[Archived] Portsmouth Vs Blackburn Rovers

[Majiball]

Well its been a long time since we were disappointed at getting a point away from home, that for me is a positive.

PS Kelbo good shout O'hara will do nicely.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

There was a lot of Portsmouth fans praising Phil Jones' performance yesterday. They couldn't believe how someone so young has fitted in as if he's been playing at the heart of the defence for years.

[Amo]

After the sending off, Sam brought Hoilett on and went with pace down both wings which enabled us to get behind the Pompey defence - for whom Mokoena was outstanding. I commented during the second half that it was going to be one of those days and so it turned out. However, it certainly wasn't from the lack of effort from all concerned that we didn't get a win and it was another encouraging away performance.

He brought Hoilett on 15 minutes after Vanden Borre was sent off, but Grella was actually Sam's response to the sending off. Hoilett showed the pace to get behind the backline but lacked the end product. If only he was given more time to impress...

There was a lot of Portsmouth fans praising Phil Jones' performance yesterday. They couldn't believe how someone so young has fitted in as if he's been playing at the heart of the defence for years.

He was the highlight in an otherwise drab affair. In fact, the whole backline has been a credit to the team.

[Majiball]

People were calling for a player who could pass a ball during the game, Grella can pass a ball better than most of our midfield. Yes we could have brought on a second striker, but we were already on top and changing the formation would have disrupted that more. So he brought on a passer to see if we could open them up that way. He gave it time to work we were still on top and gave Grella time to settle in and start playing to see the effects.

Yes he could have brought on a second striker, but then we lose our rhythm and you never know how a red card will effect the opposition (remember ours against Villa at home?). There's always two options when it happens throat or control Sam chose to control, there's nothing wrong with that. Just as all those are claiming it could have won the game, I claim it could have disrupted our team and given the impetuous back to Pompey and then who knows.

Not losing two games away on the bounce will do wonders for the players confidence, so forgive him for playing it safe to ensure it.

[thenodrog]

He brought Hoilett on 15 minutes after Vanden Borre was sent off, but Grella was actually Sam's response to the sending off. Hoilett showed the pace to get behind the backline but lacked the end product. If only he was given more time to impress...

I didn't see the match so forgive me if this rubbish but wouldn't bringing a deep sitting player like Grella on not allow the others more freedom to push forward once Pompey were down to 10 men? Very necessary in order to allow Olsson, Hoilett and Dunn on the pitch together. Might not have worked but the reasoning is prob sound enough.

[Amo]

I didn't see the match so forgive me if this rubbish but wouldn't bringing a deep sitting player like Grella on not allow the others more freedom to push forward once Pompey were down to 10 men? Very necessary in order to allow Olsson, Hoilett and Dunn on the pitch together. Might not have worked but the reasoning is prob sound enough.

Grella came on for Nzonzi. Like for like.

Why Sam persisted with Diouf for so long as he did is beyond me, when Hoilett is ready to run at defenders.

[MarkBRFC71]

to play 442 well needs 2 pacey wingers who deliver good balls in, i.e rippers and wilcox. We don't have that and I fail to see how shoving 2 up top would have helped today.

And to play this 4-5-1/4-3-3 you need pacey players able to get forward and support from midfield - and we have none of those either. Sticking 2 up front would surely increase the chances of something dropping to someone in the box? Given that Sam loves percentage football I'm surprised he didn't see this.

[Balwer]

Grella came on for Nzonzi. Like for like.

Why Sam persisted with Diouf for so long as he did is beyond me, when Hoilett is ready to run at defenders.

But it wasn't like for like, you could see that on the pitch. They may play the same position but that doesn't mean they are the same player. NZonzi is better in the air, Grella is better on the ground. Sam tried to capitalise on the 10 man by playing a passing game through the wings. We couldn't do it through the centre because Roberts wasn't holding the ball up and Dunn couldn't create anything.

Hoilett was ready to run but the conditions weren't conducive to it. His pace was negated by the weather and that's his major strength.

