Big_John_10

**** quality!

100% record against the big 4 this season and a cup semi final. Quality!!!

Petrov should be sold in January, as he will never be any good in any system. He is simply too slow and no longer has the stamina to play in our midfield. Oposing managers rub their hands with glee when they see him on our team sheet and when he plays in our team, you can drive as many JCBs through our midfield as you like. The only good thing is that the JCBs are leaving the cash machines alone!

Well i'm going to agree with sting, i mean he was bang on when he said petrov and milner would be one of the worst midfields around...........oh....hang on a minute.

And I certainly wouldn't be unhappy if we have 35% possession as in the Plop game but still win comfortably and deservedly and take the plaudits and points

I think we'd struggle if we had to rely on own goals, corners and pens to get on the score sheet every game.

but I can't help but feel had we kept the same team away from home as we started the season we might be in a better position this season and that's what fustrates me

And how do we know changing formations every home and away game wouldn't have had a negative effect on our home performances? Surely for formations to work well players need to be used to playing in that system, i don't see how swapping every week would help that.

I can see it, my Dad can see it, when I speak to mates who have watched the games they all say we should have made subsitution.

And i bet there are a section of fans who aren't screaming for a sub and if he made a sub and we let a goal in would be unhappy that he changed things when we were winning. He will never please everyone.

Geniune question, what would you personally do?

We have changed things now though.

Milner has gone in the middle and downing has come into the side, i'm more than happy to give that a go for awhile.

So our away form doesn't worry you?

Not really, i pointed out that teams competing with us for 4th place have picked up similar points away from home, either we are all shit or we play in a difficult league where away games are hard to pick up maximum points.

Big John, If you actually read any posts which you probably won't, you might realise that the we played against Blues is something we'd like to see more often

Sorry but i don't see just because that worked against blues would mean it would always work, football isn't that simple.

This thread is pretty much just complaining about our away form, but we are in the prem, there really aren't lots of easy away games.

Only 1 side have lost less games than us away from home.

The great spurs have only picked up 3 more points than us away from home.

Arsenal, liverpool and man city who are all competing with us for 4th place have only picked up 1 more point than us away from home all season.

I said it before, a semi final and 5th in the league so 4-4-2 with stan is fine by me right now.

I'm not sure why i keep reading about the liverpool and blues game as proof that 4-5-1 is brilliant.

Against liverpool it helped us defend well but we had nothing going forward and relied on an OG, a corner goal and a pen, that's not going to happen every game.

The blues game was a poor performance and we didn't win until we went 4-4-2. Is 4-5-1 that amazing that being level with blues is proof of how good it is? What's the difference between being level with blues playing 4-5-1 or drawing with burnley and wolves playing 4-4-2?

4-5-1 did work last season, and once we changed it we didn't win in three months.

You have some sort of proof for this nonsense I presume

What would be the proof in your opinion of why we were shite for so long last season?

Bad luck, injuries?

Or is it just an unfortunate coincidence that it coincided with our change in formation?

So you don't think there were other things that played a part in that bad run and it was all down to formation?

I personally would play the 4-4-2 that beat Bolton against Man U but I know MON wouldn't.

So you'd drop downing and move milner who has scored 2 and created 2 in the 2 games he's played in centre mid? I'm glad MON won't do that.

Again i keep reading about the good results we had last season playing 4-5-1 and blandy has put it perfect for why that's not an argument to stick with it and it will work all the time.

During that period of decent results in that formation there was a huge thread on here complaining about the performances and basically telling us we were getting results because we were lucky and that luck would run out, people seem to forget that.

One of the things people have said is about Stan fading later on in games. I don't know that I've really noticed this

Neither have I, however it seems that unless we dominate for 90 mins it's petrov's fault because of his shocking stamina.

4-4-2 with Stan since mid Jan circa 32 points from 27 games

During our bad run last season there were many other factors than just petrov in a 4-4-2 so i don't think these stats add much to the argument. If you truly believe it was all down to petrov then i think your hatred of him is clouding your judgement.

