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Portsmouth - the good and bad - with pics


Davefevs

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Martin & Diedhiou Link-up:

Not the most natural pairing but for 60 minutes it showed that two "big men" can be effective.

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Martin (7) has dropped into a pocket to receive a ball from Rowe (out of picture).  Adelakun wide left, Diedhiou in between the two centre-backs, Semenyo looking to get into the box, whilst Bakinson has broken past his marker (Cannon).

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Martin gets it into Diedhiou's feet who squares up his man and feeds Martin who's continued his run.  Martin's shot from a narrow angle is saved.  But good link-up all the same.

Diedhiou's goal:

This was a good move, starting deep on our right side, with Nagy passing infield to Bakinson.

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Diedhiou is not being marked tightly, whilst Adelakun has come well into the centre of the pitch to get involved.  Semenyo and Martin have swapped, Martin had initially ran in-to-out for a channel pass, whilst Semenyo has ran out-to-in where he got a lot of room.  Bakinson passes to Diedhiou.

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Diedhiou has sucked his markers in, whilst the left-back (Brown) is now set a poor line with room for Semenyo to run into the space behind.  Diedhiou plays a lovely first time lay-off to Adelakun.

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Look at the hole opened up as Adelakun returns the pass to Diedhiou, who shows good composure to open up his body, put the ball onto his left foot and curl home for the opening goal.

Martin working the channel:

Although Martin typically played left side of Diedhiou, they didn't stay to their sides.

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Mariappa advances forward.  If I was being a little critical City's forwards are a bit flat (which caused problems for us second half), but Bakinson is trying to join up and Rowe (bottom right) too. Nicolaisen and Brown have gone man for man, rather than pass Martin and Semenyo over, and this means Nicolaisen has been dragged away from his comfort zone.

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Maraippa continues his run, but Martin uses it as a decoy run, and feeds Semenyo inside.  Brown cannot lunge in and Semenyo breezes past him.  He strikes for goal, and the keeper saves, although probably going wide.  But a good example of good movement by Martin and Semenyo to move the Pompey defenders about.  More please!!!!

Diedhiou back to goal:

With City getting assured possession in the final third, Diedhiou can back into his man and get runners off of him.

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Again Bakinson strides forward from a simple pass inside from Rowe.  Williams and Harness are attracted to him but cannot get close enough to stop him rolling a pass into Diedhiou.  Rowe's pass inside, having drawn the two Pompey attackers to him to stop him playing in Adealkun (out of picture) is what creates the passing lane for Bakinson.

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Diedhiou holds his man off, and the fear of Raggett getting rolled, means Johnson (right-back) is sucked narrow to cover.  This frees Adelakun, who crosses beautifully, just evading Semenyo's run to the near post and Bakinson who hasn't stopped running after passing to Diedhiou.  Bakinson just fails to make contact.  A simple example of good possession in the final third opening up a defence.

Weak defending:

Having been on top, City switch off in injury time, not helped by bizarre refereeing from Leigh Doughty from a corner.

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City are in reasonable shape, but Cannon breaks through three City players.

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The attempted tackle from Nagy is weak, just an outstretched leg, which is easily bypassed by Cannon.  This wasn't the only time City failed to win a 50:50 and is a recurring theme of late. It led to the equaliser, which from a three versus eight situation is not really good enough.

Too easy from throw-ins:

City are always made to work hard trying to retain possession from throw-ins, but too often allow their opponents easy ball from theirs.

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Johnson throws to Williams who rolls inside from Rowe because Bakinson isn't really marking anyone or helping.  Williams rolls a pass inside to the advancing Naylor (Martin realises too late).  Nagy is marking Jacobs (24) but you can see his body is shaping towards the ball.

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Naylor plays a one-two with Jacobs.  Nagy has lost Jacobs, Bakinson is nowhere, and Martin has given up on Naylor.

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This leaves Moore exposed as Naylor bursts into the box, he slips, Kalas comes across to block, but he cannot do enough, but Bentley saves.  We really shouldn't be opened up from a simple throw-in routine.

Vyner - 360 degrees

Lots of calls for Vyner to play in midfield on Wednesday after a ten minute cameo against Pompey.  Having played a really good firm pass out wide to Rowe initially, splitting two Portsmouth players, Rowe's cross is headed clear.

