Quote Originally Posted by Rjk View Post
I really don't agree. you could see he was going to be a quality player but he was still a kid, and playing against a powerful Portsmouth side
of those games he had managed a goal against Burnley and one against chasetown.

and as we played ,4 across the midfield at the time we would have been dropping one of mcphail, Rae, Ledley or whittingham.
Rae could have been dropped. Pompey went with a midfield 3 and Rae's aggressive style was completely nullified.

A better option would have been to drop Hasselbaink and go 4-5-1. Whitts played on the right that day and had a bit of a stinker. He could have been given a freer role with Ramsey out on the right.

Of course, that would have meant Jones having a plan B.