Then with 10 minutes to go Sam tried to go more attacking with Kalinic but that didn't work out either. As a few people have said it was one of those days where nothing seemed to work for us.

[MarkBRFC71]

Also, not sure there is a natural partnership from our strikers - plus Dunn is not strong/mobile enough to play in central midfield so it is logical to play him higher up the pitch, in addition, he is one of our better finishers as his goals tally this season illustrates.

We'll never know because BFS is too stubborn to try anything different!

Personally I think Roberts and Niko could work - for all his faults Roberts fully occupies and bullies defenders - leaving gaps that Niko could exploit. I also think Dunn is easily strong and mobile enough to play where Pedersen has been recently, and will be far more effective. At least he's not worried about messing his hair up.

At the moment we just do not have the players to play Sam's preferred formation very effectively - we either need to change formation or procure suitable players to fit the system.

But it wasn't like for like, you could see that on the pitch. They may play the same position but that doesn't mean they are the same player. NZonzi is better in the air, Grella is better on the ground. Sam tried to capitalise on the 10 man by playing a passing game through the wings. We couldn't do it through the centre because Roberts wasn't holding the ball up and Dunn couldn't create anything.

Hoilett was ready to run but the conditions weren't conducive to it. His pace was negated by the weather and that's his major strength.

Then with 10 minutes to go Sam tried to go more attacking with Kalinic but that didn't work out either. As a few people have said it was one of those days where nothing seemed to work for us.

So why, given that the pitch was a quagmire, and this is probably a good time to get bodies forward and lump it in (to avoid passing on a crap pitch) did Sam choose to try to play it on the floor?

[philipl]

How was not starting Kalinic a mistake? He did nothing when he came on apart from stopping a goalbound effort. His last two outings have been disappointing and I suspect Sam, wisely, withdrew him from the firing line so his confidence wouldn't suffer and to give Roberts a chance to prove his worth. With hindsight you say it was a mistake. However, with hindsight we'd always pick the right team and never lose a match

After the sending off, Sam brought Hoilett on and went with pace down both wings which enabled us to get behind the Pompey defence - for whom Mokoena was outstanding. I commented during the second half that it was going to be one of those days and so it turned out. However, it certainly wasn't from the lack of effort from all concerned that we didn't get a win and it was another encouraging away performance.

The ball wasn't sticking with Roberts. His control is suspect and in those conditions fell to non-existant. Kalinic can at least make it stick.

[Parsonblue]

The ball wasn't sticking with Roberts. His control is suspect and in those conditions fell to non-existant. Kalinic can at least make it stick.

In fairness, Kalinic has struggled in his past two starts and failed to make much impression, particularly against strong defenders. Personally, I believe the time was right to give him a rest. Roberts struggled yesterday, but so did Kalinic when he came on.

I still fail to see how starting with Roberts was case of Sam missing a trick. As I said, with hindsight you can argue with Kalinic may have done better. However, you can also make a case that Roberts might have been the better bet to start against Mokoena. In the event, neither man made much impression.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

At the moment we just do not have the players to play Sam's preferred formation very effectively - we either need to change formation or procure suitable players to fit the system.

We draw with Chelsea, beat Birmingham, beat Burnley and then draw away from home at Pompey and thats when the system/formation isnt working???? Wow, id love to see how we play when we actually hit some form.

I think things are working pretty well at the moment to be honest. We dont need to change much what so ever.

Kalinic for Roberts is the only change id like to see. Roberts in exchange for thin air would be an improvement to be honest.

[Fife Rover]

In fairness, Kalinic has struggled in his past two starts and failed to make much impression, particularly against strong defenders. Personally, I believe the time was right to give him a rest. Roberts struggled yesterday, but so did Kalinic when he came on.

I still fail to see how starting with Roberts was case of Sam missing a trick. As I said, with hindsight you can argue with Kalinic may have done better. However, you can also make a case that Roberts might have been the better bet to start against Mokoena. In the event, neither man made much impression.

