Impressed so far

[Tony]

Looking at Stokes team and ours , on paper, they should beat us. Still we totally out played them and with some decent finishing would have been outta sight. We have a very good defence, an excellent midfield. Problem is we still need someone to capitalise upfront. JTW is going to be interesting and hopefully the Board will show some cajones and give Chris a decent budget.

 

[Eric Cartman]

The game isn’t played on paper fortunately. They have as many ‘Premier League standard’ players as we do, hence why they came down.

Brilliant performance, so disappointing to not take all 3 points due to something so amateurish.

 

[DaleHillBlade]

On our day we are as good, if not better, than any other team in the Division.

But that can't detract from the fact that we have been built on a shoestring and CW gets the very best out of our players. For me, this will make consistency across the season more difficult against those teams that have been able to invest more heavily.

But that's not me being Doom&Gloom, we are trotting along quite well and of course we will have defeats and draws along the way.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Looking at Stokes team and ours , on paper, they should beat us. Still we totally out played them and with some decent finishing would have been outta sight. We have a very good defence, an excellent midfield. Problem is we still need someone to capitalise upfront. JTW is going to be interesting and hopefully the Board will show some cajones and give Chris a decent budget.

But the big question is

‘What amount is a decent budget”?

 

[DaleHillBlade]

But the big question is

‘What amount is a decent budget”?

Quite a bit more than we can afford currently.

 

[Sheffsteel]

On our day we are as good, if not better, than any other team in the Division.
.

Disagree, on Stokes and Derby’s day they are much better then us, bother teams have better players.
In fact if every team played to their potential (at their best) we probably aren’t even a top 10 team in this league,

The beauty is that Chris Wilder has thought of a clear system and clear way of playing.
He coaches this to the players day in day out, so there’s no confusion of tactics, every player knows their job without even thinking.
So we perform as a well oiled/ well drilled team better than our individual parts. We don’t reply on any individual brilliance.

This means we are the most CONSISTENT team in the league.

Other teams can be brilliant one half and poor the next, they have great games and off games.
Where as we never perform poorly. We might not get the result but we play well every game.

In a one-off match I’m not confident against the top teams but over a long season (as long as we don’t burn out) then I am confident we’ll pick up loads of points to finish up near the top.

 

[Scooter_mcgavin]

Disagree, on Stokes and Derby’s day they are much better then us, bother teams have better players.

Are they?

Do they?

You can't argue with facts....

You say on their day Stoke are better...that day may come 1 in 30 performances, of the other 29 we're better....

Does that make them better?

Don't think so.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Quite a bit more than we can afford currently.

True so it’s not aboard the board having the cojines to gamble.
It’s more about whether the board are irresponsible and willing to gamble big on promotion
Knowing that if we fail then the project falls apart, we would then need to sell off players due to FFP and Wilder would leave.

If there’s £5 million in the kitty, then I suppose they might push it to £6 or £7 million but that won’t buy a guaranteed scorer.

Even if we do spent £5 million on a player, there’s going to be a big element of risk and our fans will probabky be underwhelmed suggesting we should have gone for targets costing £20 million.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Are they?

Do they?

You can't argue with facts....

You say on their day Stoke are better...that day may come 1 in 30 performances, of the other 29 we're better....

Does that make them better?

Don't think so.

They have better players with a better pedigree and better record.
Their players are worth more in the transfer market.

The normal expectation is give Chris Wilder a team of good players and a team of better players
Then everything being equal the better players will win more matches. These are all facts, not opinion.

Also you’re example is flawed.... you’re talking about consistency.. whereas I was talking about potential based on high quality individuals. I’ve already agreed we are incredibly consistent and always perform near our max every game.
Where as other teams have individuals playing different formations/ tactics and struggle with consistency. Stoke on their day are better than us but the league table proves that they rarely hit those heights.

Consistency is a really important factor in winning a league and fortunately it’s one of our strengths, we might not win a one-off match but we perform well almost every single match under Wilder.

