pommpey
THE FUTURE ... AS IT USED TO BE
- Banned
- #1
Watched the game on a bit of a delay. Managed to get my 'puter linked up with SUFCTV to my big telly and the picture was okay TBH. It certainly showed the fucking awful weather this afternoon (I was out at a family event and also got caught in it also so massive props to the travelling Blades today)
We didn't deserve to come away from that empty handed. But then again, we did. It was a classic 'get fuck all when three points was an option' with an appalling refereeing decision followed by us simply shutting off defensively. All afternoon we'd looked liable to fuck it up at the back and eventually we did. I feel United did however make the table toppers look undeserved of their position and have to fight hard to gain and keep the win. But that means fuck all, does it? We still fucking lost and I don't doubt there a shitload of cold, drenched fans arriving home now feeling robbed.
Again, it seems like Slav is using this beginning to Christmas period as an experimental phase, more like a protracted pre-season. He started with the same beaten, sickly looking lineup that we saw midweek get rolled over by Boro. I was expecting him to finally begin the process of dragging Fleck and Norwood out to the field at the back to be put down and put Hourihane and Guardiora in to add strength and get them used to the system. They were the ineffective nucleus on Tuesday, but to be completely fair to them today they were somewhat better, if not 'performance standard'. Small margins and all that. Outside of that however we still have a raft of Wilder remnants who, no matter how much flushing, still bob back up. Sew that in with our complete inability to play to our strengths - Ndaiye and MGW sat in the AM channels and get them running at aged players like Cahill. But no. It's still geared toward getting it out wide and every team knows this now. Splice that with players now either struggling or losing form and we are very easy to turn over and counter. Again, some gobsmackingly poor ball-to-feet passing always gives the opposition the opportunity to get ahead and we do tend to get isolated and dispossessed alarmingly regularly.
But there were upsides. I think we deserved to go in level at HT, even though deep down many thought we'd be buried by that time. In truth, Billy should have had us one up. I think apart from the rather typically Blades suicide moments which had us go from 1-0 to 1-2 the last fifteen were spirited, if not ineffective and Bournemouth were clearly shitting themselves we'd steal two points off them. The substitutes did have some effect, but y'know ... huff ... and puff ... and the house still stands.
International break now, and we do so well from those, don't we? I think we need to really strive now to change the fucking approach and tactics ... and finally kill off the habit-forming of getting stuck out in the crossing zone and simply giving the impetus away. We also (by my eye) need to work on players 'showing' for the man in possession if it is not moving forward into space, then it's coming toward the player to receive and give. We tend to rely on hopefuls pumped up the pitch at times, and we don't read each other well enough for that. Take the initiative and carry up the centre of thee park and threaten, for fucks sake. Fleetingly we did that today and Bournemouth were back pedalling. And finally ... please stop this insane 'play it out from the goalkeeper' tactic which simply puts us under so much fucking pressure. United don't have the skill to pass it out from their back third and I'd rather see it booted long into their half with Billy and the three behind him contending for a touch or a mistake or a second ball than us bogged down in their crossing zone with opposition players closing us down.
Olsen 5/10: Like many others, not entirely convinced so far. I however don't think we have better options and that includes Ramsdale if he'd stayed. Good save from the free kick but his central defenders are now showing worrying susceptibility
Baldock 5/10: Didn't finish his 150th game, and it wasn't a glorious one anyway. He does tend to not be at the races at times and is quite easily bypassed or beaten in this new role which you can see he hates.
Egan 4.5/10: Not a great game from him. Although he put in some acceptable headers and challenges, he was all at sea for their first and static for the second
Davies 5/10: A few games in now and he's not really improving or showing 'Liverpool' levels of centre-backness that I'd expect to see. Not saying I want C3PO back ... but I wasn't over awed by how he positionally conducts himself and his vision is still iffy at times
Stevens 3.5/10: Old Enda is back. He's lost that impressive drive and capability of three seasons ago and suffers badly now at the hands of tricky, fast players who skip past him either in possession or as decoys. His tackle was outside the box and to me was not a red card either. He is more a LB than George is a RB, and keeps his position more effectively but that isn't saying much
Norwood 4.5/10: A better performance from him although he is still piss weak as a Defensive Midfielder. Some 'okay' crosses and passes, but again, opposition midfields just go through him now rather than round him.
Fleck 5/10: Late on gets him the extra point rather than 4/10, as I thought he'd woke himself up and looked like he wanted it, pressing forward and making Bournemouth work a bit to keep us out
Osborn 7/10: Yeah, I know. a 'high mark'. But fuck me he works damned hard and seemed to be the only one of our players making their players graft to stop him have some effect
Gibbs-White 6.5/10: Well taken and deserved goal. He has buckets of talent this kid but we fail to exploit it by playing it to him to run at their defence or giving him the ball to have a go on goal. When this happened today, we went one up.
Ndaiye 5.5/10: Not really a great day for him, more due to the fact he was fetching and carrying and not give the ball to get past opposition defenders
Sharp 5/10: Another frustrating day for him, firstly with a sitter he usually buries and then from the fact he is isolated too many times and can't be found whilst our lot tap it about in the crossing zone
Basham 5/10: Some flourishes, and out of position at RB, but he is still a great professional and involved himself more than Baldock did
McBurnie 5/10: A good outing for him. Unlucky with his 'header' and scissor-kick and no shithousingto be seen, which was pleasing
Moussett 5/10: Drops half a point for his WBA-esque half-a-yard-out sitter fuck up. Looks at least 10-15kg overweight, but worked hard to win it and close down in the late stages
Overall, I am disappointed but pleased with the better performance and also with the fact that we weren't held down and mercilessly sodomised. After watching us just give up against Boro, I feared the worst, especially in the grim conditions.