And that was because the much maligned Mokoena had a very effective game.

[1864roverite]

I also think it was clearly obvious Dunny was knackered, the heavy pitch wont have done his calves any favours !

Lets hope next Sunday we can see football being played on a half decent pitch.

[gumboots]

I also think it was clearly obvious Dunny was knackered, the heavy pitch wont have done his calves any favours !

Lets hope next Sunday we can see football being played on a half decent pitch.

Not at Ewood then!

[FourLaneBlue]

And to play this 4-5-1/4-3-3 you need pacey players able to get forward and support from midfield - and we have none of those either. Sticking 2 up front would surely increase the chances of something dropping to someone in the box? Given that Sam loves percentage football I'm surprised he didn't see this.

Don't see how we can really go for 4-4-2 with Dunn as one of the central pairing. Ultimately the 4-5-1 hinges on Dunn who is only our only consistently creative player. With 4-5-1 you don't need pacy players when it comes to being a solid defensive side. Which is something we have been in the last 3 months or so. The pacy wingers obviously help with creating chances. We don't have any other than the disappointing - so far - Hoilett. Nor do we have any really creative players other than Dunn and, perhaps, Kalinic. Which explains our lack of goals or, indeed, quality chances throughout the season.

If we play a team that has 5 across midfield with only N'Zonzi and Dunn they would likely overrun us. Makes sense that we can do it later on in the game when the opposition is tiring somewhat.

That said, I do think Sam waited too long before bringing Hoilett and Kalinic on. However a point away from home is not to be sniffed out. Not with our away record...

[MarkBRFC71]

Don't see how we can really go for 4-4-2 with Dunn as one of the central pairing. Ultimately the 4-5-1 hinges on Dunn who is only our only consistently creative player. With 4-5-1 you don't need pacy players when it comes to being a solid defensive side. Which is something we have been in the last 3 months or so. The pacy wingers obviously help with creating chances. We don't have any other than the disappointing - so far - Hoilett. Nor do we have any really creative players other than Dunn and, perhaps, Kalinic. Which explains our lack of goals or, indeed, quality chances throughout the season.

If we play a team that has 5 across midfield with only N'Zonzi and Dunn they would likely overrun us. Makes sense that we can do it later on in the game when the opposition is tiring somewhat.

That said, I do think Sam waited too long before bringing Hoilett and Kalinic on. However a point away from home is not to be sniffed out. Not with our away record...

I think in certain games, at home against the weaker teams, we could easily go 4-4-2 as described and it would work.

At the moment though we don't really have the players to play either system consistently well. For 4-5-1 we lack the players capable of getting forward to support the lone striker - I think you really need at least one box-to-box player, and two pacey players wide of the lone striker to do it well - but we also lack the two strong centre midfielders needed to play 4-4-2 against everyone.

We rarely create more than 2 or 3 chances a game playing 4-5-1, and those are usually because we've thrown the ball into the mixer and it's fallen well for us. Also, we lack the kind of striker who can score from 2 or 3 chances a game - because they tend to have names like Rooney, Torres or Drogba and cost £20 - £30m, hence why that formation works well for the likes of Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool.

I think the answer is to choose formation based on the opposition - surely modern managers and players can be flexible enough to cope with that?

[roverich]

A point away from home can be looked at in good light in isolation.

Having sat through the whole game though I am bitterly disappointed. It was a lacklustre performance with the team showing zero creativity against a 10 man opposition. I accept we use the long ball tactics and don't want to spark that debate again but if the team doesn't have the intelligence to adapt when the opposition goes a man down it is poor. With Dunn and Pedersen in the middle they definitely had the ability to start passing the ball and take control but never even tried.

[FourLaneBlue]

At the moment though we don't really have the players to play either system consistently well.

I think that one short sentence sums it up. It's our lack of quality in midfield that is the real problem. Has been since Savage broke his leg. N'Zonzi may become that player in time but isn't at that level yet and is worrying how desperate we are when we have to play him every game. Grella may be that player but unless he breaks the habit of his career and remains uninjured for more than a couple of games at a time we will never know.

