Home Match Day Thread +++ 21/08/18 OUFC v Accrington Stanley +++

Time to gel! Time to gel is a term used by managers, pundits and fans for a team that’s simply not good enough. Yes there are slight improvements from playing together and knowing others attributes or limitations but that only takes a few training sessions and a couple of matches.
Pompey have 6 new players all in their first team. I guess they just ‘gell’d’ quicker?
The reason we played better last night was because of the team we put out. Just look at who scored our goals!
Mackie, Garbutt, Norman, McMahon and Obika, don’t need to Gel they’re ‘simply’ not good enough! Something seems to have effected Nelson and Dickie too. No wonder we’re leaking goals.
Our recruitment was poor in the window. Clearly didn’t go as expected. How we don’t have cover at left back and we have an unproven striker and Obika up front is crazy.

Still, we have players to come back in and once Holmes and Carruthers are back we’ll be stronger but we only have a core of 12 or 13 players worthy of the first team.

I think we can write Hall and Carruthers of for some time.

The lack of a decent striker in the system was evident yesterday. Whyte/Henry/Browne created more than enough to win the game.

At the back it’s a mess. Norman was an upgrade on McMahon, nelson doesn’t look the same but I thought Mousinho was decent. He was taking the ball, trying to lead from the back. Unfortunately, this might be a bit harsh, but Ruffels I see as the grey man of OUFC. All the eggs are in the Garbutt basket at LB, and as we’ve found out...what happens if he is out of form?

As for Long, not involved with the U23s, nor the first team squad. Same with Raglan.

What will the final defensive permutation be on Saturday? Dickie alongside Mousinho?

Another 6 games for me as in attack we showed good signs
 
The good:

Whyte - a major plus. Has surely relegated Mackie to the bench for the foreseeable future.
Browne - beginning to see why we got him, getting better each game.
Norman - offered a good threat going forward, much more dynamic than MacMahon
Hanson - I thought he was quite impressive. Certainly more creative in there than others.
Ruffels at left back in the first half - was being helped by Mousinho who was also decent

The bad:

Ruffels at left back in the second half - completely lost it
Nelson - obviously wanted a move in the summer and equally obviously was unlikely to get a decent one because he hasn't got anywhere near back to what he was before the injury
Obika - there is not a snowball's chance in hell that he will score enough goals. And for god's sake JUMP! Gets the wrong side of his man constantly. He did chase some balls down well and made a couple of decent layoffs - but simply not enough
The formation - if Henry was supposed to be much closer to Obika (as KR said pre-match) then he simply wasn't. Striker too isolated again.
Playing out from the back needlessly. We constantly put ourselves under pressure by playing the ball out from the keeper to a marked defender who passed it sideways to another marked man who then passed it back to the keeper. Who then hoofed it up the pitch - so what was the point? It just gave us three opportunities to give the ball away rather than none, and ended up with the same result. Their first goal came as a result of doing this.
The ref - shockingly poor. An absolute stinker.
Robinson post-match - I used to turn the car radio off when Pep came on and I was queuing to get out. I did the same after the first couple of minutes of Robinson yesterday. He needs to actually put his brain in gear before he starts gabbling nonsense. It wouldn't surprise me if Tiger's trigger finger is getting just a bit twitchy.
We managed to find a way to lose a match we probably should have won.
 
I think we can write Hall and Carruthers of for some time.

The lack of a decent striker in the system was evident yesterday. Whyte/Henry/Browne created more than enough to win the game.

At the back it’s a mess. Norman was an upgrade on McMahon, nelson doesn’t look the same but I thought Mousinho was decent. He was taking the ball, trying to lead from the back. Unfortunately, this might be a bit harsh, but Ruffels I see as the grey man of OUFC. All the eggs are in the Garbutt basket at LB, and as we’ve found out...what happens if he is out of form?

As for Long, not involved with the U23s, nor the first team squad. Same with Raglan.

