Coutts best passer in league

[Grizzly blade]

So under the shit management of Adkins, sharp managed not to give up on the team and score 20. Bet that doesn’t suit your argument though

Clearly you claim Coutts gave up, and to some degree he may have done. As did Freeman when faced with a manager who had no idea what he was doing day in day out. Asking you to perform a roll that doesn’t suit your talents, to work as second fiddle to Dean fucking Hammond, and surrounded by players lacking his ability it’s little wonder, especially with the atmosphere and pressure that came with it.
Sharp scored goals. Whoever we had up front would have scored goals, maybe more than 20, but probably less. But goals would have been scored nonetheless.

But stating Sharp single handedly kept us up scoring 20 goals is bollocks. We don’t owe him an immense gratitude for doing that job, he was getting paid to do it for a start. He had a good season, led the line superbly and showed he cared.
But be real, he was brought in at a big cost, and if he had chosen not to come we may well have found someone else that matched his efforts over the season. It’s all conjecture.


What cannot be denied is this.
Wilders team struggled at first. Several players came in both new and old, and Coutts being one was transformed under a manager getting the best of his talent. He has grown in confidence, matured, gained an unprecedented fitness for the first time here and this has been the difference to him being a hell of a player. He has shown why Clough wanted him in the first place. As I often say, games are won and lost in midfield and so he is instrumental in the rise of Wilders team, and now completely committed to this club.
We have managed so far without Sharp, without Moore, Without Freeman for a few games. It will be interesting to see the effect missing Coutts and eventually fleck will have on the sides results and style of play.

I’m betting that Wilder won’t try and replace Coutts, we have no other player like him. He may just change the system and style for one game....that might be the clever thing to do.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Clearly you claim Coutts gave up, and to some degree he may have done. As did Freeman when faced with a manager who had no idea what he was doing day in day out. Asking you to perform a roll that doesn’t suit your talents, to work as second fiddle to Dean fucking Hammond, and surrounded by players lacking his ability it’s little wonder, especially with the atmosphere and pressure that came with it.
Sharp scored goals. Whoever we had up front would have scored goals, maybe more than 20, but probably less. But goals would have been scored nonetheless.

But stating Sharp single handedly kept us up scoring 20 goals is bollocks. We don’t owe him an immense gratitude for doing that job, he was getting paid to do it for a start. He had a good season, led the line superbly and showed he cared.
But be real, he was brought in at a big cost, and if he had chosen not to come we may well have found someone else that matched his efforts over the season. It’s all conjecture.


What cannot be denied is this.
Wilders team struggled at first. Several players came in both new and old, and Coutts being one was transformed under a manager getting the best of his talent. He has grown in confidence, matured, gained an unprecedented fitness for the first time here and this has been the difference to him being a hell of a player. He has shown why Clough wanted him in the first place. As I often say, games are won and lost in midfield and so he is instrumental in the rise of Wilders team, and now completely committed to this club.
We have managed so far without Sharp, without Moore, Without Freeman for a few games. It will be interesting to see the effect missing Coutts and eventually fleck will have on the sides results and style of play.

I’m betting that Wilder won’t try and replace Coutts, we have no other player like him. He may just change the system and style for one game....that might be the clever thing to do.

The fact that you think any fucker off the street could've banged in 20 goals in the worst side in 35 years whilst doing pretty much all the work is crystal clear perfect proof of the anti-Billy Sharp bollocks that prevails on this forum.

 

[Revolution]

Both camps are right.

Coutts is in very good form and has been for a year. His pass completion numbers are great, but that's not all he shows these days. He can tackle and gets out of the centre circle. He gets bogged down a bit sometimes on the edge of the box and doesn't shoot as much as he should but I'm glad we have him. He's one of our better performers.

But from January 2015 to August 2016 the same player didn't run, didn't tackle, didn't shoot, and has admitted publicly that he wasn't trying as hard as he could. He also had yet another long spell out after injury. He was seen by many people as an overpaid, lazy crock, and they were right. There may have been talent in there but that was irrelevant as he wasn't using it. Jose Baxter contributed more in the same period, for crying out loud.

Coutts came on against Southend at the absolute nadir of Wilders reign not because Wilder thought he was a great player but because Wilder had no other options. Wilder thought the same as the rest of us. He had put Coutts on the transfer list. But he played well, and stayed in for Millwall and, crucially, Gillingham, the pivotal game in Wilder's reign, where we finally saw him start to come forward, and 3-5-2 clicked. And the rest is history.

