4-3-2-1: Why You Can Count On Harry

Neville Dalton is a journalist with the BBC News website and a Portsmouth fan of 40 years. His expressed views are his and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Funny how football divides fans as much as it unites them.

It's about opinions - and for every performance, every formation, every acquisition, there is always a counter to every argument.

Harry believed the display against Bolton was one of the best of his Fratton Park reign.

I know what he means. While I never thought we were totally comfortable, the performance and result left me with a warm glow that the August weather certainly failed to.

I'm not sure it was as good as he was suggesting, but I suspect he was referring to the fact that we were missing so many top-class players and had one or two playing out of position.

In the circumstances, he may have been right - and it's certainly an indication of our strength in depth.

Similarly, while there were plenty of cheers for Pompey's draw against Manchester United last Wednesday, few were comparing it to our three victories in recent years.

Yet of all Pompey's splendid results against them in the Premier League, I believe Wednesday night's was the best.

OK, we didn't win. But it felt like a win.

Lambs to the slaughter

Pompey's team on Wednesday was shorn of more key first-team players than on any previous Premier encounter with the reds, if I recall correctly; United's was probably as strong as they've ever put out against us - and without the distraction of adjacent European Champions' League clashes.

What made the 1-1 draw all the more significant in my view was how strongly they came back from a first-half mauling, especially after such an unconvincing and potentially confidence-draining performance at Derby a few days earlier.

To think that Primus, Lauren, Campbell (it's Manchester United - so no surprise there), Stefanovic, Kranjcar and O'Neil were all out... I took my seat expecting lambs to be queuing up for slaughter.

Instead, I witnessed some encouragingly impressive individual performances; a wholehearted second-half team display; admirable guts and resilience and no little skill.

Above all, we saw Harry (I assume it was Harry) switching tactics and adapting formations to deal with the game's developments - and on Wednesday there were plenty of those!

I counted at least four fundamental - plus a couple of more subtle - changes to our set-up, involving multi-positional switches as well as personnel changes - some forced upon us; some reflecting our parlous position at certain times.

First there was the 4-3-2-1 (rather coarsely dismissed as 4-5-1 in many quarters); then good-old 4-4-2; then 4-4-2 Mk II (after Pamarot went off injured); 4-4-1 in those few seconds between Muntari's dismissal and Ronaldo's no-ifs-no-butts sending off, followed by the slightly more fluid midfield/attack formation prompted by the evening up of numbers.

Devastating

Which was the most successful was pretty clear to see.

In fact, for the all-too-few minutes after half-time in which Pamarot played right-back; Hreidarsson and Distin policed the centre and a rejuvenated Djimi Traore looked after the left flank, supporting a much more conventional and comfortable midfield four and attacking two, I thought Pompey looked devastating.

Pamarot's injury negated some of the pluses - Taylor was less troublesome at left-back; Traore was forced to play on his "wrong" side and Muntari was pushed back out wide, where he had been less effective and looked more uncomfortable.

Yet they still achieved a terrific result, fairly matching the Champions for most of the half, and causing a fresh confidence surge among the blue masses surrounding the pitch.

I think Harry, who has on occasion been criticised for a failure to adapt his plan as games progress, deserves great credit for his perception and flexibility on Wednesday, even if some of the original positional selections were baffling.

The second-half formation does beg the question why he opted for the lone forward in the first.

But if the experience finally convinces him why many of us are so critical of his insistence on playing one up front so often against the big boys (not to mention virtually everybody away from home), even the first-half battering will not have been in vain.

To be fair, the first-half formation was nowhere near as defensive as on many previous occasions.

While Nugent was the farthest forward, Mwaruwari and Utaka were usually not too far behind him when going forward… at least, they were until they found themselves dropping ever-deeper as Pompey's midfield found itself overrun by United's well-oiled passing-and-movement machine.

More to the point, the formation failed to play to our players' strengths. To my mind, with our current squad, either Taylor or Kranjcar should be playing most games. Putting Muntari wide left was a waste.

Ace in the pack

On the evidence of Wednesday, Utaka was more effective wide on the right than as one of those supporting the main striker, although his devastating run and goal against Bolton suggest that once he learns to use his pace to close players down, too, he could well be Harry's ace in the pack this season, wherever he plays.

And while in some ways I thought Mwaruwari was our best defender in the first half against United, protecting the right flank admirably, as only he can, his spectacular performance alongside Nugent in the second was confirmation - if needed - of his best position.

Conversely, though, Hreidarsson's first-half performance at left-back torpedoed my scepticism about his signing.

Injuries and the sending-off forced rethinks on the hoof, and I thought they worked well - Traore in particular impressing me at right-back, while our acquisition of multi-positional defenders was totally vindicated by the moves along the back line of Pamarot and Hreidarsson, as well as aforesaid Djimi, with little perceptible decline in performance.

Talking of acquisitions, I'm determined not to succumb to the temptation to rush into judging Pompey's new boys.

But I was impressed by Muntari in the middle (and thought he was maybe a little unlucky to be sent off for what were certainly two fouls but one of which was perhaps not worth a yellow card).

Utaka seems to have become an instant hit, although I hope he doesn't become a victim of Premier League hype and over-expectation. I still think he has some adapting to do to become the complete player at the highest level of the English game.

Distin looked solid, though no better than Campbell or Primus. And Crainie also did not look out of place in the company of Manchester United's multi-talented stars.

Yet it was Nugent who gave me most cause for cheer. His performance was marred by two misses in front of goal, but his enterprise, endeavour and determination to close down goalkeeper and defenders have given Pompey another weapon.

One day all that hassling is going to produce a goal - and like Mwaruwari, Nugent doesn't actually have to put the ball in the net to be responsible for Pompey scoring.

Benjani and Nugent in tandem - that's going to give a few defences sleepless nights this season.