Saints 0-0 Skates - Match Thread

[Baird of the land]

1 minute ago, mcbendy said:

That was a bizarre performance. There's a logic to route 1 'hoof it up to the big man' type football, even if that wouldn't be my preferred style to watch. I can't get my head around the logic of 'hoof it up to the little men' logic, and there was no evidence whatsoever of it working. A new type of one touch football, where the philosophy is to use that one touch to give the ball back to the opposition...

That's one of my big concerns. You could completely see the tactical sense of how portsmouth set up to try and get something from the game whereas i can't see anything from Still. Worse still to get completely humped for 45 minutes and the manager does zilch to change it and instead saves all 5 changes in the last 15 minutes. 

[tdmickey3]

Well Will, it needs to get better much fuckin better, sort it out FFS

Can you do better, I need some convincing after that utter shit show in the first half.

Very few positives but a shed load of negatives.

The lumping to a small striker is the biggest and most obviously stupid tactic.

[Harry_SFC]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Murphy was the best player on the pitch. 

He was, but I'm not talking about his defending as such. He gave the ball away a ridiculous amount of times.

[Sheaf Saint]

3 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

I was quite positive about him but his first half kick it long strategy was ridiculous.
Their Manager had his team better sorted than us but then again he was ridiculed at Fratton Park when he first joined Pompey
Their left winger and Bishop, the sort of aggressive CF, we have longed for were standouts for them.
We should have the squad quality to improve but the team, as it stands, is nowhere near Prem standard.

How do we know that was actually his strategy though? I've seen nothing whatsoever to suggest that's how his teams play, and I think it was more a case of Pompey being well organised and closing down well to stop us playing between the lines in the first half, so a few players resorted to trying long balls instead. Clearly there was words had and a tweak of something at HT, and we had much more joy passing through them in the second half.

I think people need to put aside the fact that this was a derby game and look a bit more objectively. Today was the first time Still had all his new signings available and was able to play his preferred formation. I thought the second half was much better than we've seen with the back 3 so far, and there were encouraging signs from some of the new recruits (notably Fellows and Jander).

Up until now, Still has been forced to work with only what was available to him. The time to judge him will be once the new players have bedded in and we've got a settled starting lineup. 

[Edmonton Saint]

Selles has been sacked.

[ant]

Let them pull us down to their level in the first half, and never truly went for it when they bedded in and played for the draw.

Saw a reasonable amount of quality on the pitch, but we kind of feel scared to truly utilise it. 

In a conservative 'don't lose' mode.

If Still is to be a success - and we're to be genuine contenders - we'll need to shed that mindset pronto.

[St. Ciervo]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Up until now, Still has been forced to work with only what was available to him. The time to judge him will be once the new players have bedded in and we've got a settled starting lineup. 

Can I get a firm timeline for this to happen? I feel they look like the team I saw in August without much change except the names on the kit. 

[Baird of the land]

Just now, Edmonton Saint said:

Selles has been sacked.

Hopefully Sheff Utd will come in for Still, so we can get rid of the chump

[skintsaint]

Just thinking did any of the three keepers actually have to make a decent save? 

[lambtiss]

10 minutes ago, saintant said:

Think he made sure he gave him a vice like handshake.

Still should have given him a Chinese burn

[Vancouver Saint]

Only saw the second half - thought we were the better team but never looked like we were going to score. If Will Still is setting us up as a crossing team we need a big, aggressive No.9 who is going to get to the ball first...you just knew every cross was going to be met by a blue head or foot first.
I do think the timing of this game worked better for Portsmouth than us...international break, lots of new players for us who need some time together.
Not the result we wanted but too early to panic. I think if we start playing the ball on the ground and central mixing it up with wide attacks and crosses we will be top six.

[benjii]

3 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

How do we know that was actually his strategy though? I've seen nothing whatsoever to suggest that's how his teams play, and I think it was more a case of Pompey being well organised and closing down well to stop us playing between the lines in the first half, so a few players resorted to trying long balls instead. Clearly there was words had and a tweak of something at HT, and we had much more joy passing through them in the second half.