So whilst there was always a footballer there, I don't think you should crow about spotting it without acknowledging the 18 wasted months Coutts gave us.

 

[tomtheblade]

Clearly you claim Coutts gave up, and to some degree he may have done. As did Freeman when faced with a manager who had no idea what he was doing day in day out. Asking you to perform a roll that doesn’t suit your talents, to work as second fiddle to Dean fucking Hammond, and surrounded by players lacking his ability it’s little wonder, especially with the atmosphere and pressure that came with it.
Sharp scored goals. Whoever we had up front would have scored goals, maybe more than 20, but probably less. But goals would have been scored nonetheless.

But stating Sharp single handedly kept us up scoring 20 goals is bollocks. We don’t owe him an immense gratitude for doing that job, he was getting paid to do it for a start. He had a good season, led the line superbly and showed he cared.
But be real, he was brought in at a big cost, and if he had chosen not to come we may well have found someone else that matched his efforts over the season. It’s all conjecture.


What cannot be denied is this.
Wilders team struggled at first. Several players came in both new and old, and Coutts being one was transformed under a manager getting the best of his talent. He has grown in confidence, matured, gained an unprecedented fitness for the first time here and this has been the difference to him being a hell of a player. He has shown why Clough wanted him in the first place. As I often say, games are won and lost in midfield and so he is instrumental in the rise of Wilders team, and now completely committed to this club.
We have managed so far without Sharp, without Moore, Without Freeman for a few games. It will be interesting to see the effect missing Coutts and eventually fleck will have on the sides results and style of play.

I’m betting that Wilder won’t try and replace Coutts, we have no other player like him. He may just change the system and style for one game....that might be the clever thing to do.

I think if you look at it from a purely cold, analytical perspective, then I agree it's true, had Sharp not been our player, we'd've had someone else up front who also would've scored goals. You're also right it's conjecture, but personally I don't think it would've been anywhere close to as many as he got, that's how poor a side we were. It's telling that any manager in that division would've loved to have a striker of Billy's qualities and record in their side.

I think what is missing here is an appreciation that, in an era epitomised by utter ambivalence, we had one player who cared above and beyond, and who also happened to be one of the best strikers in the league. That really makes a difference. Just caring by itself doesn't make that difference, as you could see by plucking any guy off the kop and giving him a run up front, but combine that passion with actual skill and you basically have a saving grace for the worst season in living memory (at least for me), as well as a base for what was to follow.

I don't know about saving us from relegation, perhaps, it doesn't really bear thinking about, but he does deserve massive appreciation from us for being essentially the only bright spot in an otherwise tainted part of our history, as well as for last season.. oh and for this one so far as well (4 goals and an assist in 7 games?).

Agree with everything you say on Coutts. He is absolutely essential for us and I think we're lucky to have him full of confidence in a settled side, long may it continue.

 

[LenTednTony]

There's elements of the truth in most of the above comments and it's definitely Coutts that we rely on to dictate the play, my only (constructive) criticism is that he should penetrate more - he creates chances when he does but has reverted to playing very deep again recently, particularly against Norwich.

IMO, if he pentrayed more, he would become a different type of player. What Coouuutts does he does well, very well. I have said on other threads that he is, for me, the stand out player. Everything goes through him to start a move and move the whole team up the park. He shows for everything from the back three even when surrounded by attackers. His ball control, his passing (and the weight of those passes) and his change of direction, make him a superb and critical cog in our well oiled machine. Lets hope that when he is out, we have someone (Lundstram) who can step up to the mark.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Naive in the extreme.

Sorry.

UTB

15% more than ANYONE else in the division is not a coincidence. Nor is it a fluke. It is by design. Understand WHY.

This was covered in some depth on another thread.'Kevin McDonald'.

I don't see Coutts making a difference in the final third of the field that's all. Take the Forest game, top players find a way to create goals and if Coutts were that good he'd be able to capitalise on his team's dominance, speed the game up where it matters and play the strikers in on goal. He has no goals no assists this season despite taking corners and free kicks.

In that other thread I said he was one of our key players and one of the first names on the team sheet but he has a role and it's in the back two thirds of the pitch where sideways and backwards passes have high accuracy rates. Strikers and No.10's by nature play where the game is tighter and have to take more risks to make things happen. Ray Wilkins 'The Crab' used to find his own players invariably.

