Portsmouth branded 'naive' following FA Cup defeat against Arsenal
Pompey were knocked out of the FA Cup following a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.
TNT Sports pundits David James and Martin Keown have voiced their concerns over Pompey’s worrying set-piece weakness following their defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.
John Mousinho’s men put in a spirited showing against the Premier League leaders in the third round of the FA Cup, with Colby Bishop giving the hosts a shock lead just three minutes in.
It’s a concerning trend which has troubled Pompey throughout the campaign, with 15 goals being conceded from set-pieces so far.
It has to be said that Sheffield United’s penalty in November also stemmed from a corner which led to Terry Devlin’s red card, while Gustavo Hamer’s late strike followed after a passage of play after another corner.
And with three more added to the growing list, it’s a problem which hasn’t just been noticed from Mousinho and the Fratton faithful.
TNT Sports pundits question Pompey’s set-pieces
James, who won the FA Cup with the Blues in 2008, was quick to air his concerns but stressed his former side have to use the set-back against Arsenal as a positive to learn from their mistakes.
Speaking on TNT Sports after the game, he said: ‘The difficulty is as a player, you can approach a manager or a coach and say can we do something else.
‘I was fortunate enough to be able to dictate what happened in my box and I’d like to come for crosses. In the end I could take some ownership.
‘This Portsmouth set-up, when I was looking through all the goals they’ve conceded this season, that was my biggest concern that Arsenal being so good at corners, were going to cause problems.
‘It’s a lot (of goals conceded from set-pieces). Portsmouth might have the argument that they’ve had a lot of injuries and therefore that personnel changes, but like Arsenal with 10 changes, their corners haven’t changed on the offensive side of things.
‘They had more success, I can’t even think the last time they would’ve scored three goals from set-plays in one match.
‘It is something hopefully in a positive way they will learn from today to address that because Portsmouth now have to focus on surviving in the Championship.’
Pompey should’ve done more to stop Arsenal
Keown, though, was far more critical over Pompey’s set-plays insisting the Blues should’ve done more to stop the waves of Arsenal corners.
The ex-Arsenal man added: ‘Martinelli gets another flick on it, you wouldn’t say he’s the biggest man in the Arsenal team but that near post was a real problem for Portsmouth.
‘For every goal Arsenal scored, Portsmouth could’ve done something to stop this happening.
‘It gets off Dozzell, it’s a little touch off him. He won’t want that accredited to him but nonetheless, it’s going to go down as an own goal.
‘I wasn’t in that situation. I was lucky to be surrounded by giants in Patrick Viera, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Sol Campbell.
‘We did a zonal system but we marked in our zone and we certainly weren’t naive and leaving that near post exposed.
‘You’ve got to have a player in there with some size and they weren’t doing that Portsmouth. They were just lined up to be taken on.’