pommpey
THE FUTURE ... AS IT USED TO BE
- Banned
- #1
Tremendous effort today. Came out of the blocks determined not to let West Ham get anywhere near the ball and broke up any attempt they had to string even three or four passes together. From back to front you can see Wilder has got inside their heads finally and we are starting to look like the PL team we always were. McBurnie's two goals were sublime finishing and Brewster's first goal showed what we have spent the money on. Three points finally in the bag now and the players faces as we left the pitch said it all that West Brom next week now have some work to do to even get a goal against us.
Is maybe what it should have looked like.
However, business as usual restored.
Don't know what it is about us and the first fifteen minutes, but West Ham, like Chelsea, like Liverpool, looked rattled and unsettled. Great long punt from Egan finds Baldock and okay, he overran it but got a shot on goal (gasp) which in honesty, should have been clipped into the opposite top corner. But we didn't stop there, we kept pressing, West Ham camped deep and absorbed it though. Then, like Chelsea ... like Liverpool and (I looked at the clock) on fifteen they gained possession and simply denied us access to the round yellow thing. And with a worrying pattern now showing, once that happens, once we turn over possession, we simply don't have the gift to cut them out and regain it. We watch them progressively passing, moving into space, creating options and moving us round the pitch. Then they'd give us the ball, safe in the knowledge that we'd be pushed into the predictable wide areas and have a 3 v 4 puzzle to work out. Sure, we got a great Basham cross in which McBurnie got to, and a nice Berge low cross which if McBurnie was anything of the forward he thinks he is would have started his move as soon as Berge looked up, not when the ball left his boot. And we hit the post, of sorts, but really, there was no real stress compared to the good saves Ramsdale pulled off and the howler they spooned.
We were though on the back foot for most of the game. Even in the second half we were chasing shadows and not really putting our foot on the game. There were some small positives, but they were ineffectual given the result. It was game we could have won but had to lose.
Ramsdale 6/10: Great improvement regarding shot stopping. Loses a point for his kicking. The aimless left-foot punt up the pitch landed straight at the feet of the opposition. Was blameless for getting anything on the shot which was a lesson on how to smack a ball to beat a keeper from just outside the box. Flecky used to do that.
Baldock 7/10: Again, a typical outing from Stroppy George. He is the picture of commitment and gets stuck in and even drifted across the pitch today (which left gaping holes behind him which WHU just filled once we'd given the ball to them)
Basham 7/10: Again, great commitment. But does anyone feel a sense of dread and disillusionment in his face and demeanour. Especially when he's fucking subbed for Lundstram
Egan 7/10: Put in some great work trying to get in the way of WHUs rare advances. Excellent block against their winger when clean through on goal
Ampadu 3/10: Looks like he fucking hates being at BDTBL. He's out of position at LCB and doesn't have the range, vision or height. Like Stevens. Like Robinson. Like anyone. Except JO'C.
Lowe 3/10: Signed from who? Oh yeah. Bottom of the Championship. How much for? Oh yeah. Shitloads. He is another player who clearly doesn't get 5-3-2 because he plays so narrow and can't draw a line up the pitch from the corner of each penalty area and simply run up and down in that region. And he can't fucking pass or cross for toffee.
Berge 6.5/10: Bit of a suppressed day for Sander. Although there were times when he did his best to keep possession and create openings, he can't do all of this on his own.
Norwood 2/10: Here we go again. Pommpey's burning Norwood to the ground again. He deserves it. No real redeeming measures today, save for one fleeting through pass. The rest was slow, ponderous. one-track and not PL football standard. Their goal came from central defence straight into his area to a WHU player who simply drifted forward (unchallenged), laid it off, an attempted shot (Norwood is stationary and spectating now) and the ball is laid square to Haller who steadies himself (Norwood less than 2m away) and unleashes the winner, straight into the top corner. I half expected Norwood to break into applause. That, my fellow Blades, is NOT PL standard. It's shit. Again, let me point to similar players in his position - Nicky Butt, N'golo Kante, Yaya Toure, Bastian Sweinsteiger, Michael Carrack ... all whom at the Premier League level tend to have that tendency to first of all protect the back four/three but secondly be incredibly difficult to get past or who move fluidly to face the advancing attack and be effectively the first player. He's none of that. He will do a Championship club a great service if we transferred him out in January and today's subbing was not before time. He can neither keep the ball nor win it, and for someone who occupies the central pivot or 'regista' role and clearly can't do it at this level, Wilder needs to rethink both home and the formation. At the moment, I'd take even Lundstram in Norwood's place, at least he can get stuck in and tackle.
