Positives from today

[Snowflake]

I thought we genuinely lacked some out and out brute strength at times, all over the pitch, but particularly up top.

It just didn’t stick. We relied too much on balls in to the channels and this was often a reason why we turned over possession as well.

Not sure Akpom or Archer would be the answer here.

Need a big strong 6’3” striker who can also play a bit. Not asking much !!

UTB

I don’t think your preferred striker will get many with that midfield behind him !

 

[Weasel]

Paula and Traore did as well as could be expected with the service they got.

Who the fuck is Paula? I thought she croaked it years back after her daft boyfriend managed to hang himself in a hotel room by mistake? Don't tell me it's Osborn supplying the bullets to PYs this season as the daft cow will probably spray them into the crowd.

 

[Rufus Smalls]

A big positive for me is how much the ref loved us …….. applying ALL the laws of the game to us (a booking for kicking the ball away) but applying only SOME of the laws to Palace (no yellow for diving) - we are indeed blessed !

 

[MobileBlade]

Pattern of play?

We had a clear style under Wilder (fast front foot passing football)

I think your memory of our two seasons in the Premier under him, even in that first season, is playing tricks. First season was built on solid defence and midfield. Second season they forgot about defending.

 

[DronnieBlade]

I don’t think your preferred striker will get many with that midfield behind him !

Entirely missing my point.

That this hypothetical striker might actually be able to hold the ball up when played to him for long enough for the midfield to “connect” further up the pitch and for possession to be retained rather than consistently turning it over.

The goals would come from this very basic first step cos last time I checked, you don’t score without possession of the ball !

UTB

 

[loyalblade95]

Pattern of play?

We had a clear style under Wilder (fast front foot passing football) and Jukanovic (slower…posession is king Swansea style football)
but under Hecky our pattern of play was so random last season.
In most games we had little spells of overlapping centre backs, little spells of nice/ possesion football, longish spells of kick and rush hoofball.

Only things I can think of is…..give the ball to Norwood and he’ll try a high risk long range pass.
When he’s having a good game it’s fine, when he’s having a bad game, we‘re constantly giving possession away.

One of the key points to operate in the Premier League is to be able to keep some possession.
In the Championship it doesn’t matter so much, so what has Hecky been doing to order the players to keep possession.

Appreciate Hecky got plenty of praise last season for delivering wins
but in many matches we had long spells of looking disjoined struggling to string 4 or 5 passes together.
Often our only chance of scoring was to rely on some magic from N’Diaye and McAtee.
Also when we we leading..then in most matches for the last 30 minutes we’d defend deeper and deeper, parking the bus, booting the ball anywhere.

We’d win the game 1-0 or 2-1 and Pompey would often slate the performance as unconvincing.
I’d listen to Heckys post match interview, no insight ever given on tactics and he’d always say we played well against tough opposition.

Another positive is the defence is pretty good with experience at this level.
Really don’t think we‘ll concede many but we need avoid what happened in the relegation season season where we seemed to lose every match 1-0 or 2-1.
We’re basically going to be relying on a totally new midfield and attack, so hopefully exciting times ahead.

Our system last year was built on having a lot of possession and trying to control the game, Hecky knows we're not going to do that this year (especially without Berge and Ndiaye) so he's altering our style of play to best suit us.

 

[loyalblade95]

Feel weirdly optimistic. CP weren't great and clearly have the PL experience to exploit little niggly fouls in dangerous areas, but in the whole we didn't look out of our depth.

Osulla and Bennie look to have something to offer, but REALLY need a midfield behind them.

I actually thought we looked at our most dynamic and threatening in the final 15, once Slimane and Vinnie came on supported by the young lads. That's what's given me the most optimism.

Yeah, and we've still got Hamer and potentially Doyle to come into that midfield, possibly even Tom Davies as well given that the links to him seem to have resurfaced today.

 

[Bladedog]

We only lost 1-0..so if we put six past forest Friday we,ll top the league.

 

[Maidenhead]

Biggest plus was only 5mins added time meant I just made it to the bogs without pissing down the back of someones legs on the kop.

I also made my 17.21 train so was home for 18.30.

 

[Sheffsteel]

I think your memory of our two seasons in the Premier under him, even in that first season, is playing tricks. First season was built on solid defence and midfield. Second season they forgot about defending.

