According to some 'experts' in the media....

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GrayBlade

GrayBlade

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We've now ditched our passing game as seen under Clough and hapless Adkins, for the more direct style as seen under Bassett and Warnock because "It's what Blades fans want to see".

What a load of tosh! I've got total respect for the fantastic job Harry did, and Neil gave us two or three outstanding seasons, but to insinuate we're playing the long ball game couldn't be further from the truth. We're passing teams to death at times and rarely hit it long.

What has changed since Adkins in particular is that we're moving and passing the ball quickly and trying to get it into dangerousness areas, not just endless passing it sideways at walking pace leaving us all bored stupid. High intensity and aggressive yes, but it's definitely free flowing passing football that's great to watch especially when we're in full flow. I sometimes wonder if these 'experts' have ever seen us play.
 

GrayBlade said:
We've now ditched our passing game as seen under Clough and hapless Adkins, for the more direct style as seen under Bassett and Warnock because "It's what Blades fans want to see".

What a load of tosh! I've got total respect for the fantastic job Harry did, and Neil gave us two or three outstanding seasons, but to insinuate we're playing the long ball game couldn't be further from the truth. We're passing teams to death at times and rarely hit it long.

What has changed since Adkins in particular is that we're moving and passing the ball quickly and trying to get it into dangerousness areas, not just endless passing it sideways at walking pace leaving us all bored stupid. High intensity and aggressive yes, but it's definitely free flowing passing football that's great to watch especially when we're in full flow. I sometimes wonder if these 'experts' have ever seen us play.
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It's lazy journalism based on that Wilder played under Bassett.

I'm almost certain that these 'experts' have never seen us play.
 
Let them say what they want, I always think it's a nice 'surprise' when we do the unexpected.
 
Whoever suggests that is a clown.

We mix it up, we hit it long when we need to under pressure, when we get in their half we are camping there and keeping the ball moving. And under Adkins there was little evidence of anything, never mind a particular style. The bloke had no idea.
There will be a few more thumpings dished out this season.
 
Yeh it's just lazy journalism.

Under Clough and to a degree Adkins we did play the short passing game.
A bit like MK Dons last week the players seemed obsessed with patiently keeping possession at any cost.
It's a good basis to develope a team in the Swansea or Southampton mould.
The problem is our attacks were too slow, we always lost physical battles and our fans eventually got
Fed up of the patient/ slow continental style play with little goalmouth action at either end.

Now we have Wilder we play in a Jurgen Klop/ Liverpool high energy style.
We still play the short passing game well but it's much quicker and more direct.
Occasionally we mix it up and play the odd long ball when required but in general it's short passing.
We look for the overlapping full backs running down the wing.
The strikers are ordered to close down their defenders and put pressure on them when they have the ball.

Wilder style of play seems to be the current fashion and it's really effective and entertaining.
Spains tippy tappy football is old hat, now its the Bayern/ Borussia Dortmund/ Liverpool hi energy pressing fast direct style that's gaining success. It's a modern version of the Dave Bassett style with higher quality players playing more technical football in the same fast direct style.

Makes you wonder how significant Alan Knill is regards tactics, playing style and training because
It been a long time since we've looked so good. I don't even get nervous at matches anymore.
 
Last edited:
Tyler Durden said:
Won't be long until some painfully predictable clown arrives with a fresh load of spiteful vitriol directed at Dave Bassett......
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Yes because that period was all dreadful long ball with no saving graces. None.

No 100 goals in the third
No wonderful wonderful derby wins
Deano
Ward/Whitehouse coming through
Billy scaring the opoosition shitless
Beating Liverpool, Manyoo, Chelski etc on a regular basis
Leicester away
100% player commitment and a genuine bond with the fans

Crap time to be a Blade that was......
 
Given that the Telegraph didn't even give us a mention this morning, it's not surprising they haven't got a clue.
 
GrayBlade said:
We've now ditched our passing game as seen under Clough and hapless Adkins, for the more direct style as seen under Bassett and Warnock because "It's what Blades fans want to see".

What a load of tosh! I've got total respect for the fantastic job Harry did, and Neil gave us two or three outstanding seasons, but to insinuate we're playing the long ball game couldn't be further from the truth. We're passing teams to death at times and rarely hit it long.

What has changed since Adkins in particular is that we're moving and passing the ball quickly and trying to get it into dangerousness areas, not just endless passing it sideways at walking pace leaving us all bored stupid. High intensity and aggressive yes, but it's definitely free flowing passing football that's great to watch especially when we're in full flow. I sometimes wonder if these 'experts' have ever seen us play.
Click to expand...

What a bunch of lazy ladies' parts; tell me who wrote such claptrap and I'll pop round and torch the place.
 
The standard of football journalism (and I limit it to 'football' because you can find some insightful journalists covering certain other sports such as cricket and rugby union) is absolutely appalling.

We have a 'footballing' midfield, in Coutts, Fleck and Duffy, that is better than anything in League 1 and as good as many in the Championship, together with a relatively small forward line. Yet, because we've brought in a couple of biggish lads at the back, the media fall back on their stock Sheffield United stereotype. Lazy journalism at best.

Meanwhile, the other mob assemble a team which, whilst undeniably industrious, is lacking (save for that little forward who apparently has the hump) any star quality. Nonetheless, some of the media would have us believe that Big Ron is back the Sty, such is the supposed brilliance of the football. MInd you, that myth has rather been blown by plenty of their own fans in recent weeks.
 