It's my point of view and I don't think it's "naive to the extreme", just a point of view. In any team there are all sorts of different roles to play and I think Coutts' role is way easier than Fleck's, Duffy's and Carruthers', Stevens' and Freeman's. That's not to say it's not an important role but limited players can and do fill the position up and down the leagues. Coutts has special skills in keeping hold of the ball and now he is fit and motivated he puts a shift in, no question.

 

[sheffielder]

Clearly you claim Coutts gave up, and to some degree he may have done. As did Freeman when faced with a manager who had no idea what he was doing day in day out. Asking you to perform a roll that doesn’t suit your talents, to work as second fiddle to Dean fucking Hammond, and surrounded by players lacking his ability it’s little wonder, especially with the atmosphere and pressure that came with it.
Sharp scored goals. Whoever we had up front would have scored goals, maybe more than 20, but probably less. But goals would have been scored nonetheless.

But stating Sharp single handedly kept us up scoring 20 goals is bollocks. We don’t owe him an immense gratitude for doing that job, he was getting paid to do it for a start. He had a good season, led the line superbly and showed he cared.
But be real, he was brought in at a big cost, and if he had chosen not to come we may well have found someone else that matched his efforts over the season. It’s all conjecture.


What cannot be denied is this.
Wilders team struggled at first. Several players came in both new and old, and Coutts being one was transformed under a manager getting the best of his talent. He has grown in confidence, matured, gained an unprecedented fitness for the first time here and this has been the difference to him being a hell of a player. He has shown why Clough wanted him in the first place. As I often say, games are won and lost in midfield and so he is instrumental in the rise of Wilders team, and now completely committed to this club.
We have managed so far without Sharp, without Moore, Without Freeman for a few games. It will be interesting to see the effect missing Coutts and eventually fleck will have on the sides results and style of play.

I’m betting that Wilder won’t try and replace Coutts, we have no other player like him. He may just change the system and style for one game....that might be the clever thing to do.

So any striker? I doubt any other striker signed by us in our 6 year visit would have scored 20 goals, including under Wilder.

I will let you try though, maybe you could star with Sammon, Davies, McNulty.

I just don’t get how you can give so much kudos to Coutts yet Sharp nothing.

 

[mattbianco1]

A select few knew this many moons ago.

Couldn’t possibly remember exactly who they were.

Me, me, I knew, I knew. Said it when he first came.

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

Its a very easy on the eye stat but doesnt tell you much other than the player can pass a ball 10 yards.

Well, thank any god you fancy and all the stars in the firmament for that ! It feels like we spent most of the last ten years watching players who couldn't pass a football half that distance.

Re style of play, the Xavi analogy earlier in the thread looks persuasive to me.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Both camps are right.

Coutts is in very good form and has been for a year. His pass completion numbers are great, but that's not all he shows these days. He can tackle and gets out of the centre circle. He gets bogged down a bit sometimes on the edge of the box and doesn't shoot as much as he should but I'm glad we have him. He's one of our better performers.

But from January 2015 to August 2016 the same player didn't run, didn't tackle, didn't shoot, and has admitted publicly that he wasn't trying as hard as he could. He also had yet another long spell out after injury. He was seen by many people as an overpaid, lazy crock, and they were right. There may have been talent in there but that was irrelevant as he wasn't using it. Jose Baxter contributed more in the same period, for crying out loud.

Coutts came on against Southend at the absolute nadir of Wilders reign not because Wilder thought he was a great player but because Wilder had no other options. Wilder thought the same as the rest of us. He had put Coutts on the transfer list. But he played well, and stayed in for Millwall and, crucially, Gillingham, the pivotal game in Wilder's reign, where we finally saw him start to come forward, and 3-5-2 clicked. And the rest is history.

So whilst there was always a footballer there, I don't think you should crow about spotting it without acknowledging the 18 wasted months Coutts gave us.

I think you're absolutely right, to a degree.

That first half season after he arrived, I couldn't see any meaningful contribution from Coutts, he was a waste of a starting place. To be fair, he was probably still struggling to come back from his injury and was thrown in too soon. Under Madkins, I don't think it was that black and white. True, there were poor performances which normally coincided with poor team performances but there were others where he had good games or there were glimpses of what he was capable of. The Bradford home game at Christmas time, Coutts had a great game playing on the right and also at Chesterfield where he set up a goal for Sharp. There was also a subtle piece of skill in the home game v Barnsley but the point is there were many examples of him playing well that season but more frequently not.