I think people need to put aside the fact that this was a derby game and look a bit more objectively. Today was the first time Still had all his new signings available and was able to play his preferred formation. I thought the second half was much better than we've seen with the back 3 so far, and there were encouraging signs from some of the new recruits (notably Fellows and Jander).

Up until now, Still has been forced to work with only what was available to him. The time to judge him will be once the new players have bedded in and we've got a settled starting lineup. 

Nah, it was obviously the tactics. We were like that from the first minute.

[AlexLaw76]

Last time I will say it.

Kieffer Moore would thrive in this shite way Will Still has us playing 

[Chez]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Hard to change? 

Evidently.

[LGTL]

Pompey win 0-0 again. Terrible, terrible game. Absolutely nothing happened. 

[Baird of the land]

Just now, benjii said:

Nah, it was obviously the tactics. We were like that from the first minute.

Are we sure Still's middle name isn't Baldrick. It was an exceptionally cunning plan.

[benjii]

4 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

 

Up until now, Still has been forced to work with only what was available to him. The time to judge him will be once the new players have bedded in and we've got a settled starting lineup. 

Yeah, our threadbare awful squad. It's a miracle we managed to beat Wrexham, really.

[austsaint]

2 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Disappointed the full backs didnt get up the pitch a bit more, think manning is not direct enough either passing or running for this team.

Disjointed with the new players but i can see hope, expect the next 5 games to be a real improvement.

Also shout out to armstrong showing archer exactly what was needed as a nusiance harrying CF.

Agree, Armstrong looked lively today.  Don’t know that either of the full backs have getting up the pitch more in their lockers.  Roerslav had his hands full with the excellent Jacob Murphy.   Charles and Fraser both good.   Very underwhelmed by Azaz at this stage; he looks a couple of grades below the Armenian Chappy.     
Difficult to know whether the side is still settling in (what I want to believe) or whether we’re in for a frustrating season.
 

[ally_uk]

I thought our performance overall was shite....... 

Not impressed with Still's tenure so far, vast improvement needed. 

Portsmouth played really well 👏  thought their left winger was decent.

[Chez]

8 minutes ago, saintant said:

Hardly surprising when he spent most of the game watching pointless long balls sailing over his head. Get the ball on the floor and play fucking football - pass and move and get between the lines. Football really isn't rocket science.

Maybe the whole midfield needed to work harder to find space.  There wasn't a lot of it though, so the next option was to go longer and play off the striker, at least until the space opened up, but not sure Archer can do that. Tough for any striker. We need a way of countering the press

[saintant]

16 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Clueless in attack, way too many aimless hoofs surrendering possession. Seems like we really lack attacking pattern of play and connection between players - which is to be expected to an extent.

Not at all impressed with Roerslev, seems like a slightly more agile James Bree.

Still needs to work out his best combination of attacking players fast.

To be fair he was up against one of the best wingers in the Championship and that includes the ones we have.

[RedArmy]

Get that ginger cunt gone. Embarrassing tactics for a derby.

[Chez]

12 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

That's one of my big concerns. You could completely see the tactical sense of how portsmouth set up to try and get something from the game whereas i can't see anything from Still. Worse still to get completely humped for 45 minutes and the manager does zilch to change it and instead saves all 5 changes in the last 15 minutes. 

Their press was excellent and we didn't know what to do. We looked terrible. Still seemed to sort it at half time though and we dominated. Shouldn't Still get a little credit for the changes he made at the break?

 

[Osvaldorama]

Some harsh comments on here. 
 

They came to kill the game, fouling, time wasting and diving. And unfortunately we aren’t savvy enough and let them get away with it. 
 

This game came at the wrong time for us, you can see some quality but they looked like a group of strangers really. 
 

My only big concern is our central midfield. We just don’t seem to impose or control a game with Downes and Charles. The game seems to pass them by. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Osvaldorama

[LaptopSaint]

All this stuff about new players and time to settle in bollocks really gets my goat. 
That was objectively terrible. We were fucking lame. They had a sub keeper on after 20 mins in a derby and we didn’t make him make a proper save. We were toothless, lumping it up to the little man, no imagination or guile, boring to watch.
The atmosphere around the ground beforehand and during the match was great. But I hope the players and the manager know they let the fans down. We’ll get better. But that wasn’t good enough.  

