Paul Coutts, 4-4-2, "Negative Nige" and P&G Muppets

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mattbianco1

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Coutts - Once again everybody was grumbling about this guy towards the end of the first half. He played three poor balls, all of which were intercepted.
Prior to that, he was casual on the ball and opened up space well in the middle of the park.
At one point the guy in front of me turned to his wife and said "I really don't like him, he's rubbish. Do you like him?" she looked at him and went "nooo, I don't like him either". Could've said that he was black and i'm sure she would've agreed.
Any way, when it was announced he was being subbed he cheered more the when we scored.

4-4-2 - We played it, we lost. Started off brightly but faded for many parts of the game and let a poor team come into the game.
Interestingly, all the fans that want 4-4-2 like it is some magical formula - have people read the sports news over the last 7 days and the amount of criticism Manuel Pellegrini has come under for PLAYING 4-4-2 as opposed to the 4-5-1/4-3-3.

Negative Nige - Some called him negative again for taking off both Done and McNulty. At this point, we had switched back to the usual formation with Flynn on the left and Freeman on the right with Murphy upfront. A formation and setup that has proved to work before.
Flynn failed in his through ball to Murphy which if it had got through would've put Murphy 1-on-1 and SUFC 2-0 up.
I call it bad luck rather than negative tactics.

P&G - 1st two callers last night... Anybody hear them?
Both whining at the negative tactics. It made me laugh when one said:
"their #22 won everything all night, why did we keep putting it in the air near him"
"it was him the made the mistake which let Done in to score"
"oh yeah, I forgot about that... well apart from that".

"why did he take both strikers off and put midfielders on?"
"well he's been critical of McNulty"
"yes McNulty was very poor"
"so would you have taken him off?"
"yes but I would've put a striker on"
"Which striker? We don't have one on the bench, Higdon is injured and he's still trying to sign one"
"errrm"

:tumbleweed:


RANT OVER
 

I got a lift home last night from a mate who had P&G on, I havent listened to it for years but jesus christ some of the idiots on there make me want to remove my eyeballs with rusty spoons.

Some old dear came on and blamed the ref and said they should have been down to 9 men before half time, what the actual fuck?!
 
>Manuel Pellegrini has come under for PLAYING 4-4-2 as opposed to the 4-5-1/4-3-3.
yeah 'cos he's playing a slightly higher level of opposition . 451 is a fashion purported by so called experts.. it will go out very shortly. Barca have started playing long ball to Suarez
wasn't Che on the bench? (genuine question)
 
Great post Matt!

My only comment would be that if they wanted a striking option then Adams was on the bench. However, at 1-0 with 10 mins to go I'm not convinced of Adams defensively, yet. He's exciting going forward, but you want a reliable player to come in and help close out the game. Which is what happened, apart from the closing the game out bit...
 
>Manuel Pellegrini has come under for PLAYING 4-4-2 as opposed to the 4-5-1/4-3-3.
yeah 'cos he's playing a slightly higher level of opposition . 451 is a fashion purported by so called experts.. it will go out very shortly. Barca have started playing long ball to Suarez
I certainly prefer the flexibility of the way we set up with 4-5-1.
 
...good post, frustrating result.
We pick up and kick on again to secure that play off spot.
i admire your optimism but we've blown it sorry.
(i'm usually the one in the shoutbox being optimistic btw)
it's not just the result. the belief in Clough has gone.. he's lost the fans with this one
 
>Manuel Pellegrini has come under for PLAYING 4-4-2 as opposed to the 4-5-1/4-3-3.
yeah 'cos he's playing a slightly higher level of opposition . 451 is a fashion purported by so called experts.. it will go out very shortly. Barca have started playing long ball to Suarez
wasn't Che on the bench? (genuine question)

Che was on the bench yes. But rather than throw him on upfront, he put Murphy upfront (a proven goalscorer). Even if Che had come on instead of Freeman, he would've gone on the flank as opposed to upfront and Fynn would've still got injured.

Regarding Man City - surely it's all relative. They are world class and playing against world class teams. We are League 1 playing against League 1 teams.
 
Che was on the bench yes. But rather than throw him on upfront, he put Murphy upfront (a proven goalscorer). Even if Che had come on instead of Freeman, he would've gone on the flank as opposed to upfront and Fynn would've still got injured.

Regarding Man City - surely it's all relative. They are world class and playing against world class teams. We are League 1 playing against League 1 teams.
no it isn't relative at all .. you can only play 451 with international class players. at our level players don't know what to do with the fucking ball. Che is a proven goalscorer.. one match .. two goals. what's your point?
this fucking Barcelona obsession does my head in. diving cheating NIke cunts
 
i admire your optimism but we've blown it sorry.
(i'm usually the one in the shoutbox being optimistic btw)
it's not just the result. the belief in Clough has gone.. he's lost the fans with this one

Wow...

Unbeaten in 6 then we lose in unlucky circumstances. Had we closed the game out last night we would've closed the gap on MK, Preston and Swindon. The optimism would be through the roof on here this morning.

