Match Thread Portsmouth FC - Coventry City Match Thread - Tuesday 21st Oct (154 Viewers)

Flying Fokker

Well-Known Member
Baffling to see multiple negative comments about EMC across various threads on here, including criticisms of workrate and awareness. Such a fine player, and I'm always very happy to see him on the team sheet.
It’s
My instant summary of EMC

Just because we are criticizing does not mean we think he is no good

1. Colossal potential. two good crosses, two goals shows that. A match winner
2. But just not maxing out on that potential. Only two crosses. The same is true of Sakamoto - not enough crosses
3. The defensive cover / day dreaming bit he'll learn. It's just a bit of a nuisance right now
4. Defenders don't give him the space they did when he was new and unheard of
5. There is an ongoing fitness question
All of that. Number 5 is the real focus for me Not because of the other 4 reasons but because players need to regain strength/match fitness. We also don’t know what Lampard wants him to do either. He’d take any player off if they look like they need a rest.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Well Rafa is on loan, KKH and Brau have proved they can play there, BTA has been deployed on both wings and before this season Haji has played largely on the left so we have options, but apart from that they're our only 2 wingers.

Apart from the players who aren’t at the club and don’t play there ? Yeah good one.
 

Sky Blue Goblin

Well-Known Member
I think every match here on out I’m expecting to lose as I’ve followed us long enough and our start is mental 🤣 (will change one we lose one)

Same team as against blackburn? Only change being Josh Eccles hopefully fit enough to start on the bench
 

TomRad85

Well-Known Member
I think every match here on out I’m expecting to lose as I’ve followed us long enough and our start is mental 🤣 (will change one we lose one)

Same team as against blackburn? Only change being Josh Eccles hopefully fit enough to start on the bench
Yeh I'd bring Eccles in. I don't think I'd be starting BTA in the 10 for this one tbh. Be tempted to have Sakamoto on the bench to start with.
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Very confident of a win on the pompey board
They think the playoffs are a possibility, just need their strikers to find their mojo
Don’t see why they wouldn’t be, we have to lose eventually (though would be nice if we never did again) and they’ve taken 4 points from Boro and Lesta.

Styles make matches though
 

David O'Day

Well-Known Member
Don’t see why they wouldn’t be, we have to lose eventually (though would be nice if we never did again) and they’ve taken 4 points from Boro and Lesta.

Styles make matches though
Yes they should be but we should be even more confident as we are in even better form and have a much better team.

Also our strikers actually have found their mojo.
 

TomRad85

Well-Known Member
I feel like Saturday’s ref did have a bad game with us last season but is generally good. Gavin Ward however has shit games with us and is generally garbage.
I'll be honest I tend to forget about most of them until their faces come up and I'm like, "fucking hell not that clown." That's probably most of the refs in this league on reflection, I do remember getting really wound up be Allison, Ward and Madley though.
 

fatso

Well-Known Member
My instant summary of EMC

Just because we are criticizing does not mean we think he is no good

1. Colossal potential. two good crosses, two goals shows that. A match winner
2. But just not maxing out on that potential. Only two crosses. The same is true of Sakamoto - not enough crosses
3. The defensive cover / day dreaming bit he'll learn. It's just a bit of a nuisance right now
4. Defenders don't give him the space they did when he was new and unheard of
5. There is an ongoing fitness question
He didn't put 2 good crosses in for the goals though.
He actually put 2 very poor crosses in that were on the head of the CH. It was the poor defensive headers that gifted us the goals.
Schoolboys are taught not to head the ball to the danger area (edge of the box where midfielders are lurking)
Those goals were down to piss poor clearances.

I don't think hes a bad player, but I do think there's more to come from him, and im not sure hes 100% fit yet.
 

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
He didn't put 2 good crosses in for the goals though.
He actually put 2 very poor crosses in that were on the head of the CH. It was the poor defensive headers that gifted us the goals.
Schoolboys are taught not to head the ball to the danger area (edge of the box where midfielders are lurking)
Those goals were down to piss poor clearances.

