Championship Norwich v Derby and Sheffield United v Pompey

[n1]

Swansea much the weaker team against Bristol City so far and fortunate not to be behind.

 

[witney50]

To be honest, the prospect of facing Josh Murphy is terrifying. Right back has consistently been our biggest weakness this season, with Kioso and Sam Long regularly exposed in recent weeks on the turnover. I'd be worried if we lined up with Chemmy on the right against them. While he does pretty well to get back, it's mostly noticeable because he's often so far away from play in the first place. Think Tyler would be the safer option out there.

Not sure what the plan will be to nullify Murphy's threat, but we cannot set up as we have been.

Think Pompey match up very well to us. Their biggest weakness appears to be at centre back, and our central strikers are as threatening as the Dalai Lama. I have more confidence in us getting three points from Derby, though I'd take two draws.

Josh Murphy terrifying? Come on, thats strteching it...good player yes , but goes missing , and the best way to nullify him is play on the front foot with Chemmy down the right , Murphys tracking back is questionable as well so will be interesting down that side of the pitch...the team need to be thinking 2 wins required , so I hope you arent drafting the Rowett team talk...

 

[werthersoriginal]

Josh Murphy terrifying? Come on, thats strteching it...good player yes , but goes missing , and the best way to nullify him is play on the front foot with Chemmy down the right , Murphys tracking back is questionable as well so will be interesting down that side of the pitch...the team need to be thinking 2 wins required , so I hope you arent drafting the Rowett team talk...

Both of these statements are untrue. For a winger of his type he’s consistently involved in the game and defends well. However I agree that Kioso dealt with him well in the previous game.

 

[Marked Ox]

Swansea winning 1-0. Poor goal to concede, defensively, Sykes lost the scorer in the box, and from the keeper who palmed it straight to the scorer from an easy save to make.

Swansea win then with according to the stats on the coverage, Bristol haven't come from behind to win a game (I assume at home) and when taking the lead away Swansea have gone on to win.

Dickie has missed another very good chance. Also Swansea had a great chance with Bristol all over the place but the keeper redeemed himself a bit.

 

[Belgium Yellow]

Really annoying score.

 

[Marked Ox]

Bristol City hit the post. I think confirms a Swansea win.

 

[Berliner]

Sheff. Utd had a debutant playing at RB yesterday - Harry Clarke who they signed from Ipswich on loan - against Murphy and Murphy had him on toast.

On the other side Harrison Burrows had a very difficult day for the Blades.

Chris Wilder was none too impressed as Portsmouth were the better side.

Yeah, but Portsmouth lost though at the end of the day.
How we do it is up for debate, but if we win, who essentially cares...

 

[Marked Ox]

Bristol couldn't hit a cow's a**e with a banjo.

The weaknesses of Mark Sykes (after his strengths showed against us) on show in this 2nd half. Wussing out of challenges and switching off at key moments. Some poor decisions around the box as well but that is the same for pretty much all of the Bristol players this half.

 

[Scotchegg]

As I've said before, Bristol City are as bog standard, a middle of the table club there is. We were the better team for large chunks of both games against them.

I would be more interested in targeting them than worrying about Swansea who still have some tricky fixtures coming up.

 

[Sir Winston]

View attachment 25307

Hoping Manning has a very good week

Well…. Hasn’t started very well.

 

[Symp59]

It's still going to be tough staying up ,4 wins and 2 draws probably needed ,we've had a fantastic run now we need to start getting back to getting on the front foot just a massive week coming up

 

[brassmonkey]

Swansea winning 1-0. Poor goal to concede, defensively, Sykes lost the scorer in the box, and from the keeper who palmed it straight to the scorer from an easy save to make.

Swansea win then with according to the stats on the coverage, Bristol haven't come from behind to win a game (I assume at home) and when taking the lead away Swansea have gone on to win.

Dickie has missed another very good chance. Also Swansea had a great chance with Bristol all over the place but the keeper redeemed himself a bit.

Didn't they come from behind to beat us at their place?

 

[Marked Ox]

Didn't they come from behind to beat us at their place?

I didn't check previously but yes they did. It was from the wittering on of the commentators so wasn't paying that much attention and may have missed some part of point he was making.

 

[BicesterU]

I've really got to hold off from reading this forum lol.

A decent post (apart from Josh Murphy is terrifying) but then completely ruins it with 'I'd take two draws' which could get us practically nowhere especially with some larger than life games looming and us still then needing another 11 pts from 13 games!

We need to get the haul of points required asap and will be disappointed if we don't get 4/6pts from the next two.

These next two games will I believe be a couple of tough watches but just 2 pts from the next two isn't the needed progress but one win one loss is better than two draws even though it will of course put more pressure on either game.

COYY'S.

Not sure I agree here.

Obviously first choice would be two wins, but two draws does us much more good than it would do either of them - they’re the ones playing catch up, and two draws would maintain the gap, with fewer games to still to play.

It’ll need two big performances, but we’re more than capable of winning both.

 

[tonyw]

4-6 points from the next two: We're almost home free. The players can't relax yet, but we pretty much can
0-1 points from the next two: Yeah, we're right back in the middle of the relegation tussle

2 or 3 points from the next two, and it's a bit harder to draw deep conclusions. We'll still be in need of a couple more big performances this season, but at least one and maybe two of the teams below us will have failed to get a result they desperately need as well.
50 points is the aspiration, but we may not need anywhere near that if at least three of the teams below us don't sort themselves out.