Sheffield United (Home) Saturday September 21st

[Finn balor]

God no 

[nogs]

46 minutes ago, Aidan said:

Not relegation candidates, no. But Silva has to be very careful now. He's had plenty of time and numerous windows to be getting to where he wants the squad to be at.

'Time to click' wasnt an excuse today, because 9 of the 11 that started were here last season.

How long will the board be willing to accept these kinds of results? Especially if Morinho is spoken to whilst Silva is still in charge and is said to be willing to come - if that would be an option for the board. Not something I would personally like to see, but the board are ambitions, seeing a manager of his stature and history will be tempting.

 

Thankfully he'll be going back to Real Madrid to sort out that ponderous, imbalanced, goal-shy problem. 

[nogs]

37 minutes ago, Keith B said:

On paper, you'd say this was the easiest match we'll have all year. A promoted side at home. But we lost it and never looked particularly in it. I think the players are sufficiently good enough to keep us out of relegation territory but that is an awfully low bar for a club that's spent so freely in the market. 

I think sadly we've gone into the game expecting it to be easy. Which is criminal. I watch a fair bit of Sheff Utd, all the rubbish about them going straight back down with single digit points was utter bollocks from people who clearly haven't watched them under Wilder. I'd love a manager like him in charge of us. I'd love some of his players. 

That said, they didn't even have to play well to beat us today. 

[Finn balor]

There is a lot of good British managers that get overlooked that probably know a lot more about our club and where we should be. U only have to look at our prediction league to see how cocky we are. Jags in his interview was very magnanimous but you could tell he thought it was an easy win 

[Palfy]

1 hour ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

When you consider that our attacking options are a 19 year old kid, DCL and Cenk Tosun it really doesn't take a genius to work out why we are struggling to win games. Going forward we're absolutely abysmal and never once looked like scoring, all it was going to take was one Sheffield goal to kill us off. 

We are so out of ideas it hurts, the fact that Silva in the end went with three at the back and three up front (to his credit) and we still couldn't have a clear cut chance is so deflating, especially against a side that you'd expect to breeze past. 

I don't think it's worth going into each player individually as collectively we were awful, nobody stood out as a bright spark and heading into Manchester City next week, I'm not sure how we're even going to score, let alone get a point or three. 

Some whopper near me saying that we should be all over David Moyes, thank Christ that for all his faults at times some of these people are not on the board sacking Silva every five minutes. 

Marco played a strong side (not sure what anyone would have changed?) and when we went behind he threw on three attacking options, whilst I understand that the buck stops with the manager sacking him at this point in time is ludicrous.

 

Not in trouble at all, jumping the gun if ever I saw it. Did nobody see that Watford lost 8-0 today? Does nobody see Wolves in freefall? Newcastle? Brighton? Over 38 games we won't be in any trouble at all, mid table perhaps but nowhere near the bottom three. 

You sound very happy with mid table for me that would signal a shambles of a season. 

I really don’t see what’s to admire about going all out and throwing caution to the wind when you’re 1-0 down at home with 25 minutes to go, as soon as he did that he left us wide open for the counterattack which duly followed with no way back, you call brave and decisive I call it foolish and lacking in any idea of how to break them down  yet keep it solid at the back. 

He even took one of the better players off in Bernard and left a shadow on the pitch called Gylfi, I really fail to see how replacing Bernard for Iwobi was going to change the game for me a complete waste of a sub, yes stick Iwobi on for Gylfi who contributed nothing all game for me that would have had more of an impact than replacing a player who was playing a lot better than some for the same type of player, Jesus how much we paying this man to make poor decisions where the fuck is the inspiration in that. 

[barryj]

Shocking day. Trains cancelled, football was awful and still got a couple of hours left to go. Can’t comment on the game as it won’t be rational. 

[JimmytheJimster]

Lacked passion and determination today, I've seen more watching Sunday league.

Silva doesn't seem to have any idea for how to play against the so called lesser teams who sit behind the ball, he needs to learn and quick. Our build up play is to slow and we never seem to play a long diagonal ball to switch the play. Utterly feed up tonight. 

[MikeO]

5 hours ago, nogs said:

We've spent half a billion on players since Moshiri came in.

Half a million, bit different.

[Bill]

41 minutes ago, JimmytheJimster said:

Lacked passion and determination today, I've seen more watching Sunday league.

Silva doesn't seem to have any idea for how to play against the so called lesser teams who sit behind the ball, he needs to learn and quick. Our build up play is to slow and we never seem to play a long diagonal ball to switch the play. Utterly fed up tonight. 