A possibility for 4-4-2 could be Grella and N'zonzi in the centre with Dunn on the right or left with instructions to drift in to threaten the opposition defence. However, he is no Ronaldo and not sure if he has the engine for it anymore.

Sam is a very cautious manager. We all know that. We have however, at times, played some good stuff. In time, and with gradual improvements to the squad as we don't have the money for it to be anything other than gradual, we may well see us playing more good football than at present.

[CrazyIvan]

I can't believe the comments on here that are SO negative after we got a point on a shocking pitch. We should, and could with a bit of luck, have had three points. It wasn't like we didn't create anything or we were dominated by Pompey, we did create and we did dominate. Finishing is the problem, not the system. I wanted us to win and I actually think we did more than enough to do so but for hitting the wrong side of the post and some poor finishing. Don't be so negative, look on this as a much better performance AWAY from home (where we have been shocking) than most of our performances this season.

[modes98]

Sam is a very cautious manager.

To right he is. When they went down to 10 men he should have seized the opportunity and put Kalinic on and had 2 up top but instead he changes Nzonzi for Grella. What a waste of a sub, its like swapping your keepers.

First half I thought we were very good but the real danger was always from either Samba or Jones. Both looked like getting on the score sheet from MGPs for once accurate crosses.

The weather didn't help but we should have killed it off in that first half.

[Amo]

But it wasn't like for like, you could see that on the pitch. They may play the same position but that doesn't mean they are the same player. NZonzi is better in the air, Grella is better on the ground. Sam tried to capitalise on the 10 man by playing a passing game through the wings. We couldn't do it through the centre because Roberts wasn't holding the ball up and Dunn couldn't create anything.

And yet Grella has often be criticised for being a side-ball merchant with no passing range. He's a holding midfielder who essentially keeps the ball moving along. If we really wanted to make the extra man count, we shouldn't have swapped a defensive midfielder for a....defensive midfielder.

Hoilett was ready to run but the conditions weren't conducive to it. His pace was negated by the weather and that's his major strength.

He still managed to get behind the defence a couple of times. Given more time, he could have made a difference.

Then with 10 minutes to go Sam tried to go more attacking with Kalinic but that didn't work out either. As a few people have said it was one of those days where nothing seemed to work for us.

Ten minutes to the end was far too late to introduce Kalinic, especially since Vanden Borre was sent off with half-an-hour still to play.

Sam wasn't ambitious enough, end of story. He took the plaudits for not going gung-ho against Chelsea and was proven right, but in this case his caution wasn't justified. I don't think a point against a beleaguered, man down, rock-bottom side is anything to sing and dance about. It was a disappointing result.

[thenodrog]

So why, given that the pitch was a quagmire, and this is probably a good time to get bodies forward and lump it in (to avoid passing on a crap pitch) did Sam choose to try to play it on the floor?

Lumping long balls in does not serve to provide an advantage against 10 men. I'm suprised given your obvious level of knowledge that you need to ask.

[roverich]

I can't believe the comments on here that are SO negative after we got a point on a shocking pitch. We should, and could with a bit of luck, have had three points. It wasn't like we didn't create anything or we were dominated by Pompey, we did create and we did dominate. Finishing is the problem, not the system. I wanted us to win and I actually think we did more than enough to do so but for hitting the wrong side of the post and some poor finishing. Don't be so negative, look on this as a much better performance AWAY from home (where we have been shocking) than most of our performances this season.

I think you've listed enough reasons to justify a few negative points actually. Finishing awful and the performance too - anyone that says Rovers played well either didn't see the game or was wearing blue glasses!! They passed the ball terribly and that's not down solely to the conditions.

Grella put at least two long balls into the only area of the pitch where there wasn't a single player! Don't know what he was seeing and that was when we were a man up and should have been controlling the ball and passing to feet, especially in those conditions when inaccurate long balls were never going to work. It wasn't just Grella though, the back four would pass it around a bit and then get impatient so punt a long ball forward - Olsson often did well to get near to these but had no support so couldn't do anything but win the first header and watch as Pompey cleared the second ball.

