TrueBlueArmy Forums

Now I appreciate that what I'm going to suggest will cause great offence to all football purists, however, after yesterdays turgid display against "the mighty" Cheltenham, here's an idea......

After a first half when we played nearly the whole 45 minutes passing along our back line, either in our own half or on the half way line....it was blindingly obvious that we had neither a player with the ability to run at / dribble pass their defence, neither did we have a player capable of making an incisive forward pass. Consequently we never offered any real goal threat.

Second half we're "attacking" the Fratton End which normally gives opposition defenders the jitters. So, given that we had just spent 45 minutes passing the ball along our back line without making any forward progress....why not just lump the bloomin ball into the box?!

Bishop and Saydee are big articles and so would have at least caused a bit of disruption. Their defenders were nothing special (just your average 3rd Division players). By going direct it would have pushed Cheltenham deep allowing our mid field players to pick up any scraps on the edge of the box.....and with mayhem ensuing it would have got the Fratton End on their feet!

Yep it wouldn't have been pretty.....but we're a third division Team and if we haven't got the ability to play pure football, then maybe it's time to go long?

(cue the critics.....although before you give me dogs abuse, after yesterday, what would you prefer.....more pass pass pass pass along the back line getting nowhere, or 45 minutes of old fashioned up & unders and an onslaught of the oppositions box??)

I think we have quite often "gone long". Against Exeter we pretty regularly got in behind them in the first half especially. Watching form the South upper it was noticeable how well it worked up to a point. BUT Bishop on his own can win possession and get the ball past one defender, but lacks the pace to then break through.
It seems obvious to me that he needs a pacey type close to him every time he challenges for possession as he so often wins the tussle and lays off the ball but there is no one there. With 2 defensive mids, it leaves one centre mid who cannot be everywhere. Again, with 2 def mids, the wingers must get themselves close enough to pick up his lay offs.

We've been lacking genuine wide threats since Jamal and Ronan were at their peak

It’s still early days but I did express my concerns about Whyte ( although he is a far better upgrade than Dale). He’s never been a ‘run at them’ type winger , especially for Northern Ireland where he doesn’t command a regular place. Whyte is more of a wide midfielder who like to cut inside and drift into the middle. As regards Scully I don’t know much about him at all. I think we need to look at the Ipswich side who are still playing the same front four in the championship as they did in L1. Neither of their two ‘wide ‘ players in the midfield 3 are wingers. I’d quite like to see us play a front 4 of

Yengi Saydee Robertson
Bishop
Use our full backs as attacking fullbacks when needed . Either that or go to 352 wingbacks with Saydee up front with Bish.