Full marks to the travelling support.
pommpey
We didn't deserve to come away from that empty handed. But then again, we did. It was a classic 'get fuck all when three points was an option' with an appalling refereeing decision followed by us simply shutting off defensively. All afternoon we'd looked liable to fuck it up at the back and eventually we did. I feel United did however make the table toppers look undeserved of their position and have to fight hard to gain and keep the win. But that means fuck all, does it? We still fucking lost and I don't doubt there a shitload of cold, drenched fans arriving home now feeling robbed.
Again, it seems like Slav is using this beginning to Christmas period as an experimental phase, more like a protracted pre-season. He started with the same beaten, sickly looking lineup that we saw midweek get rolled over by Boro. I was expecting him to finally begin the process of dragging Fleck and Norwood out to the field at the back to be put down and put Hourihane and Guardiora in to add strength and get them used to the system. They were the ineffective nucleus on Tuesday, but to be completely fair to them today they were somewhat better, if not 'performance standard'. Small margins and all that. Outside of that however we still have a raft of Wilder remnants who, no matter how much flushing, still bob back up. Sew that in with our complete inability to play to our strengths - Ndaiye and MGW sat in the AM channels and get them running at aged players like Cahill. But no. It's still geared toward getting it out wide and every team knows this now. Splice that with players now either struggling or losing form and we are very easy to turn over and counter. Again, some gobsmackingly poor ball-to-feet passing always gives the opposition the opportunity to get ahead and we do tend to get isolated and dispossessed alarmingly regularly.
But there were upsides. I think we deserved to go in level at HT, even though deep down many thought we'd be buried by that time. In truth, Billy should have had us one up. I think apart from the rather typically Blades suicide moments which had us go from 1-0 to 1-2 the last fifteen were spirited, if not ineffective and Bournemouth were clearly shitting themselves we'd steal two points off them. The substitutes did have some effect, but y'know ... huff ... and puff ... and the house still stands.
International break now, and we do so well from those, don't we? I think we need to really strive now to change the fucking approach and tactics ... and finally kill off the habit-forming of getting stuck out in the crossing zone and simply giving the impetus away. We also (by my eye) need to work on players 'showing' for the man in possession if it is not moving forward into space, then it's coming toward the player to receive and give. We tend to rely on hopefuls pumped up the pitch at times, and we don't read each other well enough for that. Take the initiative and carry up the centre of thee park and threaten, for fucks sake. Fleetingly we did that today and Bournemouth were back pedalling. And finally ... please stop this insane 'play it out from the goalkeeper' tactic which simply puts us under so much fucking pressure. United don't have the skill to pass it out from their back third and I'd rather see it booted long into their half with Billy and the three behind him contending for a touch or a mistake or a second ball than us bogged down in their crossing zone with opposition players closing us down.
Olsen 5/10: Like many others, not entirely convinced so far. I however don't think we have better options and that includes Ramsdale if he'd stayed. Good save from the free kick but his central defenders are now showing worrying susceptibility
Baldock 5/10: Didn't finish his 150th game, and it wasn't a glorious one anyway. He does tend to not be at the races at times and is quite easily bypassed or beaten in this new role which you can see he hates.
Egan 4.5/10: Not a great game from him. Although he put in some acceptable headers and challenges, he was all at sea for their first and static for the second
Davies 5/10: A few games in now and he's not really improving or showing 'Liverpool' levels of centre-backness that I'd expect to see. Not saying I want C3PO back ... but I wasn't over awed by how he positionally conducts himself and his vision is still iffy at times
Stevens 3.5/10: Old Enda is back. He's lost that impressive drive and capability of three seasons ago and suffers badly now at the hands of tricky, fast players who skip past him either in possession or as decoys. His tackle was outside the box and to me was not a red card either. He is more a LB than George is a RB, and keeps his position more effectively but that isn't saying much
Norwood 4.5/10: A better performance from him although he is still piss weak as a Defensive Midfielder. Some 'okay' crosses and passes, but again, opposition midfields just go through him now rather than round him.
Fleck 5/10: Late on gets him the extra point rather than 4/10, as I thought he'd woke himself up and looked like he wanted it, pressing forward and making Bournemouth work a bit to keep us out
Osborn 7/10: Yeah, I know. a 'high mark'. But fuck me he works damned hard and seemed to be the only one of our players making their players graft to stop him have some effect
Gibbs-White 6.5/10: Well taken and deserved goal. He has buckets of talent this kid but we fail to exploit it by playing it to him to run at their defence or giving him the ball to have a go on goal. When this happened today, we went one up.
Ndaiye 5.5/10: Not really a great day for him, more due to the fact he was fetching and carrying and not give the ball to get past opposition defenders
Sharp 5/10: Another frustrating day for him, firstly with a sitter he usually buries and then from the fact he is isolated too many times and can't be found whilst our lot tap it about in the crossing zone
Basham 5/10: Some flourishes, and out of position at RB, but he is still a great professional and involved himself more than Baldock did
McBurnie 5/10: A good outing for him. Unlucky with his 'header' and scissor-kick and no shithousingto be seen, which was pleasing
Moussett 5/10: Drops half a point for his WBA-esque half-a-yard-out sitter fuck up. Looks at least 10-15kg overweight, but worked hard to win it and close down in the late stages
Overall, I am disappointed but pleased with the better performance and also with the fact that we weren't held down and mercilessly sodomised. After watching us just give up against Boro, I feared the worst, especially in the grim conditions.
Full marks to the travelling support.
pommpey
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