Our attack

[John Cooper]

Our attack needs a midfield. Yes Hardie has missed chances and Morgs loses the ball far too easily but they have to be fed. Randell for me has been very poor for the last few games but who replaces him? We have no one.
Sadly a lot of this team are league 1 standard, We may survive this season, but as for next... without a serious overhaul and investment using a lot of Morgs 20m transfer fee then it will be much of the same for next season and worse I fear.

Morgs 20M transfer?

What if he decides to stay?

 

[Lesley Somerville]

Morgs 20M transfer?

What if he decides to stay?

Morgs hasn't become a bad player. He's a very good player surrounded by less good players in a league where we are playing much better teams. When he had Azaz providing through balls and all the other wizardry only Azaz seems capable of, he showed his true potential. Any decent scout or analyst will see past the shortcomings of Argyle and realise that.

 

[Ganna Green]

Whatever we do I feel it has to be something that Millwall aren't expecting because at the moment we are way too predictable and easy to shut down by teams who play physical, in your face football.

Wayno and Freddie. Bundu and Hardie on the bench and give them 25 second half.

 

[Balham Green]

Hardie does need better service but he needs to look at himself as well. In the first half he made two poorly timed runs that were flagged for offside, which he did not need to be given his pace. In the second half, Rands broke down the right and Hardie’s run was to pull as far away from Randell as he possibly could and basically hide behind a defender. What the hell is Randell supposed to do with that. He barely challenges for headers and pretty much never plays with his back to goal. That may be a tactical instruction admittedly, but he doesn’t even seem to be trying to be a focal point. His whole game is just chasing aimless balls into the channel. I just don’t get it.

Nail head

 

[vibratingspider]

Hardie does need better service but he needs to look at himself as well. In the first half he made two poorly timed runs that were flagged for offside, which he did not need to be given his pace. In the second half, Rands broke down the right and Hardie’s run was to pull as far away from Randell as he possibly could and basically hide behind a defender. What the hell is Randell supposed to do with that. He barely challenges for headers and pretty much never plays with his back to goal. That may be a tactical instruction admittedly, but he doesn’t even seem to be trying to be a focal point. His whole game is just chasing aimless balls into the channel. I just don’t get it.

Waine seems to do exactly the same when he comes on. It's all very odd. Chasing lost caused over and over doesn't seem like a great way to conserve energy.

 

[oldage]

Hardie does need better service but he needs to look at himself as well. In the first half he made two poorly timed runs that were flagged for offside, which he did not need to be given his pace. In the second half, Rands broke down the right and Hardie’s run was to pull as far away from Randell as he possibly could and basically hide behind a defender. What the hell is Randell supposed to do with that. He barely challenges for headers and pretty much never plays with his back to goal. That may be a tactical instruction admittedly, but he doesn’t even seem to be trying to be a focal point. His whole game is just chasing aimless balls into the channel. I just don’t get it.

And who pray is going to replace Hardie? It is all well and good dishing out the criticism but we are bereft of any strikers. Most fans have seen this since the end of last season but we are no further forward. In essence we are trying to compete in the championship with a small squad of mainly league one players. I have enjoyed watching the standard of football this season but we were always going to struggle. Not sure I would want to endure more of the same next season if by some miracle we survive.

 

[PAFC123]

From how I see it, our tactic isn’t to be lumping useless service to hardie or Morgan. We are trying to play out from the back to work the ball to the attacking players however for multiple reasons it’s not working and the biggest reason for that is our players simply aren’t good enough. We play short from a goal kick, our centre back then looks up so see absolutely no movement and can either pass sideways or backwards. We do eventually get it to the feet of a midfielder however they are then pressed too hard and again have no options so are forced to pass back our lack of movement then means we have no choice but to lump it. I don’t by any means think the players are being told to lump it up to hardie. When this happens, Hardie will often be in a position where he would need to be if we were playing out from the back which they will practice every day in training with the sequences of passing, often the ball then gets lumped no where near him. The difference when azaz was here is he could pick him he ball up from deeper and beat a couple of players to get us going forward as could cundle although he’s not as highly rated. Randell forshaw and definitely houghton are not as capable of this and the formation change to a back 3 hasn’t helped as there’s barely any players ahead of the ball so how on earth we are meant to play through a press is beyond me. My personal opinion is that in the last two games we need to go two up front and just try and play percentage balls as we aren’t good enough to play out from the back and just try and out run the opponents, pick up second balls and just be horrible to play against. Unfortunately for most in my opinion that would have Whittaker on the bench. Hardie and waine or Bundu (probably waine for his work rate) up front, houghton Randell and forshaw if fit behind him, it not it will have to be Devine but we have to stack the midfield with hard workers. This is genuinely the only way I see us getting up the pitch, longer balls in to two strikers so have more chance of winning something and then 3 hard working midfield players to get any second balls. Once the second balls are won, the wingbacks dart forward, this would see 4/5 players ahead of the ball when its in our midfield rather than behind and getting forced into what we are doing now.

