The Kraken

As I said; Lallana's defensive duties were poor. But similarly Fox stuck like glue to Lennon. It was fairly clear Lallana wasn't going to get back in time to cut out Walker so Fox should have stepped in, instead of following Lennon around like a lost sheep. Lallana has been at fault in allowing 2 on 1 situations, no doubt; the few against Tottenham were also bad defendinding as a team by Saints; Tottenham exploiting huge holes down the left flank where Fox should have been patrolling but had been dragged inside.

Which Pompey players do you boo?

Minus 14.

Yep. It seems like Saints have a bit of history of f*cking morons who boo our own players. It used to be Lloyd James; Kelvin suffered a fair bit from it until he snapped back after one particular game; Guly will never win anyone over no matter what he does; Puncheon had his share of abuse; Jermaine Wright and others; Boruc now seems to be the latest whipping boy. We just seem to have quite the collection of ignorant c*nts in the stands these days. I had to give a spotty teenage oik sat behind me a verbal clip round the ear during the Fulham game when he started abusing Guly before he came on the pitch and looked like he was going to carry on all game; the little tosser didn't even seem to know why he was berating him, just that it seemed like he should.

The point is that Fox shouldn't be sticking with Lennon wherever he goes. There should be an understanding between the full back and all of his midfield such that rampaging players like Walker are picked up by the full back, while the likes of Lennon get passed on either to the left midfielder or inside to the central midfielders. Lallana defensive duties were poor, but he shouldn't be having to sprint back from the halfway line each time to cover a run; we should be defending as a team, not just simply picking one man and rigidly sticking to him like glue.

I'd rather see Ben Reeves get a chance; right now he has a much better chance of being a genuine replacement for Fox.

We should have signed Jerry Edwards when we had the chance; great player and much better than Fox.

Just no.

It has also actually helped Pompey in ways other than financial. Firstly, players are continually having to perform to keep their place in the squad. If they're consistently below par they'll just be binned out at the end of the month. So the whole short term contract = career uncertainty factor actually works both ways. We all saw what happened with Saganowski with us; brilliant while on loan trying to earn a contract; absolutely sh*te and lazy once he got his contract. Secondly; being able to ship out players that are actually no good has masked Appleton's player identification and recruitment ability. Ordinarily he'd be stuck with a bad transfer choice for at least the season or duration of the player's contract. In this way when he signs a dud he can just ship them back out again and try someone else. Yep, wouldn't be surprised to see a host of clubs try and go down this route. Although the FL will probably allow it only for Pompey as an exception and restrict it for all other clubs. Or something.

Indeed.

Correct, that's exactly the same.

Sauce or it didn't happen.

That would be another shot in the arm for our flawless player recruitment department.

:lol:

Erm; other way round. 1-0 to Sheff Utd.

They had earned 18 points prior to today after 14 games. We had earned 21 points; but our -10 had come off at the start of the season.

Given that we've apparently taken out a loan to sort out our cashflow; I'd suggest they do.

True; but even despite our shocking start to that season, before today's game Pompey were 3 points behind where we were at the same stage. To put it in perspective.

They have parachute payments coming in; £3M arrived in September, more to come in the New Year. So the administrators can use those funds and incoming monies from ticket sales etc for running the club without concerning themselves about a long term budget, and the £8M player deferral pot that has to be paid eventually. The PST's first takeover bid contained a business plan for runnning the club over 4 years, with a sensibly low wage budget. And that business plan will surely have to be significantly revised, as it did not cover for £6M of the £8M player deferral payments. The best thing Pompey can do (in terms of their league position this year) is stay in admin for as long as possible. Once the PST takes over; that's when some really difficult decisions have to be made, and perhaps a whole new squad has to be put together (I can't see the likes of Akos Buszacky agreeing to terms akin to lower league 1 club level).

Of course they're doing ok. They got a team full of players that most other teams in the division cannot afford; most players they've recruited have been from higher leagues, some turned down offers from clubs in the division above to join Pompey and the wages they're paying (as backed up by various L1 managers and players, despite all protestations and lies from UnAppy that he's got one of the cheapest squads in the division). The squad they've got down there should be doing a hell of a lot better than languishing in mid-table, they really should be up around the playoffs at the very least.

I've had enough of your negative-minded posts.

Stop suppressing my viewpoint.

I think you need to watch it again. I just replayed it a few times and there's no way that any keeper would have got out to it. Boruc didn't hesitate; he came out and them set himself just before Defoe shot. Not much there that the keeper can be criticised for. Davis would have got nowhere near the ball if he'd have been in goal.

How odd. This thread, I mean.

I've been banging the drum for Mayuka to be given a chance wide right for some time now. Hopefully this will be the catalyst for him to start against West Brom; although I get the feeling NA is a bit obsessed with using him as an impact sub. Which means we're left with the very average Puncheon out there. Against the Baggies I'd go with a midfield 3 of Schneiderlin, Davis and JWP or Cork if fit, with Mayuka and Lallana wide. Plenty of time to work on the formation this week and get our full backs (Dan Fox, I'm talking about you) to understand how they work with their midfielders and cover their own full back areas.