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Vyner doesn't take the best of first touches and the ball falls behind him as he's closed down.  He could pass to Massengo (42) or open back out to the left and feed the retreating Rowe.

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With the ball under control, Massengo has drawn Jacobs onto him leaving Vyner more time as Naylor closes him down.  Semenyo is looking to be slid inside and Rowe is also on.

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But he switches back inside onto his right foot, perhaps sensing an opportunity to shoot, but Martin has got a couple of yards space.  Vyner passes to him, he tries to feed Diedhiou who's made a good run, but its blocked.  The ball comes back to Martin who strikes home for the winner.  A good example of Vyner getting his head up, and perhaps showing potential to play in midfield where he'll need good vision of where his teammates are but also eyes in the back of his head for opposition midfielders too.

So, some good stuff and bad stuff, but stuff to work on ultimately.

 

 

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Great analysis.

Something I've thought for a long time with our play is some players are really tame when trying to regain possession and also when in getting the ball under control going forward. Just way too casual and not fully committed which leads to so many missed opportunities to either prevent or score goals.

 

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8 minutes ago, Flagon said:

Great analysis.

Something I've thought for a long time with our play is some players are really tame when trying to regain possession and also when in getting the ball under control going forward. Just way too casual and not fully committed which leads to so many missed opportunities to either prevent or score goals.

 

I watched a bit of the Marine v Spurs last night.  There was one moment that made me think about City.  It was a simple moment.  There was a ball between two players.  In a leg race the Spurs player gets it, but the stocky Marine left sided player just got his body in the line of the run towards the ball, giving the Spurs player a good strong nudge in the process, so the Spurs player couldn’t beat him.  We just don’t do that.  We don’t use our body or arms properly.  Massengo does but others don’t. He can’t avoid being outmuscled some times but he’s good with his body.  Other players are brushed off the ball too easily in possession and give away silly fouls out of possession because they don’t use every part of their body to gain a fair advantage.

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16 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I watched a bit of the Marine v Spurs last night.  There was one moment that made me think about City.  It was a simple moment.  There was a ball between two players.  In a leg race the Spurs player gets it, but the stocky Marine left sided player just got his body in the line of the run towards the ball, giving the Spurs player a good strong nudge in the process, so the Spurs player couldn’t beat him.  We just don’t do that.  We don’t use our body or arms properly.  Massengo does but others don’t. He can’t avoid being outmuscled some times but he’s good with his body.  Other players are brushed off the ball too easily in possession and give away silly fouls out of possession because they don’t use every part of their body to gain a fair advantage.

Great analysis. In simplistic mind, our two biggest problems with the group of players is that they’re not physical enough and not brave enough (frightened of failure? Or of making mistakes maybe?). 
 

Obviously there are also problems with consistency of set-up, formation and selection. 
 

Beyond that I can’t add anything other than to say how annoying are those football markings on our rugby pitch....?? 
 

 

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41 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I watched a bit of the Marine v Spurs last night.  There was one moment that made me think about City.  It was a simple moment.  There was a ball between two players.  In a leg race the Spurs player gets it, but the stocky Marine left sided player just got his body in the line of the run towards the ball, giving the Spurs player a good strong nudge in the process, so the Spurs player couldn’t beat him.  We just don’t do that.  We don’t use our body or arms properly.  Massengo does but others don’t. He can’t avoid being outmuscled some times but he’s good with his body.  Other players are brushed off the ball too easily in possession and give away silly fouls out of possession because they don’t use every part of their body to gain a fair advantage.

Glad you point out Massengo, he is very good at using his body not just to stop being outmuscled but also to gain free kicks. Another is Martin who is very strong and also adept at using his body and getting the foul. Unfortunately, its the other way around for Diedhiou, who is very strong but rarely "wins" a free kick. 

But "getting stuck in" has been a problem for years and, on joining, Mawson said that City have always been perceived as a soft touch, which confirms what a lot of supporters have known for some time. Pack and Smith could put it about but thats about it in recent times imo. We have players at the back who aren't shy such as Kalas, Mawson, Baker, and Hunt, but none in midfield. I mentioned in the Bobby Kellard thread that we could do with his type today, or a Tainton, Gow, Doherty, etc etc.