 

[wizadry]

Disagree, on Stokes and Derby’s day they are much better then us, bother teams have better players.
In fact if every team played to their potential (at their best) we probably aren’t even a top 10 team in this league,

The beauty is that Chris Wilder has thought of a clear system and clear way of playing.
He coaches this to the players day in day out, so there’s no confusion of tactics, every player knows their job without even thinking.
So we perform as a well oiled/ well drilled team better than our individual parts. We don’t reply on any individual brilliance.

This means we are the most CONSISTENT team in the league.

Other teams can be brilliant one half and poor the next, they have great games and off games.
Where as we never perform poorly. We might not get the result but we play well every game.

In a one-off match I’m not confident against the top teams but over a long season (as long as we don’t burn out) then I am confident we’ll pick up loads of points to finish up near the top.

I’m adamant that if we played Derby and Stoke 10 times a piece that we’d win more than we lose, hence we’re a better team on our day than they are.

 

[Scooter_mcgavin]

They have better players with a better pedigree and better record.
Their players are worth more in the transfer market.

The normal expectation is give Chris Wilder a team of good players and a team of better players
Then everything being equal the better players will win more matches. These are all facts, not opinion.

Correction.

They have players on paper that should be better, but don't appear to be, that HAD a better pedigree, that HAD a better record.

They're now championship players and not even playing to that standard.

 

[SteveBlade]

I think we're a considerably better side than last season.

We had games last season where we didn't pick up points where we should have, but we had lots of games, mainly away where we crumbled, and got nullified by the likes of Millwall, Hull, QPR, Birmingham, Preston, Ipswich. This happened at home against Bolton, Preston, Birmingham and a few others too.

I can see games like Derby and Stoke happening at times, but I can't see too many games where we we'll just crumble, or look completely out of ideas.

The signing of Norwood is solely responsibly for this, aided by quality signings around the pitch that have undoubtedly strengthened us.

We now have Fleck, Norwood, Coutts to choose from, with Lundstram as backup, as opposed to Fleck, Evans, Lundstram and Basham. The difference in quality is astounding, and it's been there for all to see ever since we played Hull at home in the League Cup.

This is the main reason I feel optimistic this season. We'll drop points, but generally I think we'll put most teams teams away. We've proven this several times already.

 

[SUFC Guy]

We need 1 quality striker and 1 quality Duffy replacement. Cost? God knows but It will be well over £10m I would guess so let's spend the Brooks Bonanza !

But who in their right mind is going to sell any of the above if they have ambitions of:

(A) Getting promoted to the prem
or
(B) staying in the prem

Makes a quality player recruitment extremely difficult - but that's what it will take for us to step up to the next level.

Almost everything else is setup for promotion

• Management - Tick
• Squad (with mentioned recruitment above) - Tick
• Stadium - Tick
• Fans - Tick
• Board - Hopefully a tick by the end of this season
• Pigs pending meltdown - Tick Tick Tick

Up dem mighty blades !

 

[wizadry]

We need 1 quality striker and 1 quality Duffy replacement. Cost? God knows but It will be well over £10m I would guess so let's spend the Brooks Bonanza !

But who in their right mind is going to sell any of the above if they have ambitions of:

(A) Getting promoted to the prem
or
(B) staying in the prem

Makes a quality player recruitment extremely difficult - but that's what it will take for us to step up to the next level.

Almost everything else is setup for promotion

• Management - Tick
• Squad (with mentioned recruitment above) - Tick
• Stadium - Tick
• Fans - Tick
• Board - Hopefully a tick by the end of this season
• Pigs pending meltdown - Tick Tick Tick

Up dem mighty blades !

That is the crux of the matter in hand and some great points, especially the last one.

 

[DaleHillBlade]

Disagree, on Stokes and Derby’s day they are much better then us, bother teams have better players.
In fact if every team played to their potential (at their best) we probably aren’t even a top 10 team in this league,

The beauty is that Chris Wilder has thought of a clear system and clear way of playing.
He coaches this to the players day in day out, so there’s no confusion of tactics, every player knows their job without even thinking.
So we perform as a well oiled/ well drilled team better than our individual parts. We don’t reply on any individual brilliance.

