MATCHWATCH : Portsmouth (h)

[WestYorksRoyal]

It begs the question, how do we get it so wrong?

We have the players. The set up. Training facilities.

Is it as simple as sh*t manager, terrible owner?

Confidence rock bottom. Small things in games going against us (ie savages shot vs Fleetwood), losing mentality. Bad luck.

I’ve not seen anything to suggest with the players we have we should be anywhere near relegation tbh. When we’re on our game we look a decent side

A decent manager would turn this around quickly, I’m pretty sure of it

This. Sounds crazy to say this when bottom of the table and 8 points from safety, but if a new owner can arrive in the next few weeks I can still see us getting to the relative comfort of 17th / 18th.

[Eaststandman]

I follow RFC am l stupid?

[skipper]

It begs the question, how do we get it so wrong?

We have the players. The set up. Training facilities.

Is it as simple as sh*t manager, terrible owner?

Confidence rock bottom. Small things in games going against us (ie savages shot vs Fleetwood), losing mentality. Bad luck.

I’ve not seen anything to suggest with the players we have we should be anywhere near relegation tbh. When we’re on our game we look a decent side

A decent manager would turn this around quickly, I’m pretty sure of it

This. Sounds crazy to say this when bottom of the table and 8 points from safety, but if a new owner can arrive in the next few weeks I can still see us getting to the relative comfort of 17th / 18th.

I totally believe this too. Not sure who that manager is. And I do like Selles young, energetic, high press game.

I'd like to think, sort the top out and the rest will solve itself.

[Royal_jimmy]

Mbenge sent off after full time whistle

We really are a shambles and laughing stock

[Royal_jimmy]

Cracking entertainment that game.

Think we have to take it in the context of 23rd vs 1st and we have them a bloody good scare and in the last 15 minutes had a good go at the equaliser.

Elliott looked class and needs to play from the start.

Mbengue came on and played liked a hero…..then a lunatic afterwards.

Pompey equaliser looked offside, or at least sloppy defending to play him on. Typical of this side to let a 54th minute equaliser in in the first half.

Thought Button had won me £200 on the 3-3 draw - enjoyed his performance today.

Great to have a big club pack out the away end and build the atmosphere - fear we won’t have much of that for next few years.

In terms of the actual play I thought we were ok, but the defending was Sunday league standard. All 3 goals were gifts and from our mistakes. Portsmouth didn't even look good today in my opinion but won through our mistakes which a decent side will take to be fair.

[Orion1871]

It begs the question, how do we get it so wrong?

We have the players. The set up. Training facilities.

Is it as simple as sh*t manager, terrible owner?

Confidence rock bottom. Small things in games going against us (ie savages shot vs Fleetwood), losing mentality. Bad luck.

I’ve not seen anything to suggest with the players we have we should be anywhere near relegation tbh. When we’re on our game we look a decent side

A decent manager would turn this around quickly, I’m pretty sure of it

The hallmark of a young inexperienced side. Look good for large parts of games but don't have the experience or the guile to turn it into points.

[tmesis]

Cracking entertainment that game.

Think we have to take it in the context of 23rd vs 1st and we have them a bloody good scare and in the last 15 minutes had a good go at the equaliser.

Elliott looked class and needs to play from the start.

Mbengue came on and played liked a hero…..then a lunatic afterwards.

Pompey equaliser looked offside, or at least sloppy defending to play him on. Typical of this side to let a 54th minute equaliser in in the first half.

Thought Button had won me £200 on the 3-3 draw - enjoyed his performance today.

Great to have a big club pack out the away end and build the atmosphere - fear we won’t have much of that for next few years.

In terms of the actual play I thought we were ok, but the defending was Sunday league standard. All 3 goals were gifts and from our mistakes. Portsmouth didn't even look good today in my opinion but won through our mistakes which a decent side will take to be fair.

I thought Portsmouth were terrible at the back too, and a better side would have put in more than the two we got. I have no idea why they sat back in the last 15-20 minutes, going from looking totally in control to hanging on.

If we could learn to mark, rather than just stand and watch players running in to score, we'd do a lot better.

[Lower West]

It begs the question, how do we get it so wrong?

