Portsmouth Post Match

[shade]

I still say 4 4 2 with Howard waghorn/fryatt up front. I don't care if it's unfashionable, it worked for decades and still will.

[Tilley]

When you leave out Hobbs and Wellens and AGAIN play Waghorn out of position, you're asking for trouble.

Embarrassing. Time to go Sousa, give it Powell.

[Samilktray]

Even lose in style under Sousa.

[Guest NGoloMode]

Dyer should have come off for Hobbs after the red.

4-3-2

[Webbo]

Dyer Waghorn should have come off for Hobbs after the red.

4-3-2

[Trav Le Bleu]

Webbo for Mod!

(Finally I'm too tired to care any more - I'm going to bed to have nightmares.)

[Webbo]

Webbo for Mod!

There's a bandwagon starting, I can feel it.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

not going to read the inevitable 8 pages of sousa out crap, but i had a long walk home and took in a fabulous but incredibly insensitive firework display, along the way composing my thoughts on the game in a hopefully rational manner.

so, whilst the significance off the harsh (given the limited contact, supporting defenders and referee's rather distant viewpoint) sending off, and the following very flukey deflected goal, cannot be underestimated, we were a very poor team tonight.

and even though it's easy to blame sousa, and i do believe he was slightly at fault tonight (but i'll consider that in a moment), i believe it was the performances of three players in particular, unfortunately the three core players, that were the main culprits in our capitulation tonight.

1. Morrison - it will hopefully be a long time before he gets another run out in a blue shirt - after getting hopelessly skinned against QPR, tonight he got beaten so many times i lost count, not to mention the stupid and untimely blatant handball which started the collapse.

2. Oakley - like howard, he seems to be one of those players that has a half decent match and then gets a guaranteed place for the next dozen games. Tonight we needed a captains performance and we got nothing, no inspiration, no leadership - time to do the decent thing Matt and resign the club captaincy so we don't have to watch your half arsed, inept midfield play every week.

3. Howard - tonight nearly every attack we had, at some point seemed to go through Howard, and almost every time it came near him it broke down, he missed numerous headers completely, had a poor first touch and put at least a couple of free headers over the bar. The fact that he scored only emphasises this fact, he was not involved in the build up and thus we managed a goal scoring opportunity. the fact that he toe poked it in from two yards does not make up for the 89 minutes of poor football he supplied.

These performances aside, no one else really had much to shout about, logan - bless him - had a blinder and kept them from double figures, and waghorn looked better in the second half when he moved inside behind howard and fryatt (yes, apparently he was playing)....

anyway, sousa...

i don't want him to get sacked, because that is the sort of kneejerk short-termism that got us relegated, but tonight i believe he made a crucial mistake.

following the sending off, he elected to replace Abe with Hobbs. and i think this completely fucked up his own tactics. firstly, it broke up the very impressive trio of Abe-King-Dyer which was just beautiful to watch, culminating, if i remember correctly in the fabulous but disallowed goal. secondly, it left us with a midfield of oakley and king, who were then totally overwhelmed and was the major reason we conceeded so many goals in the end...

we beat pompey with a midfield of moreno-king-abe - today we were humiliated with king-oakley.

this is my only real complaint against sousa.

not a good day at the office: a bit of bad luck, a premiership team rediscovering their quality and confidence, a poor substitution and some very under-par displays by our most and least experienced players.

Excellent post. Bang on...

[Stig the Lawnmower]

I am so pissed off tonight, having witnessed a totally inept, crap display. Men against boys. we lost possession three times in the first 45 seconds of the second half. couldn't see any positives. what's happening? Paulo doesn't seem to know how to change things when its not working. How can we have conceeded so many goals already with a defence that isn't too far removed from last season?

ruined my weekend

[ramboacdc]

is it too late to ask preston for wayne brown back?

[Wymsey]

is it too late to ask preston for wayne brown back?

he hasn't been a regular starter for them i don't think

[ramboacdc]

he hasn't been a regular starter for them i don't think

youre joking?! he was one of our keystones last season in my opinion.

