16-03-2021, 04:29 PM
(16-03-2021, 04:09 PM)Wightblue Wrote: Picking up on Gaffers point about direct football, the fantastic Pompey sides of their 1946/50 heyday were extremely direct....but on the ground.You paint a great picture of that great side Wightblue.
Typically out of defence, Harry Ferrier would move the ball to Jimmy Dickinson at Left half in midfield and he would shift it to either Froggatt on the wing or Phillips at inside-left, Phillips (an outstanding passer of the ball) would look for Dougie Reid, Ike Clarke or a marauding Peter Harris to finish the move.
That Pompey side did not play tippy tappy football, everything was quick to the point where the opposition were often stranded, no time to get back to cover the attack.
Pompey were blessed with outstanding players of course, Scoular and Dickinson not only great tacklers but with the ability to pass the ball 20 yards or more with accuracy, Phillips and Reid with great first touches (when did having a great first touch go out of fashion?).
A different age of course and just maybe the 1948/49 and 1949/50 Pompey’s sides might be found out by Man City and the like today but I can’t help but feel that the current Pompey team (not really fit to wear The Shirt) might have been Reserves at best and The Pompey B team more likely.
Sadly I was born a bit too late to see them in person, I did see Dickinson play of course.
My old dad used to taunt me with how good they were and even my old mum knew the team off by heart and went to see them with her mates from time to time.
Getting back to the hoof ball thing, that applies to teams who just have a big centre forward and only have the tactic of booting it hopefully forward, because they are unable to play the ball on the ground.That actually applies to very few teams these days, most can play a bit of football.
I think the main thing is for a manager to be able to spot a good player (Kenny could do that), play with an attacking mentality (Kenny couldn’t do that) and play his men in their best positions (another thing Kenny seemed unable to fathom).
As far as I can see, the Cowleys have all those attributes and we should not reject them due to some strange misplaced football snobbishness.
We are in League 1 and are not blessed with great footballers in every position, we can’t expect them to weave intricate patterns all the time. We have good players for League 1, we just need a manager to instil them with belief and let them play.