Waffling now, time for bed :mf_sleep:

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7 minutes ago, bcfc01 said:

Glad you point out Massengo, he is very good at using his body not just to stop being outmuscled but also to gain free kicks. Another is Martin who is very strong and also adept at using his body and getting the foul. Unfortunately, its the other way around for Diedhiou, who is very strong but rarely "wins" a free kick. 

But "getting stuck in" has been a problem for years and, on joining, Mawson said that City have always been perceived as a soft touch, which confirms what a lot of supporters have known for some time. Pack and Smith could put it about but thats about it in recent times imo. We have players at the back who aren't shy such as Kalas, Mawson, Baker, and Hunt, but none in midfield. I mentioned in the Bobby Kellard thread that we could do with his type today, or a Tainton, Gow, Doherty, etc etc.

Waffling now, time for bed :mf_sleep:

For me, LJ didn’t learn from his Dad....his dad played Marv alongside his son.

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Great analysis as usual Dave.

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

For me, LJ didn’t learn from his Dad....his dad played Marv alongside his son.

Probably the last time we has a  " presence ' in CMF, I kind of hope Bakinson could evolve into that, bit early yet.
I do feel sorry for Holden , that type of player that we've been looking for , he thought he'd found in Williams. I think it's a big step for Vyner, but he's impressed me how he's improved, learned and ironed out problems. Might be worth throwing him in and seeing how it goes. Depending how it goes it can always be switched, plus it's one of those sort of free hits, as we're not expected to get anything.

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8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

For me, LJ didn’t learn from his Dad....his dad played Marv alongside his son.

I never understood this. Lee of all people should have known that a bit of physicality in midfield was important. Dean doesn’t appear to have spotted the problem either. 
Perhaps it’s an over arching strategy from on high of wanting a tippy-tappy team?  We seem good at “playing at” playing modern football but all of the best teams have players who will get stuck in when needed.  
I also remember GJ arriving and talking about removing the soft underbelly.... toughening things up. 
Cotts also toughened things up. 
In 40+ years I’ve only seen City successful with a bit of steel/grit about them. 
 

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1 minute ago, Mendip City said:

I never understood this. Lee of all people should have known that a bit of physicality in midfield was important. Dean doesn’t appear to have spotted the problem either. 
Perhaps it’s an over arching strategy from on high of wanting a tippy-tappy team?  We seem good at “playing at” playing modern football but all of the best teams have players who will get stuck in when needed.  
I also remember GJ arriving and talking about removing the soft underbelly.... toughening things up. 
Cotts also toughened things up. 
In 40+ years I’ve only seen City successful with a bit of steel/grit about them. 
 

In fairness, I think he announced Joe Williams as the gap to our physicality.

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1 minute ago, Mendip City said:

You’re right. I’d literally forgotten him! 
 

Makes the Morrell situation even more annoying. 

I know some don’t rate Morrell (that’s fine), but we are missing his skill set, a positional organiser in front of our defence.  There is a bit of joke about players like Kilkenny who pointed at players and did nothing himself, but Morrell does it but for a reason and backs it up with his own positioning.  He’s a leader.  Not easy for a lower-ranked player to come into a Wales squad and push players around.  We miss leadership.

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@Davefevs - do you think we need a midfield enforcer then? A Kante or Makelele? 

At the moment, we just don’t seem to have that player in our squad. Nagy brings a lot but his weakness is his physicality, Bakinson, well sometimes I think he can tackle, other times no - either way he needs more time to develop to see where his game ends up (clearly an eye for a pass too).

People talk about Williams, he’s physical and can tackle yes, but he’s a box to box type no? He’s not going to patrol in front of the back 3/4 all game.

For me I’d love to see a base, a foundation in the midfield, an Ndidi or Rice who has the discipline to sit and disrupt and I think it would work if we reverted to 3 CB’s again. 

As people have been saying, that physicality in midfield has been missing for a while and if we make 1 signing this Jan, I hope it’s that type of player.

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15 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

@Davefevs - do you think we need a midfield enforcer then? A Kante or Makelele? 

