PL: Portsmouth h 2009/09/19 Reactions and Ratings

[chads]

i'll take some of the credit for the 10 minute rendition of MARTIN ONEILLS CLARET AND BLUE ARMY!

where abouts do you sit then mate?

k4 mate, banging my seat to keep it going when it started to die down! you?

your not the bloke a few rows infront of me are ya?

k4, row 28

probably mate ye, row 26

[sparey16]

yeye i think i know who are you haha

[rjw63]

Strange that a few are on about the support.

From my seat in the Lower North I didn't hear the Holte end til the second half and that was a song about small heath. Our home support really isnt very loud

[jimijames]

Excellent result from and average performance.

Standouts were, Gabby, Warnock, Collins, Milner. These all had fantastic games, Gabby's goal was simply delightful and Collins won everything.

Couple of complaints, Friedel really needs to start catching the ball, rather than parrying it, however he did keep us in the game today and had a pretty flawless game other than the parrying.

Petrov and Sidwell were overrun in midfield, not sure who is to blame, but the partnership I feel won't work, I'd probably rest Petrov for a while and try Sidwell and NRC for Cardiff, if we are playing 4-4-2.

Young needs to work on his deliveries, however had a better game than of late.

Carew was OK, nothing special, but he is head and shoulder above Heskey even on a day like today, I have no idea wy Carew was subbed to be honest.

Delph, not on long enough to comment.

[heystally!]

yeye i think i know who are you haha

It's always the nutters you remember isn't it?

[sparey16]

yeye i think i know who are you haha

It's always the nutters you remember isn't it?

yeah haha, i can see him now with his arm on a blokes shoulder baggin on the chair haha

[Oaks]

Ive just got back in after spending an hour and a half on the train with some Pompey inbred tossers.

Anyway, 3 points and once again looked pretty comfortable.

Friedel - 8. Didn't pull off any amzing saves but looked composed with all the shots straight at him from 25 yards.

Cueller - 6. Defensively no problem, he just isn't good enough on the ball IMO.

Warnock - 7. I thought he was cought out a couple of times but was still decent.

Collins - 9. Im really starting to like this guy. I thought he would be 3rd/4th choice, but he is easily our best defender ATM, and the balls he plays too. Class.

Dunne -8. Won almost everything in the air.

Milner - 8. Great effort, great penalty, great performance.

Petrov - 8. For the first hour he was MOTM, then he tired very quickly. Was almost a passenger for the last 20 mins and one of the reasons why we struggled for that spell. He missed NRC more than anyone.

Sidwell - 8. I thought it was his best game for us. Got stuck in and closed down really well. Yes he struggled going forward, but i dont think thats what he is all about.

Young - 7. He was crossing so well today, it just annoyed me he didn't just put it in more and alot quicker.

Carew - 5. Not at the races today, as bad as ive seen him to be honest.

Gabby - 9 MOTM. Im liking the new Gabby. You can tell he loves his new strength. If he keeps playing like this he will score 15 league goals and go to the world cup i guarantee it. He was only quiet when Heskey came on and was moved to the right.

Heskey - N/A. Unlucky, seemed up for it.

Delph - N/A. It seemed to me that everyone was told not to pass to the lad. Very odd indeed.

Good win for MON, good lively crowd, good day out (apart from the train home).

[Gingerlad]

Brilliant strength, good touch to open it up on his right foot, superb finish.

Superb finish??

It was a blatant mis hit, he slipped as he hit and got lucky.

That said, they all count..

[Gringo]

I thought we were overrun in midfield.

....

In the first half we struggled to get the ball from our back four to our midfielders, we'd keep it at the back but not be able to develop play and end up with defenders knocking the ball directly to the strikers. Portsmouth blocked out the shorter ball to the flanks and forced us into a position where we'd have to rely on Collins or Cuellar for our creativity.

As it stood, we were good enough at the ball over the top to deal with them anyway, but it's a slight concern when a team like Portsmouth can do that to us.

In the second half we saw the same problem show in Portsmouth's ability to run straight at our back four and create a large number of half chances. It's not that either Petrov or Sidwell did anything wrong, just that they were outnumbered.

If we get into that sort of shape against the Arsenals and Man City's of this world we'll be in trouble.

This.

This is the worry. We seem to have sorted the defence - we do have the attacking options, enough that when we revert to 4-5-1 we have the support for the lone man.

I hope Warnock and Young (on return) deliver the answer in linking the defence into the midfield. The jigsaw is not complete, there are still a few missing pieces.

[Gingerlad]

The midfield were bypassed on many occasions by a simple pass.

[Gringo]

That's why you have a defence I think.

[heystally!]

Brilliant strength, good touch to open it up on his right foot, superb finish.

Superb finish??

It was a blatant mis hit, he slipped as he hit and got lucky.

That said, they all count..

Despite the slip, it looked like that's where he wanted to hit it, the way he shaped his body.

That, and the spin off Ben-Haim, all in all make it a superb finish IMO.

