23-04-2021, 04:35 AM
Confidence is the key. They just seem to have lost it completely. A few cases. Marquis seems incapable of a decent first touch. His lack of ball control is quite amazing sometimes. Ironically, Harrison is much better in that department but is rarely in the right place at the right time. Daniels, wtf, an ex-prem veteran, often looks like a park player, slow, cumbersome, prone to giving away silly unnecessary penalties. Against Swindon he looked good going forward and picked out several good passes but the damage had already been done by his woeful defending. Williams had 5 or 6 really good games mid-season, since then has been largely ineffectual. Harness blows hot and cold although he’s young and could still turn into a very good player imo as he’s skilful, can cross and has an excellent shot on him. In his defence he nearly always has two men on him as teams presumably see him as a threat. Curtis, had several dodgy games after he got Covid but is coming back to form and can be and has been a match winner. Naylor, is generally excellent for us as long as we don’t expect him to thread a pass. He can’t. Why did I start this ramble? Oh yes, confidence. Arry was excellent at instilling it, Jackett was not. The Cowleys seem to want to play the game the right way but the jury is definitely out on them and these four games will seal their fate. Ironically the best we’ve played under them was the first half in their first game which got all of our hopes up. Then a series of events (Marquis missed pen, Brown gets injured, Daniels gives pens away for fun, Raggett one Cruyff turn too many, Jack sees red etc) meant we managed to accrue one point from 12. Oh well, there’s always next season. Pompey, innit?