Is snobbery creeping in?

[bartman]

Exactly the point, it's not snobbery, it's just that expectations have risen and why shouldn't it? We've been in excellent form

Excellent form ? Very few clean sheets and wins over the last 7/8 games would suggest otherwise

 

[Fanny magnet]

If we were defending better we would be winning games like that, you give away sloppy goals like we have and you put too much pressure on your midfield and strikers to score

We were shite yesterday but watching the highlights we could easily have scored 5 with better finishing
Our defenders need a rocket up the are but yesterday it was wilder fault for ignoring the fact that bash and ccv together is a disaster

We need to be more solid if that means the overlapping centre backs stay back till we are winning then fair dos but the midfield and defence need strengthening with more experience we need st least three good championship players in and Jake back in the team

 

[Harry's Game]

What is creeping in is the realisation that we were badly let down in the summer transfer window with what was made available to the manager.

Wilders ability to get the best out of what he has, plus Coutts, Clarke and Duffy being in the form of their life’s during the autumn covered it up, But the fact is we have not got the players, or especially back up resources, to maintain a challenge for promotion from this League.

There is the JTW approaching and some of the mistakes could be rectified, but the mood music from the board at the moment is not that encouraging.

 

[Davalon]

The last 18 months have been even sweeter because our success has been accompanied by attractive, attacking football. Yes, I enjoyed the Bassett and Warnock years but I'm enjoying this more because it's more enjoyable to watch.

In some ways the beginning of this season has been even more enjoyable than last season because we've taken a team of journeymen and beaten some of the best in the league purely on the basis of tactical sophistication and quality football.

Since Birmingham, or thereabouts, the other teams in the league have woken up and realised what we're about and are trying to do us over the way we would've done them in years past. Frustratingly, we haven't quite worked out how to overcome that, and realistically we might not have the quality of players to completely overcome it at all.

But we should be snobs. We should be proud of the football we play as well as the success it's brought us. We're better than these clods and that's just a fact.

It's not about not being proud mate.

It's about a minority who seem to act like Man U and Arsenal fans of old with slagging off the opposition for having the temerity to try and find a way of getting a result at the Lane without passing us off the park.

And then also unfairly blaming the ref as well for not protecting our little angels against these nasty bullies.

 

[dc_blade]

It's not about not being proud mate.

It's about a minority who seem to act like Man U and Arsenal fans of old with slagging off the opposition for having the temerity to try and find a way of getting a result at the Lane without passing us off the park.

And then also unfairly blaming the ref as well for not protecting our little angels against these nasty bullies.

Fair dos.

Snobbery aside for a moment, he-who-shall-not-be-named had an excellent game for Bolton, showed that the ancient arts of the big, ugly targetman aren't quite dead yet. We don't really have an option like that, given that most agree Hanson isn't good enough at this level.

 

[super_pig]

we need to start kicking ass again and that includes the fans

 

[Keen Blade]

One of the issues for me and a problem with the personnel is that we get boat loads of crosses in every game but only ever 2 strikers to aim at and maybe the other wingback. There never seems to be anyone on the penalty spot to pull it back to.

Yes but our crosses come in to a packed defence after we've spent far too long fannying about on the wing before firing it in. I specifically watched this yesterday , we've hardly put in one early first-time cross all game of the sort that gives strikers the advantage.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

I say this not just based on this board, but other social media, and conversations with both friends and random Blades in pubs.

We've had barely 18 months of enjoyable aesthetically pleasing football that has critically also provided results.

However I'm seeing a growing viewpoint that we shouldn't be losing to teams who don't play as attractive football, and even worse an attitude from a few that it's wrong that teams come and set up to frustrate us and spoil the game.

Acknowledgement of a team doing a job on us leads to comments such as cap doffing or having an anti-Blades agenda.

Have we forgotten so soon how we enjoyed seeing us set up to do the same to the likes of Arsenal etc.

There's plenty to dislike about Bolton on and off the pitch, but I honestly didn't see anything from them yesterday to warrant some of the comments from fellow Blades about them, and dare I say it even our gaffer.

Do we really expect them to turn up in their position and just let us run rings around them. We've shown we can play pass and move football against the best in this league, so don't expect lower placed teams who don't feel they can match us in this department to not try to disrupt us like we have often done in the past.

I'm seeing more blaming of referees even when they've had reasonable games or at least been 50/50 with their decisions, and over-exaggerating other team's fouling when in reality it's been no worse than ours.

