Selv om det fortsatt er mulig å klare en play-off-plass, tror Michael Pantling at det vil ende med en plassering midt på tabellen for Pompey denne sesongen.
MENINGER: Vår medlem nummer 42, Michael Pantling, er bosatt i Danmark, men pleier å reise over til England for å se Pompey flere ganger i sesongen enn noen andre av våre medlemmer.
Han deler jevnlig sine tanker og meninger om Pompey med oss. Denne gangen oppsummerer Michael tingenes tilstand i det vi har en lengre kamppause.
Too Little Too Late – Mid Table for Pompey
Having been initially impressed with Pompey’s changes in the last transfer window, they don’t appear to have delivered the much needed goals to ensure a play-off place. It is not that Pompey have played particularly badly, on the contrary, they had a very respectable run of results, however, the teams above them have done better. I think it is difficult to imagine any team other than Rotherham and Wigan getting the automatic promotion spots given their season long performances but one would have expected Pompey to match the efforts of the likes of Plymouth, MK Dons and Oxford, yet Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Wycombe and Ipswich are in our way for a play-off place with Bolton close behind.
While it is not yet mathematically impossible to rise up the table, I cannot see that Pompey have the momentum and have given away too many points and lack goals. Great that we came back from 0-3 against Gillingham but we should never have let 3 in in the first place. It is almost as if the team isn’t sufficiently focused.
Most of our players should be very comfortable at our current level and it is difficult for me to identify anybody who we have to let go at the end of the season but we are now at a stage where the majority of the team have been brought in by the current management and it hasn’t been as successful as we all would have hoped for.
Curtis har ikke levert opp mot sitt potensial
Other teams know how to defend against Ronan Curtis and in my opinion, he simply hasn’t fulfilled his potential, other clubs are no longer queuing up to sign him and Pompey would do well to get £250,000 for him.
Marcus Harness has got a respectable 10 goals this season but is only 19th highest in League 1. It seems a very long time ago that we say a Pompey player get 20 goals in a season i.e. Brett Pitmann.
Pompey also seem to have lost their way with home grown talent – with the likes of Jed Wallace and Adam Webster doing well in higher leagues and who would have thought Jack Whatmough’s knees would have held out for him to have such a good season at Wigan, ok Ben Close isn’t having the greatest time at Doncaster but they were players that the fans could get behind.
Unless we win our next 3 or 4 games and we rise up the table a bit it will probably be just as well to start involving some of the youngsters we have got to better see if they can be a part of the future.
Det må mange forandringer til i sommer
Given the strengths of the teams around and particularly above us there will have to be a lot of changes in the summer and that will involve having to spend money on players.
I’m not a fan of chopping and changing managers too often but if Pompey are not comfortably in a play off position by Christmas it will be time for a change. Pompey need to be back in the Champonship with a team that can compete at that level and cannot stay as a very average League 1 side.
PuP
Michael Pantling (t.h.)