His well known interview is revealing, his actual terminology was that he was 'bored'. I read this to mean he didn't think much of the managers tactics and style of play and he was struggling to play in it. The other revealing interview was with Freeman, where he said the difference under Wilder was that the rest of the players wanted the ball. That is crucial to the way Coutts plays best, bringing others into it with his short passing game. Clearly if no one wants the ball, he is going to struggle and get 'bored'. For me, this was why in that season we saw so much square and backwards passing as players were not showing nearly enough for the ball in forward areas. He's a team player, not one who can just do it on his own, he needs the support of his team mates to thrive. He has that now.

 

[NuddysGloves]

I'm confused by all the people saying Coutts can only make 5 yard passes to the man stood next to him? Am I the only person that sees Coutts quickly put us into a crossing position with a long diagonal ball out to Stevens/Lafferty or Baldock/Freeman?

Everybody goes on about how great it is that Bash or O'Connell bomb forward from the CB positions and overlap their wing back, but this wouldn't be so effective if Coutts wasn't there covering for them! If our midfield consists of Fleck, Coutts and Duffy then we shouldn't be looking at all 3 of them to burst forward into the final third because we'd be destroyed on the counter every 5 minutes!

Coutts is our best player and could very easily handle Premiership football IMO. We'll find out next year........

 

[LS16Blade]

As we all know, Clough brought Coutts in when he was making his way back from a long and serious injury lay-off. That created justifiable frustration because the signing was unlikely to deliver the immediate impact that we needed to push for promotion. It was surely clear to anyone who has watched any football, however, that Coutts is an intelligent player with outstanding touch and ball skills.

Over the years, we've had plenty of players who you could watch and think, "he really can't do anything with the ball that I couldn't actually do myself"; players who were unquestionably more athletic and physically fitter than yourself but not necessarily good footballers. Coutts certainly doesn't fall in that category. He is quite obviously an extremely skilful and intelligent footballer.

One of the few bright spots towards the end of the 2014/15 season under Clough was the emergence of a seemingly telepathic link-up down the right flank between Coutts and Brayford. They played some excellent stuff within which there was enough evidence to show that Coutts is a class above the third division. Unfortunately, due to Clough's bizarre transfer policy leaving us bereft at central defence, that was disrupted when Brayford had to switch to centre-half.

Coutts was injured and/or out of favour at the start of Adkins' reign. After the wheels had started to come off with the 2 defeats and a draw against Bury, Colchester and Bradford, Coutts was brought back in at Doncaster and we won. Coutts was then restored to the side consistently in October and we had a run of just 2 defeats in 16 league games (albeit with lots of draws) to get back in contention - and of those 2 defeats, Coutts didn't play in the 2-4 home debacle against Shrewsbury.

Adkins apparently made Coutts carry the can for the home defeat to Wigan and he was dropped to the bench. In his absence, we had the awful defeats at Bury, Rochdale and Millwall, and draw at Fleetwood. Coutts was then restored at home to Crewe and we had the run of 4 wins and a draw from 6 games in March and April that gave us a glimmer of getting in the top 6, until the fade-out in the final 3 games. It seems that those miserable last games of last season, particularly the defeats to Coventry and Scunthorpe, cast a long shadow, because the rest of the season showed that we performed far better with Coutts in the side than without. And that was when he was playing in a poor side with no shape or direction for a manager without a plan.

We're now seeing Coutts in a side with a plan, a proper shape and other footballers playing where they should be. It's good to again be watching a United side that has proper midfielders, and I'm convinced that if Coutts, Fleck and Duffy can play the vast majority of the remaining 26 league games together, we'll win the league.

Rather than re-write my view, I'll just attach what I wrote in December 2016.

I'm bound to note, however, that some Blades still have a slightly jaundiced view of what Coutts did before Wilder arrived; the reality is that the few promising spells of form and results that we had under Adkins, were when Coutts was in the side.

Anyway, its great to have a midfielder of Couttsy's calibre and, contray to what has been sugggested, he is absolutely not the sort of player that 'all teams have' . We, amongst all fans given some of the rubbish we've had to put up with other the years, should know all too well what its like to not have the player in midfield who runs the game, week in week out.

The other midfielders have been superb too; they really are a brilliant unit. Looking at the last paragraph of what I wrote in December, I'm inclined to say that if Coutts, Fleck and Duffy play the majority of our games this season, we won't be very far away from the top of the league come May.

