So what does he do Tuesday now?

[hal9thou]

Crowd need to play their part. LR used to be a hostile bear pit, especially for evening cup games.

If we're up fot it on and off the park we win it. You have to want it, and I think we'll want it more.

[Hubble]

Said Eze was a “Luxury player” weeks ago , and got Shot down.
when was his last good game ? Bottles out of any challenge, lazy ! Do I need to go on....

You're completely wrong about Eze (IMO). Eze is a supremely gifted young player. The problem is nothing to do with this nonsense about him being 'lazy'; the problem is, as I see it, that he's simply been over-played by McClaren. The burden of responsibility on Eze to produce his magic in game after game is too much at the moment. The lad needs a break. The same is possibly true of Wszolek, who has also been underperforming in recent games. McClaren has not used alternatives to keep these players fresh, and the consequences are the stale performances of late. Sending players like Chair and Oteh out on loan is only going to exacerbate this situation. (Possibly these loans have been enforced by the board seeking to cut costs, I don't know).

Having Luongo back should help, but McClaren still needs to shuffle the pack if things are going to pick up.

[dogsrrs]

Any forward is only as good as the service he gets from his midfield !! FFS what creativity can you get from cousins or Manning or Scowens in partnership with either of those two ,
im going to say it again Luongo is a decent enough player no more than that but an integral part of the team creativity but he's also a fukcin liability goes on a trip to sit on his arce in the sun for Seven games that's when your season started to fall apart
Ok you can look to the three players we have out due to injuries but they had no choice did they ?

[Tarbie]

Drop Eze and play either Chair or Smyth off Wells. Oh. Wait a minute......

Tend to agree mate. We've sent so many out of loan that the 8 or 9 players are going to play when fit whatever happens. Not ideal, we could do with a little more competition for spots.

[dogsrrs]

Tend to agree mate. We've sent so many out of loan that the 8 or 9 players are going to play when fit whatever happens. Not ideal, we could do with a little more competition for spots.

Yes it does seem counter productive to send cover out on loan , but to heap it on Eze is shortsighted had we kept Chair or Smythe to play off Wells what could Cousins Manning and Scowens have created for them ? Can't see much myself buddy

[dave58]

If we play like today we will go out, simple as

Couldn't agree more if we play like we did Saturday, we're out Eze needs a rest been poor of late, no fight no passion until we were 2 down

[Shepherds Mush]

Would personally start BOS instead of Pav, Manning instead of Scowen and Smith instead of Eze to go up top with Wells.

[Pinkie]

Yes it does seem counter productive to send cover out on loan , but to heap it on Eze is shortsighted had we kept Chair or Smythe to play off Wells what could Cousins Manning and Scowens have created for them ? Can't see much myself buddy

Plenty dogs as theyd of had a outlet with fresh legs, smyths very pacey and forward thinking all the time, perfect & chairs great with the ball at his feet finding a pass and small holes, exactly what we need now and havnt got, said it for ages but smyth for pav when hes either injured or needing a rest, when we get bos on we get the same all the time, to me bos needs to be played more cos he seems to over try when he gets his chances but thats been happening for a while now, even though he had the lucky deflection on saturday, macs made his bed now so we will have to carry on like this, even when manning gets his chances i look at him as a more attacking midfielder who can get the odd goal bursting through & not a defensive midfielder, would also involve smith more as we definately look more threatening with him on than when hes not, just need to use the width more.

[Pinkie]

What is shocking is looking at the goals through the squad, especially midfield and upfront, its really poor and considering we`ve got wells and hemed cameron and rangel on load, mac needs to start giving them abit more freedom to express themselves , instead of keeping shapre until we end up going behind to then have a proper go, we`ve become soo obvious the way we play like this bowling the ball out to furs or bidders, if thats not on then it gets booted up in the air for the opposition to bring it straight back, also the amount oftimes we get the chance to get a cross in and its either eze or freeman we`re targeting with a high ball against lumps lol, just so obvious the way we`ve been playing for ages now.

[CroydonCaptainJack]

What is shocking is looking at the goals through the squad, especially midfield and upfront, its really poor and considering we`ve got wells and hemed cameron and rangel on load, mac needs to start giving them abit more freedom to express themselves , instead of keeping shapre until we end up going behind to then have a proper go, we`ve become soo obvious the way we play like this bowling the ball out to furs or bidders, if thats not on then it gets booted up in the air for the opposition to bring it straight back, also the amount oftimes we get the chance to get a cross in and its either eze or freeman we`re targeting with a high ball against lumps lol, just so obvious the way we`ve been playing for ages now.

Three of those four have been injured for two months now.

[hal9thou]

Simple. Do pompey sit deep or press with a high line away from home (when under the cosh)?

If they sit deep you need skill, and that does mean Eze. If they press turn em, pace out wide and Smith Naki +1 (probably Eze again) all on the park - ie go for it.

Main thing is who wants it more....

[lincoln ranger]

I'd play all 3 returning players tbh, can't be any worse than the last few weeks. Players need a break, you can tell Eze and Wszolek are worn out being played week in, week out, that is why the dip in form. Personally, I'd go with a back four of Rangel Furlong Leistner/Lynch Bidwell. Play Cameron in front of back four, Osayi Samuel on right in place of Pav and go two up front Wells and Hemed, giving Eze a rest. I'd like to have seen Smythe play on the wing with Freeman in a Central role for a bit more creativity, but due to his loan it looks like we are stuck with Luongo in that CMF role

[hal9thou]

I'd play all 3 returning players tbh,

Are they all match fit? Didn't realise that. I still think we have to take this by the neck and not worry too much about their attacking options. And pick the side accordingly.

[Pinkie]

Three of those four have been injured for two months now.

And we also had a whole backline out injured for quite a bit last season.

[Pinkie]

Also whats madder is how mac never hardly tried to involve sylla, another who can get you goals but was completely wastedin the end, just when we could do with different options.

Would of been interesting to see how sylla and wells combo would of been, think theyd of been quite good regarding there different styles.