 

I agree with all of that, I know its been said before but I will say it again, we probably had the easiest start to the season of all the prem teams but again the thought of going 4th or 5th  gave us nosebleeds. If anybody still believes that this team can break into the top six they are deluded, no we will not be relegated but we won't be anywhere near sixth either.

[Sibdane]

I've been a big fan of Silva since he joined, but today is the first time I've questioned him. Losing away is one thing, but losing at home to a newly promoted team who has struggled to make it into the PL is another. I'm not saying he should be sacked, but this is a red flag for me. 

[Aidan]

Usually feel a bit better the morning after a loss, especially a shite one. 

Still fucking fuming. Feels like every time we get an inch of excitement we shit all over ourselves. 

[Wiggytop]

10 hours ago, JimmytheJimster said:

Lacked passion and determination today, I've seen more watching Sunday league.

Silva doesn't seem to have any idea for how to play against the so called lesser teams who sit behind the ball, he needs to learn and quick. Our build up play is to slow and we never seem to play a long diagonal ball to switch the play. Utterly feed up tonight. 

Totally agree with the first two points, but we did try and play some long diagonal balls, but they were woeful, Delph in particular, Mina did one towards the end of the game to Theo which was an ok ball, but when Theo got it he turned back towards our goal.

We tried lots of high crosses in to the box yesterday, but we didn't have our best aerial player on the field, DCL, and the majority of balls either didn't beat the first defender or were too high, same for the corners, but we kept on trying the same thing with no real variation, it felt like we were banging on heads against a wall. I'm know starting to have real concerns over Silva and his lack of ability to change tactics during a game, and play the right tactics from the start against teams who park the bus knowing it's the way to stop us.

 

[Tonsta]

The Silva debate will rage on, but one constant is, that big name players make school boy errors on a regular basis, Pickford, Keane, etc you can not train or legislate for that.

Blame tactics or player selection whatever its players who are fucking up on the pitch..

Also we listen to the crap  on sky top 6 team great buys etc, we are no more than a mid table side maybe a bit higher maybe a bit lower, not top 6 and not relegation fodder.

We kid ourselves we have stole a great kid from Italy from under there noses, or a lad from Turkey who would cost a lot more if people new about him, all bollocks.

We got them because we paid over the odds for average players no one else wanted.

I have watched the blues over a very long time and it saddens me to see them in this state, what the answer is i dont know, change the manager we have done that 

a lot the last few years, nothing changed, change the players we have also done that a lot over the last few years so i dont know the answer nor does anyone else it appears.

I hope someone can make a difference soon i dont want us becoming the laughing stock of the premier league, but loosing at home to sheff utd, loosing to Bournmouth

Without a fight, the only league game we won was very unconvincing 

Just the ramblings of a sad old Blue. 

[barryj]

18 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

We played decent stuff for the first 10 minutes. We looked hungry and on it for that brief period. After that I have absolutely no idea what we were trying to achieve. Embarrassingly slow play, no intent with the ball, no one taking responsibility. I can’t think of anything positive after the start. Absolutely nothing. 

I also just managed to stay to the end but was one of the few people in my section. We could have played another 90 mins and not scored. The main issue I have is the lack of movement and the constant obsession with getting the ball and slowing the play down rather than playing to our strengths (speed) and looking for an incisive pass through their defence. There were very dribbles to suck their defence midfielders in and create space.  We lacked creativity, we put what felt like 40 crosses in aimlessly (except Kean to Richarlison first half). The subs made were different for once and seemed inventive but all that happened is we lost shape. We clearly showed  how much we miss Gomes. 1 point from Palace, Bournemouth, Villa and Sheffield Utd is very worrying. I’m only hoping that the better teams will push up the field and give us more room in the last third.

That felt therapeutic, maybe I should have posted earlier! 

[Finn balor]

Tim Cahill summed it up for me last night. Sheff united like Bournemouth bullied us. Wilder set up his team to give us the ball in wide areas. That’s what they wanted us to do and we had no creativety. Tim was saying all those crosses going in you’d like to think someone would get on the end of one of them. We have no leaders to take the game by the scruff of the neck and change the game. I know I’m singling gilfi out lately but he has been non existent. He is the most experienced player we have. Our record signing against these teams he is the player that should be leading the younger players 

[nogs]

14 hours ago, MikeO said:

Half a million, bit different.

Erm, no. Half a billion. Half a million is Schneiderlin's monthly wages. 

[MikeO]

1 hour ago, nogs said:

Erm, no. Half a billion. Half a million is Schneiderlin's monthly wages. 