 

[Lesley Somerville]

From how I see it, our tactic isn’t to be lumping useless service to hardie or Morgan. We are trying to play out from the back to work the ball to the attacking players however for multiple reasons it’s not working and the biggest reason for that is our players simply aren’t good enough. We play short from a goal kick, our centre back then looks up so see absolutely no movement and can either pass sideways or backwards. We do eventually get it to the feet of a midfielder however they are then pressed too hard and again have no options so are forced to pass back our lack of movement then means we have no choice but to lump it. I don’t by any means think the players are being told to lump it up to hardie. When this happens, Hardie will often be in a position where he would need to be if we were playing out from the back which they will practice every day in training with the sequences of passing, often the ball then gets lumped no where near him. The difference when azaz was here is he could pick him he ball up from deeper and beat a couple of players to get us going forward as could cundle although he’s not as highly rated. Randell forshaw and definitely houghton are not as capable of this and the formation change to a back 3 hasn’t helped as there’s barely any players ahead of the ball so how on earth we are meant to play through a press is beyond me. My personal opinion is that in the last two games we need to go two up front and just try and play percentage balls as we aren’t good enough to play out from the back and just try and out run the opponents, pick up second balls and just be horrible to play against. Unfortunately for most in my opinion that would have Whittaker on the bench. Hardie and waine or Bundu (probably waine for his work rate) up front, houghton Randell and forshaw if fit behind him, it not it will have to be Devine but we have to stack the midfield with hard workers. This is genuinely the only way I see us getting up the pitch, longer balls in to two strikers so have more chance of winning something and then 3 hard working midfield players to get any second balls. Once the second balls are won, the wingbacks dart forward, this would see 4/5 players ahead of the ball when its in our midfield rather than behind and getting forced into what we are doing now.

Yes I 100% agree this is the only way to go for the Millwall game in particular. You have very clearly highlighted the problem we have with our current style of play and it just isn't working with the players we have, which evertone can see plain as day. Well, let's hope those who have it in their hands to change things can see it too!

 

[philevs]

From how I see it, our tactic isn’t to be lumping useless service to hardie or Morgan. We are trying to play out from the back to work the ball to the attacking players however for multiple reasons it’s not working and the biggest reason for that is our players simply aren’t good enough. We play short from a goal kick, our centre back then looks up so see absolutely no movement and can either pass sideways or backwards. We do eventually get it to the feet of a midfielder however they are then pressed too hard and again have no options so are forced to pass back our lack of movement then means we have no choice but to lump it. I don’t by any means think the players are being told to lump it up to hardie. When this happens, Hardie will often be in a position where he would need to be if we were playing out from the back which they will practice every day in training with the sequences of passing, often the ball then gets lumped no where near him. The difference when azaz was here is he could pick him he ball up from deeper and beat a couple of players to get us going forward as could cundle although he’s not as highly rated. Randell forshaw and definitely houghton are not as capable of this and the formation change to a back 3 hasn’t helped as there’s barely any players ahead of the ball so how on earth we are meant to play through a press is beyond me. My personal opinion is that in the last two games we need to go two up front and just try and play percentage balls as we aren’t good enough to play out from the back and just try and out run the opponents, pick up second balls and just be horrible to play against. Unfortunately for most in my opinion that would have Whittaker on the bench. Hardie and waine or Bundu (probably waine for his work rate) up front, houghton Randell and forshaw if fit behind him, it not it will have to be Devine but we have to stack the midfield with hard workers. This is genuinely the only way I see us getting up the pitch, longer balls in to two strikers so have more chance of winning something and then 3 hard working midfield players to get any second balls. Once the second balls are won, the wingbacks dart forward, this would see 4/5 players ahead of the ball when its in our midfield rather than behind and getting forced into what we are doing now.

An excellent summary of the situation.

 

[daront]

I would be very surprised if ND and nance drop Hardie and MW for the remaining two matches.
If they do and we lose they will be moaned at.
If they dont and they play as they have been last few weeks, they will get moaned at.

For me damed if you do damed if you dont so i would drop them both go with freddy and waine, big surprise for the opposition and have hardie and MW come on later on.

 

[Dreamgreen]

In my opinion we should play 4-2-3-1 with Whittaker in the middle of the 3.
Playing him out wide (so wide) isolates him and he goes missing then has to try too hard.

 

[IPA]

I said it before but the board look to have scored a massive OG in January by not investing the $$ compensation money back into the team, especially in the forward department.

With the new TV money figures being banded around we would probably have the best chance since the Macauley/Warnock era to take the club forward financially and start to establish ourselves next season. It didn't work out under Macauley because he kept throwing his toys out of the pram and falling out with anyone and everyone. We have a brilliant chairman now but I fear he may have taken some bad advice recently.

Yes, most of us will still be there next season whatever division we are in but it will be incredibly galling watching league 1 football while clubs like Pompey enjoy the extra revenue, particularly after the way they abused the system - twice!

 

[phil thefluter24]

The whole structure of our team seems to have gone down the pan since SS departure partly due obviously to the key players we lost in the January window!

 

[warney]

The whole structure of our team seems to have gone down the pan since SS departure partly due obviously to the key players we lost in the January window!

Yea, I think losing Azaz without enough time to replace him was a huge blow. The six weeks from when $$ left to the close of the Jan transfer window was a disaster for us, compounded by subsequently losing through injury two of the midfielders brought in as a stop-gap (and obviously the wrong managerial appointment didn't help either!).
If we do manager to survive this season it will be a remarkable achievement seeing what's happened over the last few months.

 

[The Doctor]

I said it before but the board look to have scored a massive OG in January by not investing the $$ compensation money back into the team, especially in the forward department.

With the new TV money figures being banded around we would probably have the best chance since the Macauley/Warnock era to take the club forward financially and start to establish ourselves next season. It didn't work out under Macauley because he kept throwing his toys out of the pram and falling out with anyone and everyone. We have a brilliant chairman now but I fear he may have taken some bad advice recently.

Yes, most of us will still be there next season whatever division we are in but it will be incredibly galling watching league 1 football while clubs like Pompey enjoy the extra revenue, particularly after the way they abused the system - twice!

Maybe the money didn’t or isn’t coming in one big lump.