Hull was a prime example of this IMO when they came back into it later on and could have made it 2-1 and squeeky bum time if the shot that hit the post/bar had gone in.

What a load of rubbish, Hull have one shot all game that comes close and that's proof that petrov was tired and lets us down in a 4-4-2. You don't demand much do you, should teams never ever have a chance against us? Are we that good and the premiership is that weak that week in week out we can just demand to dominate teams so they don't even have a chance.

Petrov has been fine and we look even better now that petrov has someone else in the middle who can actually play with the ball at their feet.

Semi final, 5th in the league, 1 point off 4th spot, stan in a 4-4-2 is ok by me.

Last year was the closest we've come to beating them away for a long time and we didn't do that by playing 5 in the middle and trying to contain them.

With their injury problems we should go at them, carew bullied them last year when they had similar problems.

Exact same team for me.

There right up there with blues for me in terms of hatred.

So cuellar played, petrov played, heskey played and we played a 4-4-2 formation, i thought the world was meant to end if all these happened at the same time?

So after one game its suddenly going to work in all games?

Its been shite more times than its been any good!

God, how terrible of me to actually be pleased with something.

Hopefully it won't work again and we can all have a jolly good whinge! :x

So cuellar played, petrov played, heskey played and we played a 4-4-2 formation, i thought the world was meant to end if all these happened at the same time?

Sounds like we did well and the trio of downing, milner and young provided a bit more creativity than we've had.

I think big heskey deserves a run, massive carew fan but he isn't doing it at the moment.

Can't believe a quarter final of a cup can recieve such little coverage.

Every time the Sidwell / Petrov central midfield partnership is broken up we win and are a million times more effective.

Even MON is beginning to see this now!!!!!!

I thought petrov made every player around him shit?

Boring!

Every time the Sidwell / Petrov central midfield partnership is broken up we win and are a million times more effective.

Even MON is beginning to see this now!!!!!!

I thought petrov made every player around him shit?

ffs, we played good footy, created chances and scored goals by keeping the ball in the first half. why have we gone back to this stupid sitting back and trying to hit them on the break?

Or perhaps, realizing they are currently going out of a cup competition, Portsmouth have started to play a bit?

Exactly, for some reason unless we dominate for 90 mins it means we've decided to change the way we play. Teams will usually have good spells during a game.

They certainly do against us. Strange that it is always the last 30 minutes or so!

The games where that usually happens are ones we are usually winning so it would seem natural that towards the end of the games teams would start pressing much more and putting us under more pressure, or it could be that petrov is done and no one who gets paid lots of money to notice it does.

ffs, we played good footy, created chances and scored goals by keeping the ball in the first half. why have we gone back to this stupid sitting back and trying to hit them on the break?

Or perhaps, realizing they are currently going out of a cup competition, Portsmouth have started to play a bit?

Exactly, for some reason unless we dominate for 90 mins it means we've decided to change the way we play. Teams will usually have good spells during a game.

Looks like we could be sitting back. We were all over them in parts why change?

Because it's not as easy as just saying lets continue to dominate and then do it. Pompey know they have to push forward more so it's going to be harder to play exactly the same for the 90 minutes.

Also under MON we hardly ever seem to roll over and die if we go a goal behind, surely if we had such fear and a losing mentality this wouldn't be the case.

Since MON has been in charge i can only think of man u as a team that has walked all over us. This year we beat chelsea and liverpool and last year we took 4 points off arsenal and deserved to have beaten them both times. Did that have nothing to do with a winning mentality?

I would say Liverpool have done it twice at Anfield, too.

Not that that is something to be too embarrassed about.

True i forgot about that.

I think this villa side that we have is one that on their day can give any team in the league a game and also let any team in the league get a result against us. Like someone else said we are inconsistent, nothing to do with a losing mentality.

No belief or winning mentality to put us with the bigger clubs. It has been that way for a long time now and the manager has not changed it

Since MON has been in charge i can only think of man u as a team that has walked all over us. This year we beat chelsea and liverpool and last year we took 4 points off arsenal and deserved to have beaten them both times. Did that have nothing to do with a winning mentality?