[saintant]

39 minutes ago, Chez said:

When the side doesn't play well is it simply the coach's fault?

I thought he managed the game pretty well. He changed the formation before the game, which most wanted, he seemed to reinvigorate the side at half time after a poor first half and his subs in the second made sense.

i thought it was always going to be hard changing formation during an international break and for this game, but I feel more confident than when we plated five at the back.

His problem is he said in his pre match interview that he'd instructed the team to play long balls and they followed that to the letter. It doesn't work when Archer is your centre forward and Still should be fully aware of that.

Edited 4 hours ago by saintant

[Toussaint]

Just now, Osvaldorama said:

Some harsh comments on here. 
 

They came to kill the game, fouling, time wasting and diving. And unfortunately we aren’t savvy enough and let them get away with it. 
 

This game came at the wrong time for us, you can see some quality but they looked like a group of strangers really. 
 

My only big concern is our central midfield. We just don’t seem to impose or control a game with Downes and Charles. The game seems to pass them buy. 

I thought they took the game to us, definitely in the first half, they had better chances later in the second half. 

[Baird of the land]

Just now, Chez said:

Their press was excellent and we didn't know what to do. We looked terrible. Still seemed to sort it at half time though and we dominated. Shouldn't Still get a little credit for the changes he made at the break?

 

No after being humiliated for 45 minutes you'd expect a reaction after HT.

We still didn't look to have a plan for how we were going to score. We should have seen a sub before HT or at the very latest at HT.

 

[Saint NL]

Even with the shift to four at the back, the midfield seems quite weak. Jander looked good when he came on, so maybe he will help out there.

The long balls to Archer in the first half were a strange tactic, he seems to have beefed up a bit over the summer. A couple of times he put the centre back on his backside.

 

A bit of a nothing game in the end.

[saintant]

17 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

How do we know that was actually his strategy though? I've seen nothing whatsoever to suggest that's how his teams play, and I think it was more a case of Pompey being well organised and closing down well to stop us playing between the lines in the first half, so a few players resorted to trying long balls instead. Clearly there was words had and a tweak of something at HT, and we had much more joy passing through them in the second half.

I think people need to put aside the fact that this was a derby game and look a bit more objectively. Today was the first time Still had all his new signings available and was able to play his preferred formation. I thought the second half was much better than we've seen with the back 3 so far, and there were encouraging signs from some of the new recruits (notably Fellows and Jander).

Up until now, Still has been forced to work with only what was available to him. The time to judge him will be once the new players have bedded in and we've got a settled starting lineup. 

Because he said so when interviewed before the game. Ok, he didn't actually say he wanted every ball lumped long but we started that way and then it became difficult to actually play any controlled football because Pompey pressed us forcing us to continually pump it long.

[captainchris]

24 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Strongly disagree on that. He had very little to pass to and was left exposed quite a few times. Pompey played it long down his side a fair bit but I felt like he dealt with most things fairly well. I’d say he was one of the better players, along with Baz, Stephens, Charles and Fraser.

Roeslev does look all that all…. Weird signing..

[Chez]

 

2 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

No after being humiliated for 45 minutes you'd expect a reaction after HT.

 

So everything bad is down to the head coach, everything good is down to the players. Gotcha.

[pimpin4rizeal]

Some our current way of playing and transfer business doesn’t make sense.. if the goal is to get wide men like Fraser and fellows putting crosses in we might as well have kept onuachu .I’m not sure fellows attributes are suited to us at all.. 

azaz actually did ok and showed some of his football intelligence with some clever  passes 

[Chez]

7 minutes ago, saintant said:

Hi problem is he said in his pre match interview that he'd instructed the team to play long balls and they followed that to the letter. It doesn't work when Archer is your centre forward and Still should be fully aware of that.

what's your solution when the opponents press is excellent?

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Chez said:

what's your solution when the opponents press is excellent?

