yellow jumper

boxers have been known to fight again. sugar ray leonard for one.

he's not all bad... here and here

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we don't feed through balls into space or particularily look for the channels. prefering to build-up by playing to feet. even when counter-attacking it's all one touch passing rather than looking to get in behind. might simply be because we don't have an owen or a defoe. but cisse remains an obvious candidate for that role and yet is rarely used in that way. any new striker we bring in will have to be strong in the air and off crosses. that's where we're creating and missing the majority of our chances.

fowler's penalty in the worthy cup final v. brum is one of the best i've ever seen. ran up to the ball straight, and with hardly any backlift put it top right with his left foot. another fantastic penalty taken under severe pressure was gascoigne's in the euro 96 semi-final.

you must be very proud?

personally i'd prefer to spend the time talking up a.n.other striker who isn't even at the club.

it's a culmination of factors. i've seen better finishers than morientes miss clearer chances than that. personally i don't think he's missed that many great chances for us. he just looks off the pace, and too easily bullied out of the game much of the time. don't really care about the lack of pace, although some seem obsessed by it. if he had a bit of upper body strength it wouldn't matter. expected more threat aerially from him. but don't think our delivery from out wide is that great. finnan and gerrard can both send in good crosses, but invariably they're coming from deeper then the penalty area and thus much harder to direct, generate power from. bet figo put a fair few balls onto his head from the by-line in his madrid days.

those pre-season tours aren't made on footballing grounds particularily. i'm sure in terms of the well-being of their players managers would prefer as little non-critical long-haul travel as possible. politically and financially the far east tours and the world club championship are beneficial. at least in friendlies benitez has the option of protecting his first teamers. less easy to throw medjani and whitbread into a competetive game.

did you see sami hyypia's? corker.

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of course more games is a factor. and not just in terms of physical exertion either. in a highly professional sport, the margins are minute. it doesn't make the players soft or knackered, or mean they don't fancy it.

he's behind gary o'neil or lua lua as pompey's best performer imo. shay given's one of the best keeper's in the world right now.

we need learn how to get over the big losses better. chelsea at the beginning of the season, man utd recently, and chelsea again last week. cruel blows, but no way they should be shaking confidence as they have. don't think we're yet going into these games with the right belief. and worse still, we seem to be coming out of them with mental scars.

preening f*****.

half-chance. he probably came across a bit too close to his near post. but the opportunity came so quickly it's hard to blame him for not getting in perfect position. it was a clinical finish by crespo too. giving the ball away sloppily in our own half. and left back not getting out quickly enough for offside trap. the two main errors on that goal.

saved this lawton article from a few years back. meant to post it at the time of fowler's re-signing. since i failed to do that, might as well stick it in here...

he'll benefit from a rest.

think there's a big of mental tiredness creeping in. also think we're going into these chelsea games a bit too hyped. and probably also with a bit of fear after the anfield experience. at times on sunday the judgement was definitely clouded, and not in keeping with the control and structure benitez preaches and this side has displayed in rcent months.

didn't really understand what happened on the first goal. hyppia, gerrard and carragher all seemed to be going for the same ball. why? riise obviously made a mistake on the knock down too.

would a crespo for crouch swap have changed the outcome of the game on sunday? personally i think we're missing a robben, or a cole far more.

before the game i thought hamman should have started against chelsea. but i have to say i thought sissoko was the dominant performer in the first thirty minutes of that match. in a period when the game was at it's most congested he was the stand out midfielder in the central area. not only physically either. although his powerful running with and without the ball was a feature, he won several fouls by fooling the defender with quick feet and control of the ball. didn't see him misplacing many of his passes either. don't remember lampard, essien, alonso, kewell or makele making any such impact while the game was still a contest. makele perhaps. understand the criticism of some of his recent performances and flaws in general, but against chelsea i thought he gave a very good account.

better to build to a point. first and foremost i'd prefer to see us regularily dominating and beating the teams outside the top four at this stage in our development. that's a basic requirement for league success that we haven't had right for many years. despite the results our performances against united and chelsea are improving too. i thought we battered them for half an hour yesterday and then again at the begining of the second half. first goal was crucial, had we got it in that first onslaught i think we'd have gone on to win. we went missing for periods after each goal, something that also happened at anfield and needs to be resolved... one goal behind and you still have a chance, at times after initially conceding we lost discipline and looked like conceding two or three. in terms of personnel i thought we lacked the natural quality and pace out wide to really punish them. i think that's the one area they are vunerable. their central three just get very tight to alonso and crouch and that negates our ability to link play in the final third. with two flyers out wide i think we'd be able to stretch them a little easier. our mainstays are looking tired. gerrard, alonso and carra particularily. hopefully they get given a rest.

fowler and nando it is then.

birmingham must be considered strong favourites to beat them at the weekend.