‘It wasn’t anything to do with tactics today’

[Blade56]

This Hamer in the middle stuff makes me laugh.

He’s been our best player, from the left.
He scored today, from the left.
He scored against Watford, from the left.
We’ve been in the top two all season and he’s played, from the left.

What he did once upon a time for Coventry is irrelevant. We’re not Coventry.

Our problems are nothing to do with Hamer playing from the left and not in the middle.

It’s our inability to defend properly and our woeful build-up play.

It is a problem when he brings in a good player whose natural position is on the left, what dies Wilder do? Play him on the right just to get him ont pitch and displace JRS who’s natural position is ont right!

 

[Frank the tank]

Moore will probably get straight in side when he’s back. And he’ll play 2 up top but might Moore will be the first one on team sheet .

So he should be

 

[Guesty]

Who do you want on the ball trying to create chances, 30 yards from goal?

Shaft?

 

[Blade56]

It's wilders fault we're still using Robbo and Anel together at the back. He chose to spend all our budget on a striker that doesn't fix any issues, and has brought in a right back that while good going forward WILL make us worse defensively.

Think it’s clear now Dunne was being brought in for LB not CH, that was Holding as first choice.

Needs to start Anel in LCB and Holding RCB

 

[Montymagic]

When we signed Choudhury I said it appears we have signed a Souza replacement when Souza is still here.. we however neglected to sign an Arblaster replacement when he’s out for the season…

Don’t get it.

It's wilder.....it's what he does, unfortunately.

 

[Blade56]

It's wilders fault we're still using Robbo and Anel together at the back. He chose to spend all our budget on a striker that doesn't fix any issues, and has brought in a right back that while good going forward WILL make us worse defensively.

With Brewsters contract up in 6 months and Campbell Moore injury record we needed a striker. Campbell was influential in bothe the winner against Derby and yesterday.

Concern is last 3 performances against bottom teams.

No where for Wilder to hide come Wednesday night.

 

[Carlton Blade]

Shaft?

I don't think Hamer is a complicated man. Everyone understands him

 

[Frank the tank]

This Hamer in the middle stuff makes me laugh.

He’s been our best player, from the left.
He scored today, from the left.
He scored against Watford, from the left.
We’ve been in the top two all season and he’s played, from the left.

What he did once upon a time for Coventry is irrelevant. We’re not Coventry.

Our problems are nothing to do with Hamer playing from the left and not in the middle.

It’s our inability to defend properly and our woeful build-up play.

He's our best player and we need to get him more involved

 

[Caseh]

With Brewsters contract up in 6 months and Campbell Moore injury record we needed a striker. Campbell was influential in bothe the winner against Derby and yesterday.

Concern is last 3 performances against bottom teams.

No where for Wilder to hide come Wednesday night.

No arguments that we needed to bring a striker in, I just can't agree with spending as much as we did when we've been desperate for a replacement for Robbo, and then we lost by far and away our best CB.

 

[blades_95]

I think this point sums up the average football fan.

You’ve moaned about attacking issues. We scored 2 and we should have had 3.

Defensively it was a horror show. Your argument for tactics would be we should have started 5 at the back? Or a midfield 3 etc. The forward players produced even if it wasn’t the fancy show we would like.

It’s a thing for our fan base at the moment to moan more about where Hamer should start than a horror defensive show.

Yesterday was a horror show defensively it wasn’t Cannons fault that Anel performed a 0/10. It wasn’t Campbells fault we didn’t win any first balls. It wasn’t Hamers fault Clarke got skinned alive.

The issue yesterday was the back 4 performance and the 2 centre midfield not winning second balls. You can and should moan about that.

But as is trendy you moan about the forward line.

Fair points & completely agree the defence were shocking and got completely bullied yesterday.

But it wasn’t just the back 4’s fault we had no control over the game and the ball just kept coming back at us. They had no passing options in midfield, nobody comfortable to take the ball under pressure and drive us up the pitch - so we end up launching it long and we’re back in our third defending again.

The first 15 minutes of the second half we were penned in & hanging on - that’s down to the team setup as much as the back 4. We sat deep, chucked the ball away when they pressed us & yes lost every second ball. It actually reminded me of what teams did to us last season knowing we aren’t confident enough to play out & keep possession, but this was Pompey not Arsenal/Liverpool.

 

[Cheeky Blade]

Not good enough

Mostly down to his baffling set up


He is lucky he has one of the top 3 squads in the league

I now see what Boro fans see


He is still a blades legend … but so was Brian Deane the second time we brought him back and the thrice time we did

Top three squad that he assembled on low fees and freebies amid the shit-show of a takeover?

 

[Slim Man]

Time to jack it in then if it is affecting you in that way.

Bit extreme lad

 

[Slim Man]

It wasn’t Hamers fault Clarke got skinned alive.

An outstanding signing. Remember?