At the moment, we just don’t seem to have that player in our squad. Nagy brings a lot but his weakness is his physicality, Bakinson, well sometimes I think he can tackle, other times no - either way he needs more time to develop to see where his game ends up (clearly an eye for a pass too).

People talk about Williams, he’s physical and can tackle yes, but he’s a box to box type no? He’s not going to patrol in front of the back 3/4 all game.

For me I’d love to see a base, a foundation in the midfield, an Ndidi or Rice who has the discipline to sit and disrupt and I think it would work if we reverted to 3 CB’s again. 

As people have been saying, that physicality in midfield has been missing for a while and if we make 1 signing this Jan, I hope it’s that type of player.

In an ideal world I’d want physicality AND organisational discipline.  The stupid thing for me is that organisation should be a pre-requisite skill already in the squad.  Nagy has close on 50 Hungarian caps playing that position.....you can’t tell me that he’s not organising and disciplined in his national side.  Yet for us his positional discipline is terrible, HE runs where HE wants, with little thought, and he doesn’t organise.  Bakinson is the newbie, I would expect Nagy to be talking him through the game, but from the tv I see no evidence.  I therefore give Bakinson some slack.  What is Kalas doing behind them, he can see it all.

The good teams I played in had good talkers, good passers-on of information.  They also tended to let you know in no uncertain terms when you’d dropped your standards.  I don’t see that on the tv.  I hear shouting from Bentley and the sidelines.  I’d make Bentley captain in hindsight.

In terms of physicality, you mention Kante and Makelele.....both are / were fine footballers too, albeit in different ways.  Not enforcers in your truest sense, but both had different ways of winning the ball, Makelele, through good positioning and anticipation, Kante, speed of anticipation for a loose ball.

From what I’ve seen off Joe Williams, we don’t need an enforcer that sits in front of the defence, we need him to join in attacks too....but someone else has to be intelligent enough to be wary when he does.

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7 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

In an ideal world I’d want physicality AND organisational discipline.  The stupid thing for me is that organisation should be a pre-requisite skill already in the squad.  Nagy has close on 50 Hungarian caps playing that position.....you can’t tell me that he’s not organising and disciplined in his national side.  Yet for us his positional discipline is terrible, HE runs where HE wants, with little thought, and he doesn’t organise.  Bakinson is the newbie, I would expect Nagy to be talking him through the game, but from the tv I see no evidence.  I therefore give Bakinson some slack.  What is Kalas doing behind them, he can see it all.

The good teams I played in had good talkers, good passers-on of information.  They also tended to let you know in no uncertain terms when you’d dropped your standards.  I don’t see that on the tv.  I hear shouting from Bentley and the sidelines.  I’d make Bentley captain in hindsight.

In terms of physicality, you mention Kante and Makelele.....both are / were fine footballers too, albeit in different ways.  Not enforcers in your truest sense, but both had different ways of winning the ball, Makelele, through good positioning and anticipation, Kante, speed of anticipation for a loose ball.

From what I’ve seen off Joe Williams, we don’t need an enforcer that sits in front of the defence, we need him to join in attacks too....but someone else has to be intelligent enough to be wary when he does.

Yes good post. Communication and leadership.

I didn’t mean enforcer in the oldskool sense, more exactly as you say, someone with the vision and discipline to be a foundation defensively for the midfield. As you say, I guess ideally we have 3/4 players who have the physicality and the skill!

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39 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

In an ideal world I’d want physicality AND organisational discipline.  The stupid thing for me is that organisation should be a pre-requisite skill already in the squad.  Nagy has close on 50 Hungarian caps playing that position.....you can’t tell me that he’s not organising and disciplined in his national side.  Yet for us his positional discipline is terrible, HE runs where HE wants, with little thought, and he doesn’t organise.  Bakinson is the newbie, I would expect Nagy to be talking him through the game, but from the tv I see no evidence.  I therefore give Bakinson some slack.  What is Kalas doing behind them, he can see it all.

The good teams I played in had good talkers, good passers-on of information.  They also tended to let you know in no uncertain terms when you’d dropped your standards.  I don’t see that on the tv.  I hear shouting from Bentley and the sidelines.  I’d make Bentley captain in hindsight.

