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Preview - Portsmouth v Derby County
Preview - Portsmouth v Derby County
Friday, 18th Jan 2008 10:52

If we lose this one, it will be my fault.

Portsmouth v Derby County
Premier League
19th January, 2008, 3:00 pm
Fratton Park, Portsmouth

I compared Darren Beckford of Leeds with other strikers who hadn't made the grade on moving up a league and mistakenly I included David Nugent in that list. That should assure him of a hat-trick if cruel Irony plays its usual trick on me.   

That Nugent may be playing at all is down to the African Nations Cup. No less that four Pompey players are away for the tournament. Papa Bouba Diop, Kanu, Sulley Muntari and John Utaka are all away and a couple of key injuries have left the Portsmouth squad stretched.

With Portsmouth pushing for a European place, the players are coming out and saying that Redknapp must strengthen the squad. David James and Sol Campbell have been joined this week by Sylvain Distin in voicing such sentiments. “I think we need to invest in players," he said. “Clubs around us are going to do it. If we want to finish in the top six or seven we are going to have to do it too.”

This might explain why Harry Redknapp allowed his name to be linked with the vacant Newcastle job. He spent over £30 million on players in the summer and there was little money left in the kitty for further transfers. Redknapp deciding to stay may persuade owner Sacha Gaydamak to dig deeper in his pocket.

As indeed it looks as if he has in that while I was writing this preview, Lassana Diarra has been signed form Arsenal for an undisclosed fee. He joins Danijel Subotic, an 18 year old Swiss striker described as one for the future.

Current Pompey Squad

No. Position Player  
1 Keeper  David James  
21 Keeper  Jamie Ashdown  
31 Keeper  Asmir Begović  
2 Defender Linvoy Primus  
4 Defender Lauren  
5 Defender Glen Johnson  
6 Defender Djimi Traoré  
7 Defender Hermann Hreiðarsson  
15 Defender Sylvain Distin (vice-captain)  
16 Defender Noé Pamarot  
20 Defender Martin Cranie  
23 Defender Sol Campbell (captain)  
24 Defender Richard Duffy  
8 Midfield Papa Bouba Diop  Away for African Cup of Nations
11 Midfield Sulley Muntari  Away for African Cup of Nations
14 Midfield Matthew Taylor  
18 Midfield Arnold Mvuemba  
19 Midfield Niko Kranjčar  
22 Midfield Richard Hughes  
28 Midfield Sean Davis  
30 Midfield Pedro Mendes  
34 Midfield Franck Songo'o  
35 Midfield Marc Wilson  
-- Midfield Jean-François Christophe  
-- Midfield  Lassana Diarra
10 Striker  David Nugent  
17 Striker  John Utaka   Away for African Cup of Nations
25 Striker  Benjani Mwaruwari  
27 Striker  Nwankwo Kanu  Away for African Cup of Nations
-- Striker  Danijel Subotić  
-- Striker  Adda Djeziri  

Last 5 games

Portsmouth 0-0 Arsenal
Portsmouth 0-1 Middlesbrough
Reading 0-2 Portsmouth
Ipswich 0-1 Portsmouth
Sunderland 2-0 Portsmouth

Danger Men

Sadly for us, Portsmouth's top scorer Benjani Mwaruwari is not one of the players away as Zimbabwe did not qualify. Banjani is called the undertaker in Zimbabwe for his ability to bury teams. He was one of Pompey's scorers on the first day of the season and has netted another eight times since. In an age when we only hear bad things about overpaid footballers, Benjani is different in that he is heavily involved in the development of football in Zimbabwe. He even paid the national teams’ hotel bill in France during the previous African Cup of Nations preparation.

 His transfer to Portsmouth is one of those about which the Stevens expressed concerns.

David Nugent is yet to score in the Premier League. He has three cup goals to his name but it's probably fair to say that the former Preston hit man has struggled to make the transition. Billy Davies was interested in bringing Nugent to Derby and we seem to be regularly linked with the Striker. To be fair to Nugent, he may simply be finding it difficult to fit into Pompey's style of play. It may be that Harry Redknapp will let him go if he can get the right replacement.

The Rams

Bywater, Mears, McEveley, Pearson, Earnshaw, Moore … All on the treatment table and Davis is suspended. We started last week with four new signings on the pitch and all clearly lacked match fitness. Will we see more new signings before this game?

We’re all but relegated now. Our only remaining target is to get more points than Sunderland did in their ‘Worst ever’ season and we’re two points adrift of where Sunderland were when they did it.

It would be easy to throw in the towel and just go through the motions on the remaining games – particularly away. That won’t sell many season tickets and it would be short changing one of the best set of away supporters in the country. That’s an arrogant boast but let’s face it, who else would travel hundreds of miles in the vain hope of a goal?

It looks like the search for a more experienced keeper will continue as the Roy Caroll saga has not panned out in our favour. Price has impressed me as a keeper however his distribution and marshalling of his defence has been poor. It’s something he needs to work on and the best place to do that is the reserves or with the coach – and not in a Premiership match.

We haven’t added any defenders yet this week and that is a cause for alarm. We’re desperately short of players for defence to say nothing of having no existing players with any quality in defence. Tyrone Mears is the latest casualty and though he’s risen to the occasion, it’s clear that Andy Todd is not fully match fit.

In midfield, Ghaly and Savage should continue. Ghaly was by far the more impressive of the new signings and with improved match fitness might do a good job. Savage clearly wasn’t fit but did provide more bite than any of our other players. Barnes and Robert should also start. Barnes had his best game for a while for me last week.

Rob Earnshaw was reputed to be lined up for a start against the Wendy’s. It will be interesting to see if our record signing will ever get a game.

Mick's team:  Price, Mills, Todd, Nyatanga, Johnson, Savage, Ghaly, Barnes, Robert, Villa, Miller

What the bookies think

Portsmouth are favourites at 4/11 on while the Rams are at 7/1. The draw is 11/4. You can get 5/1 on Kenny Miller or Rob Earnshaw to score while our new signing Villa doesn’t even get a price on William Hill.

David Nugent is favourite to score for Pompey at 6/4.

Information for travelling fans

Mick’s Prediction

We’ve not won here in 60 years, Portsmouth haven’t scored at home for several games, they have debutants and Nugent hasn’t scored a league goal yet…

We’ll either get thrashed or sneak a win!

Photo: Action Images



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