pommpey
THE FUTURE ... AS IT USED TO BE
- Banned
- #1
Don't think we did ourselves much discredit tonight. Wilder did his best, however it has to be said, any better team than Villa would have worn us down quicker and punched holes through the 4-4-1.
Having said that I think those left on the pitch were pretty good. Ramsdale is still a concern however and we seem to be less penetrable with four at the back which opens up the question of a starting formation change, perhaps? We still need two up top and I don't think 4-4-2 is the answer unless it shows proper attacking wingers. We don't have any. Up front however is where we are still badly weak. We need to create chances and score goals. It seems we have completely stopped doing that.
First half we still started a bit rusty and failed to get a firm hold of Villa and that's where the sending off came from. Eegs has been caught out and redded twice now this year with that move and he struggles against pacey attackers. Maybe we need to think 'sweeper' and ditch the advanced centre back trick now. Certainly it was a red card and certainly it cost us a result. Wilder needs to coach that anticipation of the long ball into the back three because Eegs was seriously static even when the ball was off Mings's foot and traveling up and over his head with Watkins already moving. He can't deny the foul and the red card. From then on in it was at first 4-3-2 then quickly 4-4-1 and Wilder got that one right as it we either Grealish on one side or Tresuget/Cash on the other. The move to shift a clumsy Lunny away from Grealish was good and I feel Bash did well tracking the little bastard. The two blocks of four didn't give Villa much at all and credit where credit is due, everything they slung at us (except the goal) was efficiently dealt with. I'm pleased with our resilience, if not the result.
The goal was soft as shit. A weak, looping header. It's not good enough to be left flat footed and scrambling, making a token dive for something you should have a hand to. He's been beaten three times now in two PL games by ostensibly saveable efforts. True, Ramsdale is settling in, but we've seen better. I want him to become the keeper he can be - better than Henderson - but he's not showing it. Would we be better off with Foddy? Verrips? Moore? I hope not.
Out of ten:
Ramsdale 5/10: Should have saved the goal, IMHO. Decent long distribution. We need a clean sheet to up his confidence.
Baldock 6/10: The feller can run and run. Obviously playing narrower in the 4-4-1 but combined well with Bash to nullify Grealish and Targett
O'Connell 7/10: Thought he did well as a pairing in the middle, even with Ampadu alongside him. Marshalled things well and ensured they barely capitalised
Egan 2/10: Poor decision making and reading of the game cost us. He can't allow this to happen again - although I could have said that after the Newcastle game too
Basham 7/10: Great game for him again, and regretfully subbed, but I could see Wilder's reasoning
Stevens 5/10: A bit out of sorts pegged back in the four man defence. He doesn't like this much, you can see
Lundstram 4/10: Drops a full 2.5 points for the penalty. 36 feet out out and 192 square feet of net to aim at. I don't care what people say 'the advantage is with the keeper'. No it's not. The first action of the penalty is yours, as the kicker, so the advantage is yours. A foot inside each post and the keeper will never reach it, even at moderate 'passed' speed. Unforgivable mistake from him, despite a fairly decent outfield performance (at times)
Berge 6.5/10: Drops a point for not rifling the ball into the net when clean through or (for fucks sake) carrying on some quite fantastic footwork and putting Villa on the back foot. He feints, drops the shoulder, wrong foots two players and goes past ... then either goes backwards or stops. That said, we didn't miss Norwood at all. Berge is capable of eclipsing him entirely (if he sorts his short passing game out)
Fleck 5/10: Still woefully lost in midfield, I'm afraid.
McGoldrick (unmarked): Wasn't involved enough until he was subbed
Burke 6.5/10: Simply for chasing and harrying when he could, on his own, so far from the midfield four
Ampadu 6/10: Seemed a bit nervy and unconfident at first although this went later on. Shame he didn't connect with his effort
Osborn 6/10: A bit stretched when we went back to 4-3-2 with McB on. Did his usual 'leave it out on the pitch' performance though
McBurnie 4/10: Just cannot see where this bloke is gonna score a goal this season
Wilder 7/10: As said, a good restructuring exercise and learning lots for the Newcastle game where we simply collapsed inwards. I think his tactic of 'keep 'em out' was working, as long as we never let our guard drop. Instead, Villa got a lucky point scoring jab in on us and took the bout. Shame. I agree with him that Targetts tackle seemed red cardy, but really that is eclipsed by Lunny's inability to punish Villa for that. He can't bitch at the ref if we fail to make the most of the chance we have and I think that at 0-1 to us, Villa would have been very desperate and stretched, even against ten men and very susceptible to a counter attack. So for him to criticise 'two decisions' maybe he needs to look at other factors which affected our outcome.
