Constructive criticism.

[sheepfarmer]

You are right I dont know however I am speculating on what Ross has Been saying which is it's a myth that we didn't score enough he just wants to keep more clean sheets. My conclusion to that is once we get a lead in the game Ross' aim isn't to continue scoring but to keep it tight and protect what we have.

Can you say anything which tells you otherwise?

If you listen to his interview after the game Ross says that he doesn't tell them to sit back after we score and pointed to our spell of play early in the 2nd half as an example. Then says it's understandable that the players get cautious as it gets near the end

 

[Whitburnmakem]

A good hard fought win today but the weakness still looks fairly obvious (to me anyway) It's in the last third of the pitch. I lost count of the number of times we got to that point with a half decent move then you could see the man in possession wondering where his options were.....inevitably there were none or very few and the ball was held up and passed sideways or backwards. . Charlie Wyke played an excellent target man role today but no-one really went past him or overlapped. Ross has to find a way of getting more bodies up when we break forward

Wyke needs to cut out the needless fouls when the defender still has a lot of work to do he gives them the easy way out sometimes pushing them

 

[Boblee]

Wyke needs to cut out the needless fouls when the defender still has a lot of work to do he gives them the easy way out sometimes pushing them

I like seeing him giving it out to defenders and to be honest he gets a lot of fouls against him when it’s him being fouled

 

[LT2K]

Thought Portsmouth had the luxury of being able to squeeze us higher up the pitch (something we couldn't do in return), we are crying out for a forward/winger with real pace just to make that option for the opposition go away.

 

[Deleted member 26022]

The problem is we still lack real strength and pace when going forward..

This^

 

[Clueless]

It was around 44 minutes before I noticed Gooch.

Me too. After about an hour he was very busy and quite productive, but prior to this was anonymous and fairly ineffective.

 

[Roker Magic]

The problem is we still lack real strength and pace when going forward..

The problem is we still have fans complaining even after we have just beat one of the best sides in the league.

 

[samwise]

quite a few thoughts and opinions on this thread...although i am stuck with the commentary it sounded like quite an even game but for some reason i did not have that 'usual' feeling that they were going to score every time they came at us, benno did mention gooch once or twice but that was just to say he had not had a touch and was struggling to get into the game, not that he was doing anything wrong, but picked up 2nd half...i agree that we seem a little 'light' in attack and we still appear to be giving the ball away too easily at times, hopefully a couple of similar hard fought but deserved wins will boost the confidence in the squad.

overall, very happy with the result, quite happy with the performance but i am hoping ross sticks with this formation now and i feel we will see further improvement.

 

[chuckyroll]

quite a few thoughts and opinions on this thread...although i am stuck with the commentary it sounded like quite an even game but for some reason i did not have that 'usual' feeling that they were going to score every time they came at us, benno did mention gooch once or twice but that was just to say he had not had a touch and was struggling to get into the game, not that he was doing anything wrong, but picked up 2nd half...i agree that we seem a little 'light' in attack and we still appear to be giving the ball away too easily at times, hopefully a couple of similar hard fought but deserved wins will boost the confidence in the squad.

overall, very happy with the result, quite happy with the performance but i am hoping ross sticks with this formation now and i feel we will see further improvement.

It's quite annoying and frustrating the way we give the ball away under no pressure

 

[dan1973]

I'm curious as to whether Power can play the defensive midfielder role instead of Leadbitter or Mcgeouch rather than along side them. He does tend to sit a bit deep but has an inclination to break forward at times too and that changed the midfield dynamic a bit. I'm at a loss why we need two players in the middle doing the same job and it leaves us light up top especially if our wide players are, well, out wide.

Got to be a Leadbitter, Power or McGeouch with someone more mobile surely? I thought that was supposed to be Dobson?

I agree, I was speaking from a personal viewpoint, I honestly didn’t notice him until just before half time, he played well in the second half although he did look knackered.

His fitness concerned me.

 

[RichD]

The problem is we still have fans complaining even after we have just beat one of the best sides in the league.

and you think that was complaining

 

[LineTrash]

I watched the Dortmund game today, they had 8 players inside the Augsburgs 30yd and all 10 inside their half when attacking... if we’re gonna have a real intent on attacking surely we’ll need more than 3 or 4 that far up?

 

[wicketkeeper]

Maguire has a lot of qualities but he just lacks that energy and movement. Whether it's a lack of condition I don't know but I watched him a few times second half when we were crying out for someone to make those runs into space to give options and he just looked as if he didn't fancy that aspect of the job.

McGuire should not be dropped . He is one of our most creative players and drops off into space well to link attacks

 

[Bears Beets]

Main thing is that we won today, the performance was average at best, very poor at times but we ground out a win against a promotion rival.

2 very winnable games coming up, time to start dominating games now and build momentum.

 

[Bigmackem]

Not sure if it's just me but the full backs seem to have been told to stay back too. When we were doing well last season O'Nien was always overlapping and getting into the box.

Will change game by game , important to keep Portsmouth wingers quiet as that was where their threat was coming from . Good that he takes his defensive responsibilities seriously .

 

[Quillips]

It is his fault if, as I suspect, he is telling then to sit.

You're wrong! He told them to push for a 3rd, but not go hung-ho about it.

Willis post-match interview.

 

[billyboy]

I like Gooch , he never got a kick 1st half/

Think thats down to respect for who we were playing.

I could understand if it was a championship or premier league team, we should not be worrying about the teams in the first division we should be taking the game to them especially at home.

 

[Perryqhill]

I'm curious as to whether Power can play the defensive midfielder role instead of Leadbitter or Mcgeouch rather than along side them. He does tend to sit a bit deep but has an inclination to break forward at times too and that changed the midfield dynamic a bit. I'm at a loss why we need two players in the middle doing the same job and it leaves us light up top especially if our wide players are, well, out wide.

Power sits deep because he's asked to. He was breaking forward too. realistically there's no way you can play two wingers and two central players who don't sit a bit. He was doing a different role to Leadbitter and he's there has he's got physicality and energy, we need someone next to him to looks after the ball better, like Leadbitter.

 

[Quillips]

Power sits deep because he's asked to. He was breaking forward too. realistically there's no way you can play two wingers and two central players who don't sit a bit. He was doing a different role to Leadbitter and he's there has he's got physicality and energy, we need someone next to him to looks after the ball better, like Leadbitter.

Yes. And it suggests that McGeouch and Leadbitter are vying for one midfield place, and Power v Dobson for the other.

 

[Deleted member 13050]

Power sits deep because he's asked to. He was breaking forward too. realistically there's no way you can play two wingers and two central players who don't sit a bit. He was doing a different role to Leadbitter and he's there has he's got physicality and energy, we need someone next to him to looks after the ball better, like Leadbitter.

I'm only talking 15 yards further forward so the ball doesn't end up going backwards when we break.