What will the final defensive permutation be on Saturday? Dickie alongside Mousinho?

Another 6 games for me as in attack we showed good signs
I thought Mous was poor last night, AGAIN beat to a header leaving Kee to bury the ball, fell over leading up to their pen, the also created other chances which could of embarrassed us even further.

The biggest thing for me at the moment is we are talking about individuals having good or bad games, it should be the defensive unit, midfield etc, a lot of the problems seem training ground and with the current merry go round of defensivee permutations you are never going to get a solid defensive unit, we need to get a defensive unit playing together to understand each others game, read how to cover each other and be a collective tight unit, changing the formation every game is not doing the players confidence or cohesion any good, every opposition team bring different attacking problems, get a steady solid back four and get the midfielders to supply the cover where required.
 
In comparison to Dickie, Mous did have a good game, but he did fall over too often last night. For one, there were times where he took responsibility when others did not. Collectively, we were the shizits though.

I do wonder if the formation/shape needs to be compressed more so that the unit is tighter across the pitch. Or perhaps players stop over trying and play to the system. Trust your team mates.
 
Baffled as to how anyone can consider that a ‘good’ or even ‘decent’ performance when the absolute basics of defensive organisations are ignored.

Losing a match because of an inability to counter set pieces is the very definition of a bad performance. A scandal, actually, because talent has nothing to do with it.
 
Nothing
Time to gel! Time to gel is a term used by managers, pundits and fans for a team that’s simply not good enough. Yes there are slight improvements from playing together and knowing others attributes or limitations but that only takes a few training sessions and a couple of matches.
Pompey have 6 new players all in their first team. I guess they just ‘gell’d’ quicker?
The reason we played better last night was because of the team we put out. Just look at who scored our goals!
Mackie, Garbutt, Norman, McMahon and Obika, don’t need to Gel they’re ‘simply’ not good enough! Something seems to have effected Nelson and Dickie too. No wonder we’re leaking goals.
Our recruitment was poor in the window. Clearly didn’t go as expected. How we don’t have cover at left back and we have an unproven striker and Obika up front is crazy.

Still, we have players to come back in and once Holmes and Carruthers are back we’ll be stronger but we only have a core of 12 or 13 players worthy of the first team.
Nothing wrong no with Norman and an improvement on McMahon, and a whisper in the stand is that Carruthers may have gone back
 
I'm a bit puzzled as to the ref-bashing.

He was a little inconsistent but got things mostly right, was very on it with delayed bookings.

Perhaps not the best ever, but far, far from the worst.
 
I'm a bit puzzled as to the ref-bashing.

He was a little inconsistent but got things mostly right, was very on it with delayed bookings.

Perhaps not the best ever, but far, far from the worst.
WELL there was the free kick to us that was not given when their free kick was a few seconds later that led to the goal, the lack of the yellow card for their player after he brought down Browne on the edge of the area and at least one hand to ball that he didn’t give, and the inconsistency of his not
Giving free kicks to us.

Nah he got most things right.
 
WELL there was the free kick to us that was not given when their free kick was a few seconds later that led to the goal, the lack of the yellow card for their player after he brought down Browne on the edge of the area and at least one hand to ball that he didn’t give, and the inconsistency of his not
Giving free kicks to us.

Nah he got most things right.

I didn't think it was a yellow card offence on Browne.
 
Nothing

Nothing wrong no with Norman and an improvement on McMahon, and a whisper in the stand is that Carruthers may have gone back

That's rubbish about Carruthers Bazzer. He was talking before the game and said he's slightly ahead of where they at first thought he'd be, and is about four weeks away. That's not a "whisper", I was there and heard him say it with my own ears.
 
I thought Mous was poor last night, AGAIN beat to a header leaving Kee to bury the ball, fell over leading up to their pen, the also created other chances which could of embarrassed us even further.