We have the players. The set up. Training facilities.

Is it as simple as sh*t manager, terrible owner?

Confidence rock bottom. Small things in games going against us (ie savages shot vs Fleetwood), losing mentality. Bad luck.

I’ve not seen anything to suggest with the players we have we should be anywhere near relegation tbh. When we’re on our game we look a decent side

A decent manager would turn this around quickly, I’m pretty sure of it

The hallmark of a young inexperienced side. Look good for large parts of games but don't have the experience or the guile to turn it into points.

The recent series on BBC - Boot Camp. Was a fascinating insight into why technically good young footballers fail to make the grade ultimately in the professional game. Despite coming through the ranks of the top academies.

[Winston Biscuit]

After 25 years of going in the east stand, I went in the west today for the first time. Felt weird going in up them stairs. Did like the little concourse area though.

[leon]

After 25 years of going in the east stand, I went in the west today for the first time. Felt weird going in up them stairs. Did like the little concourse area though.

Ooh whereabouts? Upper west?

[Elm Park Kid]

Confidence rock bottom. Small things in games going against us (ie savages shot vs Fleetwood), losing mentality. Bad luck.

I’ve not seen anything to suggest with the players we have we should be anywhere near relegation tbh. When we’re on our game we look a decent side

A decent manager would turn this around quickly, I’m pretty sure of it

The hallmark of a young inexperienced side. Look good for large parts of games but don't have the experience or the guile to turn it into points.

The recent series on BBC - Boot Camp. Was a fascinating insight into why technically good young footballers fail to make the grade ultimately in the professional game. Despite coming through the ranks of the top academies.

What were the main reasons? I remember reading a book written by a scout who said that mentality and family stability were almost important as skill. It didn't matter how good some kids were, basically if they're a dick then they're not going to make it.

[leon]

I’m not buying all this we played quite good shit I’m afraid. They constantly put balls in from the left and right channels causing us all manner of problems. Selles did nothing about this and the third goal was basically a carbon copy of about 25 previous attempts.

He’s clearly not learning anything. He’s got to go.

[Winston Biscuit]

After 25 years of going in the east stand, I went in the west today for the first time. Felt weird going in up them stairs. Did like the little concourse area though.

Ooh whereabouts? Upper west?

Yeah was a last minute decision and was going on my own so thought I'd try it.

Upper West. Back row of block GU5 if that means anything to you.

I didn't even know where to find gate 2 to get into the stand, kept wandering about looking for it

[blythspartan]

The game was better than I thought it would be and after 28 minutes I thought my £20 bet on us to win was money well spent. If Smith had put away his chance it could’ve been a different outcome, but overall the better side won.

We can’t defend out wide and we make it far too easy for other teams to get crosses into our box. One of my issues with Selles is that he doesn’t seem to be able to effect the game with his substitutions. It all seems a bit more in hope rather than having a clear plan.

He won’t be fired, so I can see us staying rooted to the bottom of the table for the rest of the season. Hopefully, sooner rather than later we’ll hit rock bottom as a club and then the rebuild can begin.

[Pepe the Horseman]

The game was better than I thought it would be and after 28 minutes I thought my £20 bet on us to win was money well spent.

Should've done it with B365, they pay out if a team goes 2 up

[Clyde1998]

The Smith chance was the one that would've changed the game. That said, even at 2-0, Portsmouth looked relaxed like they knew they'd get back into the game. I didn't think they looked particularly amazing; they just did their job well and were organised. We didn't really look like we'd score once we'd gone 3-2 down.

The table calculator (projector?) I use reckons we've got a 59% chance of relegation now, based on our current xG (both for and against) this season, and we'd be likely to get relegated even without our points deduction. Our xG is comparable to sides like Bristol Rovers, Wycombe and Exeter - the difference is those sides are actually putting points on the board while we're not. Portsmouth have a 61% chance of the title and a 82% chance of automatic promotion.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

The game was better than I thought it would be and after 28 minutes I thought my £20 bet on us to win was money well spent. If Smith had put away his chance it could’ve been a different outcome, but overall the better side won.

We can’t defend out wide and we make it far too easy for other teams to get crosses into our box. One of my issues with Selles is that he doesn’t seem to be able to effect the game with his substitutions. It all seems a bit more in hope rather than having a clear plan.