There was a pattern of play in the midfield. Take it to the wings, overload it so we had 2 against their 1 or 3 against their 2….and play simple short passes…..keeping possession and looking for gaps in their defence. The overlapping centre system was one of our main weapons.
Most games were tight and we tended to win 1-0 or 2-1.

The 2nd season we lost O’Connell and even Basham for a long spell.
So the overlapping centre back tactic couldn’t be used to the same effect.
Very few centre backs are able to play that role to a high standard.
Just by luck we had O’Connell (ex left back) and Chris Basham ( ex right back and midfielder), both also had fantastic stamina to get up and down the pitch.
Remember loads of times we were keeping so much possession on the wings….our fans were screaming (mainly at Baldock) to cross the ball in.
It was simple pass and move keep possession football…..very formulaic with no individual brilliance.
In our relegation season most games were tight but predictably we tended to lose 0-1 or 1-2, we always struggled to score.

However last season we didn’t have a set style….ironically it probably helped us win
because we had little spells of playing good football but in the same match we‘d also play it long playing percentage Footbsll.
and at times our ball retention and composure on the ball was appalling.
Often we would only break the deadlock because either N‘Diane or McAtee would come up with some brilliance.
We had to gain promotion last season….it was all about the 3 points….the ad hoc style worked in the short term…so no complaints.

 

[Snowflake]

Entirely missing my point.

That this hypothetical striker might actually be able to hold the ball up when played to him for long enough for the midfield to “connect” further up the pitch and for possession to be retained rather than consistently turning it over.

The goals would come from this very basic first step cos last time I checked, you don’t score without possession of the ball !

UTB

...but the midfield will not “connect” in any meaningful way until there is more quality there.
You need both or a skilled finisher with real quality midfield ammunition

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

If the season ended today we would not be relegated.

 

[ancientblade]

i big positive for me today was wes's performance in goal made 3 outstanding saves as one whos been advocating for us to bring a keeper in to challenge him i was pleased for him maybe we csn just get away with him in goal this season also a positive for our defensive display apart from the goal of course but i think the game panned out exactly as the majority of blades thought it would nothing in midfield nothing up front but of course thats not heckys fault it is what it is 2 midfielders and 2 more strikers required if we can get 4 more starters in we might just have a chance of staying up

 

[JOEYDEE]

Not in the bottom 3
View attachment 168152

If it's like that at the end of May,I'll be very happy !!

 

[DronnieBlade]

...but the midfield will not “connect” in any meaningful way until there is more quality there.
You need both or a skilled finisher with real quality midfield ammunition

As I say, entirely missing my point.

No doubt you have your own.

UTB

 

[Sheffsteel]

Our system last year was built on having a lot of possession and trying to control the game, Hecky knows we're not going to do that this year (especially without Berge and Ndiaye) so he's altering our style of play to best suit us.

If that was the intention (our supposed system) then he didn’t do a good job.
In most games our possession stats in the last 15 minutes of games when defending a lead was appallingly bad.

Check any stats site like, it shows we were 10th best team at keeping possesion and 11th best team making the most number of passes during the whole season,
https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/2022-2023/2022-2023-Championship-Stats#all_stats_squads_possession

The teams with the best possession last season were
Burnley 64%
Swansea 63%
Middlesboro 58%
Norwich 57%
Sunderland 54%
Blackburn 54%
West Brom 53%
Stoke 53%
Watford 52%
Sheff United 51%

As I said I think our strength was that our style was constantly variable during matches.
Sunderland away was a great example….first 30 minutes played top quality passing football, looked easily a top 2 side.
As expected faltered slightly toward the end of the 1st half but 2nd half we looked a different team, lost our composure,
couldn’t retain any possession, lost control of the game, booted the ball out but battled brilliantly to win all 3 points.

Sounds like I’m bashing Hecky but I’m not really, Think he’s a pragmatist in the style of a Jose Mourinho, in other words it might not be pretty, we might be negative at times but he knows how to get results, in the short term thats all that counts. Last year we had spells parking the bus inviting pressure, but never looked in trouble. Most matches, the defense had spells of being busy but Fodderingham often has little to do.

Shows how strong our defense is and we can use this as a building block for this season.
Think we‘ll have a lot of tight matches this season, we’re currently on course to losing loads of matches 0-1, 0-2 or 1-2.
Just need to sort out the midfield and attack with some new quality players, then we have a great chance of staying up.

 

[loyalblade95]

If that was the intention (our supposed system) then he didn’t do a good job.
In most games our possession stats in the last 15 minutes of games when defending a lead was appallingly bad.