[beasley14]

Played well today, had a period when they had too much time on the ball in our half but we got it back in the end. A better side may have punished us for that though so we have to be careful.

[Designer1]

My reaction?

West Ham were robbed over Collins. This guy is **** immense, he reads the game well, wins everything in the air and has a great composure on the ball.

Good first half performance and another 3 points. Great stuff.

[The_Steve]

Always nice to win whilst in mostly second gear, Pompey rarely threatened and when they did it was pot shots from outside the box. Friedel and the defence looked solid again, 4 wins in a row, 3 clean sheets, Gabby scoring again I can't honestly complain too much.

[markavfc40]

3 points. 2 goals. Clean sheet. Job done!

[BOF]

Atwell does it again. In his short career he has quite the CV of screwups. Today he demonstrated that he doesn't know the finer rules of association football.

Kicking the ball up to your head in order to pass it back to the goalkeeper is illegal, is deemed a passback and should have resulted in an indirect freekick for us 8 yards out but this abortion of a ref who must have sex photos of someone in Soho Square let it slide and we all continued happily along.

[Mark8691]

Atwell does it again. In his short career he has quite the CV of screwups.

Was really surprised to see him. Why is this guy refereeing at this level after a few high level cock ups last season in the championship?

Still young, let him spend a few years learning in the lower leagues.

As for the game, not the best but pleased with a win.

But why did MON buy Beye? If he has more confidence in playing a CB at RB?

[BOF]

But why did MON buy Beye? If he has more confidence in playing a CB at RB?

Sometimes you have to buy something to realise how shit it is. Then it's too late.

Anyhoo, we've yet to concede in the last 15 minutes of a PL game this season. That's a big turnaround on last season.

Though we've yet to out-possess an opponent this season. Today was the closest we got with 48.4% possession.

[CrackpotForeigner]

wow some strange comments in here. fascinating really how people can watch the same game but have such vastly different opinions.

Friedel - 9 - Very good game, apart from one dodgy save / clearance at end of first half he was flawless.

Cuellar - 6 - Linked up well with Milner in first half, looked poor in the second. Feel sorry he has been shunted out to right back berth as started season well

Dunne - 6 - Didnt win enough headers for me, but made some good commited tackles, looked solid.

Collins - 8 - Has looked better than Dunne so far, seems to have better distribution (some lovely cross field passes / through balls) and better in the air while being just as commited. Looks a bargain.

Warnock - 7 - Played better than last week and will get better as he settles. Impressed so far.

Sidwell - 7 - Nothing amazing from him, but we saw his usual workrate and closing down and didnt lose the ball when he had it. He stepped in up in the the latter part of the game when it looked like Pompey might conjure something.

Petrov - 8 - Looked knackered again by 70th min but held us together in the middle, lots of clever play and started most our good moves. Good to see him egging team on like a proper captain should.

Milner - 8.5 - Fast becoming my fave villa player. Much better than last week, looked our most dangerous midfielder and was showing some lovely touches. His workrate & energy level is for me best in the league.

Young - 7 - Better but still has been a while since we have seem him at his best. He needs to bulk up abit like gabby has to handle the double teaming better. His set peice delivery much better, and still had a good game overall. Has picked up an annoying habit of ignoring the obvious option / pass and trying to pick oen thats 10 times more difficult and doesnt pull it off.

Carew - 5.5 - Very poor game. Didnt seem on the same wave length as his team mates and made some poor, often baffling decisions when he had the ball at feet. Bound to be rusty though, hope its just a one off.

Gabby - 9.5 - One of the best games Ive seen him have for us. Worked his arse off, and his first touch was exceptional! His goal was a beauty and he should have had an assist wehen he crossed for Carew. This kid constantly surprises me. When he broke through I thought he'd be another Vassel. Then after a whileI thought he'd be world class. Then after the 2nd of last season I thought he would he would be mid-table quality at best, not enough for a top 4 team, now after another blistering start I think he will be great again. Good to see year on year he is still improving. Hopefully his confidence and performance wont dip like last year if he hits another drty spell.

What rubbish! "Vastly different opinions"??? I agree with your ratings completely :winkold:

(I didn't notice Petrov having quite such a good game, but other than that I couldn't agree more.)

And GABBY! We always knew he was fast, and normally a good finisher, but now he seems to be developing excellent crossing, vision, generally good passing, and his workrate is good as well. I admit I had a few doubts (which I kept to myself btw ), but now I think it's possible that he will turn into an actual WORLD CLASS player.

Hearing the Holte sing the Gabby song before kickoff couldn't have done his confidence any harm. He clearly is a confidence player. A lot of people have said how good he is in training. To me this is a sign of somebody with real talent, that will get better and better as his experience and confidence grow.

It wasn't an amazing team performance, but as many have said, if we start to play as well as it looks like we can, we will be a bloody frightening team to play against. And the brilliant Stewart Downing still to come.

Happy days!