Goodbye Tony

It is with sadness that I say farewell to Tony Adams as manager of Pompey. I think he has been let down by the players and by the club. He wasn't the greatest man manager and he was too quirky in a very conformist world. I was pleased he played my selection on Saturday against Liverpool. He did bring on Kranjcar as suggested in the second half but in the 46th minute rather than the 60th. He should have shut up shop before the end but I am not sure that he had the players with which to do that. This was always a problem for Tony is that the midfield pool to choose from is too restricted. He took off Mullins to bring on Kranjcar. If Tony had been able to stick with me I feel sure we would have weathered the rest of the season. I do feel Crouch, Campbell and Distin in particular need a good kick up the a***! I felt Nugent and the Herminator played well for the team. I thought Basinas had a quietly effective debut once he moved into the centre of the park - trying to get him to fill that right hand berth of the midfield was a mistake. Basinas needs to sit in front of the two centre backs with Mullins and Davis as his two willing assistants. If you put on Kranjcar he needs to sit at the pointy end of a little diamond formed by those four players. Belhadj and Pennant provide the two wide players of the midfield moving up to make two wingers. Crouch should be dropped for a while or at least kept as an impact player on the 60th minute. Play Nugent up front by himself or send on Geras to do that job. The only way to bolster the team if defending a lead is to reinforce with another central defender, i.e. Pamarot or Kaboul. In other words we play with three centre backs and two full backs. In order to do this we would have to sacrifice one of the wide players and Belhadj would have to be my first choice. If this was felt to be defending too deep, we could send on Traore to work alongside Kranjcar in the hole behind the lone striker rather than using the youngster to replace Belhadj wide on the left. I haven't heard of anything of Glen Little recently but he could certainly do a job on the wide right of midfield to plug the gap in front of Johnson and possibly behind Pennant. It would restrict even further the England full back's forays down the right.
My team versus Manchester City:
James
Johnson Campbell Distin Herminator
Basinas
Davis Mullins
Pennant Belhadj
Nugent
(4-5-1)
Substitutes: Begovic, Pamarot, Kaboul, Kranjcar, Traore, Little, Crouch and Geras.
If I felt that a more attacking formation was appropriate i.e. 4-4-2, I would drop Belhadj and bring on Kranjcar in the hole behind Nugent.
James
Johnson Campbell Distin Herminator
Basinas
Davis Mullins
Kranjcar
Pennant Nugent

I am expecting Avram Grant to be announced as the new Pompey manager as from today or at least this week. I suspect Basinas and Geras were his signings. I think Grant did a good job with Chelsea but was made to make way for a starrier name in Scolari. I think and hope that Grant can stave off relegation and keep Pompey safe. I also hope he can get the players to accept their responsibility for our present precarious state and perhaps cut out some of the silly mistakes. At the moment every mistake is being punished by a goal given away. Perhaps we also need a manager who can bring a modicum of luck with him. Poor old Tony had no luck whatsoever!