shame he missed his header, for which he loses half a mark.
Berge 7/10: At last starting to show some potential with impressive drops of the shoulder and breezing past tired players. Great goal, well taken and well deserved.
Brewster 5/10: Not much for him to get involved in and maybe with more time could have had better effect. He does still seem to be watching and learning, rather than getting on with the task of carving out chances
Hourihane 5/10: Still haven't seen the best from this bloke and maybe should be in from the start next game for Norwood if just to change the narrative of our play
We need to beat Hull, who seem to be in freefall at the moment. Tonight was an avoidable setback to our direction of motion after a convincing performance against Peterborough.
pommpey
Tonight was that. After a pretty groundbreaking destruction of Peterborough on Saturday (save for two fuck ups), a result should have been on the cards tonight. When Berge banged in our second I thought, 'Yes! We've fucking done it! Now ... onwards ... beat Hull and it's nine from three and us on the doorstep to the top ... '
Then I remembered who the fuck I was supporting.
Like Brighton last year, we give away a free kick in the dying moments and fail abysmally to clear the fucking thing and the opposition take two points off us. As soon as Billy fouled the player I am sure we all thought, 'It couldn't happen again, could it?' Of course it fucking could. Two more points tonight would have put us twelfth or so, drawing clear of the trapdoor and ignominy. Another three against Hull on Saturday and we are tucked up favourably behind the pack and ready to up our pace mid to late season for at least the playoffs.
So what about the game? To me we still have a couple of yanks on the chain before the floaty bits of Chris Wilder which have been defiantly bobbing back up finally fuck off round the U-Bend. Tonight we still wanted to pass the ball to Norwood who still wanted to smack it to George or RND who still ended up boxed in, in the crossing zone. Back it comes, tippy tappy triangles and we are either up the other wing or we lose it and they are on the break. This has been going on for months and months now, and I doubt we've scored much from it. But it all starts with Norwood being this mercurial 'pivot', one so predictable now that opposition teams are actually yawning now as they send three players out wide to halt anything coming up the touchline. The ball hardly gets crossed successfully these days anyway from these regions yet still our core game is based on this tactic. Yet once it drifts inside to MGW or Ndaiye, they are heading toward goal, in a threatening manner. We are seemingly caught between two conflicting systems. Wilderball, which is dyed in on 60% of the team, and Slavball, which is based on his recent signings.
Great start for us though tonight. Well taken goal by the bright spark that is Gibbs-White who shows some pleasing attributes of talent. It was well worked too but fuck me we have that grab a goal/give a goal in us still, don't we? We did it against Peterborough and we did it tonight. I have some muted sympathy for C3PO. He is playing to the maximum of his ability but it isn't enough and once again he must be driving back tonight from Bramall Lane conscious that unforgiving supporters like me want him out. But c'mon. The last decade has seen a parade of liabilities in McEveley, Collins and Nosworthy, so why should he escape censure? He was fucking bobbins tonight for much of the game and did cost is the points we should have had, and for that, he is and should be history now. Seeing him even on the bench as an option on Saturday would be fucking ridiculous.
The rest of the game though was huff and puff, wasn't it? We really should have been home and hosed, and had a firm grip on what was, once again, a fairly unimpressive PNE side. The more we huffed though, the less we looked like fucking scoring, despite rare forays by MGW and Ndaiye as they watched it pushed out wide. Good pressing and passing got Berge the goal his performance deserved, but what the fuck are we doing allowing PNE to pump it into the box and ball watch it into the back of the BL goal?
Unforgivable.
Olsen 6/10: Some good interceptions and stops. Partially to blame for their first but he has Robinson playing in front of him and the only way he can counter for that doofus is to play three metres behind him, just in case his restraining bolt fails or summat
Baldock 6.5/10: Decent, if unproductive outing for Furious. Up to his usual combative self, rough and tumble antics but settling into the Right Back role
Egan 6/10: Trying to cover for a multitude of potential fuck ups and failures around him and again, trying to settle into the new backline system
Robinson 2/10: Ran ragged by Johnson and Riis. Oil running down his golden casing. His servos whirring and overhearing and his eyes flashing. We need to sell the fucker to the Jawas for fifty Imperial credits or summat.
RND 6.5/10: Made some interesting if unsuccessful forays up the left flank trying to beat his man. Was largely in the right place but like Baldock, doesn't get the early cross into the area where Billy makes his mark.
Freeman 7/10: Like this bloke now. Okay, some of his ideas are read easily but he then makes great efforts to sin it back and stay in the game
Norwood 5/10: A middling performance from Norwood. Some of his ground passes were excellent, but then he fucking ruins it with a pointless punt to the wings which has, once again, to come backwards. Ollie - here's a hint: just in front of you are two fairly well-skilled attacking midfielders who will latch onto one of your well-placed balls on the deck, and run on to threaten their goal. Try fucking running into the space in front of you as well. Leave the demonstration stuff for the park, eh?
Fleck 6.5/10: John is still there, thank fuck. Loses a whole point for the one-on-one miss though
Ndaiye 8.5/10: Another good outing from him. Intelligent runs but sometimes beaten in possession but fuck me has he got style, determination and skill? Not sure what the recurring injury stuff is and the conditioning team need to work on him to make sure he's good for 100 minutes because our side looks poor without him
Gibbs-White 9/10: Again, stellar stuff from this kid. My fear is that Wolves will want him back at some time and players like Freeman or Osborn won't have the potatoes to fill his role. Brilliantly taken goal. Who needs tens of millions spent on McBurnie and Brewster?
Sharp 8/10: Makes a change our frontline getting high marks, doesn't it? Sharp has recently attracted 4s, 5s and maybe 6s simply because those playing around him or behind him give him fuck all to do. Tonight he was busy as fuck, keeping their back three occupied and doing more off the ball than can be described. Shame he missed his header, for which he loses half a mark.
Berge 7/10: At last starting to show some potential with impressive drops of the shoulder and breezing past tired players. Great goal, well taken and well deserved.
Brewster 5/10: Not much for him to get involved in and maybe with more time could have had better effect. He does still seem to be watching and learning, rather than getting on with the task of carving out chances
Hourihane 5/10: Still haven't seen the best from this bloke and maybe should be in from the start next game for Norwood if just to change the narrative of our play
We need to beat Hull, who seem to be in freefall at the moment. Tonight was an avoidable setback to our direction of motion after a convincing performance against Peterborough.
pommpey