We all enjoy us playing this current style and long may it continue, but please let's not become all entitled and above ourselves.

Quite a lot to agree with in that post. Bolton worked out a way of coping with their limitations and our way of playing, stuck to their plan, and it worked for them. I think we have the right to complain very loudly when the other side are prepared to break the rules and the referee is too weak to do anything about it, as happened in the Norwich match, where the ref was conned throughout by their antics. In the first half yesterday I felt it was heading that way - Bolton played some decent football early on, but their dominance on at least 3 occasions resulted from blatant pushes (clear from our position behind the kop goal) which the officials failed to see or act on. This made it difficult to defend - we were at risk of conceding a penalty if our players got the first push in. Madine spent the first 30 mins haranguing the ref, who let him carry on. Was the foul/yellow card against Fleck correct? From my angle I thought he got the ball and was caught by the Bolton player, but I could have been wrong. I was prepared for a second half of complaining about Bolton and the officials, but in fact I felt they defended well, and reasonably fairly in the circumstances.The goalie appears to have obsessive/ compulsive disorder with dirt on his boots, but they didn't even make sure that players about to be substituted were at the far side of the pitch. In the end I felt we did enough to get at least one goal, but I did not feel the anticipated outrage about Bolton.

 

[HillmortonBlade]

Did you mean......."Wow, never agreed with you....... More......"......

Well.. Back in the Adkins era I disagreed with Barney and he was right and I was wrong. Never embarrassed to say.

 

[metalblade]

Yes but our crosses come in to a packed defence after we've spent far too long fannying about on the wing before firing it in. I specifically watched this yesterday , we've hardly put in one early first-time cross all game of the sort that gives strikers the advantage.

We had no one starting the game that can beat his man and get a cross in Basham certainly cant do that we got a little better when Baldock came on, Stevens seem to have lost confidence to even have go at getting past his man time after time he could have taken his man on but stopped and passed backwards or sideways the only player who looks like he might beat a man and get a cross in is Duffy. If the wingbacks keep stopping rather than trying to go past a defender it slows the whole attack down and makes the defenders job easy.

 

[Fanny magnet]

Bolton play percentage football and the percentages go in your favour every now and again
They did it well and kept possession in safe areas and hoofed it in dangerous ones

If your system relys on you scoring from your only chance, the opposition having an off day, sloppy defending and missing enough chances to have buried you out of sight then percentage wise over a season you're going down

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Tbh, I've seen plenty praise the likes of QPR & Millwall for the job they did on us. As for Bolton, fuck em, the ugly cloggers

 

[Barney]

Well.. Back in the Adkins era I disagreed with Barney and he was right and I was wrong. Never embarrassed to say.

I have to say you have quite admirably mentioned this a few times as well.

Very honourable. Cap duly doffed.

 

[HillmortonBlade]

I have to say you have quite admirably mentioned this a few times as well.

Very honourable. Cap duly doffed.

You caught a lot of flack, (mostly) unfairly and it was a lesson learnt by yours truly about online foruming..

And you've so not been "I told you so".

 

[PokerBlade]

I'm sure the Bolton fans are over the moon with the result yesterday but if you'd read their comments before the game then they were all about how miserable their football is and if only their players would come out and have a go.

If I were seeing good, passing, attacking teams getting wrecked by hit and hope sides every week maybe we'd have something to argue about, but the reality is that the way Bolton play is very limited.

I hated it when we played long ball and I hate it when other sides try to bore me to death with it because it's ineffective crap. Sure, it pulls off some underdog victories, but we've been there. What happens is you hope it stabilises you enough that you can go out and get a manager that will put it all behind you and start playing it on the deck.

I wouldn't call it snobbishness given the same fans were calling for Blackwell's head even when we were at the top end of the Championship under him.

 

[Guesty]

I've actually got a lot of time for Bolton after yesterday, when you compare them to Sunderland.

On a player by player basis they aren't much better, but they came with a workable game plan and weren't beaten before a ball was kicked like the mackems were. They won all their individual battles and pulled off their tactics well. We didn't show up at all and were deservedly beaten.

We, on the other hand, have been in relegation form post Coutts, despite reaching what some would have you believe was footballing Nirvana against Bristol City.