And I wish the TV commentators would fucking pay attention. We are not Newcastle United.
pommpey
Having said that I think those left on the pitch were pretty good. Ramsdale is still a concern however and we seem to be less penetrable with four at the back which opens up the question of a starting formation change, perhaps? We still need two up top and I don't think 4-4-2 is the answer unless it shows proper attacking wingers. We don't have any. Up front however is where we are still badly weak. We need to create chances and score goals. It seems we have completely stopped doing that.
First half we still started a bit rusty and failed to get a firm hold of Villa and that's where the sending off came from. Eegs has been caught out and redded twice now this year with that move and he struggles against pacey attackers. Maybe we need to think 'sweeper' and ditch the advanced centre back trick now. Certainly it was a red card and certainly it cost us a result. Wilder needs to coach that anticipation of the long ball into the back three because Eegs was seriously static even when the ball was off Mings's foot and traveling up and over his head with Watkins already moving. He can't deny the foul and the red card. From then on in it was at first 4-3-2 then quickly 4-4-1 and Wilder got that one right as it we either Grealish on one side or Tresuget/Cash on the other. The move to shift a clumsy Lunny away from Grealish was good and I feel Bash did well tracking the little bastard. The two blocks of four didn't give Villa much at all and credit where credit is due, everything they slung at us (except the goal) was efficiently dealt with. I'm pleased with our resilience, if not the result.
The goal was soft as shit. A weak, looping header. It's not good enough to be left flat footed and scrambling, making a token dive for something you should have a hand to. He's been beaten three times now in two PL games by ostensibly saveable efforts. True, Ramsdale is settling in, but we've seen better. I want him to become the keeper he can be - better than Henderson - but he's not showing it. Would we be better off with Foddy? Verrips? Moore? I hope not.
Out of ten:
Ramsdale 5/10: Should have saved the goal, IMHO. Decent long distribution. We need a clean sheet to up his confidence.
Baldock 6/10: The feller can run and run. Obviously playing narrower in the 4-4-1 but combined well with Bash to nullify Grealish and Targett
O'Connell 7/10: Thought he did well as a pairing in the middle, even with Ampadu alongside him. Marshalled things well and ensured they barely capitalised
Egan 2/10: Poor decision making and reading of the game cost us. He can't allow this to happen again - although I could have said that after the Newcastle game too
Basham 7/10: Great game for him again, and regretfully subbed, but I could see Wilder's reasoning
Stevens 5/10: A bit out of sorts pegged back in the four man defence. He doesn't like this much, you can see
Lundstram 4/10: Drops a full 2.5 points for the penalty. 36 feet out out and 192 square feet of net to aim at. I don't care what people say 'the advantage is with the keeper'. No it's not. The first action of the penalty is yours, as the kicker, so the advantage is yours. A foot inside each post and the keeper will never reach it, even at moderate 'passed' speed. Unforgivable mistake from him, despite a fairly decent outfield performance (at times)
Berge 6.5/10: Drops a point for not rifling the ball into the net when clean through or (for fucks sake) carrying on some quite fantastic footwork and putting Villa on the back foot. He feints, drops the shoulder, wrong foots two players and goes past ... then either goes backwards or stops. That said, we didn't miss Norwood at all. Berge is capable of eclipsing him entirely (if he sorts his short passing game out)
Fleck 5/10: Still woefully lost in midfield, I'm afraid.
McGoldrick (unmarked): Wasn't involved enough until he was subbed
Burke 6.5/10: Simply for chasing and harrying when he could, on his own, so far from the midfield four
Ampadu 6/10: Seemed a bit nervy and unconfident at first although this went later on. Shame he didn't connect with his effort
Osborn 6/10: A bit stretched when we went back to 4-3-2 with McB on. Did his usual 'leave it out on the pitch' performance though
McBurnie 4/10: Just cannot see where this bloke is gonna score a goal this season
Wilder 7/10: As said, a good restructuring exercise and learning lots for the Newcastle game where we simply collapsed inwards. I think his tactic of 'keep 'em out' was working, as long as we never let our guard drop. Instead, Villa got a lucky point scoring jab in on us and took the bout. Shame. I agree with him that Targetts tackle seemed red cardy, but really that is eclipsed by Lunny's inability to punish Villa for that. He can't bitch at the ref if we fail to make the most of the chance we have and I think that at 0-1 to us, Villa would have been very desperate and stretched, even against ten men and very susceptible to a counter attack. So for him to criticise 'two decisions' maybe he needs to look at other factors which affected our outcome.
And I wish the TV commentators would fucking pay attention. We are not Newcastle United.
pommpey