 

[Blade56]

No arguments that we needed to bring a striker in, I just can't agree with spending as much as we did when we've been desperate for a replacement for Robbo, and then we lost by far and away our best CB.

I think Wilder got his man, first choice was Holding, Dunne was a LB and Darling a 4th CB option we didn’t get. Could we have used striker money on CB? Arguably yes, but come April/May with a treatment table full of CH’s and us int play offs we’d be saying why didn’t he buy a striker.

 

[Slim Man]

I take what you're saying, but Hamer isn't a no 10.

I think Hamer is a box to box midfielder.

Unfortunately, given our limitations and lack of creative players, he has to play 10. There's no one else.

We've got a team full of defensive midfielders and strikers

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

I think Wilder got his man, first choice was Holding, Dunne was a LB and Darling a 4th CB option we didn’t get. Could we have used striker money on CB? Arguably yes, but come April/May with a treatment table full of CH’s and us int play offs we’d be saying why didn’t he buy a striker.

Dunne was for CB, because we were chasing him after signing Clarke

But we chose to spend the money on a couple of new Coulibalys instead

 

[thehet]

He's our best player and we need to get him more involved

And he won’t be any more involved while ever the woeful build up continues.

 

[Blade56]

Dunne was for CB, because we were chasing him after signing Clarke

But we chose to spend the money on a couple of new Coulibalys instead

Understand they were only £500,00 each. We’ve got to get into sourcing new talent as Widers insistence in shopping in a small pool of uk based players is limiting, expensive and unsustainable.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

Understand they were only £500,00 each. We’ve got to get into sourcing new talent as Widers insistence in shopping in a small pool of uk based players is limiting, expensive and unsustainable.

It's enough. Odds are we won't get 1m back for them combined

 

[Blade56]

It's enough. Odds are we won't get 1m back for them combined

I’m a tad more optimistic

 

[Bladezz]

An outstanding signing. Remember?

He had a bad game and your here to rub it in. One of the worst posters on here. I didn’t expect anything different.

 

[Bladezz]

He had 10 million quid, surely could have got a centre half for that, and like you say he had time to identify several

Americans are in charge of signings. This is common knowledge know they have their own recruitment team and Ai. I would expect Wilder has very little input in signings these days for better or worse.

 

[Slim Man]

He had a bad game and your here to rub it in. One of the worst posters on here. I didn’t expect anything different.

I'm just here to pull you up on being a clown.

Then again when you've got Putin as your pfp and you make the claims you do, you don't make it very difficult.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

I think Hamer is a box to box midfielder.

Unfortunately, given our limitations and lack of creative players, he has to play 10. There's no one else.

We've got a team full of defensive midfielders and strikers

And wing backs. Lots and lots of wing backs.

 

[Fitzpatrick’s head cover]

The idea that the tactics were correct is so clearly not true that I don't believe that Wilder actually thinks they were. I believe there are other reasons behind his selection and his comments. Here is my best guess:

Selection
This was a game we should win comfortably, ahead of some big games coming up. It's a good opportunity to try/test a few things. Such as:

Clarke, Choudhary and BBD all have had very little game time. This is a good chance to get them some match fitness.

Souza is also coming back from injury. Giving him 90mins is useful as we need him back on top form for the next few games (and rest of the season).

Cannon is raw and we need to work out how to use him. It's useful to get him into some proper match situations and learn a bit more about him.

Hence, there are 5 players there that we essentially need to get up to speed, and so Portsmouth at home seems like an ideal match to chuck them in and get them in better shape for the big games, even if they don't quite fit together.

I also think the Souza/Choudhary combo is one that makes sense to test. It could be useful in some scenarios if we need to close out a tough game. It didn't work yesterday, but if we can get it to work then it would be useful.

Hence, that is my logic for the selection. Get some game time for key players and hope there is enough quality to get us over the line. Thankfully, there just about was.

Post-match comments
Now, no one on here is saying "the players played well, it was just down to the tactics". There seems to be universal agreement that most of the players were poor, apart from the subs.

Also, I think we can generally agree that Wilder is a great man-manager. And part of the way you do this is by saying things about your team publicly. Wilder wants a reaction from the individuals, and he's said what he's said to give them a bit of a kick, to ensure some of those individual performances don't happen again.

If Wilder comes out and says "don't blame the players, blame me", then the players can feel that they didn't do much wrong. Wilder doesn't want them to feel that.


So, my overly-optimistic self believes there is some method in this madness, and that we will see something very different on Wednesday as a result. Fingers crossed.

 

[Fitzpatrick’s head cover]

Also, the comments about Wilder "spending all our budget on a striker" isn't true. Wilder didn't ask for Cannon, that was a club management decision (I think this was in the Bettis interview at the end of the window) as an investment in a young goalscorer. Wilder wanted 4 players: BBD, Centre mid, Centre back and Right back.

The team that Wilder himself has amassed has not involved any big money signings (this time round).