Positives: we look better under Wilder

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Hate to say it, but the upturn in performances since Wilder took over really don't put Hecky in a good light. It's not just a new manager bounce where everyone is desperate to impress - we're 10x more organised and compact than before. And individual players suddenly look transformed.

Hecky was fortunate he had such a talented squad to work with in the Championship. We never looked convincing under him, even when we were winning. He did well considering the total shambles behind the scenes, but clearly struggled when he didn't have a better set of players than the other team.
 
Maidenhead said:
We were shocking.

Very little quality anywhere, couldn't string three passes together for most of the game, and got very lucky with VAR.

On another day they would have had two penalties (Souza & Baldock), and the disallowed goal would have been allowed to stand even though there had been a definite foul on Wes.

I have to congratulate the players for their hard work and for never giving up in the face of adversity, which they would have done under the previous management, but anyone that thinks we have turned some sort of corner is well wide of the mark.

I was actually quite depressed watching that shit show last night and I strongly doubt that we will get past the twenty point mark this season, never mind getting near to staying up.

Hopefully we will recruit some fit, quality, players in January and I will be proved wrong but I just don't see it happening.
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Really hope this is a tongue in cheek post.

In The game I saw , yes we were under the cosh for long periods. But we defended resolutely. We stood firm. We got bodies in the way. We stopped quality crosses being made. We fought for every ball. We did what we were supposed to do. Defend well against a team on a 15 home game winning streak. A team that has scored 39 goals in doing so. WE STOPPED THEM FROM SCORING.
That is not a team who was shocking. That's a team with belief. That's a team with commitment. That's a team with a plan. A plan that worked.

Then we did the unthinkable. We scored! We took the lead!
That's what sometimes happens in football.
Anyone finding that depressing needs to find another sport to watch.
Personally at that moment I was elated. Far from depressed.

Yes it was disappointing they equalised. But we showed that there is something to be excited about for the rest of the season.

A season that WILL be difficult for us. But at least now we are the Blades of old. We fight for every inch. We claw our way forward. We no longer crumble. One game at a time we are climbing out of hell. We are healing as a team. We are playing as a team. And not as individuals. And that's the difference between winning or losing. That's what football is about. Let's see what we do about it.
 
Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou said:
Like many others I do genuinely believe we'd have more points and better performances if we sacked Hecky months ago.

I can't blame the club on this because I like Hecky and he deserved his chance. I also backed him upto the Burnley game. (Like the board did)
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Same here. I wanted PH to be given as long as possible but in retrospect I was wrong - the Newcastle game should have been the end.

Got huge respect for the bloke - his dignity, handling of the academy kids, and ultimately saving the club from financial disaster. I wish we could have kept him as DoF, but it just doesn’t work like that, sadly.

What cost him was the inability to mould a compact defensive unit at Prem level. That was the minimum requirement to keep his job. After Newcastle he talked about wanting it to be an open game. Either that result broke the players’ belief or he wilfully didn’t learn the lesson. Whichever is true, it should have ended his tenure,
 
Houston_Blade said:
Would be interested to know how much Knill influences our setup in the recent games. Wilder seems to be the motivator but I think Knill is the tactician. Might be doing both a disservice there though as they both might be good at all aspects.
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100%
 
Maidenhead said:
I didn't say that I expected an open game, I know what to expect and it's on that basis that my expectations for the season are so low.

Hard work can only take you so far, to go further you need a sprinkling of quality that we don't have.

We will almost certainly work our way to other hard working 1-0 wins this season but without a large injection of quality they will be few and far between.
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Partially disagree.

Think this squad has higher quality than the 2019 squad that was challenging for the Champions league.

We’re defending well as a team but we still don’t have confidence on the ball.

In order to take some pressure off the defence we need to have spells of possession with players who are comfortable on the ball able to play quick short passing to feet. I actually think our players are capable of that bit it hasn’t been drilled into them enough and they’ve not practiced possession play in training.
 
Maidenhead said:
We were shocking.

Very little quality anywhere, couldn't string three passes together for most of the game, and got very lucky with VAR.

On another day they would have had two penalties (Souza & Baldock), and the disallowed goal would have been allowed to stand even though there had been a definite foul on Wes.

I have to congratulate the players for their hard work and for never giving up in the face of adversity, which they would have done under the previous management, but anyone that thinks we have turned some sort of corner is well wide of the mark.

I was actually quite depressed watching that shit show last night and I strongly doubt that we will get past the twenty point mark this season, never mind getting near to staying up.

Hopefully we will recruit some fit, quality, players in January and I will be proved wrong but I just don't see it happening.
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It’s painful watching defensive football, but that’s where we are for the time being. It’s a legitimate method and one that lesser teams have no choice but to be good at.

I’m very happy Wilder and Knill have addressed it, and I do see it as us turning a corner. It’s half of the game, and we’re finally becoming competent at it.

If the management get our attacking method sorted in the coming weeks, it’ll be wonderful. But one step at a time…
 
Maidenhead said:
I didn't say that I expected an open game, I know what to expect and it's on that basis that my expectations for the season are so low.

Hard work can only take you so far, to go further you need a sprinkling of quality that we don't have.

We will almost certainly work our way to other hard working 1-0 wins this season but without a large injection of quality they will be few and far between.
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I agree, but yesterday's defensive performance was proof of a massive corner turned for me. For all their possession, they really didn't have many chances. Pre Wilder they certainly would have had, so to me I'd say we are solid again, corner turned.

Agree there has to be more than that, I'd just contest that it's not been the easiest 4 games to show the attacking side of our performances, but against the team we "should" have attacked, we did and really did have a lot of control too the second half. So to me we'll set up ultra defensive/ hit on counter against the really good ones because that's the sensible thing to do until the players have been drilled, but we'll have a much bigger go when we should.
 
djbaldken said:
Really hope this is a tongue in cheek post.

In The game I saw , yes we were under the cosh for long periods. But we defended resolutely. We stood firm. We got bodies in the way. We stopped quality crosses being made. We fought for every ball. We did what we were supposed to do. Defend well against a team on a 15 home game winning streak. A team that has scored 39 goals in doing so. WE STOPPED THEM FROM SCORING.
That is not a team who was shocking. That's a team with belief. That's a team with commitment. That's a team with a plan. A plan that worked.

Then we did the unthinkable. We scored! We took the lead!
That's what sometimes happens in football.
Anyone finding that depressing needs to find another sport to watch.
Personally at that moment I was elated. Far from depressed.

Yes it was disappointing they equalised. But we showed that there is something to be excited about for the rest of the season.

A season that WILL be difficult for us. But at least now we are the Blades of old. We fight for every inch. We claw our way forward. We no longer crumble. One game at a time we are climbing out of hell. We are healing as a team. We are playing as a team. And not as individuals. And that's the difference between winning or losing. That's what football is about. Let's see what we do about it.
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I read this to the Dambusters theme tune 😂
 
djbaldken said:
You seem to have forgotten the championship season, not that long ago, when we were three up at Villa, with ten minutes remaining. And we still only drew!.
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I had my complains at the time about that too DJ
 
Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou said:
To be fair, the 3/4 games Wilder has had were Liverpool, Chelsea and Villa away so we aren't going to go at them.

The other game Brentford we won and deserved too.
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Fair point. I think we played well in the first 2 games under Wilder. I still think the basics in terms of possession are still a long way off. Luton can do it it so we should at least try.
 

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