Chapter 1: What are the latest injury updates for Portsmouth's players?
The latest Pompey news updates every day from the Pompey Sound News Desk.
John Messina is reporting good news on many fronts for Portsmouth's sick and wounded. Colby Bishop, recovering from a twisted ankle, is said to be expected to be available for Sheffield United. But attacking options will be further strengthened in that long-term absentee Thomas Waddingham who has been out since September could also be available on Saturday.
Massino added that Colby was coming into the best form of his season when he got injured, reminding journalists he's not been scoring but he has been very very difficult to play against so his injury was a blow.
He added that we've got McKenzie and now Tom should also be available for the Sheffield United game so we're more optimistic that with Tom and being back we have three centre-forwards available. The Pompey boss was unable to add to what is already known about injuries to shocknessy Josh Knight and Murphy.
The injury to Kishi Anderson is not yet sufficiently understood and diagnosed for a return date to be set.
Yeah, you've got to have a centre forward, especially in the Championship. I know at the very top level of football, world football, you've got your Barcelona and Guardiola when he had Aguero leading the line. It's different now, he's got Haaland, he's a conventional, obviously a very good conventional centre forward. So they play it that way.
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Chapter 2: How is Colby Bishop's recovery impacting the team?
But I did speak to a centre-half who had played against City earlier. This would have been a couple of seasons ago. And I said, what's it like? And he said, it's a nightmare because there's no one to mark. They haven't got anybody who is sort of leading the line, who's pushing up on the two centre-halves if you're playing four at the back. So it is a nightmare.
And I suspect that if John Massino goes all the way as a manager and ends up with a big club under him, he might consider going in that direction. But at the moment in the Championship, you need a couple of strapping centre-halves and you need a centre-forward who can put himself about a bit.
and make a nuisance of himself, even if the centre-halves are three or four inches or more, bigger than him, and that often is the case with Colby, but he still wins so many balls in the air, despite being, I believe he is claimed to be 6'4". I've got him down at more, just over 5'10". But anyway, it'll be great to have him back. We've got Mackenzie Kirk, who's got...
Almost got on the end of one, didn't he? Against Preston, he got there. He knew where the cross was going to be and I think he got a touch to it, but it was near post, very hard to guide a fast-moving ball into the goal from the near post because you're having to make such a subtle touch to it. But he did it, he tried. And he was clearly disappointing that he didn't get it on target, as we were.
And as for Tom Waddingham, we're going to have to get to know him all over again. I don't know about anybody else, but I was pretty impressed with the showing that he had before he got injured. He put himself about a great deal of energy, did a lot of pressing and he looked effective. He looked authentic. He looked like somebody who could do it in the championship. No trouble at all.
So and he's an asset. So plenty to look forward to as far as our injured forwards are concerned come Saturday. But the rest, as was mentioned in the piece, no further news, no further updates, no further optimism available with them. But, you know, time heals all wounds. So we just have to be patient, as they do.
A Swiss-based sports data collection firm the CIES Football Observatory, has crunched the numbers and come up with an extensive list of the ball-friendliest teams in the world. And Pompey are on the list but a long way from the top. The rankings were established according to four indicators. The proximity of passes, the shorter the pass the better.
The pace of passing during possession, the duration of possessions and the percentage of balls received in the opponent's third below knee height i.e. on the ground. They analysed 915 teams in the 58 leagues analysed, and the highest score was recorded by Bayern Munich, coached by Vincent Kompany.
The Germans finished ahead of Paris Saint-Germain with FC Barcelona in third, and Leverkusen in fourth.
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