[rabbid]

not going to read the inevitable 8 pages of sousa out crap...

So in which case it will be ok to not read the inevitable "I didn't see any matches this season" crap then?

[Wymsey]

youre joking?! he was one of our keystones last season in my opinion.

he didn't play against burnley, so i presume he is not. i presume...

[Guest Bilo]

I'm so pissed but it has to be a 4-4-fucking 3 against Norwich.

4-3-1-2 doesn't work, end of story.

But what the fuck, Sousa will just carry on regardless like the incompetent jebend he's proven himself to be.

Morrison was shit, Vitor was shit, Berner needs to see a rape counsellor after what Nugent did to him and Neilson was only half-decent.

Oakley was crap, Abe should have stayed on but Sousa in his infinite wisdom took him off and Dyer only showed glimpses.

Only Howard looked arsed up front, Waggy is half the player he was under Pearson.

Fu[/ick off Mandaric you lumpy nosed cunt, Fuck off Top you spoiled brat and fuck off Sousa you useless shit.

Done with the bastard lot of you after that debacle.

[Wymsey]

4-3-1-2. what a **** shit formation. Most english teams do 442 or 443. Piss off Sousa. Portuguese footy not the same or better than the english!

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Anyone that wants cheering up, I've done a cracking Paint job on a photo of Dev and Sunita off Corro with Sousa's head instead of Sunita's so it looks like Sousa's gay for Dev.

Might stop the suicide rate in Leicester for a bit.

*To add, the two posters above me have both mentioned 4-4-3, which, unless I'm being a retard, doesn't exist.

[Guest Bilo]

Anyone that wants cheering up, I've done a cracking Paint job on a photo of Dev and Sunita off Corro with Sousa's head instead of Sunita's so it looks like Sousa's gay for Dev.

Might stop the suicide rate in Leicester for a bit.

*To add, the two posters above me have both mentioned 4-4-3, which, unless I'm being a retard, doesn't exist.

Bollocks, I'm pissed.

But even with an extra man, the luxury that Pompey had in the first half, we'd have been raped.

4-3-3 is our most successful formation.

4-4-2 is shit.

4-5-1 is crap.

4-3-1-2 is worse still.

4-3-3 kills all.

End of.

[Will1981]

We need to play 5-3-2 with wingbacks like we did under O'Neill

GK Weale

CB Hobbs (capt)

CB Vitor

CB Tunchev

RWB Lamey

LWB Dyer

CM King

CM Abe

CM Wellens

ST Fryatt

ST Waghorn

[DanTheFox07]

Just Got back from the Game lads and I have to say I think Sousa is well on the way to losing the dressing room, I was waiting at the back end of pompey ground for leicester players to come out to get some signature`s! anyway they say body language can tell you a lot. Wellens come out and on the time was on the phone while signing autograph`s for us im guessing was speaking to his agent and his words were: I want out, I Don`t Care I want out of here! so im pretty sure he could be leaving I could be wrong but lets see, personally think it`s a travesty Wellens didn`t play 2nite! one our better play makers. Waghorn and king seem to have an attitude on them that they are the big time and general feeling the reason we beat pompey on tuesday is because we had a team that was hungry to do well. Leaving Hobbs out at the expense of morrison was an awful decision, Hobbs is our best cb in my opinion! Referee was awful 2nite and it was never a red card. Regardless of what I have written above the thing that hurts me the most is in the second half with 40 mins to go Sousa sat on the bench and didn`t make any effort what so ever to encourage our team in anyway.

We had a good system and team already in place, now we have had an influx of players and the majority of players that did well for us last season seem to have been forgotten. Howard and fryatt work upfront and yet we have sousa playing 4-3-3 every game with a striker on the wing! Im sorry but have to say that I want sousa to leave, there is a good pedigree of managers out there for us to take, pardew, mowbray, ince, Howe, o driscoll to name but a few! it`s time to make a change and get a manager to play it simple.