 

[Harvey Robinson-Smythe]

Not only are we becoming snobbish more worryingly so is our manager. As has been mentioned he needs to get his head out of his arse. We're not fecking Barcelona

 

[blade too long]

man city found it hard to play Palace today

there is and never has been any gimmes in football,

 

[sitwell]

Wilder will have taken the defeat very badly as one of his best mates Steve Parkin was tactically behind it. Parkin lives down the road from me ,he is a Blade himself as are his friends and neighbours ,this one will really hurt Wilder. Not a good few days what with all the shit on twitter ,but he does well in the face of adversity and we will soon be back to our best.

 

[Guesty]

man city found it hard to play Palace today

there is and never has been any gimmes in football,

Except Sunderland.

 

[metalblade]

Except Sunderland.

Who won at Forest

 

[Guesty]

Who won at Forest

I was posting mostly in jest, but on the day that was as close as a gimmie as you're going to get.

 

[Davalon]

Wilder will have taken the defeat very badly as one of his best mates Steve Parkin was tactically behind it. Parkin lives down the road from me ,he is a Blade himself as are his friends and neighbours ,this one will really hurt Wilder. Not a good few days what with all the shit on twitter ,but he does well in the face of adversity and we will soon be back to our best.

Knew Chris was big mates with Lee Butler but didn't realise he was with Parkie.

Personally speaking I can't say I like the bloke but he's a marmite bloke.

Does he still go in the Sherwood?

 

[robbiez666]

For the first time I objected to a Wilder press conference. I thought he was really petty to be snidey about teams playing direct football and teams having more expensive layers than us. not classy whatsoever.

Considering the blame lays with his management and his players, a bit pathetic.

Hopefully back to form tomorrow.

 

[super_pig]

we seem to have suddenly inherited a whole bunch of negative ‘fickle’ new posters lately .. perhaps it is the Russians or even this new 10k fans that have appeared that don’t seem to know any of the songs??

 

['Doc' Pace my hero]

Perhaps we arn't as good as some of us think we are !!!!

 

[super_pig]

Perhaps we arn't as good as some of us think we are !!!!

perhaps we aren’t as good as some of the recent band wagon jumpers thought we were.. ooh top of the league i’ll have some of that.. go on a crap run and it’s billy is shit.. wilder not being nice in interviews.. fuck that
it’s classic blades .. all over the place.. lose to who we should beat.. beat who we should lose to been going on 40 years

 

[sitwell]

For the first time I objected to a Wilder press conference. I thought he was really petty to be snidey about teams playing direct football and teams having more expensive layers than us. not classy whatsoever.

Considering the blame lays with his management and his players, a bit pathetic.

Hopefully back to form tomorrow.

For the first time ?? You've been dying to have a pop at every opportunity at the man you never wanted here.

 

[robbiez666]

I say this not just based on this board, but other social media, and conversations with both friends and random Blades in pubs.

We've had barely 18 months of enjoyable aesthetically pleasing football that has critically also provided results.

However I'm seeing a growing viewpoint that we shouldn't be losing to teams who don't play as attractive football, and even worse an attitude from a few that it's wrong that teams come and set up to frustrate us and spoil the game.

Acknowledgement of a team doing a job on us leads to comments such as cap doffing or having an anti-Blades agenda.

Have we forgotten so soon how we enjoyed seeing us set up to do the same to the likes of Arsenal etc.

There's plenty to dislike about Bolton on and off the pitch, but I honestly didn't see anything from them yesterday to warrant some of the comments from fellow Blades about them, and dare I say it even our gaffer.

Do we really expect them to turn up in their position and just let us run rings around them. We've shown we can play pass and move football against the best in this league, so don't expect lower placed teams who don't feel they can match us in this department to not try to disrupt us like we have often done in the past.

I'm seeing more blaming of referees even when they've had reasonable games or at least been 50/50 with their decisions, and over-exaggerating other team's fouling when in reality it's been no worse than ours.

We all enjoy us playing this current style and long may it continue, but please let's not become all entitled and above ourselves.

Agreed. I was disappointed with Wilder's post match interview. I thought it was a little childish and just sour grapes. Considering the reputation we've had over the years (Especially under Bassett and Warnock), I think it's petty to criticise other clubs about the way they play football.

 

[Pinchy]

Silver medal in the missing the point race

Perhaps they just think your point is cap-doffing, Hoof-loving rhubarb.

I do. Tufty would agree. You Hoofers really don’t like his condemnation of your preferred anti-football, do you? It’s out in the open now. He despises your Bassett ale house shite. He has to go, doesn’t he?

S2 is showing it’s true colours at the moment. Drab, dreary, dismal ‘umble colours.