On the strange backdrop of the old Joanna's nightclub burning down on the seafront I made my way down to Fratton Park with Mr Sole, I discussed how Barnet are a very spirited team with a lot of pace in their attack, which may not be believed since they nearly lost their football status last season.
Team news was that Hreiðarsson and Ben Haim was missing due to international duty, Christian Dailly came into the squad as well as Henderson in goal. The lineup suggested a possible 4-4-2 lineup which sounded good with Varney and Kitson up front, but the reality as they lined up for kick-off suggested othwerwise, a dull 4-5-1 with Kitson up front, alone.
The match was such a drab performance by Portsmouth, the players seemed to not communicate with each other, no awareness of where each player was, passing aimlessly, hoping that player would get on the end of it. Playing constantly down the left hand side!? What kind of half arsed tactic is that, when clearly our best crossing ability and playmakers play on the right hand side (Lawrence and Halford), often Lawrence was screaming for the ball to be played to him as he wasn't getting any delivery, when it was it got over-hit or intercepted, that coupled with the much maligned tactic of mine. Now hoofing a long ball to Kitson to then somehow flick on to another player just does not work, especially when the player concerned has a touch of a donkey on a roller coaster, they tried this with Varney but soon was stopped. Our attack was consigned to scrappy breaks into the box, no slick movement or passing, nor any tries from long range. The general attitude of the players decreased with more and more baffling decisions by the referee and the linesman on the North Stand side. Mokoena was very lucky to not have been sent off for shoving the Barnet striker to the ground early on in the game.
Another gripe I had last night was when a set piece such as a corner came threatening, it seemed the tactic was to put nine players into the box and leave one player to be able to break away if it came to that, when we did get the ball and tried to break there was no urgency, just a lot of holding and switching play, it was so dull to watch and more often then not led to Barnet taking the ball of us and threatening again.
What could've been done to improve this game? Perhaps playing people in positions they are comfortable in? With Ward in left back, Mokoena in right back and Dailly in the centre of midfield they all seemed a little out of place, now I'm sure they could've swapped Halford into right back which he is comfortable with. Perhaps even playing a good attacking formation like 4-4-2 with Varney and Kitson up front, this would've provided some room for movement in midfield, rather than being stifled by too many bodies.
Some positives out of last night as I feel I've gone on a bit of a rant! Henderson kept things to 1-0 with some fantastic shot stopping, he showed great composure with one on one situations. But he didn't show that when going up to collect balls, with most leading to him fumbling the ball, again a lack of communication between keeper and players. Ryan Williams looked spirited and gave more effort in the 20 minutes he was on for than some that were on for the full 90! Kanu showed great awareness and composure and tried his best to get some attacking moves going, only it to fail before him, must of been ever so frustrating!
It's been said before but we need more players, urgently, mainly midfielders and strikers to be honest. We can't rely on Kitson to provide the goals, it's the same situation as last season with Dave Nugent, he wasn't going to provide 20 goals a season on his own (as he's a poacher...). If we had £2.5m available to buy Martin Paterson from Burnley we could easily buy a few from lower leagues, perhaps a young striker like Danny Ings? My favourite League Two striker Adam Le Fondre? (scored 20 goals consitently for 4 seasons and is only 24!).
My previous blog about the free market brought some interesting players to the forefront, Jason Koumas and James McFadden, they would provide a great attacking flair to our midfield which is lacks, we have a lot of defensive minded players in midfield that aren't the best at starting an attack. Also I believe David Carney would be a great free transfer and would provide that much needed support in left back to let someone like Hreiðarsson have a break or sit on the bench, as he isn't getting younger and can't keep up with some of the quicker wingers in the league.
Steve Cotterill really needs to take lessons from this game, whether he wanted to throw it away or not he needs to remember that the fans understood why last season we had so few players but now it's a different story and if we still only have around 15-16 players by September 1st I don't think many of us will be happy. Even with loan signings we need those permanent players to be the backbone of the squad. I saw a brief insight tonight by The News journalist Neil Allen about the transfer policy of Portsmouth FC sheds light on why we may not be able to get players in;
- CSI Group provide transfer/wage budget.
- Steve Cotterill provides a list of players he's interested/targetted
- David Lampitt negotiates with agents, players and clubs
Full credit to Barnet as well for such a great performance!
Now looking forward to the weekend....I'm not, if we don't improve we will be taught a lesson by Gus Poyet and his Brighton side on Saturday.
One thing to look forward to though is buying the new home kit tomorrow!
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