• Nigel Adkins has been given the Tranmere job on a permanent basis signing until the end of the 25/26 season. Continue the discussion here.

Pompey post-mortem

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It does not feel like it at the moment, but whatever happens in the remaining four games it has been a decent season. Of the low spenders in League One, we are currently second behind Yeovil, although Walsall and Orient may yet overtake us.

Trouble is, I can't ever remember a 'season of two halves' like this one, with such a discrepancy between the form of the first four months and the remainder of the campaign. Ronnie's previous spell was characterised by strong starts that petered out after January, but nothing on the scale of 2012-3.

The major causes of our decline are the injury problems and small squad size, as has been discussed on here ad nauseum. However, I can't help but feel that a lack of tactical imagination and variation in the last couple of games has finally put the nail in the coffin: like for like substitutions, with no change of shape. Admittedly, with Robbo out and McGurk apparently not fit enough to feature today, our options were severely limited.
 

bigmart

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Some of the loan signings have not helped either. We have been short of goals for a long while and we end up with another left back rather than a striker on deadline day.
 

Ian

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It does not feel like it at the moment, but whatever happens in the remaining four games it has been a decent season..
Although I'm absolutely gutted about today's result the above is spot on even though I hate to admit we have been punching above our weight (wanted to prove the early doubters wrong).

It's just very hard to take when we were so dominant early on.

On reflection, it's been a good season and one we must build on. We seem to be moving in the right direction and that can only be a good thing.

Regarding the game, it seemed very similar to Fri. Not much in it and undone by a soft goal.

Are the players now running on empty?
 

bigmart

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The way things are going we are likely to end up only a couple of places better off than last season.

We need now to try and get out of contract players signed or at least agree deals for new players so that we can hit the ground running next season. The most important thing we need to try to do is somehow got a goalscorer.
 

Boz

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It sounded a more positive performance than against the Blades, but nonetheless we got nothing out of it and barring miracles befitting the time of year, should resign ourselves to another season in L1.

I do agree with RLCs point about lack of tactical imagination/variation in recent games. Despite the injuries, there was still scope for some change, particularly up front. None of our strikers have scored since Colchester.

At the moment, we are heading in the wrong direction, sliding down the table. The first thing that needs to be done is to try and arrest the slump.
 

drwhoman

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POMPEY

it was good while it lasted. On strikers, not sure if he is injured but no sign of Cassidy in the Wolves team at present despite their relegation fears. A win last night but no sign of 'the man' even on the bench. Maybe we can get him back on a free if Dean Saunders is not a fan!
 

bigmart

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it was good while it lasted. On strikers, not sure if he is injured but no sign of Cassidy in the Wolves team at present despite their relegation fears. A win last night but no sign of 'the man' even on the bench. Maybe we can get him back on a free if Dean Saunders is not a fan!

he is under contract for at least another season so we can forget about getting Cassidy on a free.
 
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On strikers, not sure if he is injured but no sign of Cassidy in the Wolves team at present despite their relegation fears. A win last night but no sign of 'the man' even on the bench. Maybe we can get him back on a free if Dean Saunders is not a fan!

Saunders actually is a big fan of Cassidy. He has started a couple of games for Wolves and has come off the bench several times, but you would not really expect him to displace Doyle and EBB up front given the situation Wolves are in.

Very much doubt he will be going anywhere in the summer.
 

drwhoman

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CASSIDY

RLC/bigmart. I am sure you are right. Wishful thinking on my part probably. However, the bottom line is that they must get better quality players from somewhere or otherwise TR will, at best, remain in Div One. Relegation will always be not far away. I know the issue is money so we are back to the old chestnuts about finding hidden gems in non league etc. We did well early in the season because, for reasons best known to himself, James Wallace chose to join us while Robbo was enjoying what was probably a career Indian summer. It was these two plus some good loanees that have got us where we are. If we are all brutally honest the rest, man for man, are honest hard working lower division players.
 

SonkORLY?

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RM's stated intentions at the start of the season was to create a small squad of relative quality - see who is available, bring in the likes of Wallace, JLAA etc at the expense of a couple of squad players. Then fill in the gaps with loanees, hope they turn out to be good and pray for luck with injuries.

First half of the season this worked a treat. Then we lost Wallace, JLAA, Gibbo, ABB and Robbo to medium-term injury and Cassidy went back to Wolves. That's over half of our starting XI - you can only do so much when that happens. That being said, despite the injuries etc, I still think the sides we have fielded in recent weeks should have performed a lot better than they have, and we should really still be in the playoffs. Some of our results and performances have been lacklustre from the core. It's a shame that they let us down when it mattered, and that Ronnie couldn't sort it out.

Whatever happens, a good season all the same. Although it doesn't feel like it, we're still in contention for a playoff place. And we're in a good position for next season with some important players having already signed. So not all bad. For the first time in a while we got some value for money from our season tickets.
 
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At least Robbo will (we hope) be available for the remaining games: I would rather McGurk was out than him. And the absence of Sidibe will hopefully encourage us to play out from the back a bit more, rather than punting aimless long balls.
 

Boz

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Though considering their form at the time of getting injured Robinson was on something of a dip, while McGurk had been improving. Would agree Sidibe's absence might be an inducement to play it on the deck more.
 

Higgy

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Sidibe's absence leaves dearth of strikers now. He will have to play JLA upfront and I would rather he be on his own than with inferior players such as Stockton etc. Given the potential of the centre midfield players and the fact they can get overloaded may be we should stick a third man in there.

As a last throw of the dice I would consider Zoum in there as he is our form player and could turn out to be the Prenton Gareth Bale:lol:

We could block off left midfields with Black, O'Halloran, or Stockton.............ior Robbo if fit.
 

SonkORLY?

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crazy talk. gotta go jlaa and cass i think. no viable alternative. we arent currently playing well enough to go 1 upfront. would just be ash twatting it up to jlaa and 3 central midfielders running into each other. i dont have the answer to what we need to do to turn things around, but playing the same ppl but out of position isnt it imo.
 
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With Thompson back from Rochdale, I would like to see us start off with Robbo in the hole behind Akpro and Joe and ABB out wide. This worked well at Sheff Utd and if we get a foothold in the match, maybe we could switch to 4-4-2 later on. Stockton has been dire in the majority of games he has started (not his fault, he is very young) and I can't see us taking anything fom the game if he plays in a front two.

If we do play two up top, I would prefer O'Halloran to Cole.
 

bigmart

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crazy talk. gotta go jlaa and cass i think. no viable alternative. we arent currently playing well enough to go 1 upfront. would just be ash twatting it up to jlaa and 3 central midfielders running into each other. i dont have the answer to what we need to do to turn things around, but playing the same ppl but out of position isnt it imo.

jlaa & cass ??? :-D
 

SonkORLY?

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haha, wishful thinking. i meant cole.
 

Higgy

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There is nobody of any ability to play upfront with JLA - so someone has got to play in the hole - Robbo would be good...or as I mentioned earlier even Zoum - in an effort to get players in form on the ball.

It is hard to imagine where the goals will come from when playing 442 with the players avilable.
 

Boz

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I think dire is too harsh an assessment of Cole Stockton's showings. It is closer to describing JLAA's performances since returning from suspension, but even in his case, I reckon such a description would be OTT.
 
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