Check any stats site like, it shows we were 10th best team at keeping possesion and 11th best team making the most number of passes during the whole season,
https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/2022-2023/2022-2023-Championship-Stats#all_stats_squads_possession

The teams with the best possession last season were
Burnley 64%
Swansea 63%
Middlesboro 58%
Norwich 57%
Sunderland 54%
Blackburn 54%
West Brom 53%
Stoke 53%
Watford 52%
Sheff United 51%

As I said I think our strength was that our style was constantly variable during matches.
Sunderland away was a great example….first 30 minutes played top quality passing football, looked easily a top 2 side.
As expected faltered slightly toward the end of the 1st half but 2nd half we looked a different team, lost our composure,
couldn’t retain any possession, lost control of the game, booted the ball out but battled brilliantly to win all 3 points.

Sounds like I’m bashing Hecky but I’m not really, Think he’s a pragmatist in the style of a Jose Mourinho, in other words it might not be pretty, we might be negative at times but he knows how to get results, in the short term thats all that counts. Last year we had spells parking the bus inviting pressure, but never looked in trouble. Most matches, the defense had spells of being busy but Fodderingham often has little to do.

Shows how strong our defense is and we can use this as a building block for this season.
Think we‘ll have a lot of tight matches this season, we’re currently on course to losing loads of matches 0-1, 0-2 or 1-2.
Just need to sort out the midfield and attack with some new quality players, then we have a great chance of staying up.

Fair enough

 

[Snowflake]

As I say, entirely missing my point.

No doubt you have your own.

UTB

Not missing it, just putting forward an extended view of it.

 

[crucialkneeligaman]

Feel weirdly optimistic. CP weren't great and clearly have the PL experience to exploit little niggly fouls in dangerous areas, but in the whole we didn't look out of our depth.

Osulla and Bennie look to have something to offer, but REALLY need a midfield behind them.

I actually thought we looked at our most dynamic and threatening in the final 15, once Slimane and Vinnie came on supported by the young lads. That's what's given me the most optimism.

I know we had a weak side out, but we really did look out of our depth, things can only improve, starting with Gus.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Not missing it, just putting forward an extended view of it.

We’ve got 3 new midfielders none of whom started yesterday that “should” be able to add more of what you suggest. Might be one or two more additions in this department to also come in if rumours are correct.

But a gaping chasm exists in our forward line. Need at least 2 more and if any of Brew, McB, Osula, Jeb depart or are loaned for development, then this will only increase the required numbers to come in.

I am shocked that this area of the pitch has not been given a much higher priority. Maybe things are happening behind the scenes that we don’t know about. But, as things stand, we are dreadfully short.

UTB

 

[Pintor75]

Main positive was the fact the team we put out wasn't even our starter team in the championship, things can only improve.
Midfield showed that they are back up at best, Doyle & McAtee showed that the midfield need to support the strikers, old gaurd don't have the legs, get Hamer in the Ndiaye role, hopefully Doyle, Souza & Slimane in behind and thing might be different, give them a few games to settle

 

[Bladesman]

A big positive for me is how much the ref loved us …….. applying ALL the laws of the game to us (a booking for kicking the ball away) but applying only SOME of the laws to Palace (no yellow for diving) - we are indeed blessed !

I know it sounds a bit bitter and you get the usual "Oh it will even itself out over the season" but in the Premier League you are playing against 12 men. It was like that last time around bar the West Ham handball and I think the Basham none red card at Brighton?

 

[Snowflake]

We’ve got 3 new midfielders none of whom started yesterday that “should” be able to add more of what you suggest. Might be one or two more additions in this department to also come in if rumours are correct.

But a gaping chasm exists in our forward line. Need at least 2 more and if any of Brew, McB, Osula, Jeb depart or are loaned for development, then this will only increase the required numbers to come in.

I am shocked that this area of the pitch has not been given a much higher priority. Maybe things are happening behind the scenes that we don’t know about. But, as things stand, we are dreadfully short.

UTB

If there are two more acquisitions and two loans you would expect ones be an experienced striker ?

 

[DronnieBlade]

If there are two more acquisitions and two loans you would expect ones be an experienced striker ?

Yeah - but of the 4 you suggest, I’d reckon nearer 3 for at the top of the pitch.

UTB

 

[CornwallBlade]

Pattern of play?