In terms of physicality, you mention Kante and Makelele.....both are / were fine footballers too, albeit in different ways.  Not enforcers in your truest sense, but both had different ways of winning the ball, Makelele, through good positioning and anticipation, Kante, speed of anticipation for a loose ball.

From what I’ve seen off Joe Williams, we don’t need an enforcer that sits in front of the defence, we need him to join in attacks too....but someone else has to be intelligent enough to be wary when he does.

I don't know how Nagy plays for the National side, but I like his (hate to say this) busy bee style. He covers a lot of ground, nick the ball and can keep play going. I'd want Holden to put restrictions on him. Limit his role and explain what we need him to do. Kalas, it's been said before, leader by example. Which is fine, but you need people to talk, at any time you can only see what, 45% of what's going on? You do need people to let you know, if a runner is coming, you need to get tighter or drop off, I still don't think we have enough of that. Numerous times you'll see someone have a free header with no-one within 10 yards, or someone clear with the same space. I never played at any level, but the first thing you'd hear is a shout of "Time"! We see 2 players go for the same ball, or worse with leave it. On field communication has been poor for some time, Mawson looks better, Bentley seems good, but we need more, it makes the game easier for everyone.
Perhaps some of Bakinson's poor passing is down to not being aware and no one helping him, who knows. 

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1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

I know some don’t rate Morrell (that’s fine), but we are missing his skill set, a positional organiser in front of our defence.  There is a bit of joke about players like Kilkenny who pointed at players and did nothing himself, but Morrell does it but for a reason and backs it up with his own positioning.  He’s a leader.  Not easy for a lower-ranked player to come into a Wales squad and push players around.  We miss leadership.

Almost forgotten about Neil Kilkenny who is currently playing for Perth Glory I believe.

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2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I know some don’t rate Morrell (that’s fine), but we are missing his skill set, a positional organiser in front of our defence.  There is a bit of joke about players like Kilkenny who pointed at players and did nothing himself, but Morrell does it but for a reason and backs it up with his own positioning.  He’s a leader.  Not easy for a lower-ranked player to come into a Wales squad and push players around.  We miss leadership.

Always seems to me that we identify players for positions and/or clubs in the bag. 
 

We don’t seem to also identify what you might call the softer skills - organisation, leadership, ability to put foot in, ability to dig out colleagues,  all of which could be summed up as  “character”. 
 

They weren’t technically better but how much character was there in our play-off team....? I’m afraid that they’d batter this current team! 

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1 hour ago, 1960maaan said:

I don't know how Nagy plays for the National side, but I like his (hate to say this) busy bee style. He covers a lot of ground, nick the ball and can keep play going. I'd want Holden to put restrictions on him. Limit his role and explain what we need him to do. Kalas, it's been said before, leader by example. Which is fine, but you need people to talk, at any time you can only see what, 45% of what's going on? You do need people to let you know, if a runner is coming, you need to get tighter or drop off, I still don't think we have enough of that. Numerous times you'll see someone have a free header with no-one within 10 yards, or someone clear with the same space. I never played at any level, but the first thing you'd hear is a shout of "Time"! We see 2 players go for the same ball, or worse with leave it. On field communication has been poor for some time, Mawson looks better, Bentley seems good, but we need more, it makes the game easier for everyone.
Perhaps some of Bakinson's poor passing is down to not being aware and no one helping him, who knows. 

You’re onto something. I think people confuse leadership and organisation. You could lump the best players in the world together but if they’re not organised, not talking... they won’t achieve much. 

Basso, Orr, Carey, McCoombe, McAllister.... they were organised, they communicated and they’d slaughter each other if someone went missing. Our current lot just trudge back, heads down and do it all again. 
 

On a similar note... I’m not sure we’ve seen a proper naughty challenge since Wilbraham left! 

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It’s not just physicality in the middle, it’s leadership and identity. 

We fail on all counts. 

Is there anyone in there who will take a game by the scruff of the neck and raise the tempo, rally the troops, dictate play? Nope. 

 

Whether Williams was that guy, we may never know.

Not to have any back-up though is borderline negligent. How LJ/MA constantly neglected to address the issue -as a past midfielder- is beyond my comprehension. 

