saintant

First time I've seen the goals. Bazunu may or may not have been able to stop one or either but he seems to have a real problem with positioning. For the first he is too close to his near post and gives the striker a lot to shoot at. For the second he leaves a huge gap on one side of his goal and, unsurprisingly, the player goes for it - it was a great strike but Baz really invited him to put it where he did. One of a professional goalkeeper's basic requirements is excellent positional sense and I think Baz lacks this key attribute.

Agree, I think AA has run his course with us now and it would be better for him and the club if he was given a fresh start - maybe a loan although maybe a bit too late in the window.

This is certainly an issue. We concede far too many free kicks in every game. A lot of our challenges seem to be badly timed and ungainly making it easy for the ref to give free kicks against us. I get that we want to win the ball back or break up attacks but we have to be less wreckless when making tackles.

Don't think it's been confirmed unless I missed it.

Can anyone explain to me the benefits of playing 3 at the back. Maybe being a bit naive I had assumed it makes a team more solid in defence but I'm not seeing that with us. What I do see is that it makes us struggle to compete in midfield. So if someone can explain the merits I'd be grateful.

Lots of centre backs but are any of them good defenders? Captain Jack is hopeless but always seems to get a pick and his continual errors are overlooked unless they are real howlers.

Not going to panic because we are always slow starters. We'll look a lot different with the new signings once they are embedded into a new formation. It's a long season and we just need to make sure we're in the shake up at the end. Never going to be a fan of 3 at the back and I'm not convinced by Will Sill's claim that it was forced upon him by us not having any wingers. Watford started with 5 at the back and we were comfortable - they had zero shots on target until they converted to a back 4 and then took control of the game. We need to react to such tactical changes by the opposition especially from a winning position.

And people say Romeu is too old 🙂

Could be worse - we could be Ed Sheerin 🙂

Keep on saying it about Captain Jack - even without a howler he is still a liability and doesn't do his job.

Never goad a ginger.

Not from the bench.

Tortoise and the hare 🙂

Yeah, we had a very weak midfield today with Downes missing. As soon as Watford went to a 4 man midfield we should have matched them and that may have won us the game.

Should have matched them when they went 4 in midfield. Changed the game.

Someone gonna step up and score a winner for us?

Only the ones that hit him.

The new JWP 🙂 Now get another body in midfield and see it out.

Stick another body in there because that's weak.

Need to match them up in midfield or this one slips away from us.

That's the issue - a back 5 against a back 4 and you tend to lose the midfield battle.

Oh he was today, he was clearly losing his shit with the journos who asked tougher questions.

Two poor sides from what I watched.

Would be great to win this one and then go into the international break followed by Pompey when we'll have all our new boys available.

Yeah, looks a big powerful two footed fullback with plenty of skill and attacking intent. Would be made up if we get this one over the line.