What has really happened? we've lost 1 point on Preston so in reality are no worse off than when we started. We just have 1 less game to gain the points in.
 
no it isn't relative at all .. you can only play 451 with international class players. at our level players don't know what to do with the fucking ball. Che is a proven goalscorer.. one match .. two goals. what's your point?
this fucking Barcelona obsession does my head in. diving cheating NIke cunts
rant off :D
 
i admire your optimism but we've blown it sorry.
(i'm usually the one in the shoutbox being optimistic btw)
it's not just the result. the belief in Clough has gone.. he's lost the fans with this one

Blown the play off's?

Managers lose support for losing games, that's fair enough...if we don't get in the play off's I think he'll go, though I suspect the board will want here next season either way.

Let's hope this is our year for a play off final win...at last ( now that's optimism!)
 
Wow...

Unbeaten in 6 then we lose in unlucky circumstances. Had we closed the game out last night we would've closed the gap on MK, Preston and Swindon. The optimism would be through the roof on here this morning.

What has really happened? we've lost 1 point on Preston so in reality are no worse off than when we started. We just have 1 less game to gain the points in.
we've blown it . get used to it.
for the last couple of months i've been posting 'not bothered. we'll win under clough anyway' .. after this latest series of bonkers substitutions i'm starting to think otherwise :(
same owd same owd
 
no it isn't relative at all .. you can only play 451 with international class players. at our level players don't know what to do with the fucking ball.
That's utter bollocks. Hardly anybody plays 4-4-2 anymore.

Che is a proven goalscorer.. one match .. two goals. what's your point?

That is bollocks too. He's proven in the Northern Premier Division. 4 divisions below SUFC. He has also played a lot more games than 1.

He was rightly given his chance and started his first game after the Spurs game and didn't hold the place. Without checking he has played in around 6 or 7 games and started at least 1.
 
That's utter bollocks. Hardly anybody plays 4-4-2 anymore.
That is bollocks too. He's proven in the Northern Premier Division. 4 divisions below SUFC. He has also played a lot more games than 1.
He was rightly given his chance and started his first game after the Spurs game and didn't hold the place. Without checking he has played in around 6 or 7 games and started at least 1.
no one plays 'formations' anymore if you want to be pedantic.. they change throughout the game.. one minute it is 451 then its 433. then they go 442. it depends on the circumstances. Clough has his favourites. it annoys me. i was a victim of this many times to perhaps i have psychological issues :D
 

we've blown it . get used to it.
for the last couple of months i've been posting 'not bothered. we'll win under clough anyway' .. after this latest series of bonkers substitutions i'm starting to think otherwise :(
same owd same owd

Freeman has been stepping off the bench into midfield for a few games now. Now we have lost, it's negative. He has put in more decent balls in his 15 minute cameos than Campbell Ryce has all season.

The subs were made well before they equalised. If we were level or losing, i'm sure Adams would've come on instead. Being at the game it really was just a case of closing the game out. Nothing negative about it. It just went tits up when they scored a goal that would go wide 99 times out of 100 and then their tails were up.
 
too much of this going tits up for my liking .. we struggle at closing games out because we have no out ball??
 
I agree Matt, why cant everyone just be like you!!!!
 
Did we actually play two upfront? It seemed to me that we played McNulty in the position that Baxter normally players in a 4-5-1. He pushed on more than Baxter but he didn't seem to be playing alongside Done, he appeared to be 5-10 yards behind him when we didn't have the ball.

I don't think any substitution yesterday was incorrect. I was disappointed with Coutts going off as the first 30-35 minutes he looked very good, composed on the ball and made good use of it.

They score a wonder goal and then snatch a goal due to a defensive cock up. A point would have been fair yesterday but it's hardly the end of the world and I don't see how people blame Clough for it when realistically we had a striker up front all game and we rotated midfielders with our subs.
 
Going 4-4-2 up against those centre halves didn't work but I'd say that's about the only thing Clough got wrong last night. He quite rightly changed it to concentrate more on winning midfield and it worked. His substitutions were logical and sensible and with the breakthrough we'd got the beating of their centre halves - did anyone else notice him in the stoppage, hands on hips, staring at the floor and being consoled by three of their players? Freeman (not Flynn) let us down with that through ball where we could've put the game to bed, from where I was I thought Turner could've done better with their equaliser, and Flynn pulled up. One or two individual mistakes and a touch of bad luck lost us the game on the night. I did however think Clough should've pulled Flynn and reshaped with 10 men.

I would add to that we missed JCR last night. Not necessarily the standard of his crossing but the fact that he takes 2 - 3 defenders with him and has consistently done that in every game I've seen him. We don't always need that but last night we did.

The belief in Clough hasn't gone and he hasn't lost the fans on this one.
 
I thought the 4-4-2 maybe took Peterborough by surprise and we were well on top until they adjusted their formation to counter what we were doing. From then on, they dominated in the middle of the park and I thought it was the right decision to take McNulty off for an extra central midfielder.
 