The biggest thing for me at the moment is we are talking about individuals having good or bad games, it should be the defensive unit, midfield etc, a lot of the problems seem training ground and with the current merry go round of defensivee permutations you are never going to get a solid defensive unit, we need to get a defensive unit playing together to understand each others game, read how to cover each other and be a collective tight unit, changing the formation every game is not doing the players confidence or cohesion any good, every opposition team bring different attacking problems, get a steady solid back four and get the midfielders to supply the cover where required.

Another thing I noticed that was particularly missing last night is communication across the back line. They barely talk to each other. There appeared to be absolutely no talking, encouraging, advising where to go and who to mark etc, between Nelson and Mous in particular. Do they not get on?
 
Baffled as to how anyone can consider that a ‘good’ or even ‘decent’ performance when the absolute basics of defensive organisations are ignored.

Losing a match because of an inability to counter set pieces is the very definition of a bad performance. A scandal, actually, because talent has nothing to do with it.

Well, yes. But on the other hand we were far less inept going forward (aaargh, why have C***s stolen the phrase 'going forward'?) on the attack than previously. So it was an, um, improvement.

The defense was, as you say, inept.
 
I didn't think it was a yellow card offence on Browne.
But he got one for and even type of challenge maybe even less than than the one they should have had for their challenge on him
 
Baffled as to how anyone can consider that a ‘good’ or even ‘decent’ performance when the absolute basics of defensive organisations are ignored.

Losing a match because of an inability to counter set pieces is the very definition of a bad performance. A scandal, actually, because talent has nothing to do with it.

Set pieces don’t require talent?
 
That's rubbish about Carruthers Bazzer. He was talking before the game and said he's slightly ahead of where they at first thought he'd be, and is about four weeks away. That's not a "whisper", I was there and heard him say it with my own ears.

It was said that me a half time just third party that’s all.
 
I'm a bit puzzled as to the ref-bashing.

He was a little inconsistent but got things mostly right, was very on it with delayed bookings.

Perhaps not the best ever, but far, far from the worst.

I agree about last night but I have an issue with ref-bashing in general. Rarely can you solely blame a ref for the result not going your way. It's boring and shows a lack of accountability. It's not the refs fault the team aren't fit enough, or that they don't understand their individual roles, or that our full backs end up isolated, or that we can't defend a direct ball, or that our players are making stupid challenges in the area.

I wish Robinson would cut it out and I certainly hope he doesn't go into the changing rooms and tell the players not to worry 'cos the ref's a w****r and he cost us. If the management can't/don't acknowledge the mistakes we're making then we are well and truly fucked.
 
I thought Mous was poor last night, AGAIN beat to a header leaving Kee to bury the ball, fell over leading up to their pen, the also created other chances which could of embarrassed us even further.

The biggest thing for me at the moment is we are talking about individuals having good or bad games, it should be the defensive unit, midfield etc, a lot of the problems seem training ground and with the current merry go round of defensivee permutations you are never going to get a solid defensive unit, we need to get a defensive unit playing together to understand each others game, read how to cover each other and be a collective tight unit, changing the formation every game is not doing the players confidence or cohesion any good, every opposition team bring different attacking problems, get a steady solid back four and get the midfielders to supply the cover where required.

I only comment that Mousinho was ok as in comparison to Nelson/Dickie he looked better...however as you noted he was not faultless (a sad state that mistakes can be made and still look better than other options).

He was trying to get the ball moving from the back, but when he is caught on the ball it’s mainly due to lack of midfield options...the alternative is a vague punt up to obika
 
I'm a bit puzzled as to the ref-bashing.

He was a little inconsistent but got things mostly right, was very on it with delayed bookings.

Perhaps not the best ever, but far, far from the worst.

Different opinions eh! I thought he was terrible. Inconsistent, officious, easily fooled, plain wrong on several occasions. (I agree though that the delayed bookings were something he did well as were some of the advantages that he played.) He didn't cost us the match though - we managed that all on our own! My jaundiced view of him wasn't just because we lost, we were saying how poor he was even when we were winning.
 
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