saintant

I think, with the players we have, Will Still could do worse than studying and copying the way Liverpool play. Not saying we'll do it anything like as well but we don't need to as we are in the Championship. The first big thing they do is play Salah a left footer on the right and Gekpo a right footer on the left so that they can cut in and get shots away on their preferred foot and lots of their goals come from this set up. These two also drive to the byline and cut dangerous balls back for onrushing team mates. So we could play Fellows on the left and Scienza or Robinson on the right as we need goals from these guys not floaty crosses to midget strikers. Archer to play up front and position himself and make runs in the area the width of the penalty box with Azaz operating just behind him also width of penalty area. Behind Azaz, Charles and Jander to play the two man pivot and get forward to support Azaz and attackers as much as possible. Probably controversial but the two centre backs I'd use would be THB and Quarshie. For Liverpool VVD often plays long diagonals to Salah or Gekpo when they hug the touchline and I think THB could do this as we've seen him do it in the past. I'd also make him captain and responsible for keeping all players doing what they are meant to. Quarshie is big, powerful and quick so good attributes to cover any balls over the top with Baz operating from a high starting point as a sweeper keeper - Quarshie is also a threat at corners and set pieces and has a decent long throw. A right footed full back on the right and left footed one on the left - probably Mads and Manning or Jelert. They'd be encouraged to get forward and provide crosses or hit the byline and cut the ball back. Archer and Azaz to play between the lines and pick up fizzed low balls on the half turn from the back and midfield. Charles and Jander to receive the ball on the half turn from centre backs or advancing full backs. Still needs to find a formation and shape so probably easiest to copy one of the top Premier league sides - no need to reinvent the wheel but he must make us more fluid in transition with a solid shape and a team that creates and scores goals because currently we look toothless and bereft of ideas.

Far too many. Yet again we are having to make do and mend in the striker department having wasted a good sized chunk of money on a young signing probably because SR feel he may make them a few quid in the future. Their decision making continues to fuck up the club.

We should have bought a big experienced striker in the window rather than Downs who is clearly a work in progress.

Well that was all down to the ref who clearly gave a foul that wasn't against Caspar when Murphy blatantly dived.

Spot on. Good post which emphasises the worrying signs in terms of lack of tactical nous and the inability to change the direction of a game that is getting away from you. It's not what I expected from Will Still and I just hope he will up his game starting this weekend at Hull. If not it's going to be another long hard season.

Impossible to press if your midfield is too far from your forwards plus the further gap between the midfield and defenders. It's basic stuff. Just leaves us unable to press and easy to play through.

But why put 27 crosses in when you don't play a big man up front and have mainly players who can't head the ball? It makes no sense.

Well he said it because I heard it with my own ears. Not saying he implied or hoped Archer would win everything but he clearly stated that the way to stop Pompey getting into the game was for us to go long early in the match and that is how it unfolded.

I see Wilcox continues to make zero difference to the ongoing demise of Man Utd. Think he talked the talk but can't walk the walk.

You can play on a pitch that resembles one of the greens at Wentworth but it matters not a jot if the players continually launch the ball into orbit - get it down and play football on the deck.

Didn't someone claim this was posted from a fraud account?

Will Still actually told them to do that and I heard him say so during his pre match interview. It's mainly on the manager although maybe the players need to take some blame for blindly following instructions that clearly weren't working.

Spot on. I was surprised when Still said pre match that we intended to play long at the start of the game because it made no sense. He and the team paid for that tactical mishap and we never recovered from the shocking start to the game which resulted and, as he said himself, we wasted the first 45 minutes. This was not what I expected from Will Still and hopefully he's learned a big lesson.

Thought Mads actually dealt fairly well with one of the best wingers in the Championship. His life was made more difficult by the fact that we did not set up to attack enough so Murphy was comfortable to play high up the pitch - we should have been making sure he was needed further back to stem the flow of our forward play but we didn't do that.

Complete and utter over the top bullshit - it wasn't even a foul.

Caspar Jandar showed enough in his short cameo to give us hope he can come straight in and replace Downes. I think he'll work well alongside Charles.

Wingbacks and 3 CBs is not the way to go - look at all the top sides, do any of them do it? Setting up with a back four was absolutely the right thing to do but Still ruined it by allowing our lines to be too deep and too far apart and having zero press on their defenders and midfield. We played right into their hands and that is not good enough.

But if we'd set up properly and attacked them their wingers such as Murphy would have been forced back to help stem the flow. As it was we gave them the freedom of the park by going long and having zero press. It was a masterclass of how not to set up a football side for a big home derby that had been hyped up for months but we totally missed our chance to put them to the sword from the first whistle.

If this is true then he was nowhere near forceful enough. He should have got in Stephens ear and told him in no uncertain terms to sort it out with the players and if not brought a couple of the worst culprits off pretty quickly. He talked about 45 wasted minutes and was spot on but did nothing to change it. He needs to wise up in short order.

Great post and it accurately describes most of what I saw as being wrong from our point of view. I was saying on the match thread our lines were too far apart and we needed to move twenty yards up the pitch - it was pretty obvious and, as you say, if we can spot it you'd think very well paid coaches could. Our only player with the nous to position himself between their lines was Azaz and he was continually ignored by his team mates. It was an abject display from players and coaches and does ring loud alarm bells regarding the tactical awareness of Will Still who, I thought, would be capable of setting us up correctly and also spotting early where things were going wrong and making changes. As an example of performance level in coaching and play for a huge derby match it fell short in every department. Must improve Will.

We are slow but a lot of that is down to the fact that players do not pick up the space between the lines and so the guy in possession is looking for non existent options to make a simple pass. The player is then forced to dwell on the ball and we become ponderous and slow to move forward. It is easily rectified but the players need intensive coaching because most of them just don't seem to get it. The good sides always have players between the lines and fizz the ball to them at pace. We plod around and either hit slow passes or lump it long.

For some reason not considered good enough for us though. I'm sure Downs will prove better value in the long run 🙂

Yes and he is clearly a good footballer. However, all our players should be well versed and capable of picking up pockets of space between the lines and looking to pass to team mates who have done so. Do none of them ever watch good sides and see what they do. Even Pompey players were far better at it than our lot.

This is one of biggest and most basic problems - can we please get a coach in who knows about playing between the lines. The reason we never found him is because the rest of the idiots are not used to and have no clue how to play between the lines. I imagine Azaz was pretty baffled and not a little frustrated to play alongside others with no basic appreciation of how the game is meant to be played. Will Still needs to get this sorted and quickly.

Me too but evidently, if they did, it needs a lot more work.