Overegging the Pud.

[seanbeenstattoo]

This is not a slating of the team that sits at the top of the league;merely an observation highlighted by myself and a good number of others.

Pretty much the ONLY criticism I have of our approach to games this season is a seemingly obsessive need to retain the ball way beyond what is necessary. For me that trait was uber evident again yesterday. I lost count of the occaisions where the opportunity to put a ball from a wide area into the box was spurned in favour of endless re cycling. Against very high class defenders there is merit to this as the attacking team patiently probe for a weakness before executing a swift,rapier like incisive move/pass into the kill zone.
We are not up against very high class defenders and would in my view score more goals if,having attained good position momentum was maintained and the ball delivered swiftly into the area/six yard box. In no way is this view to be confused with lumping the ball forward ad hoc,merely continuing the speed and fluidity of the approach play that gets us into the final third. There are occaisions for recycling when no worthwhile forward options are available but IMO too often it has become our default option. Our goal came from a committed early ball in and the result was a defence reduced to panic and error.

Just to end by saying I thought yesterday was an 8 out of 10 performance.
I'd just love us to deliver a 9 or 10 one day when a win has such huge bonuses.
Is Leicester really the last time we did that? Maybe QPR?

 

[grafikhaus]

Oh I think we can all see this, sean. Yesterday again was a case in point where there were numerous chances to just shoot but our speed of thought is that split second behind. This resulted in an insane number of blocks by Scunny defenders. Luck, or are we 'telegraphing' our intentions? In the second half, we were almost Arsenal-esque in over-complicating things.

However, it's important to remember that this is the third division and most of our players have never played in front of a crowd/atmosphere like yesterday.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

This is not a slating of the team that sits at the top of the league;merely an observation highlighted by myself and a good number of others.

Pretty much the ONLY criticism I have of our approach to games this season is a seemingly obsessive need to retain the ball way beyond what is necessary. For me that trait was uber evident again yesterday. I lost count of the occaisions where the opportunity to put a ball from a wide area into the box was spurned in favour of endless re cycling. Against very high class defenders there is merit to this as the attacking team patiently probe for a weakness before executing a swift,rapier like incisive move/pass into the kill zone.
We are not up against very high class defenders and would in my view score more goals if,having attained good position momentum was maintained and the ball delivered swiftly into the area/six yard box. In no way is this view to be confused with lumping the ball forward ad hoc,merely continuing the speed and fluidity of the approach play that gets us into the final third. There are occaisions for recycling when no worthwhile forward options are available but IMO too often it has become our default option. Our goal came from a committed early ball in and the result was a defence reduced to panic and error.

Just to end by saying I thought yesterday was an 8 out of 10 performance.
I'd just love us to deliver a 9 or 10 one day when a win has such huge bonuses.
Is Leicester really the last time we did that? Maybe QPR?

agreed - some of us seem to come under criticism for pointing how to get BETTER.
Most of the season we have been fabulous up to the 18 yard box - very few complaints.
The fact that some believe we should have more points and scored goals is nothing negative - it's constructive criticism for the right reasons.

In recent weeks we have been slack v Gillingham and Scunny just after half time - and should have won both games comfortably.

It is a problem to resolve and work for CW and AK to work on - it is just a shame that we do not seem to be resolving this problem.

UTB

 

[boo radley]

Agree with all so far and yet CW says we rushed things in the last 10 mins.
To me it allowed them to become more organised because we were trying to play too close to each other and the runs beyond were too few and did not open them up enough.
They are in 2nd place for the reason of being well organised. They will have done plenty of homework on us. If you give players who are generally playing well the time to assess situations then surly you have less chance to get behind them.
Look at our goal yesterday. The ball was back in the box quickly after the initial clearance and look how many of their players were trying to defend but did have chance to reorganise.

 

[Snowman]

Firstly, I really enjoyed the football that we played. I would have no complaints watching that every week. However notwithstanding our goals scored and possession stats we do seem to miss a lot of chances. We also seem to want to score the perfect goal. (Bit like Arsenal) This has been a regular theme all season identified by CW and illustrated by him having his hissy fit a few weeks back resulting in selecting McMuppet, I say in desperation.

Whilst I appreciate the search for perfection, these aren't £30 million players who can make things happen in an instant. They have probably been coached to retain possession and deliver when risk free. The alternative, though potentially productive is to deliver at speed on speculation and potentially lose possession. It's a difficult trade off but for the moment with this system and this midfield I don't see it changing.

You keep looking for perfection SBT. I'll just hang in there and hope we continue with this style until we can afford to experiment next year a league higher.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Pep Wilderola.

Watch Manchester City, then watch Sheffield United, or vice-versa.

The similarities, albeit hugely different due to player's ability, are so obvious at times.

 

[Davalon]

The main weakness we have imho is too many poor deliveries from wide areas. For how much possession in we get in the final third we simply don't create enough.

Other than that we're a joy to watch.

 

[BridBladesman]

In recent weeks we have been slack v Gillingham and Scunny just after half time - and should have won both games comfortably.

Very true mate, I thought United were a different team in the second half, maybe with the efforts in the first half they were buggered? I don't know what's said to the team at halftime, but it doesn't seem to work. They looked sluggish at times, but if we can't get a win then second best is a draw. As CW said it was dissapointing not to get 3 points but its history now so let's move on to the next game

 

[blade67]

The problem is that our delivery generally isn't that great from wide as we saw against Shrewsbury when we played 45 minutes against nine men and lost 1-0.