"Not the system"??? HA! Forget the the 4-5-1 vs 4-4-2 argument, the idiots chanting 4-4-2 looked like fools when we switched to 4-4-2 and played worse! It had nothing to do with formation, the tactics looked like some 8 year old was playing championship manager!

@ Mark: I never saw any evidence of us trying to play the ball on the floor. All I saw was consistenly inaccurate long balls (usually directed in the vague direction of Olsson) and noone following up to challenge the second ball whether a Rovers player won the first one or not. What match were you watching???

[ptholt]

Before this match i had a fear this game was a nothing event for both sets of players, the match program even says that when you open the cover, not exactly what you want to be reading after driving down to Portsmouth.

The regular pompey players are for the most part "injured" (i took that to be slang they didnt want to pay them any more appearance money pre the cup game), and i had a fear the rovers players would switch off after securing premier league survival.

Unfortunately both sides lived up to my worst expectations, and whilst the 4-5-1 is grim to watch, you cant really blame BFS for resorting to it when we haven’t won a game outside of Lancashire all season regardless who the opposition has been or there current form.

Watching Vince's pre game warm up on his own looked like a late fitness test and from the huffing, puffing and chest holding thought it rather odd he passed it in all honesty, I was even more surprised when he came on the pitch, he was more out of puff than a hashish salesman after a 50% off sale in Brixton.

Rovers warm up seemed almost to have a mini party atmosphere, players signing autographs for the kids (in some cases eg grella the pompey kids rather than the rovers ones :s yes I know were all in blue Vince but even you should be able to tell us apart by now, perhaps this explains his lack of passing skills, hes colour blind and cant tell us apart, get to spec savers mate) and to some degree that rather laid back attitude carried on into the game as well, we were slow, far to laid back and generally just running the clock down with only occasional glimpses of a break that when we did get forward we couldn’t finish, hell i bet Roberts couldn’t score in a brothel with £50 tucked into the elastic of his boxers.

Im not sure who the fan was behind me, but the frustration in his shouts of a lack of attack/pace/forward momentum hit the nail on the head as much as his voice reminded me to get my perforated eardrum looked at on Tuesday morning, he was positively howling for mgp, olsson well ANYONE to run down the wing into the frequent space (after the sending off) wide open in front of them, sadly this only happened on a few occasions and when it did they were sadly spurned – or fell to Jason which is sadly the same thing.

The substitutions when they came were frankly baffling and some blame must be on BFS shoulders for bringing on grella (please note my point above re his pre match warm up), as many have said the game was crying out for someone to inject some pace and or a quality final ball, hoillet came on to provide only half of that, in fact im starting to wonder if his name is rhyming slang for the big white receptacle in the bathroom on purpose, he comes on runs around a lot, has lots of speed but his final ball/shooing is woeful, in fact ive not seen such a lively/rapid player with such poor final ball skills since georgios donis...

Nico came on far to late in my opinion, and one header aside could add very little to this footballing wet T-######/mud wrestling contest.

Yes the weather was bad, yes it honked it down from start to finish, yes the pitch was a mess, but and correct me if I’m wrong here, unless global warming kicked in massively Blackburn isn’t blessed with Mediterranean sunshine (im sure salgado will confirm this fact) and a lawn bowls surface on the pitch the last time I went to ewood, quite the opposite in fact, one could be forgiven for thinking we should play better when the conditions are more akin to those we spend the most time in perhaps?

It was definitely two points lost with a feeling of a point snatched from the jaws of three, apart from givet's goal line clearance I don’t think robbo had anything more strenuous to do than the odd hoofed free kick and wave to us when we applauded seeing his come back.

Jones was worthy of some credit, I just hope in our cash strapped state we can hold onto him, something I would not say about mgp, spit or salgado on today’s performance.