Senior moment; though in fact as you're using the US definition of a billion (a thousand million) and I was thinking of the UK definition (a million million which is why I thought the figure was inaccurate) you could also be described as having a transatlantic junior moment.

[Palfy]

29 minutes ago, MikeO said:

Senior moment; though in fact as you're using the US definition of a billion (a thousand million) and I was thinking of the UK definition (a million million which is why I thought the figure was inaccurate) you could also be described as having a transatlantic junior moment.

Mike you’ve had another senior moment since 1974 a thousand million sterling has been a billion pounds, to be fair old timer you should have known that you were still at school

[MikeO]

21 minutes ago, Palfy said:

Mike you’ve had another senior moment since 1974 a thousand million sterling has been a billion pounds, to be fair old timer you should have known that you were still at school

Learnt my numbers well before fourteen though Palf, I was very advanced (). Just because the government (not academia) gave in to creeping Americanisation in the seventies doesn't mean I have to; found a quote online that describes it perfectly!

"A billion in mathematics is one million to the power 2, or one million times one million. Bi meaning 2, as in bicycle, bi-plane or even base-2 number (binary numerical system) etc.. A trillion is one million to the power 3, tricycle, triangle etc. Anyhow, it makes 'sense', which is something Americans lack so let's not follow them more than we need to."

My last word on the matter.

[nogs]

1 hour ago, MikeO said:

Senior moment; though in fact as you're using the US definition of a billion (a thousand million) and I was thinking of the UK definition (a million million which is why I thought the figure was inaccurate) you could also be described as having a transatlantic junior moment.

We're all subjects of US linguistic (and mathematical) tyranny these days! I did think the difference in quantity was with a trillion though? Maybe not, but I've always thought of a billion as 1000 million. 

[Palfy]

2 minutes ago, MikeO said:

Learnt my numbers well before fourteen though Palf, I was very advanced (). Just because the government (not academia) gave in to creeping Americanisation in the seventies doesn't mean I have to; found a quote online that describes it perfectly!

"A billion in mathematics is one million to the power 2, or one million times one million. Bi meaning 2, as in bicycle, bi-plane or even base-2 number (binary numerical system) etc.. A trillion is one million to the power 3, tricycle, triangle etc. Anyhow, it makes 'sense', which is something Americans lack so let's not follow them more than we need to."

My last word on the matter.

All I can say to that is when I first went to school it was pounds shillings and pence, then It went to decimalisation so I had to learn that, we are always learning it doesn’t stop at 14. 

Now get back in your rocking chair with your tartan blanket over your legs

[MikeO]

1 minute ago, Palfy said:

All I can say to that is when I first went to school it was pounds shillings and pence, then It went to decimalisation so I had to learn that, we are always learning it doesn’t stop at 14. 

Now get back in your rocking chair with your tartan blanket over your legs

That LsD sure was good stuff though, only 10/- a tab if you knew the right people!

[Palfy]

4 minutes ago, MikeO said:

That LsD sure was good stuff though, only 10/- a tab if you knew the right people!

I was still eating black jacks and fruit salads when decimalisation came in, I remember the shock I got when instead of getting 4 with the old half penny I only got 2 with the new half p

[Bailey]

22 hours ago, Zoo 2.0 said:

When you consider that our attacking options are a 19 year old kid, DCL and Cenk Tosun it really doesn't take a genius to work out why we are struggling to win games. Going forward we're absolutely abysmal and never once looked like scoring, all it was going to take was one Sheffield goal to kill us off. 

We are so out of ideas it hurts, the fact that Silva in the end went with three at the back and three up front (to his credit) and we still couldn't have a clear cut chance is so deflating, especially against a side that you'd expect to breeze past. 

I don't think it's worth going into each player individually as collectively we were awful, nobody stood out as a bright spark and heading into Manchester City next week, I'm not sure how we're even going to score, let alone get a point or three. 

Some whopper near me saying that we should be all over David Moyes, thank Christ that for all his faults at times some of these people are not on the board sacking Silva every five minutes. 

Marco played a strong side (not sure what anyone would have changed?) and when we went behind he threw on three attacking options, whilst I understand that the buck stops with the manager sacking him at this point in time is ludicrous.

I'm not sure I agree with you for giving him credit for going 3 up top. It feels a bit Sunday league and it points to one of the main problems I have with our attacking play under Silva.

