What a load of rubbish!

Sam Vokes went to Burnley on loan! Bastard! Open my mouth way too soon sometimes...should be a scout?

Saturday I went to the dreadful game that was Watford at Vicarage Road (which we have a bloody awful record there now). It was even worse than the Barnet game earlier in the season, the away faithful were treated to an abysmal display made worse by the fact Watford were playing only slightly better than us.

What I will say about Watford is that they showed what we lack, space, they broke in space with play being switched and using their large physical players to hold up the ball for their pacey wingers (again destroyed by pace...).
Chris Iwelumo was a constant menace throughout the game, Pearce had almost no chance going up against him at time, he even took out two players trying to kick the ball. Good crosses and nice passing helped Watford achieve their win, but like I've said earlier, it wasn't amazing football, just simple.

Portsmouth were undone in their lack of movement, very static play, the midfield kept getting choked unable to break out of their own half, often with people dropping out of positions to try help them out leaving us vulnerable. Kitson constantly made this movement which was alright, he does often win balls through this method, but that game he was like Buck Rodgers, floating into space but nothing to get out of it. It left a very hair-raising predicament that when Watford won the ball they instantly passed it out wide and broke down our defence who were still tracking back into their positions, Ben-Haim was constantly doing this the whole game, coming out of position too often with nothing to show for it.
The long-ball tactic was employed in the game as well, to no avail, it just didn't work, I don't know who thought it would be a good idea, as we don't have anyone with the pace to run behind the flick on (well if Kitson ever jumped for a ball!). Pearce and Huseklepp were the stand out players from the game, always focused and trying to salvage anything from the game! Huseklepp's free-kick right at the death gave us a glimmer of a consolation goal but Loach was equal to the free-kick (Huseklepp on set-pieces from now on please?), Peace again was a rock in that defence, constantly talking to the other defenders making sure they had their man covered.

I applaued Appleton as he got his post-match comments spot on and was refreshing to hear the honesty, I think he's getting a good idea of who is the dead-wood at the club (i.e. Ben-Haim, Kitson, Norris) and realising that players are being made to play awkward football, I mean even under Guy & Gray we still played this badly, just on those occasions we managed to capatalise on goalscoring opportunities. Nottingham Forest were on top of us first half until Huseklepp scored, Barnsley pegged us back for 30 minutes with their blistering pace and attacking threat (well Vaz Te being crap), and even Doncaster they had us on the back foot, so the pattern is across the previous games, not just this one.
The 'experts' at The News and Facebook already saying Appleton is a rubbish choice and should be given 1 month to prove himself.....rubbish! He's had 5-6 days to train with the players, hardly anytime to get to know them or even ask them to gel to his way of training. Hopefully he'll add a few more players to our beleaguered squad to give it more depth and fight for places in it, personally I think we need to go for a more 'defensive' formation for the next game against leicester, go for a 4-2-3-1 formation.
With this we will have a strong back line with two defensive midfielders sitting in front stopping the midfield from progressing and also helping slow down the play. Mullins and Mokoena/Norris/Ward could fit in these roles. Then have a combined attacking midfield of Huseklepp, Razak and Lawrence (if fit) with Varney as your lone striker and it will have a formidable attack as well as defence. As much as 4-4-2 is a great formation it does not reflect the positional strengths we have in the squad.
Here is a quick diagram of how it would look;

 

 

 

 

A 4-2-3-1 formation I feel would work better

This is only what I think....which is never always right. Only when 'scouting' players, ha!
Hopefully by Thursday Appleton will of raided the loan market for a few players to have until January, then the real test will begin for him.

Play Up Pompey! Dreading the Leicester game, return of Nugent.....hat-trick....I bet...