[Asha]

Just got back from that horror show - and I'm never one for extreme reactions but losing 6-1 to the bottom team in the league is inexcusable, and serious questions need to be raised regarding Sousa's future. He clearly doesn't have a clue what he's doing and today was just completely disgraceful on so many levels.

[hackneyfox]

not going to read the inevitable 8 pages of sousa out crap, but i had a long walk home and took in a fabulous but incredibly insensitive firework display, along the way composing my thoughts on the game in a hopefully rational manner.

so, whilst the significance off the harsh (given the limited contact, supporting defenders and referee's rather distant viewpoint) sending off, and the following very flukey deflected goal, cannot be underestimated, we were a very poor team tonight.

and even though it's easy to blame sousa, and i do believe he was slightly at fault tonight (but i'll consider that in a moment), i believe it was the performances of three players in particular, unfortunately the three core players, that were the main culprits in our capitulation tonight.

1. Morrison - it will hopefully be a long time before he gets another run out in a blue shirt - after getting hopelessly skinned against QPR, tonight he got beaten so many times i lost count, not to mention the stupid and untimely blatant handball which started the collapse.

2. Oakley - like howard, he seems to be one of those players that has a half decent match and then gets a guaranteed place for the next dozen games. Tonight we needed a captains performance and we got nothing, no inspiration, no leadership - time to do the decent thing Matt and resign the club captaincy so we don't have to watch your half arsed, inept midfield play every week.

3. Howard - tonight nearly every attack we had, at some point seemed to go through Howard, and almost every time it came near him it broke down, he missed numerous headers completely, had a poor first touch and put at least a couple of free headers over the bar. The fact that he scored only emphasises this fact, he was not involved in the build up and thus we managed a goal scoring opportunity. the fact that he toe poked it in from two yards does not make up for the 89 minutes of poor football he supplied.

These performances aside, no one else really had much to shout about, logan - bless him - had a blinder and kept them from double figures, and waghorn looked better in the second half when he moved inside behind howard and fryatt (yes, apparently he was playing)....

anyway, sousa...

i don't want him to get sacked, because that is the sort of kneejerk short-termism that got us relegated, but tonight i believe he made a crucial mistake.

following the sending off, he elected to replace Abe with Hobbs. and i think this completely fucked up his own tactics. firstly, it broke up the very impressive trio of Abe-King-Dyer which was just beautiful to watch, culminating, if i remember correctly in the fabulous but disallowed goal. secondly, it left us with a midfield of oakley and king, who were then totally overwhelmed and was the major reason we conceeded so many goals in the end...

we beat pompey with a midfield of moreno-king-abe - today we were humiliated with king-oakley.

this is my only real complaint against sousa.

not a good day at the office: a bit of bad luck, a premiership team rediscovering their quality and confidence, a poor substitution and some very under-par displays by our most and least experienced players.

This sums it up perfectly

[Fox You Forest]

Fucking pitiful, cracking day ruined by a game of football.

[Ozwin]

Thought it was quite nice of Cotterill to praise our players attitude when none of them really deserved it. Nice bloke.

[Ilkeston_Fox]

Just got back. Hmmmm what to say....

Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shitty shit with a side order of shit just about sums it up.

460+ (round trip) miles for me to see a game that was ruined by some cock of a referee. Don't get me wrong we were seriously inept. But the ref had it in for us and no mistake.

Penalty - no arguments, plain as day. The sending off ha fook off mate no way in hell was that a straight red. Plenty of other decisions that should have gone our way didn't. Too many for me to mention. Though this in no way excuses the players for their 'performance' tonight. I just think we had no way of getting back into after going 2-0 down to a bad decision.

Don't really know what else to say. Why did Hobbs not start? WHY take off Dyer when he was the only person threatening them???? Should have started 4-4-2 imo. Stop playing Waggy as a winger. It's not hard Sousa. I've yet to jump on the 'Sousa out' bandwagon but you're making it hard for me not to....