Firstly of course it was a fantastic day and we should all be very proud seeing the team put in a strong professional performance.
Two things can be true at the same time however, and whilst it's an established fact that we played very well and tactically outsmarted Palace there is no denying that they didn't perform to their ability either as a team or individuals. I'm wondering why that might be. If someone had watched the two teams without knowing what league they were in they might assume we were one or maybe even two leagues above our opponents who had a supposed £80 million player up front.
For years we have (rightly) laughed at other fans for their arrogance before playing us then see them afterwards claim 'Sheffield are nothing special we were just especially crap'.
We aren't 'special' in terms of having 'star' players like Zaha, however we definitely are in terms of our manager team ethos and tactics which makes it hard for the opposition. Nevertheless Palace and plenty of other teams were especially crap against us I think at times, and I wonder if there are more reasons to it rather than 'just' us playing really well.
To flip it over, when we were in League One we had the opposite problem. Teams who were having mediocre seasons like Fleetwood Crawley Shrewsbury etc would play out of their skin and put their best performances of the season when they played against us (according to their fans I recall). Why? Because we were a big scalp and biggest fixture of the year and it was a big draw coming to such a fine stadium.
Now I wonder if the opposite is true when established 'big name' teams come here, is it:
1. Complacency, due to the lack of 'big names' and our relatively lower stature in comparison to our opponents.
2. Lack of motivation to 'get stuck in'.
3. Defeatism before a ball had been kicked. I saw this when we played Reading last year, ok not the greatest of teams but they had some decent players but were absolutely pathetic, as good as we were.
4. Anything else?
5. A combination of some/all of these factors?
6. Not a valid theory at all, other teams don't tend to under perform against us particularly?
Interested to see other's perspective on this, UTB
Two things can be true at the same time however, and whilst it's an established fact that we played very well and tactically outsmarted Palace there is no denying that they didn't perform to their ability either as a team or individuals. I'm wondering why that might be. If someone had watched the two teams without knowing what league they were in they might assume we were one or maybe even two leagues above our opponents who had a supposed £80 million player up front.
For years we have (rightly) laughed at other fans for their arrogance before playing us then see them afterwards claim 'Sheffield are nothing special we were just especially crap'.
We aren't 'special' in terms of having 'star' players like Zaha, however we definitely are in terms of our manager team ethos and tactics which makes it hard for the opposition. Nevertheless Palace and plenty of other teams were especially crap against us I think at times, and I wonder if there are more reasons to it rather than 'just' us playing really well.
To flip it over, when we were in League One we had the opposite problem. Teams who were having mediocre seasons like Fleetwood Crawley Shrewsbury etc would play out of their skin and put their best performances of the season when they played against us (according to their fans I recall). Why? Because we were a big scalp and biggest fixture of the year and it was a big draw coming to such a fine stadium.
Now I wonder if the opposite is true when established 'big name' teams come here, is it:
1. Complacency, due to the lack of 'big names' and our relatively lower stature in comparison to our opponents.
2. Lack of motivation to 'get stuck in'.
3. Defeatism before a ball had been kicked. I saw this when we played Reading last year, ok not the greatest of teams but they had some decent players but were absolutely pathetic, as good as we were.
4. Anything else?
5. A combination of some/all of these factors?
6. Not a valid theory at all, other teams don't tend to under perform against us particularly?
Interested to see other's perspective on this, UTB