Pompey Transfer Window

This post is dedicated to my thoughts on the Pompey plight (1 point from being in the bottom three of the Premiership) and the transfers made during this transfer window in January 2009.
We lost Diarra at the beginning of January so the entire midfield trio that won us the FA Cup - Diarra, Muntari and Mendes- has gone. The replacements have been slow coming but we have got in Mullins and Pele. The former has proved to be a good thing and alongside Davis should prove capable of providing the defensive bulwark in midfield to protect the defence. Neither Mullins or Davis are what I would call playmakers, creative and attacking midfielders, who link the defence and the attack, supply the ball forward into the danger areas or are in the box alongside the strikers when required. Mullins I hope will be the right material for team captain once he has got his feet under the table more. We need a leader on the field - Sol Campbell makes a good club captain - but is not vociferous enough on the pitch and doesn't scare his own players enough (General Wellington: "I don't know about the enemy but they frighten me!").
Pele is very young and inexperienced. Tony Adams describes him as one for the future but we need one for the next 15 games, otherwise Pompey's Premiership future looks pretty grim. I have seen a YouTube video of one of the goals scored by the young Portuguese (burdened with an impossible name) and he certainly can strike a ball beautifully. He might be able to be used in that last half hour of a game when the game can be turned or we are desperate. I will write in a moment about that last half hour of games because I have a bit of advice for Tony Adams from a lifetime as an armchair critic and supporter.
As I write I understand that we have signed Greece captain Angelos Basinas on an 18 month deal. The 33 year old will add some "defensive steel" to Pompey's midfield. You notice that he isn't a playmaker and we are still talking a defensive midfielder.

The Daily Mail rumoured that we were trying to sign Austrian captain, Andreas Ivanschitz. The 24 year old is one of Austria's chief playmakers and is the sort of player we should be looking for - although there is always the doubt that he can get up to speed fast enough in our present circumstances particularly and the premiership generally. He would provide an alternative to Kranjcar in that hole behind the strikers, where I don't feel the Croatian has been used enough in his Pompey career to date. Kranjcar possesses technical skills enough but lacks a little pace and certainly doesn't qualify as a fierce tackler. He should be sued as a tactical option. He certainly could supply the telling pass through the centre, feed the wide midfielders and shoot at the edge of the box. Perhaps Ivanschitz can do this as well and add a bit of steel in winning the ball first in the opposing half of the field.

We have also signed Theofanis Gekas on loan from Bayer Leverkusen. Tony Adams says (on Sky Sports): "He's always on the shoulder of the last defender, he looks to get in behind the defence and he's got a great eye for goal. Hopefully that will continue with Pompey." My reaction is that such a player needs to have the ball supplied behind the defence or through the defence - which once again calls out for a playmaker.

Adams needs to sort out the back four. Kaboul is very naive as witness the Nevland goal for Fulham's second on Saturday. He tried to play the Fulham player offside in his own half. I think a lot of time was spent on the training field last week cramming heads and unfortunately the lessons are only half learned. I think Kaboul and Distin can become a good unit together with work as both have pace and ability. That is why Kaboul gets the job over Sol Campbell for me but the latter could be used to replace injured players and when the opposition are relying on one striker. Johnson and Hreidarson are the full backs for now and certainly Johnson is the star player for Pompey at the moment. He now needs to adjust to having Pennant in front of him. Hreidarson is a more reliable left back than Belhadj and the latter can be sued as the wide left midfield player - temperamental as hell but would also be helped by balls behind the opposing full back rather than being expected to run past or through them every time. Traore, on loan from Arsenal, could be used when Belhadj unavailable or could even replace him on the magic hour point if Belhadj has run himself ragged. Imagine that prospect if you're the opposing right back.

At the moment I am still going with TA's 4-5-1 system as I suspect that might be why he has brought in the reinforcements he has. The back four I have listed above could at the moment have three defensive midfielders (Davis, Mullins and Basinas) in front of them defending the middle of the park and with two wide midfielders (Pennant and Belhadj) providing the main attacking outlet. All three defensive central midfield players need to defend higher up the pitch and to be able to deliver the ball to the wide midfield players and especially behind the opposing full backs. We then come to the tricky problem of who plays as the lone striker. I suspect Crouch's contract says he has to play every game unless injured or suspended. Otherwise I cannot understand his use every game whether tactically valid or not. He needs help in close support if he is going to make the attacking impact we want. I believe tactically there may be a case for another player, a Nugent, a Geras or even a Utaka playing upfront alone for the first half if we feel that tactically we want to defend. I don't believe that Tony Adams has a Tactical plan for that magical 60 minutes point, to change the game in the last half hour. (You can almost set your clock by Benitez at Liverpool) I believe you can hammer away at an opposing defence for 60 minutes with your original choice and then substitute them with fresher determined strikers to give the tiring opposing centre backs a new set of problems to sort out. If you feel the game is going your way you can send out a new pair as strikers and withdraw one of the trio of defensive midfield players. Alternatively you could compromise with an attacking midfielder in the hole behind a new lone striker instead of the defensive midfielder. If one or both of your wide midfielders is having an unprofitable day, you can go strictly 4-4-2 by reinforcing across the midfield. Without Geras I would have settled for Crouch and Nugent as my first choice strike force with Utaka as the fresh pair of legs and injection of pace on the hour. Coupled with an attacking midfield player in the hole behind him, I think Utaka could grasp the simplicity of the role required of him. He or Nugent simply cannot be used as wide right players. In the Championship from whence we bought Nugent I think you will find his records showed he worked on the left of the strike force and that was where he did most of his damage.I think I would now only use Kanu as a very last resort and mainly to keep the opposing side thinking.
We have a squad which should be capable of lifting us clear of the relegation zone if some of the players learn to play together and a bit out of their skins but not desperately so. I think Davis has proved himself as a defensive midfielder and Mullins could work as a link between defensive midfield and central midfield. Basinas is an unknown quantity as yet. Pennant promises to be an exciting addition and the Belhadj/Traore combo on the left negates the necessity of using Kranjcar there. I just feel that Tony Adams needs to free himself and his squad of the siege mentality prevalent at the moment. It is the feeling that they have worked all week and the 11 players sent out should be man enough to do the job. I believe that this is only partly the answer. The team sent out in the first half is the team considered best to keep a clean sheet and hit the opposition swiftly on the break. All the team should be prepared on the hour for a change in tactics depending on how the game is going. This will change the formation to defend a lead gained or to score goals. I can see the sense of 4-5-1 but the old 4-4-2 is that much more flexible and can be both defensive and offensive. We have reinforcements in midfield and upfront. We have sufficient numbers already in defence. We just need to gel more closely as a team and squad, We need the manager to be more proactive on the touchline and a leader on the field to remind everyone of their responsibilities in no uncertain terms. With those requisites in place, Play Up Pompey and this season may not yet be the disaster it seems.
I don't hold out too much hope against Liverpool on Saturday especially if Torres is back in goal scoring form. However we should learn from their team organisation (a back four protected permanently by two defensive midfielders freeing their attacking midfielders and strikers to roam) and their tactical use of time and substitutes. I am also hoping that Nugent maintains his goal hunger and that Geras proves the goalscorer that Tony Adams believes him to be. It is however in the game against Stoke that I expect Pompey to bully their way to victory, to show that our place in the Premiership is not in doubt.