(16-12-2020, 03:58 PM)bluetagagain Wrote:(15-12-2020, 06:43 PM)DeepBlue Wrote:(15-12-2020, 04:21 PM)bluetagagain Wrote: >The truth is probably that nothing changed. More likely that the team has evolved and progressed as teams often do when the manager knows what he is doing and has the courage of his convictions that the players are good enough despite a few bad results and resists knee-jerk reactions to defeats. <
What nonsense Deepblue, take off the blue tinted specs. This is more or less a weaker team than last season,however it all changed when Jackett was backed into a corner at the beginning of the season. He realised that if t wasn't for covid and next to no income coming into FP he'd be sacked, he'd lost the dressing room, lost the majority of fans even the Eisners went quiet on twitter as they couldn't defend him. He knew something had to give, so changed tactics to 442, credit to him for that but I still want him gone end of season.
Certainly .
It's only your opinion M'nonga is better than McCrorie or Bolton, personally I don't think he is, although he's still got a lot to learn.
The 2 new fullbacks are average and not any improvement on what we had/have.
No decent third permanent centre-back this season, last year we had Burgess, Raggett, Downing and Jack, now we've just got Jack, Raggett and Downing and Rasmus (on loan, who is not as good as Burgess). As for Raggett improving,well, thank goodness, he could hardly get worse than when he arrived.
Midfield is the still the same (average) other than Naylor who has proved he's better at CM than DM.
I see no improvement in Curtis ( he's still good but inconsistent) .
Marquis and Harrison are as average as they were last season, although IMO Hiwula is an improvement on Hawkins, if he ever gets the chance to show it. KJ still doesn't know his best 2 wide player or his best striking partnership.
As for the fringe youngsters being a year older so is everyone you eejit ,they'll only ever play in the Meaningless Cup games.
We were/are always flexible in formations as long as its KJ's beloved 4231. He was only forced into 442 because he would've been sacked if it wasn't for Covid and the club losing money.
So other than replacing Hawkins for Hiwula ( who is only here until Jan - so far ) and gaining Jacobs ( who we haven't had a chance to judge) for Pitman, nothing has changed and we're actually a permanent CB worse off.
You really are blinkered Deepblue.
Not much point arguing if you cannot read what I write. I said Johnson & Mnoga made us stronger at right back, not that Mnoga as an individual was. If you cannot see that Johnson is better than Bolton or McCrorie then you can't be watching the same games as I am, but to suggest he is worse is absurd.
And you can disagree with individuals all you want, but in none of the positions did you claim we were worse, except perhaps in defence based for some reason on the logic that Rasmus is only on loan. And Jack was injured last year, so that blows your argument. But the facts are that we are conceding considerably fewer goals than at this stage last season so to claim we are worse is a bit hard to justify. Or to be more precise just plain wrong, as proved by events.
And we are now in the automatic spots, something we never really looked like achieving last year. So good luck trying to argue that that makes us worse. Not quite sure why thinking that is an improvement makes someone blinkered - the only ones who are blinkered are the ones who cannot see what is happening in front their eyes or read a league table without their anti-Pompey blinkers on .