Lundstram

[Fulwood Blade]

Coutts didn’t do any running, he barely moved at all. He’s still not tackling either, though that’s maybe understandable after such a bad injury.

Think I've seen v Blackburn and Wigan how we can use Coutts - certainly for the rest of this season.

He'll come in to the team probably after 60 min for specific reasons to close a game down.

Thought he was excellent in both those games, but both were for a purpose and when he had quality players either side of him.

UTB

 

[LJBlade]

Think I've seen v Blackburn and Wigan how we can use Coutts - certainly for the rest of this season.

He'll come in to the team probably after 60 min for specific reasons to close a game down.

Thought he was excellent in both those games, but both were for a purpose and when he had quality players either side of him.

UTB

Yep, he was much better in those two games than he was today.

 

[sitwell]

If you say so.

If you were happy with his performance today then maybe it says something about your level of expectation.

I didn't say I was happy with his performance. I was disappointed. I wasn't disappointed with Lundstrams because I expected it ,he should be playing on a Sunday but in a different competition ,hes rubbish.

 

[Deadbat]

We now play our football at the top of the Championship.

We should remember (respectfully) WHEN we signed these players and why.

Wilders comments after the game summed everything up for me.

We need to make plans in this JTW to move a few out and some more in the summer.

We should also remember the players that we signed last JTW and how long they lasted - again, these players were wanted when we came out of the pub league.

We've moved on very very quickly - too quick for some players we presently have or who we brought with us or who were purchased.

UTB

Very good post. The likes of Lundstram, Washington, Stearman, Johnson are sadly not top end of Champ where we currently are. I think last and even this season, we were projected to be middle of the league. We overachieved that for mosst of last season and have done the same this season.

We made some superb signings in Henderson, Egan, Norwood and McGoldrick - all who have worked out. Sadly the ones above (Stearman apart who was steady) have not. In an ideal world we would sign 2 or 3 of those ilk we brought in this summer in January but we wont give Wilder the funds to do that. Shame really. As we will face inevitablee injuries and suspensions over the last 20 games and today showed the cover is woefully inadeuqate.

 

[davidblade]

Think all of the wankers out there can take some blame , but some blame also has to attributable to Wilder.
But he’s allowed one or to fuck ups

 

[Deadbat]

Think I've seen v Blackburn and Wigan how we can use Coutts - certainly for the rest of this season.

He'll come in to the team probably after 60 min for specific reasons to close a game down.

Thought he was excellent in both those games, but both were for a purpose and when he had quality players either side of him.

UTB

Agree. He cannot play 90 minute games as does not have the dynamism to affect games. He is still playing things very safe. He was never quick but was powerful over a few yards and would look for a forward pass to mix things up. He looks very timind at the moment and seems scared to run with the ball or attempt to carry it for fear he cannot run at this pace currently. He just plays is short and simple. That is fine when we have games won but in the 2 games he he has started he has offered nothing at all that will affect things in a forward way. He looks a long way off the player from last season and as you say just having those short spells to see games off is maybe the best we can hope for this year and hope somehow with the summer, he can regain some of that power and even some level of running ability.

He reminds me at the moment of the Coutts who played for 2 seasons before Wilder came in that lacked acceleration to get away from players (he had that in the title winning season and start of last year) which is a concern. I thought today he would boss things but even non league players were running past him. That is a concern.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

We made some superb signings in Henderson, Egan, Norwood and McGoldrick - all who have worked out. Sadly the ones above (Stearman apart who was steady) have not. In an ideal world we would sign 2 or 3 of those ilk we brought in this summer in January but we wont give Wilder the funds to do that. Shame really. As we will face inevitablee injuries and suspensions over the last 20 games and today showed the cover is woefully inadeuqate.

What we must do is manage the 1st team as best we can with changes made on a selective basis - ie: Crainie (for bash) who I thought played well within himself v Wigan.

Injuries and suspensions are the key and we need a bit of good fortune. With Crainie it was interesting to me that neither he or JOC on the left went on any overlaps. Think we played a slightly different way which tells me CW & AK are really thinking now about individual games/opposition as against being 100% gung-ho.

UTB

 

[LJBlade]

I didn't say I was happy with his performance. I was disappointed. I wasn't disappointed with Lundstrams because I expected it ,he should be playing on a Sunday but in a different competition ,hes rubbish.

I never said Lundstram was particularly good did I? He seemed to put a bit more effort in though. On several occasions he ran back so that he could collect the ball from Moore and he seemed to want to get things moving. Coutts didn’t do that once

 

[true99blade]

To be honest there was barely a difference between Coutts and Lundstram today. Both pretty spineless.

 

[Weasel]

I mentioned on another thread about Coutts and Lundstrum both taking an eternity to get the ball moved forward.

The forward lads today didn't cover themselves in glory today, but the service they received from C&L was very poor. Both decent enough players to use if you want to close a game down, but both have no attacking instinct (Coutts has shown in the past that he can do it, but sadly Lundstrum hasn't yet and probably never will do in a Utd shirt).