I don't think hes a bad player, but I do think there's more to come from him, and im not sure hes 100% fit yet.
You have to give him credit for the ability to attack the full back he’s so direct
If he could pick a pass then woah
 

SkyblueTexan

Well-Known Member
Anyone else notice the celebration of both goals Kitching making sure every player came over and then doing a quick team talk
Interesting to see
Yes, saw the huddle and quick team talk following the goals in the City Unseen video. Good for them to find moments to communicate and stay on the same page.
 

SonofErnie

Well-Known Member
He didn't put 2 good crosses in for the goals though.
He actually put 2 very poor crosses in that were on the head of the CH. It was the poor defensive headers that gifted us the goals.
Schoolboys are taught not to head the ball to the danger area (edge of the box where midfielders are lurking)
Those goals were down to piss poor clearances.

I don't think hes a bad player, but I do think there's more to come from him, and im not sure hes 100% fit yet.
In most cases crosses are not directly targeted for an attacking player, but are put into a danger area where you can feed off a poor clearance if one of your players doesn’t get to it.

How many times this season have we scored goals from exactly that scenario?
 

Gibbo

Well-Known Member
He didn't put 2 good crosses in for the goals though.
He actually put 2 very poor crosses in that were on the head of the CH. It was the poor defensive headers that gifted us the goals.
Schoolboys are taught not to head the ball to the danger area (edge of the box where midfielders are lurking)
Those goals were down to piss poor clearances.

I don't think hes a bad player, but I do think there's more to come from him, and im not sure hes 100% fit yet.
They were good crosses that put the opposition under pressure...and led directly to goals
 

Speedie's Head

Well-Known Member
I don't think hes a bad player, but I do think there's more to come from him, and im not sure hes 100% fit yet.
Wingers by the nature of the job are always taking knocks just because they beat their man so often. With a big strong lad the extra weight (over a smaller fella) can be a burden too. He's probably always feeling something or other, however, I think though he needs more awareness of what's going on in the box. The ball is always at his feet and he's concentrating hard on his skills maybe he just needs to give himself a yard and enough time to look up. MVE does this well.
 

Speedie's Head

Well-Known Member
Dasilva would be ranked a lot higher if he didn't have EMC in front of him, honestly ive never seen a player lose his man and let him run off him as often as EMC.
He needs to learn to do the defensive work as well as the attacking part.

Against Leicester Dasilva had BTA in front of him and he didn't do the defensive stuff either which left JDS exposed against one of the best wingers in the league.

Very few people spot this and they just think JDS is having a poor game.
It would be interesting to see some heat maps. I feel Grimes often covers the left as it's a weakness for us.
 

Mcbean

Well-Known Member
Very confident of a win on the pompey board
They think the playoffs are a possibility, just need their strikers to find their mojo
I think they are thinking about last year when that game started badly and got worse - we score the first goal and our tails are up ! And then there’s the glow factor 😉
 

mrtrench

Well-Known Member
I hope I don't regret this; I think we will beat them.

The caveat is always 'if we turn up' but we seem to be doing that every game this season. I think we will win a lot of away games this season because the home team won't put 11 behind the ball, giving our attack space. And we have so many players perfectly able to score this year: not only the central midfield but Ephron and Tats have an eye for goal too. And whilst I've faced criticism here and maintain my view that we could improve on Haji, he can finish and I like that he's putting more effort into open play too.

So I'm going for a win for most away games including this. We may be Norwiched several times at home and fail to score though.
 

Sick Boy

Super Moderator
It's easy to not be a topic of conversation as it's all going extremely well, but it does feel like Lampard has some extremes in his relationships to players. It feels like he either absolutely loves you, or you're cannon fodder. Not much in-between.
There’s no evidence of that whatsoever. Considering NB was gobbing off and waving his arms at his teammates despite doing nothing himself suggests they probably don’t miss him much.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top