Some really good points, I fully agree with tonyagana re JCR. To me that match was made for him last night as well as taking defenders away from others his crosses are normally low and hard. He has been doing that all season and while some have been wayward others have not been met by the forwards as there has only been one striker. For the first time we had two strikers in and around the box and no one was getting to the byline and getting crosses in. There are clearly reasons for JCR going on loan but it still seems to be a bit strange especially now if Flynn is injured again

On the other subject of P&G I haven't heard it for years but when I leave the match until the signal goes I normally listen and l listened last night as I got nearer Sheffield before the game. I heard Brian the Blade for the first time, as well as been a cock he clearly has Walter Mitty tendencies trying to claim he knew why Collins was't playing and building up his own importance. What I can't understand is why they let him on as the presenters equally thought he was a cock!
 
Freeman has been stepping off the bench into midfield for a few games now. Now we have lost, it's negative. He has put in more decent balls in his 15 minute cameos than Campbell Ryce has all season.

The subs were made well before they equalised. If we were level or losing, i'm sure Adams would've come on instead. Being at the game it really was just a case of closing the game out. Nothing negative about it. It just went tits up when they scored a goal that would go wide 99 times out of 100 and then their tails were up.

But as I said elsewhere, why risk using your last sub at all when you're winning and the player coming off isn't injured?
There is always a chance that a player will then get injured in the last 10-15 minutes.
It could be your goalie that gets injured and then you're down to ten men with an outfield player in goal.

It may be worth taking that risk when you're already losing and desperate to get back in the game.
But surely not when you're leading and well on the way to three points.
If Done was too tired to keep playing up front (didn't look that bad) he could have swapped positions with Murphy.
Then when Flynn got injured we could have thrown on Freeman and seen the game out with eleven fit men.

I would say the final subsitution was foolhardy and risky rather than negative.
 
Did we actually play two upfront? It seemed to me that we played McNulty in the position that Baxter normally players in a 4-5-1. He pushed on more than Baxter but he didn't seem to be playing alongside Done, he appeared to be 5-10 yards behind him when we didn't have the ball.


You can't criticize people phoning up as muppets when you come up with bigoted bollocks like
'we played with 4-4-2 and lost!'
We get more than enough of this from Clough!

We may or may not have not (according to the above!) started with 4-4-2! I won't know until/if the match is on Blades Player.
But whatever the truth – no one is saying we finished with 4-4-2 with no forwards on and Murphy as the only attacking player! We lost at the end not the start!
When we may have played 4-4-2 we were drawing 0-0.
 
That's fair enough, I just objected to you speaking on behalf of "the fans".
judging by some of the posts on here and BM i was speaking for 'some' (admittedly) of the fans. it has only just hit me that we won't get an auto spot. maybe i was overoptimistic. maybe i have given up too soon. i'm really fucking disappointed :(
 
judging by some of the posts on here and BM i was speaking for 'some' (admittedly) of the fans. it has only just hit me that we won't get an auto spot. maybe i was overoptimistic. maybe i have given up too soon. i'm really fucking disappointed :(
:) Disappointment is something you could speak for all fans about! I'd just like to see better ways of dealing with disappointment than slagging the manager off (not necessarily you, SP). A couple of mistakes from him last night but he doesn't deserve the abuse.
 
:) Disappointment is something you could speak for all fans about! I'd just like to see better ways of dealing with disappointment than slagging the manager off (not necessarily you, SP). A couple of mistakes from him last night but he doesn't deserve the abuse.
probably not.. but a cat must be kicked.. volunteers?? :)
 

Just something a bit different.

A few one liners of how I feel at 13:22 the day after the game.

The Blades have ruined my Wednesday and here I am trying to stay focused on IT business, tough job - damn Blades!
We played 4-4-2, I hope it puts it to bed with certain posters - we do not have the squad to play it. We fit 4-5-1 or 4-3-3
Interestingly P'boro played 3-4-3 - not seen it before, quite like it and apart from first 10 minutes it looked good.
We need 2 x centre halves - my chestnut all season.
We still NEED a big lad up front for when the going gets tough (like last night)
Done, never stopped - fair do's to him - really cool finish.
We sat back at 1 nil - really sad to see. I expect more at home....passion and commitment please?
Strange substitutions by NC.
The game hinged on ONE PASS - freemans none pass to Murphy bursting through. - bad pass or unlucky - whatever it is, it is SMALL margins that ultimately decided the game.
We missed a chance with other results last night - shame, but all in all we lost out 1 point on the night to Preston.
Still lots of games to go - we start again with Fleetwood - come out fighting.
P&G? - why on earth do people listen to it.............jeez.
MOM - toss up really - Done or Doyle.
P'boro deserved to win - they kept at it and pushed us back - I must watch a different game to some.
Still cross, but all part of being a Blade

Roll on Saturday.

Not going to read much else on here - just don't need the kneejerk stuff - back to my IT issues.

.........and tomorrow's another day and my 24 hours wake will be out of the system as usual - I hate the day after we lose poorly.

........and well done to the club - nice tribute to shred and well done to the P'boro fans for joining in - top supporters.

UTB
 

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