 

[RossingtonBlade]

He’s been stealing a wage since he joined. Absolute shocking midfielder and over half a million pissed away on him. Back to league one for him if he’s lucky. Up there with Hammond.

 

[GuangzhouBlade]

Neither Coutts nor Lundstram are good enough. Neither should be anywhere near our match day squad if we are serious about promotion. Unfortunately we haven't got a West Brom or Villa type squad but we need better than Coutts ,who if we are brutally honest has had one good season in league 1 in a very good team. He was bang average at both Preston and Derby for years and thats not likely to change aged 30. Yes he's coming back from a bad injury but we cant be sentimental. I'm very grateful for what he did in the promotion season in the same way I am to Lafferty but Coutts isn't the answer and neither is Lundstram lets just pray we don't get anymore injuries.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

The biggest issue with Lundstram is, he doesn't know what type of midfielder he wants to be, he doesn't seem to be naturally aligned to any type of role.

He's not a natural box to box centre mid, he's not nimble enough and hasn't got the engine for that.
He's not a no.10, he hasn't got the attacking instinct, feet, movement or finesse for that, he looks lost around the penalty area.
He's not a holding midfielder, when he tried to plug the gap left by Coutts last year he looked awful at that.

So what does that leave? He's not particularly quick as he's too much of a unit, but he doesn't use his size either to dominate in the centre of the park. He doesn't sit deep but not does he push forward and there's large parts of the game where passages of play just seem to unfold and develop quicker than he can anticipate, it's almost like he can't read the game quick enough.

I'm stumped. I feel like there ought to be the attributes of a good player in there, but so far, I'm far from convinced.

 

[Birdwell Blade]

Neither Coutts nor Lundstram are good enough. Neither should be anywhere near our match day squad if we are serious about promotion. Unfortunately we haven't got a West Brom or Villa type squad but we need better than Coutts ,who if we are brutally honest has had one good season in league 1 in a very good team. He was bang average at both Preston and Derby for years and thats not likely to change aged 30. Yes he's coming back from a bad injury but we cant be sentimental. I'm very grateful for what he did in the promotion season in the same way I am to Lafferty but Coutts isn't the answer and neither is Lundstram lets just pray we don't get anymore injuries.

That’s incredibly harsh on Coutts. What about last season?

 

[RossingtonBlade]

Neither Coutts nor Lundstram are good enough. Neither should be anywhere near our match day squad if we are serious about promotion. Unfortunately we haven't got a West Brom or Villa type squad but we need better than Coutts ,who if we are brutally honest has had one good season in league 1 in a very good team. He was bang average at both Preston and Derby for years and thats not likely to change aged 30. Yes he's coming back from a bad injury but we cant be sentimental. I'm very grateful for what he did in the promotion season in the same way I am to Lafferty but Coutts isn't the answer and neither is Lundstram lets just pray we don't get anymore injuries.

I get what you mean with Coutts but we’re not going to replace 15 players in 3 weeks. I reckon in summer we could see 15 in 15 our promotion or not. If we went up it would be about 20 in.

 

[GuangzhouBlade]

That’s incredibly harsh on Coutts. What about last season?

Fair enough we hit the ground running last year and Coutts played his part but I don't attribute our decline solely to Coutts' injury it was always going to happen playing such intense football with a small squad. Perhaps it is harsh but having seen how much better Norwood is I would now hate for Norwood to suffer a Coutts injury and Coutts or Lundstram for that matter have to play until the end of the season.

 

[Birdwell Blade]

Fair enough we hit the ground running last year and Coutts played his part but I don't attribute our decline solely to Coutts' injury it was always going to happen playing such intense football with a small squad. Perhaps it is harsh but having seen how much better Norwood is I would now hate for Norwood to suffer a Coutts injury and Coutts or Lundstram for that matter have to play until the end of the season.

I do agree with your point, just probably the way it came across. I feel like we owe PC a bit of time based on his last two years for us, to come back and rediscover his form.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

The XI who embarrassed themselves today for what is probably the worst home result in the club's history were given no help whatsoever by the manager. Wilder has defo dropped them all in it today with the starting XI he picked. Not one of them has been first team regulars in the last few weeks (and nearly all of them not regulars all season), yes they still should beat a Conference team, but why the f*** didn't Wilder mix it up half-and-half with the starting XI (and on the bench) put half a dozen regulars in to start and five fringe players, if it still was going belly up he could have brought on another three first teamers, or if it turned into a cake walk he could have brought on fringe players.

Yes the players who represented the club were shameful but Wilder has to be equally culpable with the starting XI he put out.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

And Kean Bryan..... Jesus fucking Christ, I hope he has a good excuse.

As for Johnson..... well he just has no idea what the hell he's doing on the pitch does he.

Ssssssh your dutty mouth! IWWT! Repeat IWWT!

Holmes, Lundstram, Leonard, Evans, Bryan, Johnson, Thomas, Washington, etc. Soon to add Madine to the list.

