Bill
Edgar's tactical analysis
It was the best of games, it was the worst of games. Harry Redknapp, the
Portsmouth manager, compared it to Real Madrid’s 7-3 victory over Eintracht
Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final, but with Benjani Mwaruwari as
Alfredo Di Stéfano. Nicky Shorey, the Reading and England left back, called
it “an embarrassment”. Chris Kamara, summarising for Sky Sports, was not the
only one who claimed to have lost count.
Matches such as this are supposed to be treats for supporters but nightmares
for managers. Not quite true. The winning manager wakes up from the
nightmare afterwards, pockets the three points and talks up the goalscoring
prowess of his players and his own commitment to attacking football, as
Redknapp had every right to do. The tongue-lashing for his back four could
wait until Monday morning.
Afterwards, though, Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, still seemed to be
stuck in a bad dream as he attempted to make sense of what he had witnessed
on Saturday. In fairness, no one else had been able to explain how two sets
of experienced defenders, including three recent members of the England
squad, had conceded 11 goals between them – a Premier League record - and it
could have been more. Coppell not only has to explain it to himself and his
chairman, but also to do something about it.
“It’s a job, it’s a process,” he said. “I don’t change from when we win to
when we lose. I’ll analyse it and try and improve. We’ve scored four and had
a penalty saved, against a good team. Look at their back four and their
goalkeeper and that’s a tremendous defence. We had other opportunities. A
lot of good things have come out of the game but nobody can take a lot of
credit when you lose seven goals. It’s not just down to individuals at the
back. It’s got to be collective, it’s defend from the front. Both back fours
on occasion were solid and in position and yet things were happening that
weren’t logical.
“Your life is determined by results and if I don’t do something about it, then
things will happen. It’s not a question of feeling under threat, but as a
generalisation a manager is judged on results. If you don’t get results
you’re not a manager for long.”
Coppell always attempts to treat triumph and disaster just the same, but the
disasters are threatening to become more common after two seasons of
triumph. “We overachieved massively last season and the season before. Two
years on the bounce we overachieved. Maybe this is our reality.”
Inevitably, the subject of “second-season syndrome” came up. “I’m fed up with
the f***ing thing,” Coppell said. “Shove it. I’ve had 17 million questions
about second-season syndrome. It’s just f***ing hard whether it’s the first
season, second season or third season. Ferraris and McLarens win races and
the others just compete.
“If you spend a lot of money you’re going to win games. In terms of this
division, we’re not investors. That was a decision I made. We could have
invested more but I decided not to. I’ve got to live with that.”
Redknapp was understandably more expansive. “I would rather win 7-4 than 1-0,
personally,” he said. “I watched Barcelona play the other day and they had a
forward line of [Lionel] Messi, [Thierry] Henry, Ronaldinho and Deco . . .
it was just fantastic to watch. In this country, we would say, ‘Hang on,
we’re playing 4-4-2, track him back’.”
Portsmouth’s system was a fluid variation of 4-5-1, with John Utaka and Nico
Kranjcar supporting Mwaruwari. They dominated the first 44 minutes and the
Zimbabwe forward’s first two goals looked to have set Portsmouth up for a
handsome victory, until Reading brought the scores level with goals out of
the blue either side of the interval from Nicky Hunt and Dave Kitson – the
latter well-taken but a result of a rush of blood by David James.
If there was a goal that summed up the game, it was Portsmouth’s third.
Sylvain Distin, the central defender, crossed from the left wing for Hermann
Hreidarsson, the left back, to head home from a centre-forward position and
restore Portsmouth’s lead.
They stayed ahead after that, although it took a penalty save by James from
Shorey to maintain their advantage before Mwaruwari strolled through to
complete his hat-trick. Further goals by Kranjcar, Sean Davis and Sulley
Muntari put Portsmouth out of sight, while Reading replied with Shane Long’s
deflection from James Harper’s volley and an own goal by Sol Campbell.
“Shocking defending maybe today, but I was delighted with the game,” Redknapp
said. “We don’t want to concede silly, sloppy goals but when you see a team
score seven, and could have scored a lot more, then you have to be pleased.
I wouldn’t have been pleased if we had lost 7-4. Obviously Tony Adams [the
Portsmouth assistant manager] was disappointed that we conceded four goals
because he is boring, boring Arsenal!”
Coppell now has to restore order before next weekend’s home match against
Derby County, which already looks like the proverbial relegation
six-pointer. “We’ll feel the pain of this one as we always do when we lose a
game, but we’ll come back and look forward to the next one,” he said.
His players were equally determined. “I feel embarrassed, to be honest, to
lose by that many,” Shorey said. “That’s not us. This is the worst game I’ve
ever been involved in. It was a joke game and it’s gutting to have to say I
was involved in it. But we’ll stick together. It’s a team thing and we’ll
come back from this stronger.”
How they rated
Portsmouth 7 Mwaruwari 7, 37, 70, Hreidarsson 55, Kranjcar 75, Davis
81, Muntari 90 (pen)
4-1-2-3 D James 4 G Johnson 6 S Campbell Y 4 S Distin 5 H Hreidarsson 6 S
Davis 8 P Bouba Diop 7 S Muntari 7 J Utaka 6 B Mwaruwari 8 N Kranjcar 8
Substitutes D Nugent (for Mwaruwari, 78min) Not used J Ashdown, M Taylor Y,
N Pamarot, P Mendes
Reading 4 Hunt 45, Kitson 48, Long 79, Shorey 90
4-4-2 M Hahnemann 4 G Murty 3 M Duberry Y 3 I Ingimarsson 2 N Shorey 2 L
Rosenior 4 K Harper 6 B Gunnarsson 3 S Hunt 5 D Kitson 7 K Doyle 5
Substitutes S Long (for Murty, 76min), E Fae (for Gunnarsson, 76) Not used A
Federici, L Lita, A Bikey .
Referee M Halsey
Attendance 20,102