This means we are the most CONSISTENT team in the league.

Other teams can be brilliant one half and poor the next, they have great games and off games.
Where as we never perform poorly. We might not get the result but we play well every game.

In a one-off match I’m not confident against the top teams but over a long season (as long as we don’t burn out) then I am confident we’ll pick up loads of points to finish up near the top.

Good points.

I do think however, on our day, we can match any team, on their day. But I think they have players who are "better" but don't perform consistently, as said by Scooter_mcgavin. Their apparent lack of consistency suggests the whole team (including management team) are not as good.

But in the long term, we are vulnerable not only to their alleged better players, but to the depth of squads. As we found out this time last year.

 

[Hamburg Blade]

I'm not at all convinced that bringing in a top striker is the solution to the lack of goals, or not finishing off games we should win. It's the easy answer to everything, but last night I thought the problem was a lack of penetration in the opposition area. We were great at controlling the game and playing a wonderful passing game from the back, in the midfield and down the wings, but it was usually slow enough that Stoke had numbers back by the time we were trying to get into the box. Trying to pick out your man in a sea of defenders is difficult when you're trying to cross it and we don't take on the man and run at the defence enough, like Fleck did last game. There won't be any point in a flash, expensive striker if the ball doesn't come to him.

 

[SUFC Guy]

I'm not at all convinced that bringing in a top striker is the solution to the lack of goals, or not finishing off games we should win. It's the easy answer to everything, but last night I thought the problem was a lack of penetration in the opposition area. We were great at controlling the game and playing a wonderful passing game from the back, in the midfield and down the wings, but it was usually slow enough that Stoke had numbers back by the time we were trying to get into the box. Trying to pick out your man in a sea of defenders is difficult when you're trying to cross it and we don't take on the man and run at the defence enough, like Fleck did last game. There won't be any point in a flash, expensive striker if the ball doesn't come to him.

That may well be true but we are creating numerous chances and we are defending very well while ever we are attacking by preventing break-aways - we struggle sometimes when we sit back granted but the game should have been over when we get to that point.

We do need to improve in the striker area and we do need a *younger Duffy like for like.

*Would be interested to know who is a younger Duffy like for like that could be gettable in Jan?

 

[Hamburg Blade]

That may well be true but we are creating numerous chances and we are defending very well while ever we are attacking by preventing break-aways - we struggle sometimes when we sit back granted but the game should have been over when we get to that point.

We do need to improve in the striker area and we do need a *younger Duffy like for like.

*Would be interested to know who is a younger Duffy like for like that could be gettable in Jan?

Every striker, no matter how much he costs, will miss and will need several shots for each goal. Everyone knows that, really, but I think it gets forgotten after matches like last night where putting one of the chances away would have given us three points. I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to have a new, quality striker in January, but if this keeps going, the expectations on him will be enormous.

 

[Scooter_mcgavin]

That may well be true but we are creating numerous chances and we are defending very well while ever we are attacking by preventing break-aways - we struggle sometimes when we sit back granted but the game should have been over when we get to that point.

We do need to improve in the striker area and we do need a *younger Duffy like for like.

*Would be interested to know who is a younger Duffy like for like that could be gettable in Jan?

A younger Duffy is worth 20m+

 

[itsinyerblood]

That may well be true but we are creating numerous chances and we are defending very well while ever we are attacking by preventing break-aways - we struggle sometimes when we sit back granted but the game should have been over when we get to that point.

We do need to improve in the striker area and we do need a *younger Duffy like for like.

*Would be interested to know who is a younger Duffy like for like that could be gettable in Jan?