Essentially our attacking creativity comes from our full backs. They are pretty decent fullbacks but we are relying on them getting forward and putting in good deliveries and if they don't, we don't score or create. Our two wingers play too central, they don't open up space they close it down, other than for our fullbacks to raid forward but thats what most opposing managers will want to see as you are less likely to score from crosses and its easier to defend the goal from a wide position than it is from a central position. This means you have the two wingers and the striker close together with Siggy also buzzing around them. That isn't a bad thing when we play on the counter attack as they don't get isolated but when you have 60%+ possession and the other side are putting bodies behind the ball its fairly easy to defend against. The way Siggy plays also means that what should be our most creative player is playing 75% of the game (when in possession) with his back to goal. Our wingers should be on the touchline in the build up giving space for the likes of Siggy, Gomes and Davies to run into. The full backs should then be used as an extra attacking option rather than our only attacking option.

I agree with you in that he played a strong side and I think it is misguided of people to think that playing "two DMs" was a reason we lost (Delph isn't a defensive midfielder to start with in my opinion). Its the type of thing Merson would say to get attention on Soccer Saturday.

[Matt]

Well, reading through, I’m feeling very fortunate to have spent the weekend in a cabin in the mountains. 

[Palfy]

3 minutes ago, Bailey said:

I'm not sure I agree with you for giving him credit for going 3 up top. It feels a bit Sunday league and it points to one of the main problems I have with our attacking play under Silva.

Essentially our attacking creativity comes from our full backs. They are pretty decent fullbacks but we are relying on them getting forward and putting in good deliveries and if they don't, we don't score or create. Our two wingers play too central, they don't open up space they close it down, other than for our fullbacks to raid forward but thats what most opposing managers will want to see as you are less likely to score from crosses and its easier to defend the goal from a wide position than it is from a central position. This means you have the two wingers and the striker close together with Siggy also buzzing around them. That isn't a bad thing when we play on the counter attack as they don't get isolated but when you have 60%+ possession and the other side are putting bodies behind the ball its fairly easy to defend against. The way Siggy plays also means that what should be our most creative player is playing 75% of the game (when in possession) with his back to goal. Our wingers should be on the touchline in the build up giving space for the likes of Siggy, Gomes and Davies to run into. The full backs should then be used as an extra attacking option rather than our only attacking option.

I agree with you in that he played a strong side and I think it is misguided of people to think that playing "two DMs" was a reason we lost (Delph isn't a defensive midfielder to start with in my opinion). Its the type of thing Merson would say to get attention on Soccer Saturday.

That was my biggest problem with his substitutions there was no plan or thought out tactics in what he did, he seemed to employ the charge of the light brigade formation with 25 minutes to go and we all know what happened there they got picked off as we did. 

I not calling for his head but I am very concerned about his ability to think on the spot, and since his right hand man left his in play decisions have been very dubious to say the least. 

 

[Bailey]

4 minutes ago, Palfy said:

That was my biggest problem with his substitutions there was no plan or thought out tactics in what he did, he seemed to employ the charge of the light brigade formation with 25 minutes to go and we all know what happened there they got picked off as we did. 

I not calling for his head but I am very concerned about his ability to think on the spot, and since his right hand man left his in play decisions have been very dubious to say the least. 

 

Yeh I never see a clear plan with his substitutions.

[Finn balor]

16 minutes ago, Palfy said:

That was my biggest problem with his substitutions there was no plan or thought out tactics in what he did, he seemed to employ the charge of the light brigade formation with 25 minutes to go and we all know what happened there they got picked off as we did. 

I not calling for his head but I am very concerned about his ability to think on the spot, and since his right hand man left his in play decisions have been very dubious to say the least. 

 

To play digne as one of three centre backs is ok if there is five minutes to but with 25 minutes to go? Reaked of desperation to me. He obviously doesn’t rate Tosun but brings him on in front DCl who started the game before after changing a winning team? It just doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t see him getting angry on the touchline he just throws his arms up in despair. I want him to win every game and prove me wrong because I was hopeful after the run we had last season 

[Romey 1878]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

Well, reading through, I’m feeling very fortunate to have spent the weekend in a cabin in the mountains. 

You could have watched white paint dry and you’d have been fortunate. 

[rubecula]

On 22/09/2019 at 16:41, Palfy said:

I was still eating black jacks and fruit salads when decimalisation came in, I remember the shock I got when instead of getting 4 with the old half penny I only got 2 with the new half p

I remember them when they were cheap  lol lol

On 22/09/2019 at 16:54, Matt said:

Well, reading through, I’m feeling very fortunate to have spent the weekend in a cabin in the mountains. 

no point in trying to make us jealous Matt  we know you meant a cow shed n a high mountain field  all cold and damp lol lol

 

On 22/09/2019 at 18:08, Romey 1878 said:

You could have watched white paint dry and you’d have been fortunate. 

Or even wet paint Romey?  lol  you tell him lad  he wont make us jealous will he?