vs Wycombe FA Cup

[Selsey Bill]

Yesterday shows what Doyle brings to the side. A voice and a leader.

Yesterday we had neither.

Spot on chief

[Pompey1985]

He should have been dropped though apprently.

[Selsey Bill]

He should have been dropped though apprently.

I have to admit I've been disappointed by some of his performances this season, i don't think he's the player he was for us last year. On occasions he's looked like his age is catching up with him. However, it was blatantly obvious that we missed him massively yesterday. The worry is that we have no other leaders on the pitch.

[pomp 'n circumstance]

Dont get me wrong SB when I say Burgess & Stevens were the only ones who came out with any credit from the starting 11. It doesn't mean much @ all after as you rightly say was an absolutely abject performance.
I too worry about PC, lose & play poorly against Mansfield & the crowd who turned a tad yesterday will really give an ugly response I feel.
And that will just heap pressure on the Board. I hope things pan out but like you I was lower than a snakes belly@ 5pm yesterday. We show zero signs of putting together a cohesive run of results & in fact are started to look a very befuddled outfit who IMO are showing clear signs of being confused @ whats being asked of them.
And if anything happens to Conor we could be in real trouble because its starting to like our forays into the transfer market for that troublesome up top striker have brought the sum total of zilch which with our budget is not on.

I'm worried mate. The last thing we need right now is a new manager, and to lose Chaplin. I really hope I'm wrong, and I feel disloyal admitting this, but I'm beginning to feel that PC is losing the dressing room. It's weird how a cup game that really should be quite insignificant, is making me feel this way, but something happened yesterday.

I feel PC lost the dressing room some time ago - if you look at his interviews, he is actually losing belief in himself. Whether or not he can regain that belief is questionable and the belief of the squad in his ability is also on the wane - I suspect that he knows that failure this season will lead to an exit by PC. He'd walked the walk, he's talked the talk, but at the end of the day the success we all wanted him to achieve has not materialised......

[RobininDevon]

Yes, Forde pretty incompetant. Been iffy all along with us. Need a change.

[Earl Grey]

As I said after the Notts County game, I'm not sure what PC says to the players but I get the impression it doesn't particularly motivate them.

I'd feel a whole lot better if he set them up to play in the week before a game but then sat himself down in the stands and let them get on with it.

[PakefieldBlue]

I find it fascinating that Cook is so dismissive of the role of varying formations, in today's article in The News again he says this. The Premier League managers are regularly changing tactics to suit different games eg Tottenham yesterday, yet Cook thinks it is a nonsense. I suspect this blindspot could be what keeps him managing in the lower leagues.

[Locky_McLockface]

My twopenn'orth, for what it's worth.

Regarding Christian Burgess, first half, he barely won anything against Akinfenwa, in the second half he was much better, and probably won 75-80% of the aerial battle.

Lalkovic did OK first half, but kept on slipping at crucial moments.

The main issue was, I felt, that we kept on hitting high balls up front, both on Sat and against Notts County. Now Hunt might be pretty good in the air, but it's asking too much of someone relatively small to be that good up against someone big, strong and happy to shove as Pierre. I think last week's goal that little Conor scored against Cambridge was more lucky that Cambridge's CBs didn't position themselves correctly. The previous week against County, much the same was happening, Conor kept gambling that the CB would miss the header, but they didn't.

There were a few decent crosses that went in against Wycombe, but Blackman in goal was happy to come quite a long way out to collect them.

The issue is that we're not a big, strong team, but we seem to want to play as though we are.

When we scored, as whoever-it-was said, it was a low, quick cross from the goal line that Evans got on the end of. It plays to our strengths, and exploits the weakness of many L2 defences who are big, strong and stoopid.

My MoM was actually Kyle Bennett, he did more in the short time he was on than any of the players who started.

Sitting as I do in the family section, I get to witness Paul Cook's antics at reasonably close quarters. In the first half, a sizeable proportion of the time he was shouting at the referee, questioning decisions. In the second half, he shut up, let the ref get on with it, and stood mostly at the back of the bench area. We got a lot more decisions from the ref in the second half - coincidence? You'd like to hope so, but then again, referees are only human.

[<dj.>]

My twopenn'orth, for what it's worth.

When we scored, as whoever-it-was said, it was a low, quick cross from the goal line that Evans got on the end of. It plays to our strengths, and exploits the weakness of many L2 defences who are big, strong and stoopid.

That was me, Locky. It seems so obvious to me that we are our most threatening when we fire in those low crosses behind the defenders that I don't understand why PC and the players don't seem to get it.

[Selsey Bill]

My twopenn'orth, for what it's worth.

When we scored, as whoever-it-was said, it was a low, quick cross from the goal line that Evans got on the end of. It plays to our strengths, and exploits the weakness of many L2 defences who are big, strong and stoopid.

That was me, Locky. It seems so obvious to me that we are our most threatening when we fire in those low crosses behind the defenders that I don't understand why PC and the players don't seem to get it.

You're both spot on. If you watched Liverpool play Watford yesterday, they scored most of their goals in the same way - low, hard crosses into the 6 yard box which centre backs find incredibly difficult to defend, especially when the likes of Chaplin and co are running on to them.

[<dj.>]

The reason they are hard to defend is the centre backs are facing their own goal, instead of up the pitch, so if they intercept it's likely to go for a corner (as happened on Saturday when Enda tried it a second time). Also, with their backs to a nippy striker (step forward Conor!) they're likely to lose sight of him and he can get between them. They can't watch the ball and the striker. It's not rocket science - it should be our preferred MO.

[No Shot Sherlock]

Jeez, we must be in deep do do if even Bill is getting restless

[Locky_McLockface]

My twopenn'orth, for what it's worth.

When we scored, as whoever-it-was said, it was a low, quick cross from the goal line that Evans got on the end of. It plays to our strengths, and exploits the weakness of many L2 defences who are big, strong and stoopid.

That was me, Locky. It seems so obvious to me that we are our most threatening when we fire in those low crosses behind the defenders that I don't understand why PC and the players don't seem to get it.

That's pretty much how we scored against County too.

[BlueinPLtwenty]

I think we miss Davies. To me he was one of our best Players last year.

[Fratton End Exile]

Gave the Cup game a miss, really glad I did. For the first time this season am beginning to doubt Cookie, don't want to but the proof is out there. Not looking forward to saturday a I have a feeling we won't be good again and the crowd may well turn on the players/manager.
Although I have put us to win 4 - 0 in the La La League