I read a few of your posts last night and enjoyed your enjoyment regarding the way the Blades are playing. There will always be the odd voice that disagrees for reasons that strike me as so emphatically black and white that I doubt anyone will ever change their perceptions of why they think we're a poor side. What this fails to see is that we're just one, two, or at most, three players off from becoming a side that can cause other teams to worry about the Blades and how we play. There's no point blaming certain players for missing above average chances. Stevens had an excellent chance to convert, yet after much good work on his behalf he squandered the opportunity and put the ball over the bar. Stuff like this happens, but at least it was a chance that a more clinical player would have taken. So it was during much of last night's game. In relative terms we've built a side (I say we, in fact it's Chris and Alan who've done the hard work) that has come on in leaps and bounds. We have some genuinely decent players, players who bring quality to our game, and the addition of a couple of further players who can help us convert chances will change the perceptions of those gloom merchants who currently see little to be pleased with.

Reading a thread on Porktalk last night, even the mentalists at the sty are now resigned to the fact that we are the superior side. They were full of praise, they know we have better players, and that our manager is superior to their plastic version, and overall they could just about utter the words that they are second best compared to the Blades. All true of course. They now accept that spending less has given us the edge that they lack. They now accept that they'll do well to remain in this division. It's taken some time for all this to happen, but it's a fact of life that the pigs are having to accept.

As for the idea of a young Duffy, why young? Why not get a seasoned pro, someone who's played the game and understands this particular role? I recall Danny Murphy, in his late 20s-early 30s, doing something similar for Fulham, and he looked the bee's knee's in my opinion.

 

[Sean Thornton]

Every striker, no matter how much he costs, will miss and will need several shots for each goal. Everyone knows that, really, but I think it gets forgotten after matches like last night where putting one of the chances away would have given us three points. I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to have a new, quality striker in January, but if this keeps going, the expectations on him will be enormous.

Well there's one man who several posters claim with a slightly hysterical degree of "certainty" WOULD have scored last night.

As Eric Cartman rightly says, the game isn't played on paper. Nor is it played in someone's fevered imagination. I can see why the expectation would be there but there are no guarantees.

Someone wondered after CW's interview why Billy was on the bench at all if he wasn't "right" especially not bringing him on when we were putting the ball into areas he thrives in.

 

[bromtom]

One thing I'd say within the Championship, we could tonk anyone, and rarely do we not have at least 45 minutes where we're showing someone up.

Other teams have individual brilliance that allows them to temporarily turbo boost themselves and overcome better teams in the cup though.

Bristol City last season, FLDC this against Man U, I just can't see United beating anyone from the Premier League in the cup for some reason.

We only need to be one of the best Championship teams at the moment though. We can worry about other leagues if and when we get there.

 

[nopigfansintown]

But the big question is

‘What amount is a decent budget”?

Well the majority of the teams - who don't get parachute payments - in the top half, are prepared to lose 39 million every three years (after player sales). If that doesn't show the difference in budget, I don't know what will.I doubt we're much more than a quarter into that given this season's spending and the previous two years. The Championship is batshit crazy these days. The positive is, if we get a takeover we are investor ready and already have a very good squad.

 

[benn5712]

The striker we needed last night was sat ont' bench. 5 times the ball went into the box and fell to Blades who have not got Sharps killer instinct.
If only for last night, opening Stoke up like we did, horses for courses.

 

[Carlton Blade]

I think we're a considerably better side than last season.

We had games last season where we didn't pick up points where we should have, but we had lots of games, mainly away where we crumbled, and got nullified by the likes of Millwall, Hull, QPR, Birmingham, Preston, Ipswich. This happened at home against Bolton, Preston, Birmingham and a few others too.

I can see games like Derby and Stoke happening at times, but I can't see too many games where we we'll just crumble, or look completely out of ideas.

The signing of Norwood is solely responsibly for this, aided by quality signings around the pitch that have undoubtedly strengthened us.

We now have Fleck, Norwood, Coutts to choose from, with Lundstram as backup, as opposed to Fleck, Evans, Lundstram and Basham. The difference in quality is astounding, and it's been there for all to see ever since we played Hull at home in the League Cup.

