Patches O Houlihan

The issue here is that Arma is only really any good playing from inside right, and our marquee signing was Fellows who also plays on the right. There'll be pressure from upstairs to keep starting Fellows.

As much as I would like this to be the team I struggle to imagine them doing any better than 5:0.

After the performance at Hull we need this game like a hole in the head; especially with league leaders Middlesborough up afterwards. Following an abject performance there would be a temptation to drop some players and bring in some new ones hoping for an improvement. It is of course very common for a second string side to start in the league cup. So when the changed team gets humped by Liverpool, and the team that played before were embarrassed at Hull which side do you pick for Middlesborough? If Still somehow gets a result here then he will have earned his money. Realistically I think a battling 2:1 loss, where the players show they are playing for the manager and do actually have an agreed plan is about as good as we can hope for.

Have you ever accidentally stepped in dog shit? It was like that

According to Will all three/four of our attacking players like to play on the shoulder with balls played ahead of them into space. Quite how we have ended up with four of the same player seems pretty short sighted but lets go with it. When we are Championship Favourites™ most teams are going to be defensive against us. So on the occasions that they do attack us and get forward in numbers we need to be clear headed when we win the ball back, play two or three forward balls so that they can be played in. But somewhere between Russball and Will's 'don't fucking piss about with it at the back' we're now in a situation where whoever finds a ball dropping at the feet on the edge of our area either: 1) Plays the ball backwards to someone in a far worse position 2) Lumps it to no-one well past the half way line 3) Fires it off the nearest opposition player and into touch 4) Dithers and loses it in a really shit way to enable the attack to continue At no point do they look up and play a calm, well judged ball to someone in midfield who might be able to do something creative with it when they have much more space to work with.

Counter attacks don't work when it takes us 90 seconds to get the ball into their area having passed it backward nine times first.

Did you not feel this way once Kat sold 80% to Gao.

No skill on the ball. No strength or determination. Shit positioning and anticipation. Across the board. Fuck off Saints.

THB - fucking useless

Scienza has a better free kick record than Manning this year...

On starting slow: If I remember rightly RM benefitted from having genuine PL players playing for us during August and we got points on the board (Tella, JWP). Then lost 4 on the bounce with some appalling results. You could argue that Will barely had any PL players to make a start with in August - and even the good ones will have been pretty worn down by or distracted circumstances. If we were starting the RM way we would now lose the next 3 or 4. But I don't think we will. He does need to find a way to play with the players we have in the building though. His reputation suggests he'll work this out. I admit to being a bit concerned about how our strikers are going to fit into it though.

Scienza came on and got stuck in straight away. He put in a reasonably robust challenge and the Pompey player threw himself on the ground and the ref bought it. He will have been watching the match closely, and saw the same thing happen to Jander. The look of incredulity on his face from the ref's decision, and then his subsequent body language to me suggested: "Well if it's that sort of game I can be a world class shithouse, and I have the best free kick scoring record in Europe's top 5 leagues this year - bring it on" The next 3 robust challenges from Pompey he went down just as easily to mock them and the ref, and 1 or 2 were in useful positions for a free kick at the end of the game. Manning took them though, and nothing came of them.

Ruben wins the sack race

I noticed in the second half today that Azaz is quite tall... Maybe we could play 70/80s Dutch Total Football with the front six mixing it up 😁 Baz Roerslev/Jelert THB Jack Manning/Jelert Jander Downes/Matsuki Charles Fellows Azaz Scienza/Robinson Fraser, Arma and Archer miss out of course

He completely robbed Murphy a few times before he was even level with the edge of the area - didn't;t even get a chance to play a cross

Came on at 74' in the derby. Cool, calm, skilled. Robbed by the ref for a corner and also for the most ridiculous simulated foul. If we stay at 4-2-3-1 then Downes will be looking over his shoulder. There might be an argument for a 4-3-3 with Jander, Downes and Charles all playing. Might give us more control in the middle of the pitch.

What were literally my first words in that post!

Roerslav was not great offensively - but there seemed to be a good press on his side and not easy to thread balls to Fellows, Downes & Azaz at times. He looked pissed off that he had no options. Murphy got the better of him twice. But he beat Murphy well in defensive battles a few times too. We haven't had a FB that can defend that well since Bertrand left. It's just offensively that we see the massive difference between him and KWP. Maybe if Manning could play like KWP it would work - but he's not at that level. Would like to see what Jelert can bring.

* Fellows delivers some really quality crosses, but we couldn't get the ball to him or Azaz much at all in the first half. Better in the second. * If we're going to spend the first 70 minutes of games supplying quality raised crosses into the box for Fraser and Archer to be muscled out of it then it could be a long season. * Scienza has only played 15 mins, and already he is our Shithouse-in-Chief (also he wasn't happy about giving Manning that last free kick) * Jander - Smooth as silk. It won't take him long to work out some of the tricks common in the league. Downes has to be feeling the pressure already. * Some nice stuff from Charles but would have liked to seem him on the ball more in the first half. * There was some good 'body on the line' blocks from the defence which was nice to see. Not a perfect defensive performance, but better than some we have seen. * Interesting that in the last 4 minutes Jack & THB were playing attacking midfield, with Charles and Roerslav sweeping up at the back.

I've not watched Goztepe - but I'm imagining 10 outfield Ross Stewarts that dither on the ball, insist on wearing Tyler Dibling's miniature shin pads, and charge down every goal attempt with their face. Juan Larios plays in goal.

In the comments under the BBC article one fan suggested that SUFC were solid in 2nd place - but then lost their last 3 league games against bottom six opposition, when just one win would have given them the points to finish 2nd. Arrogance also mentioned.

But he was valued at £5.6m in the summer! How is that possible?!! 😉

Yes

Thank you for such a well written heartfelt post. Difficult to write I’m sure. But so powerful that I would be surprised if it isn’t read out by Captain Jack to the team on the morning of the game - which would no doubt please your dad immensely.