We look more dangerous when we recycle and deliver to players like Freeman running off the ball

19 attempts at goal yesterday doesn't speak to a side that is shot shy
10 on Tuesday
13 at Peterborough
18 against Wimbledon

We are putting ourselves in goalscoring positions regularly enough, just need a touch more quality in the box on occasions.

Again if you look at the stats we are leagues top goalscorers. the goal we conceded was poor defending at an umber of levels and perhaps where improvements need to be considered.

 

[Fiery Blade]

Yesterday, I thought the performance very good up until the final ball - Far too often we were let down by the final cross or pass which sees the attack break down
Realistically the two worst offenders are Freeman and Lafferty which probably highlights their effectiveness of getting forward but really Scunthorpe should have been dead and buried before half time !
Our finishing has not been good all season despite being one of the divisions top scorers and four on target against nineteen shots tells its own story!
My only other complaint was the fact we didn't respond well to them going down to ten men - I thought CW slow to bring on substitutes - I thought it ready made for Lavery and OShea / Carruthers to come straight on to capitalise on the situation.
All in all we have not lost ground except to Fleetwood (who I actually thought were the best team by far to visit the Lane this year) and on to Bolton - In all my years watching the Blades they have never made it easy - It's the United Way !

 

[Bladeinleeds]

This is not a slating of the team that sits at the top of the league;merely an observation highlighted by myself and a good number of others.

Pretty much the ONLY criticism I have of our approach to games this season is a seemingly obsessive need to retain the ball way beyond what is necessary. For me that trait was uber evident again yesterday. I lost count of the occaisions where the opportunity to put a ball from a wide area into the box was spurned in favour of endless re cycling. Against very high class defenders there is merit to this as the attacking team patiently probe for a weakness before executing a swift,rapier like incisive move/pass into the kill zone.
We are not up against very high class defenders and would in my view score more goals if,having attained good position momentum was maintained and the ball delivered swiftly into the area/six yard box. In no way is this view to be confused with lumping the ball forward ad hoc,merely continuing the speed and fluidity of the approach play that gets us into the final third. There are occaisions for recycling when no worthwhile forward options are available but IMO too often it has become our default option. Our goal came from a committed early ball in and the result was a defence reduced to panic and error.

Just to end by saying I thought yesterday was an 8 out of 10 performance.
I'd just love us to deliver a 9 or 10 one day when a win has such huge bonuses.
Is Leicester really the last time we did that? Maybe QPR?

I agree in principal but the amount of late goals and points we have salvaged this year surely proves that this approach works.

I don't think it's endless recycling more waiting for the oppo to slip out of position or make a mistake. Don't get me wrong I think we could have had a few more shots in the area but I think this patient approach has worked for us.

For me. I thought the performance was great. We didn't get the result but we showed up in a huge game for the club. Every player gave everything and no one froze even slightly.

9 times out of 10 we take victory there. It's just football and you don't always get what you deserve

 

[GrayBlade]

Good points from everybody, the overall performance was excellent, but I agree the one area we let ourselves down is the final pass decision making.

To spin it 180 degrees from what SBT says, there were also several occasions where players could have run on into the box, but they chose to cross from wide or pull it back to a player outside the box often resulting in a long shot or the shot being charged down. When we did run into the box we created our best chances.

 

[sitwell]

The best 2 crosses yesterday came in the minutes after Hanson had gone off ,he had to work hard to get the opportunities he had on target with any power ,one week he will bag a few ,sometime soon I reckon.

 

[Dnblade]

The other thing is aswell as the ball not going in early enough at times is the reluctance to shoot..we passed up quite a few opportunities...Hanson 2nd half springs to mind with a clear sight on goal in the penalty area when he briefly got behind their defence,right hand channel.

 

[Ldn_Rd_Blades]

We still need someone that can get to the byline like Murphy used to

 

[Stretch]

It's true that we overplay at times and certainly aren't clinical enough, yet we are still 5 points clear of 2nd. Imagine how we may, could, would pull away if we addressed these issues....frightening.

 

[Grappler]

Good points from everybody, the overall performance was excellent, but I agree the one area we let ourselves down is the final pass decision making.

To spin it 180 degrees from what SBT says, there were also several occasions where players could have run on into the box, but they chose to cross from wide or pull it back to a player outside the box often resulting in a long shot or the shot being charged down. When we did run into the box we created our best chances.

Totally agree. Lavery always tries to get into the box, and it should be what Hanson does, charge straight at the defence. Fleck normally shoots from outside the box, cracking shot that he has.

I still hope that O'Shea becomes the marauding attacking midfielder who takes the ball in a straight line, straight into the box.

 

[Joe Boltons Left Foot]

Yesterday was one of the most one-sided games I have ever seen but it did feel like we were trying to walk the ball into the net. Also agree with a lot of the above regarding the final pass, seems telegraphed and delayed too often giving agricultural defenders time to set themselves

 

[Iceybabey]

We started to lump it forward in the last ten. This did not please Wilder.

 

[Kenilworth]

The best 2 crosses yesterday came in the minutes after Hanson had gone off ,he had to work hard to get the opportunities he had on target with any power ,one week he will bag a few ,sometime soon I reckon.

Ken Jnr stated that two