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13 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I watched a bit of the Marine v Spurs last night.  There was one moment that made me think about City.  It was a simple moment.  There was a ball between two players.  In a leg race the Spurs player gets it, but the stocky Marine left sided player just got his body in the line of the run towards the ball, giving the Spurs player a good strong nudge in the process, so the Spurs player couldn’t beat him.  We just don’t do that.  We don’t use our body or arms properly.  Massengo does but others don’t. He can’t avoid being outmuscled some times but he’s good with his body.  Other players are brushed off the ball too easily in possession and give away silly fouls out of possession because they don’t use every part of their body to gain a fair advantage.

or we don't chuck ourselves to the ground at the slightest little graze of somebody being nearby (well maybe except Semenyo)

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17 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

or we don't chuck ourselves to the ground at the slightest little graze of somebody being nearby (well maybe except Semenyo)

....and there’s a time to do that (tactically buy a foul) and there’s a time not to, e.g. when you’re in a good attacking position, and the opposition are just trying to break your momentum.

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24 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

or we don't chuck ourselves to the ground at the slightest little graze of somebody being nearby (well maybe except Semenyo)

 

5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

....and there’s a time to do that (tactically buy a foul) and there’s a time not to, e.g. when you’re in a good attacking position, and the opposition are just trying to break your momentum.

Worked perfectly for Portsmouth. 
Our attack is cleared, we pick the ball up and set to go again. Player down , Ref stops the game, he gets up + no trainer. Game restarts with their goal kick. I can tell you I was F'ing and Jeff'ing at the TV. Another was a really cynical trip on Semenyo (?) which was so much more than a yellow, but never a Red, we don't do that. Stops the team breaking on you when short at the back. 

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14 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I watched a bit of the Marine v Spurs last night.  There was one moment that made me think about City.  It was a simple moment.  There was a ball between two players.  In a leg race the Spurs player gets it, but the stocky Marine left sided player just got his body in the line of the run towards the ball, giving the Spurs player a good strong nudge in the process, so the Spurs player couldn’t beat him.  We just don’t do that.  We don’t use our body or arms properly.  Massengo does but others don’t. He can’t avoid being outmuscled some times but he’s good with his body.  Other players are brushed off the ball too easily in possession and give away silly fouls out of possession because they don’t use every part of their body to gain a fair advantage.

Semenyo, Martin and Diedhiou are good at this , they all draw a fair amount of fouls.

Famaral often doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt ,due to his size I suppose.

As you have noted Massengo masters the act of shielding the ball and gaining free kicks , again I think this is in part due to his frame.

 

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1 hour ago, Mendip City said:

You’re onto something. I think people confuse leadership and organisation. You could lump the best players in the world together but if they’re not organised, not talking... they won’t achieve much. 

Basso, Orr, Carey, McCoombe, McAllister.... they were organised, they communicated and they’d slaughter each other if someone went missing. Our current lot just trudge back, heads down and do it all again. 
 

On a similar note... I’m not sure we’ve seen a proper naughty challenge since Wilbraham left! 

Chris Martin might have something to say about that ! 

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46 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

Semenyo, Martin and Diedhiou are good at this , they all draw a fair amount of fouls.

Famaral often doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt ,due to his size I suppose.

As you have noted Massengo masters the act of shielding the ball and gaining free kicks , again I think this is in part due to his frame.

 

Agree with all of that... I think City seem soft though and naive but I’m wondering whether I’m being harsh.... are most teams like it now? The journey to become a pro footballer is very different - they are all technically better than years ago but have played less men’s football and where do the learn the “dark arts”? Not I’m U23 games I’d suggest. 

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8 minutes ago, Mendip City said:

Agree with all of that... I think City seem soft though and naive but I’m wondering whether I’m being harsh.... are most teams like it now? The journey to become a pro footballer is very different - they are all technically better than years ago but have played less men’s football and where do the learn the “dark arts”? Not I’m U23 games I’d suggest. 

It’s a little too sanitised these days. Will they ever have the pleasure of playing with orange balls ( only if Simon Jordan takes over the club I suppose) ? 
 

Or having a pass that just sticks in the mud ? 
 

No , the ‘ rustic ‘ element of the game has been washed out to be replaced by prancing dandies who fall over if an opponent makes a derogatory comment about their hair or their latest tattoo.

Different times. 

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