Back from the game - MK Dons

[Selsey Bill]

Haven't done one of these for a long time so please bear with me, I'm not match fit. Anyway, as I've said in another thread, this is one of those grounds that it is closer to where I live than Fratton Park, and what an impressive stadium it is. My last visit was painful to watch, and today was no better sadly. On a side note, whenever I visit this stadium I question whether this is what an upgrade of the Old Lady will look like and whether I would like it or not. Anyway, I was very surprised when I heard the team news, especially the dropping of Curtis and then not starting Harrison. I'm still not sure of our actual formation, but it looks like Tunnyclife was playing in the No. 10 role. It didn't suit him, and playing Reeco out wide left was also a disaster. Within the first five to ten minutes you could see we were in trouble. They were all over us, and causing our back four all sorts of problems, especially through the middle. I'm not going into much more detail about our first half performance but if it wasn't for the brilliance of Gavin Bazunu we would have been at least 3-0 down at half time. He literally made three world class saves and smothered another attack with his bravery that either Big Mac or Bass would not have made. Half time couldn't come soon enough, and most Pompey fans were calling for changes. I was, therefore, surprised when Pompey came out for the second half having made no changes though we did immediately show more intent. Within 30 seconds or so we forced a corner which came to nothing, but it was certainly an improvement. The big change in the game came about 10 minutes into the second half when Reeco was replaced by Curtis and a couple of minutes later Freeman by Romeo. We then grew into the game with both subs starting to get forward. Suddenly they were on the back foot, and we even forced a few corners. It was from one of those, however, that they scored their breakaway goal. Why on earth their player wasn't professionally fouled at any point was beyond me and showed naivety. Once they scored, we reverted to being crap again. They started to resemble Wycombe wasting time, pretending to be hurt, etc. but we never looked like getting back into the game. This was the most worrying part of our performance for me. A classic example of this was in the 5 minutes of added time we were awarded a free kick about 10 metres into their half. All our big guns went up to the edge of the box expecting a delivery and, guess what, we played a short free kick and then had the ball nicked off us. So frustrating. I still do have faith in the Cowleys to turn this round, but we are not going to do it with the likes of Marquis and Harness up top. We still have some good players but we need to start creating chances. With regards to our players, we have some keeper in Bazunu, undoubtedly the best I have seen play for Pompey since David James. He is incredible. Sadly he is also the most accurate passer in our team. Only other players of note - thought Morrell had a decent game - at least he tried, and Raggett did well. Freeman didn't look happy being subbed - he kicked a water bottle as he came off the pitch and walked straight down the tunnel. Not sure that will go down well with the Cowleys. Time to unleash Azeez methinks.

[Pompey Penguin]

Thanks SB. I was dreading doing a BFTG as I don't want to think about it too much, but some brief thoughts, apart from just agreeing with you.

Overall Pompey were sluggish, and looked a yard slower in all areas than MK. The Cowleys put a lot of emphasis on workrate and closing down and we had neither.

The Williams-Tunnicliffe-Morrell midfield that looked good for much of the Wigan game was totally lost at MK. I don't know if it was because Tunnicliffe got the more forward role instead of Williams, but MK were able to find space wherever they wanted. This enabled them to look up with time to pick passes, not only to the wide players, who had loads of space as neither Harness nor RHF tracked back properly, but more dangerously they were able to thread passes through our defence to runners between our CBs and FBs.

To date, Robertson has been our main (best) means of moving from defence into attack, but MK closed this down and he was neutralised. It was interesting watching the game from my (very good) seat, especially first half, as I could see the view that Bazunu, Robertson and Raggett had as they looked up with the ball, only to see that they had absolutely nothing in front of them to find a pass.

Harness and RHF were bad, and didn't contribute anything. RHF gets a bit of a pass as he is developing, but Harness was unacceptable. At present we would be better playing Romeo at RMF as he would help Freeman and provide more threat going forward.

Virtually four games and six hours of L1 football since we scored (Williams scored after 2 minues against Shrewsbury). In six L1 games, we have scored four goals; only Shrewsbury, Crewe and Doncaster (all in relegation places, and all whom we have played) have scored fewer. (On the positive side, our two goals conceded is the best in L1). Apart from the disparity between home and away games, we have not had a difficult start to the season. Whatever is in Cowley's plan, it is clearly not working. He has enough options within his squad to do almost anything with formations or personnel, and I don't really mind, but something has to change. I will be very disappointed if we get the same again against Cambridge (another mediocre side) on Saturday. I don't think the FP crowd will be anything like as forgiving as the great Pompey away support.

Otherwise, MK Dons was its usual pleasant, but soulless experience. Given their support, this must be another L1 club spending way above its income. I know that they have now sold all the surrounding land, and other income streams (events) are down, so reliant on owner input/loans/debt. On the plus side, home well before 6pm; my shortest trip of the year.

[Pompeymack]

How did Scott Twine play? I'm interested as we showed an interest in him before he signed for MK Dons.

[Berkshire Blue]

Many thanks for the reports. Let us hope that they do better next Saturday. I am still concerned that we don't have a number 10 to run things.

[Pompey Penguin]

How did Scott Twine play? I'm interested as we showed an interest in him before he signed for MK Dons.

He did well and looked OK, but then so did the rest of the MK team. To be a bit harsh, to have failed to score when your team is so much on top and there are so many opportunities is a bit of a negative against him.

As always with these games, it is difficult to strike a balance between assessing how good MK were against how bad Pompey were. At the extremes, you could argue that MK are the best team in L1, or that Pompey are heading for relegation. In fact, neither of these are true and the balance sits somewhere inbetween. Similarly, it is difficult to assess individuals in such a one-sided game, apart from the obvious standout performances like Bazunu's.

[Sam_Brown]

Thanks for the reports. Very well written as always.

[Betelgeuse]

Thanks guys. I spent a very frustrating afternoon trying to get my ifollow feed to work...it didn't but it sounded like I was spared.
I'm not sure what the Cowleys are up to but they don't seem to have anticipated the goal scoring problem which I find worrying. If they think Marquis and Harrison are going to score the goals we need backed up by 2 loans who seem pretty poor, then I'm very concerned about the future. I hope we won't be looking around for a replacement manager at the end of the season but talking the talk and walking the walk are two entirely different things. I can't see the point in not starting your best 11 and it's clear we didn't do that. Time will tell...

[jam tomorrow]

Interesting to see teams like us and Ipswich who have had a total revamp are struggling which does demonstrate to me that it takes time for the side to gel. The only exceptions to this theory are Wigan and Sunderland who now top the table so is this really a legitimate excuse, or is it dependant on the type of players they have signed? In terms of of our team we did sign some players later in the transfer window so lets hope they do gel sooner rather than later.

[Betelgeuse]

Part of the problem is Cowley saying we're going to play fast, attacking football with a high press and then we do the opposite. Whether that's because we don't have the players to play the system or DC thinks we're actually playing fast attacking football I really don't know.