We pass it when we can, and go direct when we can't. We'll be patient but we won't waste time, and we won't start moves further back than we need to. It's a good balance.

We are passing the ball better now than we have since at least the first L1 season. No team with Coutts, Fleck and Duffy as their midfielders will ever play the long ball game.

It's no surprise to see pundits/journos say we're 'direct' etc. They don't watch extensive footage of every team. They just guess.
 

If we were playing long ball, Fleck wouldn't be MoM most weeks and Coutts and Duffy wouldn't be shining. The nearest comparison I can think of to how we are playing is the way we played under Spackman with the 352 with Quinn and Borbokis as wing backs.
 
1danewhitehouse said:
If we were playing long ball, Fleck wouldn't be MoM most weeks and Coutts and Duffy wouldn't be shining. The nearest comparison I can think of to how we are playing is the way we played under Spackman with the 352 with Quinn and Borbokis as wing backs.
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Was just thinking the same; many people credited Willie Donachie with how well we played then, and someone above suggested Knill may have a big influence this time around. Regardless, I'm fucking loving it and I haven't said that for yonks and yonks!
 
GrayBlade said:
We've now ditched our passing game as seen under Clough and hapless Adkins, for the more direct style as seen under Bassett and Warnock because "It's what Blades fans want to see".

What a load of tosh! I've got total respect for the fantastic job Harry did, and Neil gave us two or three outstanding seasons, but to insinuate we're playing the long ball game couldn't be further from the truth. We're passing teams to death at times and rarely hit it long.

What has changed since Adkins in particular is that we're moving and passing the ball quickly and trying to get it into dangerousness areas, not just endless passing it sideways at walking pace leaving us all bored stupid. High intensity and aggressive yes, but it's definitely free flowing passing football that's great to watch especially when we're in full flow. I sometimes wonder if these 'experts' have ever seen us play.
Click to expand...
Our "experts" call see it as binary: If it's not Arsene Wenger, it's Dave Bassett. Stefan Reinartz and his mate finally put into "data analysis" something that 99% of Blades fans figured out for themselves over the decades of exposure to all sorts of shit.
...a study that showed that most common statistical numbers -- possession, passing success rates, one-on-ones -- had no relevance to the end result...
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...they came up with a system that counts the number of opponents taken out of the game by a pass (or a successful dribble) and called it "Packing."...
Click to expand...
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/german-bund...packing-helps-us-understand-effective-passing
 
flyingmonkeyuk said:
The Sky commentator on the Chezzy match rolled out the "Wilder has gone back to the more direct days of Bassett and Warnock" line.
It must have been in some press pack that was handed out.
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That's not how I heard it. He quoted Wilder's comment about our success under Harry and Warnock and then talked about getting the ball forward quickly and with quality after the previous slow build up under our last manager.
If people want to interpret that as saying we're a long ball team then fine, I've got some windmills they may wish to tilt at and some straw men looking for a fight.
 
Based on my watching of football on TV I've concluded that any team in England that isn't in the Premiership can be summarised as "Hardworking, well organised, and good from set pieces".

I'd also point out that if you play back our last ten games in super slow motion it's indistinguishable from the Weir days.

Seriously though, a lot of what I see in football at the moment seems to be the other end of the misapplication of long ball football. Someone posted a thread on how one man's study found that most goals came from only a few passes and so many leapt on it and decided "Well, best get it forward as quickly as possible and cut out all the unnecessary passing". Since then we've come to the opposite side of it which shows that teams that dominate possession win more games, and the chance of a goal or scoring opportunity increases with possession. What some managers seem to get myopic about is then assuming that simply keeping possession must be in and of itself good. They ignore the rest of the data and somehow forget that you could keep possession for 90 minutes but if it's one-twos with your keeper, you ain't gonna score.

Wilder seems to have taken it the right way and realised that possession still has to be purposeful. It needs to be at least attempting to progress up the pitch, and it needs players to be getting into good positions, drawing defenders out of line, and getting the ball into key areas. You can't do what Weir did and scratch your head as to why you've come away with 65% possession and a 2-0 loss again.
 
BushBlade said:
That's not how I heard it. He quoted Wilder's comment about our success under Harry and Warnock and then talked about getting the ball forward quickly and with quality after the previous slow build up under our last manager.
If people want to interpret that as saying we're a long ball team then fine, I've got some windmills they may wish to tilt at and some straw men looking for a fight.
Click to expand...

/\ /\ correct.

Long ball was not mentioned. Getting it forward quickly was though.

That being said. I can't think of many things I give less fucks about than what journalists think about our style of play.
 
Actually thought Sky said we showed our intentions by totally out playing chesterfield
never heard them say direct once
Thought the analysis was quite positive , Beags was very complimentary

All our goals were team goals brought about by passing and movement, allied to good support
 
Ricky said:
We pass it when we can, and go direct when we can't. We'll be patient but we won't waste time, and we won't start moves further back than we need to. It's a good balance.

We are passing the ball better now than we have since at least the first L1 season. No team with Coutts, Fleck and Duffy as their midfielders will ever play the long ball game.

It's no surprise to see pundits/journos say we're 'direct' etc. They don't watch extensive footage of every team. They just guess.
Click to expand...
This might be the single best, most succinct summary of our style of play yet seen.

Tuftyball: We pass it when we can, and go direct when we can't. We'll be patient but we won't waste time, and we won't start moves further back than we need to.
 

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