verlaine1979

Weren't those both first half? I meant literally between scoring in the 52nd minute and Boufal firing wide in the 91st. I don't remember us really testing Lloris in that time, despite our improved performance after the break.

Did we create a meaningful chance between JWP's goal and boufal's shot that went wide a few mins before the end?

Meh, bit of a straw man argument. Might as well say that the legions of superior managers at bigger clubs are on my side by virtue of the fact that none of them have ever tried to buy him at any stage in his career. He's nothing special and never has been (honestly, someone above claims he's only one attribute away from an 'all time great').

As illustrated by this forum, you don't get criticised as a manager for playing a hardworking but limited home-nations carthorse who is broadly identified with by much of the fanbase. Let's call it the Wotton-Schneiderlin effect.

I was bang on two years ago, and nothing he's done between then and now has proven me wrong. Utterly, utterly dire today in every single phase of play.

Can we just bring on Boufal now? I'd rather have a bit of entertainment than watch Davis contribute naff all for another 60 mins.

Davis passing even worse than usual.

Watching Monaco last night gave some interesting context to JWP's progress. Fabinho and Bakayoko are 23 and 22 respectively, and absolutely dominated the midfield aside from a twenty minute stretch for City at the start of the second half. Both broke up play, passed intelligently (and progressively when the moment called for it), and both scored goals. JWP has done well out on the right, and his dead ball delivery is excellent, but in his peer group internationally, there are players already capable of controlling a champions league knock-out round game.

Ah, didn't realise we'd been linked to him before. Was utterly immense tonight, and so composed on the ball. When Monaco sell off some of their young players, it's going to make our transfer income over the past few years look like peanuts.

Monaco were superb in the first half. Wonder how much we'd have to pay for someone like Bakayoko in the summer.

Not sure if it was a one off, but Ederson made several incredible saves yesterday for Benfica against Dortmund.

Pace - Sterling is very quick, whereas Redmond almost never seems to beat anyone for pace over short or long distances.

We presumably knew all about Boufal's attitude when we signed him (a French friend said he's brilliant, but an idiot who doesn't care about the team when we signed him), so we probably should have known that playing him in a reserve match wouldn't go down well. And before anyone says 'he's a professional' or 'he should be proud to put on the shirt' etc etc, allow me to welcome you to the last decade of world football.

Yup, it was Davis turning into danger to try and make a backpass (again) and losing it to put Watford two on two with the CBs, before Stephens made a good challenge. To be fair to Davis, he did then supply the ball out wide to Redmond (who was in acres of space, so lets not get carried away), who then passed it in to Boufal.

Well, aside from when Davis did his usual trick of trying to turn back and offload to the CBs, only to lose it and leave the defence 2 on 2, needing a last ditch challenge from Stephens to prevent Watford going 3-2 up - nope, never in any danger.

I'm not anti-Davis, I'm just anti-other players getting criticism that he seems to be immune from. Hojbjerg has boomed over maybe five wayward shots all season, so, as I said, he still has a long way to go before he's challenging Davis for the title of most disappointing long-range shooter at the club. As for the close control and running, that's based on the glimpses you mention. It's not as if Davis has spent the season surging through opposition midfields with a combination of pace and trickery, so lets just say on the few occasions when both have been in tight situations, or have had the opportunity to take on opponents and move beyond them, Hoj strikes me as more of a threat than Davis.

All that's true, but you'd be hard pushed to build a global media campaign out of being known do to well out of transfers and occasionally upsetting much more famous clubs. Only a basic indicator, but the club have about 700k Twitter followers, which is still 100k less than the least successful side in the NFL last year (Cleveland Browns), a sport that has a comparatively tiny global following. Sure, if someone comes in and plows enough money in to get us competing for the top four that will change rapidly, as it did for Man City, but you can buy an awful lot of effective media for the billion pounds of upgrades that have been spent on the likes of City and PSG, so I'm not sure anyone other than a sovereign wealth fund or a football fanatic would bother.

The Premier League has global name recognition, but do we? Considering we've only just returned to having a nationally recognised shirt sponsor, I'd say we're some way away from being a significant marketing opportunity for global businesses. Smacks a bit of the obvious Pompey wind-up of 'we see the benefit in taking the brand global' from back in the day...

Heh, Hojbjerg will have to spurn a lot more golden shooting opportunities before he even gets close to Davis in the not-being-able-to-finish-for-**** stakes. For what it's worth, Hoj also runs with the ball a hell of a lot more effectively than Davis, and actually has the close control (and bravery) to beat a man. If we're sticking with 4-2-3-1 I'd like to see him given a run of games starting with Romeu to build back some of the confidence that seems to have eroded since the start of the season.

Had a very good game, one or two lapses of concentration aside. However, I think he was really helped by the tempo of our play, which created space for him out wide that wouldn't have been there if we'd been employing the same intensity as earlier in the season. Swift transition coupled with Redmond and Tadic drifting across the width of the box dragged the fullbacks in-field quite a few times creating space for JWP (and Cedric) to wind up crosses.

Think it's his movement that's prompting the comparison. Gabbiadini doesn't seem lightning fast over a stretch, but like Inzaghi he seems to burst at the right moment already he should have three deft little finishes from about 3 yards out, which were Inzaghi's speciality. I agree though that his link play and technique look at first glance to be superior to Inzaghi's.

Garth Crooks said in one of his team of the week columns that he reminded him of Inzaghi, and for once I think there's something in the comparison (aside from nationality and a slightly straggly appearance). At least for now Gabbiadini looks less prone to being caught offside, and probably a technically better finisher than Inzaghi, though most players would trade both of those to have Inzaghi's knack for sniffing out a goal.

Agreed, especially a player who is clearly such a clinical finisher. There's no way Mourinho takes Zlatan off in that game even if it goes to extra time, and it already looks like Gabbiadini is just as important to us as Ibra is to them.

It's annoying having to pretend to be grateful for an honorable defeat. Plenty of people are going to feel aggrieved at the nature of that loss for a number of reasons, and their irritation is in no way at odds with anyone else's admiration for the way the team played. I thought we were great, but my overwhelming feeling is one of injustice, not pride. Oh, and we shouldn't have taken Gabbi off.

Shouldn't have taken Gabbi off. He'd probably have converted that Bertrand cross.