Akpan

I thought he had his best game.

 

Surrogate mom?

 

Actual, genetic mom.

 

Better yesterday but at times needs to get more fire in his belly - he often just jogs back rather than chase back after players who have dispossessed him to try to win the ball back.

 

What frustrates me about our midfield and Akpan and Wright are the biggests culprits of this, is when they pass a ball to a team mate, they then stop as if thats 'job done'. They really should be passing the ball and instantly expecting it back or at least making themselves available for a return pass. No one does this, no one makes runs for each other, there's no cohesion.

Man City are the prime example of how its done. Yes they are full of superstars, but everytime one of their players gets the ball he has 2 or 3 options for a pass.

 

Totally agree. I tell you what we don’t have in midfield is a thinker, or the brains of the outfit, sometimes captain, but sometimes not. Someone who carries the midfield makes it tick.

 

Didn't Akpans chance come from a one-two?

 

It did, but doesn’t happen hardly at all, we need to make that part of our game, short little give and go’s in midfield.

 

Wright gives his team mates some absolutely horrendous balls. He wasn't quite as bad on Saturday but in previous matches he has played his team mates into trouble numerous times. Shirking his own responsibility

 

This sums it up for me (Sorce: Official YouTube Highlights). Wright has passed the ball out to Ball (a poor pass), this is about 3 seconds later......where is he to offer support? O'Brien (who is one of the few that looks decent) is an option, but as soon as he gets it he'll be surrounded by Pompey players or Ball can cross it to the wettest strikeforce in history.

As it happens, Wright does come for it eventually, plays an absolutely awful pass into Ball, gets lucky with a deflection and the ball falls to Miller who fluffs up setting up Doyle.

If you look back at the picture though, no RB and no CM support. This happened loads!

 

Pass and move into space for support option.

 

Look at the space there! He had no easy options.

 

Spot on, I find myself screaming this stuff every week. Kids get taught this on a Saturday morning in the park ffs.

 

I think it was the first penalty in the Rochdale game that sticks in my mind. We initially lost possession when Wright played a short 5-10 yard ball to Wood who was surrounded by 3 players

 

The first Rochdale goal being a case in point recently. Lewis O’Brien got blamed for losing the ball, but Wright passed it at him (as opposed to passing it *to* him) making it a very difficult ball to control. I don’t think Wright did him any favours at all

 

Spot on. Two years back, under Stuart, we were routinely passing teams off the park - if we'd only had Wyke to finish things off from August instead of January we'd have won the division at a canter.
Cullen, Law, Mezza, Vince, Clarke et al were tieing teams in knots with their rapid fire, one touch, pass & move football. NKP, who now looks a shadow of his former self, also flourished under that style of football and looked a class act. Whenever our players received the ball they would always have two, three or four short passing options because everyone passed and moved the whole time.
We have fallen a long way from those heady days. At times on Saturday we tried to play constructive football along the ground at reasonable pace, but too often it broke down because our players simply weren't either aware, fit or bothered enough to move into good positions to receive the ball. It's hard to know whether this is down to poor coaching or poor players, or a combination of both.

 

That is too painful to read in our current state.

 

Yeah and Nicky Law got a lot of stick from some fans

 

He did, but my other half argued constantly with those around. His view was that all teams need a Law, holds the ball passes well.