Grifiths - 8 kept us in the game with those two early saves
Rafferty - 7 A good solid pro signing. Defensively sound but not a great attacking weapon.
Raggett - 8 Typical man mountain performance that will really piss off Bluearmy. Did brilliantly for the first goal.
Morrisson - 6 Another good solid pro but got away with one when Grifftihs bailed him out early after a dreadful pass across the goal was intercepted. Not as good as Robertson, but good cover.
Ogilvie - 7 I actually thought he was struggling in the first half, often outplaced, but a great 2nd half performance capped with a very good goal.
Dale - 7 Some very impressive touches but maybe not as capable of game changing moments as Harness was. I liked the fact that he did not drift out of the game for long periods like some wingers do, he kept himself involved. Looks like another good signing.
Pack - 9 Way, way too good for league one. We are so lucky he wanted to come home and if he stays fit we will win promotion. May as well give him the POTY trophy now.
Lowery - 8. Again, how did we get him ? He looks class but a bit worried he will get muscled out of things because of his size. Can't see him and Morrell in the same side, you can get away with one small hardworking midfielder but not two.
Curtis - 8. Best performance for a long time, fully committed from kick-off. But I've wached his goal several tiomes and am struggling to see that it crossed the line from the camera angle. Assuming it crossed the line what made it come back into play ? Played as well when in the front two for the last 20 mins as he did wide earlier.
Scarlett - 6. Looks yet another good signing but didn't produce much end product last night.
Bishop - 7. Mostly well contained by the defence but showed he can still score whatever. Could be worth a bet for the Lge 1 top scorer. After Pack, the best signing of the summer.
Subs
Thompson - 7 Solid and reliable as ever
Jacobs - 7 A bit lucky with his goal - an underhit shot that somehow squirmed under the keeper
Pigott - 7 Good movement and led the line well without a sniff of a chance
Hackett - 7 Great cross for the fourth - another player who is better coming off the bench against tiring defenders than starting.
Mingi - not on long enough to rate, but even in a couple of minutes he looked bright and sharp.
Cowley - 9 He said judge me after three windows. The verdict is a very positive one. He has clearly adapted well to the 5 subs rule (which IMO is a massive change to the game) and built a squad accordingly. There is even an argument with 5 subs that you should aim to finish the game with your strongest 11 rather than start with it.
I hope people have noted that Ogilvie finished with a very good volley, too many reports make it sound like a simple back post header!
Agree with the Scores. You can see Scarlett is raw but with a little more nous will learn to lay off the ball when he has drawn three or four defenders which he did twice last night. Or fall over a leg for a pen!
Good assessment and, more importantly, saved me a lot of typing.
Not sure I agree with your rating for Pack. Think I'd have given it a 10!
(17-08-2022, 09:13 AM)DeepBlue Wrote: [ -> ]Grifiths - 8 kept us in the game with those two early saves
Rafferty - 7 A good solid pro signing. Defensively sound but not a great attacking weapon.
Raggett - 8 Typical man mountain performance that will really piss off Bluearmy. Did brilliantly for the first goal.
Morrisson - 6 Another good solid pro but got away with one when Grifftihs bailed him out early after a dreadful pass across the goal was intercepted. Not as good as Robertson, but good cover.
Ogilvie - 7 I actually thought he was struggling in the first half, often outplaced, but a great 2nd half performance capped with a very good goal.
Dale - 7 Some very impressive touches but maybe not as capable of game changing moments as Harness was. I liked the fact that he did not drift out of the game for long periods like some wingers do, he kept himself involved. Looks like another good signing.
Pack - 9 Way, way too good for league one. We are so lucky he wanted to come home and if he stays fit we will win promotion. May as well give him the POTY trophy now.
Lowery - 8. Again, how did we get him ? He looks class but a bit worried he will get muscled out of things because of his size. Can't see him and Morrell in the same side, you can get away with one small hardworking midfielder but not two.
Curtis - 8. Best performance for a long time, fully committed from kick-off. But I've wached his goal several tiomes and am struggling to see that it crossed the line from the camera angle. Assuming it crossed the line what made it come back into play ? Played as well when in the front two for the last 20 mins as he did wide earlier.
Scarlett - 6. Looks yet another good signing but didn't produce much end product last night.
Bishop - 7. Mostly well contained by the defence but showed he can still score whatever. Could be worth a bet for the Lge 1 top scorer. After Pack, the best signing of the summer.
Subs
Thompson - 7 Solid and reliable as ever
Jacobs - 7 A bit lucky with his goal - an underhit shot that somehow squirmed under the keeper
Pigott - 7 Good movement and led the line well without a sniff of a chance
Hackett - 7 Great cross for the fourth - another player who is better coming off the bench against tiring defenders than starting.