We had a clear style under Wilder (fast front foot passing football) and Jukanovic (slower…posession is king Swansea style football)
but under Hecky our pattern of play was so random last season.
In most games we had little spells of overlapping centre backs, little spells of nice/ possesion football, longish spells of kick and rush hoofball.

Only things I can think of is…..give the ball to Norwood and he’ll try a high risk long range pass.
When he’s having a good game it’s fine, when he’s having a bad game, we‘re constantly giving possession away.

One of the key points to operate in the Premier League is to be able to keep some possession.
In the Championship it doesn’t matter so much, so what has Hecky been doing to order the players to keep possession.

Appreciate Hecky got plenty of praise last season for delivering wins
but in many matches we had long spells of looking disjoined struggling to string 4 or 5 passes together.
Often our only chance of scoring was to rely on some magic from N’Diaye and McAtee.
Also when we we leading..then in most matches for the last 30 minutes we’d defend deeper and deeper, parking the bus, booting the ball anywhere.

We’d win the game 1-0 or 2-1 and Pompey would often slate the performance as unconvincing.
I’d listen to Heckys post match interview, no insight ever given on tactics and he’d always say we played well against tough opposition.

Another positive is the defence is pretty good with experience at this level.
Really don’t think we‘ll concede many but we need avoid what happened in the relegation season season where we seemed to lose every match 1-0 or 2-1.
We’re basically going to be relying on a totally new midfield and attack, so hopefully exciting times ahead.

Nobody is going to sustain 90 mins of high intensity Wilderball against PL opposition. It worked in L1 and Championship but against top quality teams the game has to ebb and flow. Citeh are brilliant at it, keeping possession, waiting for lapses in concentration and injecting short periods of intensity when they (usually) score.
We don’t have the quality to emulate that but we must accept that long periods of play will be spent soaking up pressure- it’s having the ability to score when chances arise that will be the key to our season. Let’s hope we get a 20 goaler on the pitch somehow

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

A big positive for me is how much the ref loved us …….. applying ALL the laws of the game to us (a booking for kicking the ball away) but applying only SOME of the laws to Palace (no yellow for diving) - we are indeed blessed !

Becoming re-acquainted with standards of Prem refereeing, particularly the pathetically minor levels of physical contact needed to concede free-kicks, was a major negative yesterday.

That and the falling over, rolling around, waving of arms, crowding of refs, and other assorted histrionics that come with those standards. Just nauseating. Obviously it’s entrenched in the Champ too, these days, though it remains levels worse in the Prem.

I thought yesterday’s ref gave them a few he got wrong. For the most part, though, I thought Palace were just better at playing that game than we were (add it to the long list of games they played better than us, frankly).

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

A sell-out crowd, good atmosphere. Any potential buyer could surely see that this club, if well run, could belong in the Premier League. That is the main positive I took from Saturday. All we need now is a potential buyer…

 

[Champagneblade]

We were comfortably second best to a side that I expect to struggle this season.

The only positive I can take from today is in a few weeks the side turning out for us will probably look very different with new signings and players returning from injury.

The only problem is, in relative terms we have a decent start to the season and by the time these player’s return we’ll have missed a real opportunity to get some points on the board.

Palace got quite lucky I feel with the timing.

We feel as a club that we’ve had to reshuffle the decks so we don’t lose 35m on the two departures.

If we get some of the names we are linked with, then I’d expect us to beat Palace. They are at a bit of a summit of their powers now. Success isn’t about signing players it’s just about keeping them. Now Zaha has gone, Olise and Eze should be eyed up by bigger fish.

Annoyed about both of these. Wilder would have had opportunity to get both of these before Palace did. Instead we pissed around with the likes of Robinson and Burke. It was no secret they were good players.

I remember him playing for Reading and scoring in a 3-0 vs Wednesday during 20/21. But the prior summer we were too busy fannying around spunking 18m on a keeper when we could have loaned one and 23m on Brewster when what we needed was to replace Jack O’Connell and get some creativity in midfield and bin off Lundstram.

For Eze he’d actually scored against us for QPR in the promotion season. We could have got him at the end of that season but instead we went for such luminaries as Callum Robinson and Luke Freeman instead.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

0

 

[Not so Slim ane]

We said the same that Brooks looked pretty good when he came on,
calm and assured, not overawed at all, looked a better player than Norwood and Osborn.

Also we said the same, when Palace scored, we all said "game over" as there's no way we can score.

Agree about Brooks he's looked impressive pre season too