Fleck 6.5/10: Nice to see him back and showing some of the flourishes we liked last season, but he is so lost without Stevens and O'Connell. Ampadu and Lowe were nowhere near hi today and that left flank once again was fragile
McGoldrick 7/10: Though he ran his socks off and did well getting the ball to the floor, holding onto the ball, harrying and even (shriek!) had a few timid shots
McBurnie 4/10: Thought he worked hard, but then again, I could work hard for an hour and a half masturbating into a handful of my own faeces and not really achieve anything but a shitty dick. I read on twitter he 'wins stacks of aerial challenges'. Great. Win them he does, but the ball rebounds off his top of his melon and to their players. I don't call that 'winning aerial challenges'. I call it 'jumping and heading the ball' and indeed, I can do that, even if it is into next door's garden. He got his famous head to one cross from our winger Chris Basham which although top corner bound, was reached and pushed round the post with an athletic jump. Pay attention Aaron Ramsdale, next time Jiminez nuts the ball to your top corner son and you flap in mid air. And then, he's put through - at last - by a splitting pass from Brewster whereby his pace just got him enough to crack the ball off the bar from eight yards. I felt a bit sorry for Mitrovic when he pinged the top of the bar for Fulham v us and even Grealish last year. But when you're one on one and your team is bottom with fuck all goals and points and you want to shut fat fucks like me up for good and bury the fucking chance, claiming your first goal for ... ohhh ... ages, in the words of Alan Hansen, 'y've got te score'. And he didn't. And we lost. The end.
Brewster 4/10: Bit more involved and the pass to McBurnie was good, but he's getting nothing and now looks ready to give football up for good, having been offloaded for an obscene amount to an all but relegated side.
Lundstram 3/10: Why, Wilder? Why?
Robinson 4/10: Forced upon us, but if anything, a slight upgrade on a clearly pissed off Ampadu
Wilder 3/10: Chris, mate. Time is running out. Change the formation and the tactics. The wings are now out of bounds and play through the centre on the deck is the way. Just a tip, from a Playstation Manager. We know what the problem is - the giant hole Jack O'Connell has left and your struggle to fill it with three or four players. But remember that struggle with Coutts? Remember how you signed everyone from Holmes to L Evans to Lundstram to make shit fit, well, with Jack, nothing will fill his voluminous boots. Not Robinson, not Stevens and definitely not Ampadu. So maybe a change in tactics and formation could solve this. You won't get another £20m from HRH, not after having all the cash chucked at you recently. And £20m will only get you another Ampadu, or Robinson too. And stop picking Lundstram, eh? He's today's Nick Montgomery, only worse. Change that midfield so we can play it like the opposition and keep the ball (we did this for eight minutes early in the second half, then it ended up us defending in desperation) and we can find either McBurnie's head (although fuck knows why) or a clever ball through to a running Brewster or Mousett.
Opposition: Bowen, Rice, Cresswell - all good.
pommpey
Is maybe what it should have looked like.
However, business as usual restored.
Don't know what it is about us and the first fifteen minutes, but West Ham, like Chelsea, like Liverpool, looked rattled and unsettled. Great long punt from Egan finds Baldock and okay, he overran it but got a shot on goal (gasp) which in honesty, should have been clipped into the opposite top corner. But we didn't stop there, we kept pressing, West Ham camped deep and absorbed it though. Then, like Chelsea ... like Liverpool and (I looked at the clock) on fifteen they gained possession and simply denied us access to the round yellow thing. And with a worrying pattern now showing, once that happens, once we turn over possession, we simply don't have the gift to cut them out and regain it. We watch them progressively passing, moving into space, creating options and moving us round the pitch. Then they'd give us the ball, safe in the knowledge that we'd be pushed into the predictable wide areas and have a 3 v 4 puzzle to work out. Sure, we got a great Basham cross in which McBurnie got to, and a nice Berge low cross which if McBurnie was anything of the forward he thinks he is would have started his move as soon as Berge looked up, not when the ball left his boot. And we hit the post, of sorts, but really, there was no real stress compared to the good saves Ramsdale pulled off and the howler they spooned.
We were though on the back foot for most of the game. Even in the second half we were chasing shadows and not really putting our foot on the game. There were some small positives, but they were ineffectual given the result. It was game we could have won but had to lose.
Ramsdale 6/10: Great improvement regarding shot stopping. Loses a point for his kicking. The aimless left-foot punt up the pitch landed straight at the feet of the opposition. Was blameless for getting anything on the shot which was a lesson on how to smack a ball to beat a keeper from just outside the box. Flecky used to do that.
Baldock 7/10: Again, a typical outing from Stroppy George. He is the picture of commitment and gets stuck in and even drifted across the pitch today (which left gaping holes behind him which WHU just filled once we'd given the ball to them)
Basham 7/10: Again, great commitment. But does anyone feel a sense of dread and disillusionment in his face and demeanour. Especially when he's fucking subbed for Lundstram
Egan 7/10: Put in some great work trying to get in the way of WHUs rare advances. Excellent block against their winger when clean through on goal
Ampadu 3/10: Looks like he fucking hates being at BDTBL. He's out of position at LCB and doesn't have the range, vision or height. Like Stevens. Like Robinson. Like anyone. Except JO'C.