Mingi - not on long enough to rate, but even in a couple of minutes he looked bright and sharp.
Cowley - 9 He said judge me after three windows. The verdict is a very positive one. He has clearly adapted well to the 5 subs rule (which IMO is a massive change to the game) and built a squad accordingly. There is even an argument with 5 subs that you should aim to finish the game with your strongest 11 rather than start with it.
We must be doing good because we haven't heard diddly squat from that "Blue Army" troll. Long may it continue.
He's off to Leicester Satuday to see Baz play in goal for the Scummers
Agree with most of those, however I wouldn't give Curtis an 8 - he kept coming inside in the first half instead of staying wide to give us width.
He eventually looked better after Scarlett went off and he played as one of the front two.
(17-08-2022, 04:13 PM)exterminator Wrote: [ -> ]Agree with most of those, however I wouldn't give Curtis an 8 - he kept coming inside in the first half instead of staying wide to give us width.
He eventually looked better after Scarlett went off and he played as one of the front two.
So did Dale. But I like that in a winger in a 442 because otherwise they become too easy to mark out of the game and can go long spells without seeing the ball. Curtis tended to drift in mostlly when Ogilvie was wider than him providing the width and that works well because the full back will often drift in with him leaving space for the overlap.
Also cutting in and shooting is Curtis' strength and he should be encouraged to do that. Staying out wide and crossing is not his strength .
I don't think I have ever seen a Pompey side in recent seasons who pressed so well and hard as we did last night, it was almost Man City-life in its relentless nature which calls for great energy and commitment. It brought a couple of our goals as well where we fought in a group to win the ball.
Also I am going to look forward to watching Lowery in the future, hope he gets picked regularly
(17-08-2022, 04:37 PM)DeepBlue Wrote: [ -> ] (17-08-2022, 04:13 PM)exterminator Wrote: [ -> ]Agree with most of those, however I wouldn't give Curtis an 8 - he kept coming inside in the first half instead of staying wide to give us width.
He eventually looked better after Scarlett went off and he played as one of the front two.
So did Dale. But I like that in a winger in a 442 because otherwise they become too easy to mark out of the game and can go long spells without seeing the ball. Curtis tended to drift in mostlly when Ogilvie was wider than him providing the width and that works well because the full back will often drift in with him leaving space for the overlap.
Also cutting in and shooting is Curtis' strength and he should be encouraged to do that. Staying out wide and crossing is not his strength .
Dale stayed out wide in the first half, that is what you get from playing a right footer on the right. Several times Ogilvie had thd ball coming forward & Curtis kept coming inside giving him no out ball.
We all know as well as most defenders do what Curtis strengths are. It is no good being a one trick pony & that why Curtis has gone backwards over the last 2 years, instead of working hard to cure his weakness of not being confident of going on the outside & crossing with his left foot as Jacobs can do.
(17-08-2022, 05:30 PM)exterminator Wrote: [ -> ] (17-08-2022, 04:37 PM)DeepBlue Wrote: [ -> ] (17-08-2022, 04:13 PM)exterminator Wrote: [ -> ]Agree with most of those, however I wouldn't give Curtis an 8 - he kept coming inside in the first half instead of staying wide to give us width.
He eventually looked better after Scarlett went off and he played as one of the front two.
So did Dale. But I like that in a winger in a 442 because otherwise they become too easy to mark out of the game and can go long spells without seeing the ball. Curtis tended to drift in mostlly when Ogilvie was wider than him providing the width and that works well because the full back will often drift in with him leaving space for the overlap.
Also cutting in and shooting is Curtis' strength and he should be encouraged to do that. Staying out wide and crossing is not his strength .
Dale stayed out wide in the first half, that is what you get from playing a right footer on the right. Several times Ogilvie had thd ball coming forward & Curtis kept coming inside giving him no out ball.
We all know as well as most defenders do what Curtis strengths are. It is no good being a one trick pony & that why Curtis has gone backwards over the last 2 years, instead of working hard to cure his weakness of not being confident of going on the outside & crossing with his left foot as Jacobs can do.
Dale most certainly did not stay out on the right, he also came infield quite often, as proven by the fact that it was him who crossed the ball from the left for Raggett to pull it back for Bishop to score.
And yes, it would be good if Curtis improved his wide play, but insisting that he plays in a way that is a known weakness does not seem to make much tactical sense to me.
I thought Curtis helped make us tick last night and Dale looked a more than useful acquisition. Even Reeko impressed me.
A very good night at the park, more of the same on Saturday please.
And once we all get back from holidays it is going to be hard to get a ticket!