 

[Grappler]

Let's not blame Lundstram for today, he was far from the worst performer on the field.

 

[Eric Cartman]

Let's not blame Lundstram for today, he was far from the worst performer on the field.

He wasn’t far off.

 

[Grappler]

He wasn’t far off.

It would be harder to pick out players who were better than him, than who were worse mate.

Bryan and Dowell as first timers get a pass.

 

[blade789]

Lundstram has played hardly any competitive football this season and spent much of the game trying to cover for Bryan and Cranie as they consistently couldn't get back whilst apparently playing the more forward midfield players as Coutts sat in the defence?

I'm not the biggest fan of the lad but he's still young and was given an impossible task. That is the responsibility of the manager.

Not sure he's good enough at this level but there's no way to find out unless he is playing regularly. It;s unlikely to be here so loan him or sell him.

He’s been involved in over 30 games for united since we signed him. We have seen enough of him to conclude he isn’t good enough. He is 25 next month so not as young as people think.

 

[SteveBlade]

Moore, Stearman, Cranie, Coutts and Clarke have, and can all play a part as average-good squad players.

Freeman needs to get his shit together.

Lundstram and Washington are good enough in specific situations as a sub for about ten minutes at a time, so they're not good enough, although Washington will do a more useful job for us when called upon.

Johnson isn't good enough at football.

Bryan was never going to shine yesterday, but still a lot of work needs to be done.

Dowell looked okay at football things.

Clearly no fucker fancied that one though which is shit in itself, but it doesn't mean they're all Conference level now, about half that side have already played bit parts this season to an acceptable standard.

 

[SuperDuperBlades]

Lundstram, Stearman, Freeman, Bryan, Washington and Moore. Shift the lot.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Lundstram, Stearman, Freeman, Bryan, Washington and Moore. Shift the lot.

Then replace with who? Has the money tree just blossomed again?

 

[Weasel]

Moore, Stearman, Cranie, Coutts and Clarke have, and can all play a part as average-good squad players.

Freeman needs to get his shit together.

Lundstram and Washington are good enough in specific situations as a sub for about ten minutes at a time, so they're not good enough, although Washington will do a more useful job for us when called upon.

Johnson isn't good enough at football.

Bryan was never going to shine yesterday, but still a lot of work needs to be done.

Dowell looked okay at football things.

Clearly no fucker fancied that one though which is shit in itself, but it doesn't mean they're all Conference level now, about half that side have already played bit parts this season to an acceptable standard.

I've seen a lot of people state that Johnson isn't good enough, and that may well be true.

My other thought though is that non of us have really seen what he can do as he's hardly had much of a chance starting games. Maybe that's because CW has seen a lot more of him in training and now doesn't fancy him as a player? I don't know, but i do know I haven't really seen enough of MJ to properly know if he's shit or not.

I noticed at the match yesterday that there was plenty of times when Johnson was stood in acres of space waiting for the ball to land with him, and Utd dillied and dallied about with it so much he eventually got marked up. Maybe the players think he's shit too and won't pass to him, but i thought it noticeable enough to mention at the match that no bugger seemed to want to pass to him when he was open and available. We needed to get those extra 28 passes in before we thought about switching it wide...

 

[EddieColquhoun]

And Kean Bryan..... Jesus fucking Christ, I hope he has a good excuse.

He has been injured and not played for 9 months.

If we lose or even draw a football match, the cry-babies can't wait to post on here.

 

[sitwell]

Neither Coutts nor Lundstram are good enough. Neither should be anywhere near our match day squad if we are serious about promotion. Unfortunately we haven't got a West Brom or Villa type squad but we need better than Coutts ,who if we are brutally honest has had one good season in league 1 in a very good team. He was bang average at both Preston and Derby for years and thats not likely to change aged 30. Yes he's coming back from a bad injury but we cant be sentimental. I'm very grateful for what he did in the promotion season in the same way I am to Lafferty but Coutts isn't the answer and neither is Lundstram lets just pray we don't get anymore injuries.

Well done most ridiculous post of the year so far ,and that takes some doing

 

[Revolution]

I've seen a lot of people state that Johnson isn't good enough, and that may well be true.

My other thought though is that non of us have really seen what he can do as he's hardly had much of a chance starting games. Maybe that's because CW has seen a lot more of him in training and now doesn't fancy him as a player? I don't know, but i do know I haven't really seen enough of MJ to properly know if he's shit or not.

I noticed at the match yesterday that there was plenty of times when Johnson was stood in acres of space waiting for the ball to land with him, and Utd dillied and dallied about with it so much he eventually got marked up. Maybe the players think he's shit too and won't pass to him, but i thought it noticeable enough to mention at the match that no bugger seemed to want to pass to him when he was open and available. We needed to get those extra 28 passes in before we thought about switching it wide...

One thing that strikes me about Johnson is that even in the brief cameos he's had he makes poor decisions. The run that led (eventually) to Rotherham's equaliser and some of his bizarre passing at Bristol City spring to mind. He doesn't seem to think about what he's doing.