Lowe 3/10: Signed from who? Oh yeah. Bottom of the Championship. How much for? Oh yeah. Shitloads. He is another player who clearly doesn't get 5-3-2 because he plays so narrow and can't draw a line up the pitch from the corner of each penalty area and simply run up and down in that region. And he can't fucking pass or cross for toffee.
Berge 6.5/10: Bit of a suppressed day for Sander. Although there were times when he did his best to keep possession and create openings, he can't do all of this on his own.
Norwood 2/10: Here we go again. Pommpey's burning Norwood to the ground again. He deserves it. No real redeeming measures today, save for one fleeting through pass. The rest was slow, ponderous. one-track and not PL football standard. Their goal came from central defence straight into his area to a WHU player who simply drifted forward (unchallenged), laid it off, an attempted shot (Norwood is stationary and spectating now) and the ball is laid square to Haller who steadies himself (Norwood less than 2m away) and unleashes the winner, straight into the top corner. I half expected Norwood to break into applause. That, my fellow Blades, is NOT PL standard. It's shit. Again, let me point to similar players in his position - Nicky Butt, N'golo Kante, Yaya Toure, Bastian Sweinsteiger, Michael Carrack ... all whom at the Premier League level tend to have that tendency to first of all protect the back four/three but secondly be incredibly difficult to get past or who move fluidly to face the advancing attack and be effectively the first player. He's none of that. He will do a Championship club a great service if we transferred him out in January and today's subbing was not before time. He can neither keep the ball nor win it, and for someone who occupies the central pivot or 'regista' role and clearly can't do it at this level, Wilder needs to rethink both home and the formation. At the moment, I'd take even Lundstram in Norwood's place, at least he can get stuck in and tackle.
Fleck 6.5/10: Nice to see him back and showing some of the flourishes we liked last season, but he is so lost without Stevens and O'Connell. Ampadu and Lowe were nowhere near hi today and that left flank once again was fragile
McGoldrick 7/10: Though he ran his socks off and did well getting the ball to the floor, holding onto the ball, harrying and even (shriek!) had a few timid shots
McBurnie 4/10: Thought he worked hard, but then again, I could work hard for an hour and a half masturbating into a handful of my own faeces and not really achieve anything but a shitty dick. I read on twitter he 'wins stacks of aerial challenges'. Great. Win them he does, but the ball rebounds off his top of his melon and to their players. I don't call that 'winning aerial challenges'. I call it 'jumping and heading the ball' and indeed, I can do that, even if it is into next door's garden. He got his famous head to one cross from our winger Chris Basham which although top corner bound, was reached and pushed round the post with an athletic jump. Pay attention Aaron Ramsdale, next time Jiminez nuts the ball to your top corner son and you flap in mid air. And then, he's put through - at last - by a splitting pass from Brewster whereby his pace just got him enough to crack the ball off the bar from eight yards. I felt a bit sorry for Mitrovic when he pinged the top of the bar for Fulham v us and even Grealish last year. But when you're one on one and your team is bottom with fuck all goals and points and you want to shut fat fucks like me up for good and bury the fucking chance, claiming your first goal for ... ohhh ... ages, in the words of Alan Hansen, 'y've got te score'. And he didn't. And we lost. The end.
Brewster 4/10: Bit more involved and the pass to McBurnie was good, but he's getting nothing and now looks ready to give football up for good, having been offloaded for an obscene amount to an all but relegated side.
Lundstram 3/10: Why, Wilder? Why?
Robinson 4/10: Forced upon us, but if anything, a slight upgrade on a clearly pissed off Ampadu
Wilder 3/10: Chris, mate. Time is running out. Change the formation and the tactics. The wings are now out of bounds and play through the centre on the deck is the way. Just a tip, from a Playstation Manager. We know what the problem is - the giant hole Jack O'Connell has left and your struggle to fill it with three or four players. But remember that struggle with Coutts? Remember how you signed everyone from Holmes to L Evans to Lundstram to make shit fit, well, with Jack, nothing will fill his voluminous boots. Not Robinson, not Stevens and definitely not Ampadu. So maybe a change in tactics and formation could solve this. You won't get another £20m from HRH, not after having all the cash chucked at you recently. And £20m will only get you another Ampadu, or Robinson too. And stop picking Lundstram, eh? He's today's Nick Montgomery, only worse. Change that midfield so we can play it like the opposition and keep the ball (we did this for eight minutes early in the second half, then it ended up us defending in desperation) and we can find either McBurnie's head (although fuck knows why) or a clever ball through to a running Brewster or Mousett.
Opposition: Bowen, Rice, Cresswell - all good.
pommpey