 

[Ricky]

That's not to say it's not an important role but limited players can and do fill the position up and down the leagues.

Noticed how the others up there in the pass completion list are really good players? Certainly Clayton and Johansen.

And they're way behind Coutts.

 

[Pinchy]

He probably has more touches than anyone else in the team to. The 3yrd pass that he does will contribute well to all those stats. The long crossfield balls he delivers out of play that punchy likes are the main let down at the moment. His tackling and closing has got loads better this season. He is as important as anyone in the squad.
I just wish he'd shoot more because he could be that goal scoring midfielder we'd all like to see.

Some midfield heroes never quite mastered that three yard pass...

 

[Houston_Blade]

Doesn't really mean too much, I love Coutts but most of those are short passes collecting from defenders and passing to the guy next to him.

Can't read too much into it.

Michael Carrick made a lot of money by doing just this.

 

[Pinchy]

Nobody Could replace him, At this point in time.

Under Wilder he has a better footballing brain, more stamina and is more physical less easy to push off the ball.

Under Adkins he was lazy, couldn't be bothered, and weak.

Won a Coutts match worn shirt a couple of years ago. Because nobody else bid on it. Wouldn't get it now so easy

Substitute ‘not fully fit’ and there it is.



He’s purring again now.

 

[sitwell]

The fact that you think any fucker off the street could've banged in 20 goals in the worst side in 35 years whilst doing pretty much all the work is crystal clear perfect proof of the anti-Billy Sharp bollocks that prevails on this forum.

Really don't understand why you have turned this thread into a fans against Billy Sharp thread ,which really only exists in your mind. There may be 1 or 2 but there were 1 or 2 who never liked Currie or Brown or Deane ,there are many many more of us who do.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Really don't understand why you have turned this thread into a fans against Billy Sharp thread ,which really only exists in your mind. There may be 1 or 2 but there were 1 or 2 who never liked Currie or Brown or Deane ,there are many many more of us who do.

Truth is Sharp was attacked on here by many of the usual suspects in his first two spells with the club, Before he signed the third time plenty on here said we shouldn't even think about signing him. In his first season back not many stuck up for him either.

I stuck up for him throughout. Did you Sitwell?

 

[Grizzly blade]

So any striker? I doubt any other striker signed by us in our 6 year visit would have scored 20 goals, including under Wilder.

I will let you try though, maybe you could star with Sammon, Davies, McNulty.

I just don’t get how you can give so much kudos to Coutts yet Sharp nothing.

If Sharp had failed a medical, or refused the pay cut then Adkins would have signed someone else. Yes or No?
Who that would have been, we don’t know. And that’s the point. Whoever it might have been might have done equally well, better or worse. But that player would have scored a number of goals. As I said, maybe not 20, maybe more or less. we will never know.
Also the point, is that Sharp didn’t save us from relegation. Adkins team failed, but was never close to going down.

In the same way Evans didn’t get us up with 30 goals, Sharp didn’t save us with 20.

As for Kudos you mention, I explained it previously. For the sake of clarity I will say again. Midfield is where games are won and lost. Midfield that doesn’t or can’t defend....goals are conceded. Midfield that can’t attack or create, then goals are hard to come by.
So there it is, strikers are only as good as their service, and Sharp has thrived on good service all his career. That is my belief. And if you want success the midfield has to be good, otherwise you end up bypassing midfield and filling it with inferior players who can perhaps only tackle and run around a lot.....I think you know where I’m coming from here. Goals are still scored but games aren’t controlled like they are now, and I know what I would rather watch.
Of course we could all prefer to watch us lump balls to the big striker for 90 mins, and the midfield picking up the second ball while the Sharp type striker runs channels behind for the flick ons? Why would we like to see a midfield keep the ball and control its journey towards the opponents goal?

 

[Tyler Durden]

If Sharp had failed a medical, or refused the pay cut then Adkins would have signed someone else. Yes or No?
Who that would have been, we don’t know. And that’s the point. Whoever it might have been might have done equally well, better or worse. But that player would have scored a number of goals. As I said, maybe not 20, maybe more or less. we will never know.
Also the point, is that Sharp didn’t save us from relegation. Adkins team failed, but was never close to going down.

In the same way Evans didn’t get us up with 30 goals, Sharp didn’t save us with 20.