Guess pompey will be unbeaten for much of the season then 

[Saint_Jonny]

Club and fans did their bit to create a brilliant atmosphere before and during the game, just a shame the team very much did not. Anti climax. 

Kicking long to Archer needs to go on the bin FAST. 

[Saint_clark]

19 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Last time I will say it.

Kieffer Moore would thrive in this shite way Will Still has us playing 

Do you promise?

[Scummer]

1 minute ago, captainchris said:

Roeslev does look all that all…. Weird signing..

It's funny how people see things differently. He was right in front of me first half and had Murphy in his pocket. Nothing much changed second half from what I saw. Yet I read on here that Murphy was motm and Mads was poor.... 

[saintant]

19 minutes ago, ant said:

Let them pull us down to their level in the first half, and never truly went for it when they bedded in and played for the draw.

Saw a reasonable amount of quality on the pitch, but we kind of feel scared to truly utilise it. 

In a conservative 'don't lose' mode.

If Still is to be a success - and we're to be genuine contenders - we'll need to shed that mindset pronto.

They didn't. What happened was that they were quite clearly and by a distance the better footballing side in that first half. We tweaked a few things and were better second half but Pompey were more than just a basic side and we needed to aspire to their level and weren't pulled down to it. We may not like them but let's not ignore what we saw on the pitch.

[Willo of Whiteley]

Let’s not beat around the bush, that was absolutely bloody terrible.

Tactics all over the place, no real attacking threat, Azaz invisible.

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Well, we didn't lose I guess...

[SambaMaverick]

4 hours ago, SambaMaverick said:

Win or fuck off

I'm furious with that result and performance, tbh 

[Baird of the land]

1 minute ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Some our current way of playing and transfer business doesn’t make sense.. if the goal is to get wide men like Fraser and fellows putting crosses in we might as well have kept onuachu .I’m not sure fellows attributes are suited to us at all.. 

azaz actually did ok and showed some of his football intelligence with some clever  passes 

The big embarassment is in a humiliating draw at home to pompey where we mustered one weak shot on target, our 6M summer striker signing isn't even considered good enough to get a minute on the pitch.

[Patches O Houlihan]

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. 

[SambaMaverick]

1 minute ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

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. 

He was non existent offensively just like against Watford, which is what I was talking about when I said he's another Bree.

It's easy to play right back when you're only going in one direction, most pros could do it.

But hey ho, apparently I'm an idiot and he's a baller because he's played a few PL games.

[Patches O Houlihan]

10 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

He was non existent offensively just like against Watford, which is what I was talking about when I said he's another Bree.

It's easy to play right back when you're only going in one direction, most pros could do it.

But hey ho, apparently I'm an idiot and he's a baller because he's played a few PL games.

What were literally my first words in that post!

Edited 4 hours ago by Patches O Houlihan

[LGTL]

To get from where we currently are to winning promotion is looking an incredibly tall order. Be lucky to make top 6 looking at it currently. Can anyone actually confirm what we’re meant to be doing week by week?

[saintant]

19 minutes ago, austsaint said:

Agree, Armstrong looked lively today.  Don’t know that either of the full backs have getting up the pitch more in their lockers.  Roerslav had his hands full with the excellent Jacob Murphy.   Charles and Fraser both good.   Very underwhelmed by Azaz at this stage; he looks a couple of grades below the Armenian Chappy.     
Difficult to know whether the side is still settling in (what I want to believe) or whether we’re in for a frustrating season.
 

Is the Armenian chappy 20 feet tall because he'd have needed to be to get even a glancing touch of the ball particularly first half. When we did try to play on the ground a bit in the second half Azaz came into it but no midfielder can influence a game if his defenders continually launch the ball into orbit.

[Saint NL]

Pompey set the blueprint to completely shut us down. When our defenders have the ball, mark Downes and Charles tightly. That means THB or Stephens will pass out to the full backs, who will just hit it long for Archer and we lose possession.

It was pretty clear, especially the first half. Any other team in the league will be doing the same.

[skintsaint]

4 minutes ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Roerslav was not great offensively

He bombed forwards quite a number of times during the game but wasn't always found.

As someone said, Murphy was keeping him busy down the other end.