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I believe they are somewhat letting him down, but it's partly him too.

Manse has never really had any complaints about him other than passing ability up to now, suddenly he's awful and hasnt been good enough for years.

Harding seems weak in all aspects and reports from his previous club arent exactly glowing. He doesn't seem to be letting Knill down, as he doesn't seem good enough anyway.

Cameron had good reports from Rotherham fans who saw a player with a good cross and bags of potential. I believe he has this, he's just not a right winger. Knill's fault there, in my opinion.

Hawley seemed like a stand out player in a poor League 1 side and his goals seemed to come from ghosting into space and having good balls to run on to or good crosses to head home. He seems forced into dropping back to get service as the midfield aren't providing it.

For me, most fault falls on Knill who has failed to find his best team, failed to play players to their strengths and relies on loaning in a youngster to fill a gap when there are players in the squad who deserve the chance first. I was a fan of Knill at first, and I still think he could turn it around, but I'm losing patience with him, and fast.

Manse is better in the three man midfield like king used to play with criag and lathrope this can be exchanged around with Harding. Yes manse should have the odd game off but he is still a leader though and in the 3 man midfield much better than in a two with Harding who has done nothing to help the team
Overall yes manse probably should have a game off at his age.

What's the point in dropping him anyway? He'll be picked again after his replacement has a sh*te game and then dropped again when he himself has another sh*te game after replacing his replacement. And so on and so forth.

AustrianAndyGull wrote:What's the point in dropping him anyway? He'll be picked again after his replacement has a sh*te game and then dropped again when he himself has another sh*te game after replacing his replacement. And so on and so forth.

This is true ^^^

ethantufcbaker wrote:Manse is better in the three man midfield like king used to play with criag and lathrope this can be exchanged around with Harding. Yes manse should have the odd game off but he is still a leader though and in the 3 man midfield much better than in a two with Harding who has done nothing to help the team
Overall yes manse probably should have a game off at his age.

You are right Mansell is better in a three as it gives him freedom which suites him. Perhaps a 4-1-3-2 would be better for the players we have. You should be voting on the manager not his players as he's the one who should see, he may need a rest.

tomogull wrote:Harding/Mansell: Harding/McCourt: Lathrope/Mansell: Lathrope/Craig: Harding/Craig: etc etc etc -
Whilst Alan Knill persists in playing a two-man midfield, whoever plays will struggle in most matches as most teams play three in midfield. As I've posted before, in my opinion Mansell's game, and probably Harding's game, has suffered through playing in Mr Knill's two-man midfield game plan. He did change it to a three-man midfield on Saturday when he brought on Nathan Craig (to loud cheers). That must have caused him a nose bleed.

Why is it we can see this. Really good post.

See what ? We played a three man midfield Saturday, we played a three man midfield last night including peoples champion Nathan Craig and according to those at the game, our performance was worse that awful and we lost.

Man City have one of the most respected European football coachs , they play 4-4-2 whats wrong with it ? Having a three man midfield is all well and good, what are you going to do when your opponents go 4-4-2 and bring their men in off the wings and manage to create a spare man in the middle.

Any system in theory can sound good, what happens when the other counter your system successfully.

Knill picks the same XI 4 games in a row earlier in the year, we lose all four games and the forum goes nuts calling for NC and that things need changing.
Knill picks a different XI, including NC and changes the system slightly, we don't win those games and the forum goes nuts calling for 4-4-2 to return and suggesting that NC is the worst player in England.

How, exactly, is Knill supposed to win when the ordinary fan can't see beyond, "just make the team win matches".

Matt.

forevertufc wrote:See what ? We played a three man midfield Saturday, we played a three man midfield last night including peoples champion Nathan Craig and according to those at the game, our performance was worse that awful and we lost.

Man City have one of the most respected European football coachs , they play 4-4-2 whats wrong with it ? Having a three man midfield is all well and good, what are you going to do when your opponents go 4-4-2 and bring their men in off the wings and manage to create a spare man in the middle.

Any system in theory can sound good, what happens when the other counter your system successfully.

If Allan played 4-4-2 and played it narrow we would be a better team but he tends keep wingers who don't track back and keep to the touch line giving the two in the centre a hard time. (Man City have good experienced players you can't compare.) They have options that we don't have .

arcadia wrote:If Allan played 4-4-2 and played it narrow we would be a better team but he tends keep wingers who don't track back and keep to the touch line giving the two in the centre a hard time. (Man City have good experienced players you can't compare.) They have options that we don't have .

And there (probably) lies the problem. When Man City lose possession, the "wide" players track back to act as !st line of defence, or 2nd if the defender has already moved out to challenge. You will regularly see Milner/Silva/Nasri etc at the back acting as a 2nd full back but I doubt ive ever seen Bodin or any of the other wide players (since Zebs) offer the same kind of support.

ferrarilover wrote: the forum goes nuts calling for NC and that things need changing

Jeez.....When did the forum go nuts calling for Craig (apart from you and a couple of other posters)??

Not saying he shouldn't be dropped but where would the leadership on the pitch come from if he is?

has anybody actually stopped to think that lee is feeling very down himself about his own performances and the state of our team at the moment do we not think that maby an arm around his shoulders would perhaps do the lad wanders. He is hurting much like the rest of us fans at the moment forget the loan players most of them wont care tuppence yet existing players who have sweat blood for this team are hearing the boos and the general apathy that seams to exist at plainmoor and around some of its fan base. I am not just name dropping but i do know lee mansell to say hello to the man is torquay through and through he cares for this club like we do. Ok hes not playing well and in all fairness probably is not justifying his position yet this man is our captain as a fan whoever turns out in our special clubs shirt deserves to be supported to the hilt. Threads like this one cannot help one bit. Do we not think that members of the team like lee do not occasionally read the forum. So why don't we try as fans to forget our concerns and troubles and for 90 min on sat give our team its manager and staff our very best support we can regardless of the score you never know it may inspire our team to send us all home happy cos ime sure that with the hoards of fans Portsmouth intend to bring they are going to give there team the most vocal support i reckon will visit plainmoor this season.

From what I have seen Dale Tonge hasn't set the world alight? perhaps stick Manse back there so he is influencial but not in the engine where we need someone with a few new ideas?

Good post Teeboo100

There is no point in slagging off players, (or the manager.) The players do not ask to play "below par". It happens. Sadly its happening to our team. How do you think the Portsmouth supporters feel after the last 2/3 seasons that they have had? Have they deserted their team? Of course they haven't. They still turn up at home matches (And away to a lesser volume, obviously) and support the players, no matter what. The players seem to have responded to that, and they are now doing ok.

Do you/we, for one moment, think that the players/management want to be relegated? Do you/we think that they want to play their football in the "Skill" league? Of course they don't, any more than we want to see our team there.

We have played 13 games in a 46 game season. We have 99 points to play for. 99 plus the 10 we already have is 109. We will be automatically promoted with 109 points. Not very likely, that we will win the rest of our games, but the games, and the points, are out there to be won.

So the best thing that we can do, IMHO, is stop critisising the players, the managment team,the board of directors and start showing a united front and help OUR team by showing our appreciation and support of the efforts that they are making. Hopefully they will respond in a possitive manner and we will start to climb up the league table.

I know some won't agree, but I do think it's the best way to help our team. Lets start to get something going,
starting this Sat. against Pompey.