We haven't been able to defend in wide areas for 3 years now, it's been probably the weakest defensive area of our game for years.

Funnily enough, I remember an post-match Paul Ince interview (kudos if you remember which game) where he mentioned it was in our "culture" to sit back and protect a lead, and he couldn't understand why (despite being the manager, first problem). It's like it's in our culture to be poor at defending in wide areas and from crosses. (It could just be in our culture that we are poor at defending in general).

[CountryRoyal]

I actually thought we played alright tbf, it’s just a shame we’ve waited until top of the table to try something different.

While we haven’t seen everyone yet, Portsmouth look a cut above everything else we’ve seen. Based on that anyone that finishes above them, is promoted.

If we’d played like that all season we’re a lot higher in the league imho.

[Clyde1998]

The game was better than I thought it would be and after 28 minutes I thought my £20 bet on us to win was money well spent. If Smith had put away his chance it could’ve been a different outcome, but overall the better side won.

We can’t defend out wide and we make it far too easy for other teams to get crosses into our box. One of my issues with Selles is that he doesn’t seem to be able to effect the game with his substitutions. It all seems a bit more in hope rather than having a clear plan.

We haven't been able to defend in wide areas for 3 years now, it's been probably the weakest defensive area of our game for years.

Funnily enough, I remember an post-match Paul Ince interview (kudos if you remember which game) where he mentioned it was in our "culture" to sit back and protect a lead, and he couldn't understand why (despite being the manager, first problem). It's like it's in our culture to be poor at defending in wide areas and from crosses. (It could just be in our culture that we are poor at defending in general).

I think the problem in the wide defensive areas is we're expecting our full-backs to be involved in attacks, whilst also being good defensively. There aren't many players that can do both well (at our level) - that is be good going forward, whilst also being good defensively; players tend to be good at one aspect or mediocre at both.

I think the only real solutions for us at the moment would be: not allowing the full-backs to advance as far up the pitch during attacks as they do currently; playing with a holding midfielder who remains deep during attacks (or could drop into a CB position); or playing with three CBs. The latter two should ensure there's enough defensive cover when the FBs push forward.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

The game was better than I thought it would be and after 28 minutes I thought my £20 bet on us to win was money well spent. If Smith had put away his chance it could’ve been a different outcome, but overall the better side won.

We can’t defend out wide and we make it far too easy for other teams to get crosses into our box. One of my issues with Selles is that he doesn’t seem to be able to effect the game with his substitutions. It all seems a bit more in hope rather than having a clear plan.

We haven't been able to defend in wide areas for 3 years now, it's been probably the weakest defensive area of our game for years.

Funnily enough, I remember an post-match Paul Ince interview (kudos if you remember which game) where he mentioned it was in our "culture" to sit back and protect a lead, and he couldn't understand why (despite being the manager, first problem). It's like it's in our culture to be poor at defending in wide areas and from crosses. (It could just be in our culture that we are poor at defending in general).

I think the problem in the wide defensive areas is we're expecting our full-backs to be involved in attacks, whilst also being good defensively. There aren't many players that can do both well (at our level) - that is be good going forward, whilst also being good defensively; players tend to be good at one aspect or mediocre at both.

I think the only real solutions for us at the moment would be: not allowing the full-backs to advance as far up the pitch during attacks as they do currently; playing with a holding midfielder who remains deep during attacks (or could drop into a CB position); or playing with three CBs. The latter two should ensure there's enough defensive cover when the FBs push forward.

But it was a thing last season as well, we were extremely poor at defending from wide areas and we played without advancing wing backs and with 3 CB's. Granted, that's probably because we invited a lot more pressure rather than leaving ourselves wide open like we do now so understand that it is different in itself, but we just seem really, really poor at defending wide areas.

I could understand being worse last season against better quality opposition, but I think it's also just a combination of our full backs just not being very good in general, manager tactics as well as mentality. When was the last time we genuinely had decent full backs? Richards and Yiadom/Esteves? Even they were flawed but a marked improvement on everything we've had since (Yiadom post the 7th-placed season under Pauno).