Portsmouth v Exeter City, August 15th 2023, 8.00 pm kick off. Prediction and discussion thread.

[budegrecian]

Quick turnaround for our smallish squad after yesterday’s very decent performance.
Two unbeaten teams looking to continue their good start to the season, in front of the cameras. Portsmouth off the back of an excellent 4 nil away win at Orient.
Will GC make many changes?
Will Tom Carroll be able to get through at least 70 minutes for us?
Should James Scott start in one of the ’10’ positions?
Will we have a new finnisher on the bench?
Will the ex player law of football come back to bite us with Jack Sparkes?
Do we need to start Cheick to counteract the physical threat of Colby Bishop?
Can GC get his tactical mastery into the players minds in the short time available?

Lots of questions but I’m hopeful we can get something out of this to really underpin our start to the season.

 

[tom_ecfc]

Tough tough game. If we could get a point i’d be a happy man, would mean 5 points from the opening 3 games, 2 of which would have been away from home.

 

[The 3 United's]

Most of us knew it would be a difficult start to the season with three away games and only one at home in the first four fixtures and that against one of the promotion favourites. I for one was very happy to take four points from these four games but am hoping now that we can get something from this week's matches. Pompey unbeaten at home for quite a while so will be difficult, but you never know. Expect a couple of changes to the line up.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Quick turnaround for our smallish squad after yesterday’s very decent performance.
Two unbeaten teams looking to continue their good start to the season, in front of the cameras. Portsmouth off the back of an excellent 4 nil away win at Orient.
Will GC make many changes?
Will Tom Carroll be able to get through at least 70 minutes for us?
Should James Scott start in one of the ’10’ positions?
Will we have a new finnisher on the bench?
Will the ex player law of football come back to bite us with Jack Sparkes?
Do we need to start Cheick to counteract the physical threat of Colby Bishop?
Can GC get his tactical mastery into the players minds in the short time available?

Lots of questions but I’m hopeful we can get something out of this to really underpin our start to the season.

The only way that happens is if we go to a four at the back because I'm pretty certain Mr C isn't gong to change our style of play which means we still need players at the back who can make a meaningful pass with the ball and not just play the first available simple option. If you wanted to bring somebody in to counter the apparent threat of Bishop then play Jules, he's big strong, more than able to look after himself and he's quick. All in all every strikers worst nightmare.

 

[denzel]

Would like to see Scott instead of Cole, agree Jules could come in but it would be harsh to drop Hartridge. Could he replace Sweenz?

Don't think Sparkes will start for them, hope he doesn't come off the bench to score.

Can see this being very tough but not unwinnable.

Best of luck to those going, never an easy journey particularly if going there and back .

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Would like to see Scott instead of Cole, agree Jules could come in but it would be harsh to drop Hartridge. Could he replace Sweenz?

Don't think Sparkes will start for them, hope he doesn't come off the bench to score.

Can see this being very tough but not unwinnable.

Best of luck to those going, never an easy journey particularly if going there and back .

Presumably Bishop plays down the middle................ I'll leave you to put two and two together.

 

[John William]

Quick turnaround for our smallish squad after yesterday’s very decent performance.
Two unbeaten teams looking to continue their good start to the season, in front of the cameras. Portsmouth off the back of an excellent 4 nil away win at Orient.
Will GC make many changes?
Will Tom Carroll be able to get through at least 70 minutes for us?
Should James Scott start in one of the ’10’ positions?
Will we have a new finnisher on the bench?
Will the ex player law of football come back to bite us with Jack Sparkes?
Do we need to start Cheick to counteract the physical threat of Colby Bishop?
Can GC get his tactical mastery into the players minds in the short time available?

Lots of questions but I’m hopeful we can get something out of this to really underpin our start to the season.

Difficult.

From what I've seen so far (3 live games and 1 highlights) they have all been decent performance. Dispassionately our three least effective players have been Nombe, Aimson and Cole (I don't mean they have played badly, just that others have been better). But Nombe will play if fit, I can't see GC dropping Aimson for Diabate, and Cole's dead ball skills work in his favour - it can't be easy stepping up from Nat L to L1 in terms of speed, awareness etc and he will presumably get better as he goes on, so GC will presumably stick with him and bring Scott on late, as he did yesterday..

The only thing I will say is with confidence is that Trevitt should be the first name on the team sheet, he will presumably be a PL player next season, assuming Brentford don't recall him in January. Different class to everyone else on the pitch yesterday, though I have no complaints about Hartridge as MoM.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Difficult.

From what I've seen so far (3 live games and 1 highlights) they have all been decent performance. Dispassionately our three least effective players have been Nombe, Aimson and Cole (I don't mean they have played badly, just that others have been better). But Nombe will play if fit, I can't see GC dropping Aimson for Diabate, and Cole's dead ball skills work in his favour - it can't be easy stepping up from Nat L to L1 in terms of speed, awareness etc and he will presumably get better as he goes on, so GC will presumably stick with him and bring Scott on late, as he did yesterday..

The only thing I will say is with confidence is that Trevitt should be the first name on the team sheet, he will presumably be a PL player next season, assuming Brentford don't recall him in January. Different class to everyone else on the pitch yesterday, though I have no complaints about Hartridge as MoM.

This is effectively the same thing that Moxey is quierying and the answer is still the same. Is he scoring goals? No but it won't be long before he does. Is he doing everything else you would expect to get from Sam? Yes, and without it the rest of the side doesn't function as well (and that answer can be applied to Max's notion about Sam not being the striker Caldwell wants because he's 'not intricate enough').

 

[Benjisheps14]

Listening to Richie Wellens post match interview where he talks a lot about Portsmouth relying on winning 2nd balls and then getting the ball wide to get crosses into the box, it would not surprise me if GC starts exactly the way that we did away at Wycombe. So Jules coming in at LWB (although it's not his natural position) to give us some extra physicality and presence to help defend set-pieces and balls into the box. This would mean that Mitchell would play as the other #10 with Aitchison behind Nombe.

Obviously a lot of this depends on which players are physically able to go again as some have been carrying knocks or aren't fully up to speed yet, (Carroll, Mitchell, Sweeney etc) so it will be interesting to see the lineup come Tuesday.

It is going to be a really difficult game, but the first two league games should give our boys a lot of confidence!

 

[arthur]

Given that we haven't got a RWB, I'd go

Sweeney Aimson Hartridge Jules

Rankine Trevitt Carroll Mitchell/ Harper

Nombe Aitchison/Scott

.....but GC almost certainly won't