This is the main reason I feel optimistic this season. We'll drop points, but generally I think we'll put most teams teams away. We've proven this several times already.

Agree with this. Apart from the first 2 games, everything we've done this year has been better than the second half of last season. We still have vulnerabilities but we haven't been dominated for a full game like Fulham/Wolves etc last year

 

[coaxingstar71]

They have better players with a better pedigree and better record.
Their players are worth more in the transfer market.

The normal expectation is give Chris Wilder a team of good players and a team of better players
Then everything being equal the better players will win more matches. These are all facts, not opinion.

Also you’re example is flawed.... you’re talking about consistency.. whereas I was talking about potential based on high quality individuals. I’ve already agreed we are incredibly consistent and always perform near our max every game.
Where as other teams have individuals playing different formations/ tactics and struggle with consistency. Stoke on their day are better than us but the league table proves that they rarely hit those heights.

Consistency is a really important factor in winning a league and fortunately it’s one of our strengths, we might not win a one-off match but we perform well almost every single match under Wilder.

I don't subscribe to the theory that they are better players because they have a better pedigree, a better record and are worth more in the transfer market. At the moment would you swap Fleck, who we got for free from a side near the bottom of League 1, for any other midfielder in this league? Because I wouldn't. We signed McGoldrick for nothing, who was apparently surplus to requirements at Ipswich, now bottom of the Champ, while Blackburn spent, what was it? £8m on Ben Brereton. People bemoaned that we signed Egan for £4m... "surely if Brentford don't want him, the pinnacle of a player recruitment operation, then why are we paying so much for him. We should have gone for who they signed....". How's that working out for them? A glance at the table suggests not great. Would anyone prefer we had spent £17m on Jack Grealish instead of (approx) £2m on Norwood?

When are people going to accept that, even individually, our players are just as good as most if not all other players in this league? The trick of course, and what we have got better than most, is how they play together as a unit.

Reputations mean nothing, transfer fees reflect what someone is prepared to pay for a player. The point is that our manager, generally, recruits good players, no matter where they've played, how fashionable they are, or how much someone else thinks they're worth.

 

[super_pig]

I read a few of your posts last night and enjoyed your enjoyment regarding the way the Blades are playing. There will always be the odd voice that disagrees for reasons that strike me as so emphatically black and white that I doubt anyone will ever change their perceptions of why they think we're a poor side. What this fails to see is that we're just one, two, or at most, three players off from becoming a side that can cause other teams to worry about the Blades and how we play. There's no point blaming certain players for missing above average chances. Stevens had an excellent chance to convert, yet after much good work on his behalf he squandered the opportunity and put the ball over the bar. Stuff like this happens, but at least it was a chance that a more clinical player would have taken. So it was during much of last night's game. In relative terms we've built a side (I say we, in fact it's Chris and Alan who've done the hard work) that has come on in leaps and bounds. We have some genuinely decent players, players who bring quality to our game, and the addition of a couple of further players who can help us convert chances will change the perceptions of those gloom merchants who currently see little to be pleased with.

Reading a thread on Porktalk last night, even the mentalists at the sty are now resigned to the fact that we are the superior side. They were full of praise, they know we have better players, and that our manager is superior to their plastic version, and overall they could just about utter the words that they are second best compared to the Blades. All true of course. They now accept that spending less has given us the edge that they lack. They now accept that they'll do well to remain in this division. It's taken some time for all this to happen, but it's a fact of life that the pigs are having to accept.

As for the idea of a young Duffy, why young? Why not get a seasoned pro, someone who's played the game and understands this particular role? I recall Danny Murphy, in his late 20s-early 30s, doing something similar for Fulham, and he looked the bee's knee's in my opinion.

does anyone really think we’re a poor side though? the meltdown was because people were disappointed with a last minute equaliser .. you can still think we’re doing well whilst being disappointed with a temporary setback
the two aren’t mutually exclusive

 

[itsinyerblood]

does anyone really think we’re a poor side though? the meltdown was because people were disappointed with a last minute equaliser .. you can still think we’re doing well whilst being disappointed with a temporary setback
the two aren’t mutually exclusive

Completely agree SP, of course we're all entitled to say one thing while thinking something else. As soon as Stoke equalised the words, "Bollocks" left my lips more than once, and from that moment on I was worrying whether we'd hold on for one point? But truth be told, our overall standard of play suggests that we don't have a great deal to be concerned about, other than recruiting that one, or two, individuals who can add the gloss to our otherwise quality performance.

