About to go on holiday for a bit so thought I’d just summarise some of my thoughts.
Impressive signings so far, although I’m a little worried about Thompson’s history of injuries. A real shame that Clarke is going to miss the start of the season too. Absolutely colossal for us last year and has a really good understanding with Burgess. I’d imagine Whatmough will step in but then again Davies was the one brought on ahead of him at Havant so is that an indication of who Jackett prefers?
I do still think we need an experienced central midfielder to come in and a No. 2 keeper, if we loan Bass out. The squad has a lot of technical quality but I’d like to see the sort of strength and determination that Doyle brought to the middle of the park, mixed in with ‘good footballers’. Looks like May and Close will have a first team presence though, at least serving as back up to Rose and one another, so shouldn’t really be considered in the ‘selected youths’?
Was really disappointed when Cook left and while I would still have him over Jackett, I’m pleased that his replacement is somebody who has the experience of managing clubs where there is pressure, and crucially he knows how to win. Interested to see how his style of football differs as I personally really enjoyed Cook’s way of playing. The players are familiar with 4-2-3-1 and fit the system well so I don’t think we should vary too much from that, especially since this league should allow us to play a bit more football.
Where will that leave Chaplin after Pitman’s arrival, I don’t know. Maybe we will play 2 up front. Wonder how long it will take for people to turn against KJ if we see Chaplin on the bench again? Pitman will surely start every game having dropped from the Championship and having such a good goal scoring pedigree so I’m looking forward to seeing how things work out.
One more thing I’d like to add is that despite the words coming out from the club that we are still working to our previous budget, I don’t see that as plausible with Pitman and McGee coming in. Ipswich wanted rid of Pitman as he was one of their highest earners and it’s been said that he is on at least £10k a week wages. McGee’s transfer fee can’t have come cheap either, being such a well regarded young goalkeeper.
Expect we’ll see some departures either way. Main has looked sharp in pre-season, and in all fairness, I didn’t think he did too badly when he played last year. Don’t think we’ll look to move him on based on the evidence so far, unless someone does come in for him, but reckon that Smith’s bridges have already been burnt and he’ll be off. Wouldn’t be surprised if Kabamba was loaned out either, otherwise he’ll probably just ply his trade in our reserves again.
If we don’t play 4-2-3-1 then we have an abundance of attacking midfielders who will find themselves without a starting position so I wonder what happens to them? I know Baker has been linked with a move to Coventry and Lalkovic’s future is probably still up in the air, determined by how he fares in pre-season.
The right back situation will be one to keep an eye on as well. Does seem as if Evans is being earmarked to carry on his role from what KJ has said. With Thompson coming in as competition, Talbot’s time at Pompey is pretty certain to come to an end soon, if we can get him off the books.
Always believed that if we could bring in a few quality additions that we could challenge for the play-offs but with a new manager I don’t know how it changes. You’d hope that we’ll just keep the momentum going from the back end of last season and the confidence will still be sky high among the players. Jackett has the privilege of not having to rebuild the squad and should only have to tinker things to his liking so fingers crossed we’ll be alright.
Bring on Rochdale on August 5th! PUP
Written by FrattonBlue and originally posted in the forum.
The views within this article are the views of the individual who wrote and submitted this piece, sometimes solely theirs. They are not necessarily shared by the Vital Pompey Site Journalists.
PLAY UP POMPEY
Follow @VitalPortsmouth.