As for Kudos you mention, I explained it previously. For the sake of clarity I will say again. Midfield is where games are won and lost. Midfield that doesn’t or can’t defend....goals are conceded. Midfield that can’t attack or create, then goals are hard to come by.
So there it is, strikers are only as good as their service, and Sharp has thrived on good service all his career. That is my belief. And if you want success the midfield has to be good, otherwise you end up bypassing midfield and filling it with inferior players who can perhaps only tackle and run around a lot.....I think you know where I’m coming from here. Goals are still scored but games aren’t controlled like they are now, and I know what I would rather watch.
Of course we could all prefer to watch us lump balls to the big striker for 90 mins, and the midfield picking up the second ball while the Sharp type striker runs channels behind for the flick ons? Why would we like to see a midfield keep the ball and control its journey towards the opponents goal?

And there we have it.

50 goals in 2 seasons is fuck all and anyone can do it.

Billy should've stayed at Leeds. They treated him far better.

 

[DronnieBlade]

This was covered in some depth on another thread.'Kevin McDonald'.

I don't see Coutts making a difference in the final third of the field that's all. Take the Forest game, top players find a way to create goals and if Coutts were that good he'd be able to capitalise on his team's dominance, speed the game up where it matters and play the strikers in on goal. He has no goals no assists this season despite taking corners and free kicks.

In that other thread I said he was one of our key players and one of the first names on the team sheet but he has a role and it's in the back two thirds of the pitch where sideways and backwards passes have high accuracy rates. Strikers and No.10's by nature play where the game is tighter and have to take more risks to make things happen. Ray Wilkins 'The Crab' used to find his own players invariably.

It's my point of view and I don't think it's "naive to the extreme", just a point of view. In any team there are all sorts of different roles to play and I think Coutts' role is way easier than Fleck's, Duffy's and Carruthers', Stevens' and Freeman's. That's not to say it's not an important role but limited players can and do fill the position up and down the leagues. Coutts has special skills in keeping hold of the ball and now he is fit and motivated he puts a shift in, no question.

My point of view is that your point of view is naive. We see this differently. Very much so.

The lack of importance that certain fans attribute to retaining possession of the football staggers me.

The ease by which Coutts executes is not lost on me. Because he makes it look easy, doesn’t mean it is so. Far from it. Ronnie O’Sullivan makes century breaks look effortless. They most certainly are not.

There is a lot more to it than passing it straight. Off the ball movement being key.

As well as being a technically good player he is a very clever one.

I could go on for hours.

Keep up the good work Paul.

UTB

P.S. if it wasn’t for the excellent build up work and play in the first two thirds, our ability to create in the final third would be an irrelevance. Just a thought !

 

[Grizzly blade]

Both camps are right.

Coutts is in very good form and has been for a year. His pass completion numbers are great, but that's not all he shows these days. He can tackle and gets out of the centre circle. He gets bogged down a bit sometimes on the edge of the box and doesn't shoot as much as he should but I'm glad we have him. He's one of our better performers.

But from January 2015 to August 2016 the same player didn't run, didn't tackle, didn't shoot, and has admitted publicly that he wasn't trying as hard as he could. He also had yet another long spell out after injury. He was seen by many people as an overpaid, lazy crock, and they were right. There may have been talent in there but that was irrelevant as he wasn't using it. Jose Baxter contributed more in the same period, for crying out loud.

Coutts came on against Southend at the absolute nadir of Wilders reign not because Wilder thought he was a great player but because Wilder had no other options. Wilder thought the same as the rest of us. He had put Coutts on the transfer list. But he played well, and stayed in for Millwall and, crucially, Gillingham, the pivotal game in Wilder's reign, where we finally saw him start to come forward, and 3-5-2 clicked. And the rest is history.

So whilst there was always a footballer there, I don't think you should crow about spotting it without acknowledging the 18 wasted months Coutts gave us.

Agree. I haven’t given him credit for that missing 18 months. To be fair, I doubt Coutts does either.
Adkins was useless, and Coutts arrived to work with Clough in a system designed for him. As coaxingstar71 put so eloquently I doubt it was as simple as Coutts just not being arsed.
Adkins was the manager, he lost most of the players and its a well known fact that if that happens then the players will see you sacked.
But what I will maintain, is that it was always clear he had ability, and that unlike Baxter who was unprofessional and wasting what he had, Coutts wasn’t performing due to the way he was being used in the team. The fact he impressed Wilder and forced his way back to vice captain shows that professionalism was never the issue.