 

[finlaytheblade]

True so it’s not aboard the board having the cojines to gamble.
It’s more about whether the board are irresponsible and willing to gamble big on promotion
Knowing that if we fail then the project falls apart, we would then need to sell off players due to FFP and Wilder would leave.

If there’s £5 million in the kitty, then I suppose they might push it to £6 or £7 million but that won’t buy a guaranteed scorer.

Even if we do spent £5 million on a player, there’s going to be a big element of risk and our fans will probabky be underwhelmed suggesting we should have gone for targets costing £20 million.

It possibly could be one or two big loan signings ,the wages are way ahead of the going rate at the lane. Get promotion and it's the norm ,but at least if we fall away the club are within budget.
What some fans don't appreciate is signing a £!10 million striker wants the wages that go with it, unless we are able to keep all the squad happy with a similar pay packet (promotion changes everything )at least a loan means we keep the wage structure under control.It's not just transfer fees which send clubs into financial peril but wages as pigs and others have found out.

 

[Sheffsteel]

I don't subscribe to the theory that they are better players because they have a better pedigree, a better record and are worth more in the transfer market. At the moment would you swap Fleck, who we got for free from a side near the bottom of League 1, for any other midfielder in this league? Because I wouldn't. We signed McGoldrick for nothing, who was apparently surplus to requirements at Ipswich, now bottom of the Champ, while Blackburn spent, what was it? £8m on Ben Brereton. People bemoaned that we signed Egan for £4m... "surely if Brentford don't want him, the pinnacle of a player recruitment operation, then why are we paying so much for him. We should have gone for who they signed....". How's that working out for them? A glance at the table suggests not great. Would anyone prefer we had spent £17m on Jack Grealish instead of (approx) £2m on Norwood?

When are people going to accept that, even individually, our players are just as good as most if not all other players in this league? The trick of course, and what we have got better than most, is how they play together as a unit.

Reputations mean nothing, transfer fees reflect what someone is prepared to pay for a player. The point is that our manager, generally, recruits good players, no matter where they've played, how fashionable they are, or how much someone else thinks they're worth.

Understand what you’re saying but there’s a pattern here.
Egan at Brentford is decent but he’s definitely a better player when he comes to us.
McGoldrick was decent at Ipswich but he’s also a better player when he comes to us.
Norwood was good at Fulham/ Brighton but nothing special, he comes to us and he immediately looks special.

Serious question, why is this?
My view is it’s because other managers swap and change players, coach their players to play different systems and differ tactics to be able to adapt to the oppositon, this often confuses some players who aren’t able to swap and change styles from one game to the next, hence inconsistent performances.

Where as I believe Wilder has this master plan of his way of playing and he drills it into every player, every player knows their role.
He doesn’t go for the best individual players, he chooses players specifically suited to his system and trusts his system.
So individual players don’t need to have great games. The players only need to have average games and the system makes the whole team perform like a machine. The trust in the system playing the same way as practiced on the training pitch means we are very consistent. It’s very rare that we don’t perform and have a real off day.

It might be a bit controversial but I think if Fleck, O’Connell, Duffy etc left for another club, they wouldn’t be anywhere near as good.
Wilders strength is that he knows that a team can be far far better then it’s individual parts. He also keeps things simple and concentrates more on what we can do instead of worrying about the opposition.

I remember Liverpool in the 80’s, they’d buy good players from other teams but when playing for Liverpool those players quickly looked like world beaters. Then when Liverpool sold their good squad players they looked very average at other clubs.