BladesPod: Fleck > Neves, Style vs Substance, Recapping Brentford & Cardiff

[Beans]

Good morning fellow Blades - I invite you to join me and Twitter's #1 Blades analyst Jay as we break down many things on this new podcast episode.

We cover...

• Two excellent but ultimately frustrating performances against Brentford and Cardiff (02:00)
• Chris Basham as a possible Player of the Year (07:33)
• John Fleck being better than Ruben Neves (kind of... 16:20)
• How United never seem to play poorly and win, but often play well and lose (25:04)
• United's style vs Cardiff's substance (28:28)
• The difficulty of taking easy chances (38:40)
• The EFL team of the season (47:39)

Listen on SoundCloud:

or on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/bladespod/id1309198119?mt=2

Pretty meaty episode this week so will understand if you prefer to skip to a section that's of particular interest

I really enjoyed the discussion about taking our chances (38:40), which is of course very relevant after these last two games with the misses by Donaldson, Evans, etc. Stats show that United have been excellent at scoring from "difficult" chances this season, but actually pretty poor at taking the easy ones. We talked about why we think this might be.

Thank you as always for listening, sharing and subscribing, and bring on Barnsley! You can also follow the podcast on Twitter here:

 

[itsinyerblood]

Good morning fellow Blades - I invite you to join me and Twitter's #1 Blades analyst Jay as we break down many things on this new podcast episode.

We cover...

• Two excellent but ultimately frustrating performances against Brentford and Cardiff (02:00)
• Chris Basham as a possible Player of the Year (07:33)
• John Fleck being better than Ruben Neves (kind of... 16:20)
• How United never seem to play poorly and win, but often play well and lose (25:04)
• United's style vs Cardiff's substance (28:28)
• The difficulty of taking easy chances (38:40)
• The EFL team of the season (47:39)

Listen on SoundCloud:

or on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/bladespod/id1309198119?mt=2

Pretty meaty episode this week so will understand if you prefer to skip to a section that's of particular interest

I really enjoyed the discussion about taking our chances (38:40), which is of course very relevant after these last two games with the misses by Donaldson, Evans, etc. Stats show that United have been excellent at scoring from "difficult" chances this season, but actually pretty poor at taking the easy ones. We talked about why we think this might be.

Thank you as always for listening, sharing and subscribing, and bring on Barnsley! You can also follow the podcast on Twitter here:

Just listened to the podcast, very entertaining and well worth dedicating time to. Get you point about skipping those parts that may not immediately interest someone, but hopefully more people will take the time to listen and comment. Feedback is good people, so why not lend your lugholes to this festival of Blade's opinion. Found the bit about Fleck revealing, up there with this division's best. Why am I not surprised?

 

[I should coco]

Excellent again, as ever.

A very minor gripe would be to try and improive the sound quality of Jay on the phone, but that is being very picky.

Keep up the great work lads.

 

[Beans]

Thanks guys - and yeah, it was a little scratchy and something to work on!

Just adding to what we discussed about Cardiff's style, I just spotted this article which breaks down Cardiff and Millwall's direct style with more data, and why it's been successful - pretty interesting I thought: http://www.skysports.com/football/n...-the-championship-odds-with-a-different-style

Possession dominant Fulham have racked up 21,496 passes this season. Wolves are not far behind on 19,667. Cardiff and Millwall are around 10,000 passes behind them, with possession stats which put them among the bottom four in the division, along with relegation-threatened Burton and Bolton.

Instead, they look to move the ball forward quickly at every opportunity.

In-depth Opta data, which measures the average speed teams advance up the pitch, show Cardiff and Millwall are by far the quickest in the division. These two teams also average the fewest passes per sequence of play.

The tactic has allowed both teams to regularly enter the opposition's final third - and as a result, both feature among the top five when it comes to shots on target per game this season.

Full thing is well worth a read.

 

[Stretch]

Great listen Beans and it's always good to hear other fans take on things. Seems a lot of us are in agreement, i.e. slightly frustrated but in the large bloody chuffed to death with this United team

 

[Antonb]

A fantastic listen . Really enjoyed every bit of it. Thank you. Has given me more of a appreciation of the season we are having. I don't feel as deflated now after the Cardiff game!

 

[Beans]

A fantastic listen . Really enjoyed every bit of it. Thank you. Has given me more of a appreciation of the season we are having. I don't feel as deflated now after the Cardiff game!

Happy to hear it! I was pretty annoyed at the time but I'm more encouraged by the quality of our last two performances, which have felt much more like "early season United" - as I said on the pod, if we play like this in our last 6 games then we'll have a heck of a chance.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

You should put these on YouTube.

 

[coolhandluke]

That's the second podcast I've listened to now and they've both been excellent . I must confess that I was a little bit underwhelmed at the prospect of listening to a statistical analysis of our games/season but ive been very impressed with it . Its also very reassuring to hear stats supporting my own gut feeling that we now have solid foundations in place and we are just one or two players away from being a real force to be reckoned with .

Keep up the superb work guys it's greatly appreciated .

 

[Beans]

You should put these on YouTube.

Hadn't occurred to me until now but I can see that would be worthwhile, cheers!

 

[Beans]

Cheeky Friday bump