I simply think that if you have a good player, like Coutts, you play a way to get the most from him and that means playing to suit him and surrounding him with players on his wavelength, like Fleck, Duffy, Sharp etc etc.
Another example being Britton....Useless Kev just thought one player would make the difference, when it was obvious he couldnt do it alone, he needs other good players alongside him. Evans when he arrived was making runs nobody could see, and if they did it was too late and he spent half a season offside. Evans was deemed the problem....but later found not to be the case when scoring in a team passing the ball.

 

[sitwell]

Truth is Sharp was attacked on here by many of the usual suspects in his first two spells with the club, Before he signed the third time plenty on here said we shouldn't even think about signing him. In his first season back not many stuck up for him either.

I stuck up for him throughout. Did you Sitwell?

Of course hes a quality player and person. I only recall one or two having a go ,which is par for the course as I say. Anyone who cant see what Sharp brings to United is a fool and I don't just mean his goalscoring. Must admit I don't think the Clark/Sharp partnership is great ,ironically the best Sharp has played in my opinion is with Matt Done or James Hanson alongside him.

 

[Grizzly blade]

And there we have it.

50 goals in 2 seasons is fuck all and anyone can do it.

Billy should've stayed at Leeds. They treated him far better.

What a tart.
Maybe Billy would have stayed at Leeds is he was playing.

 

[Tyler Durden]

What a tart.
Maybe Billy would have stayed at Leeds is he was playing.

They appreciated his 7 goals more than some cretins here appreciate his 50, that's for damn sure.

But then again, anyone can do it apparently....

Pathetic.

 

[Jon Slinn]

Substitute ‘not fully fit’ and there it is.

View attachment 31767

He’s purring again now.

like the animal our midfield is.
Hunting in packs

 

[Grizzly blade]

They appreciated his 7 goals more than some cretins here appreciate his 50, that's for damn sure.

But then again, anyone can do it apparently....

Pathetic.

yep....that’s exactly what I said. “Anyone can do it”

What a tart.

You love Billy. Love him. Good for you. I hope you can extend that love to the next striker that arrives and scores 20 goals. But that might depend on what team he supported as a boy I guess.

As a matter of point, we already have a striker that can do it. Evans. He once scored 30 goals in one season you know.

 

[Norderner]

Freeman, Basham, Brooks & Coutts were the only good thing to come out of the Clough reign, unless of course your a fan of turgid, slow arse football. Fortunately for us, CW/AK aren’t. You can have all the ability in the world, but if it isn’t coached and managed right, it’s not worth a kick in the bollocks. Here’s why the scum over at Murder Inc can’t get over the fact that we rinsed them good and proper. It ain’t about picking your best 11 players and squeezing them into your team come what may (think Sven putting Gerrard and Lumpard central, and Scholes off to the fucking left of midfield?!!!!!) It’s about picking your best team, which CW/AK do. It’s also what Clough sr did before he became a piss artist? McGovern, Bowyer, Barrett, Needham, Mills, O’ Neill, Clark, O’ Hare, Llyoyd?

 

[Tyler Durden]

yep....that’s exactly what I said. “Anyone can do it”

What a tart.

You love Billy. Love him. Good for you. I hope you can extend that love to the next striker that arrives and scores 20 goals. But that might depend on what team he supported as a boy I guess.

As a matter of point, we already have a striker that can do it. Evans. He once scored 30 goals in one season you know.

Anyone can do that though can't they?

I hope you remain true to your vendetta and remain seated when he scores?

Tart.

 

[Grizzly blade]

Anyone can do that though can't they?

I hope you remain true to your vendetta and remain seated when he scores?

Tart.

It’s getting a little desperate and sad now. No vendetta here.
Maybe it irks you that another player or two might be overshadowing your hero? I can think of no other reason why you might be misquoting posts, and being so tunnel vision when it comes down to the team.

Must have been awful seeing Clark and Brooks destroy the pigs without Sharp, the media raving about their link up play....were you getting a little tearful and stressed? That ex pig striker scoring two.....what if he scores 20 this season?? Can we all applaud his efforts, or do we have to reserve all plaudits for the one man who without him the team would be relegated again?

Then again, I recall you 12 months ago making your hatred for Coutts clear. Claiming he will never be part of a successful side. Perhaps you are simply lashing out because you were wrong and looked a bit daft in the end.