Carra and Coady on the Blades

[Breakingblade]

Some intelligent analysis of the Blades from the mainstream media at last, been a long time coming.

Thought it was interesting though that they still didn't highlight the importance of Norwood's passing ability to this system - we're able to switch the play so effectively because of the f***ing ping.

Even in the clips they show, you can see Didsy in midfield linking up.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Good article that. I think it explains our "basic" style of football very well!

 

[JohnDenver]

Carragher and Coady. That’ll be a lorra lorra phlegm.

 

[Davalon]

I'd love Crooks to be called out on tv by one of his colleagues and asked to explain what he means by 'basic'.

Must have said it half a dozen times now.

 

[BushBlade]

Some intelligent analysis of the Blades from the mainstream media at last, been a long time coming.

Thought it was interesting though that they still didn't highlight the importance of Norwood's passing ability to this system - we're able to switch the play so effectively because of the f***ing ping.

Even in the clips they show, you can see Didsy in midfield linking up.

They did highlight Norwood’s intelligence, which is perhaps why his pings are so effective.

 

[I should coco]

hey did highlight Norwood’s intelligence, which is perhaps why his pings are so effective.

That's why it works so well, due to the wider team contribution.

While the football hipsters cream themselves with our 'overlapping centre backs', Norwood is swapping it from wing to wing and Didsy dropping deeper to link up play and keep the ball moving.

It can be like poetry at times.

 

[Woodwaaard]

Carragher and Coady. That’ll be a lorra lorra phlegm.

Wait until Ancellotti gets the Everton job, there'll be veritable flob tsunami

 

[BushBlade]

That's why it works so well, due to the wider team contribution.

While the football hipsters cream themselves with our 'overlapping centre backs', Norwood is swapping it from wing to wing and Didsy dropping deeper to link up play and keep the ball moving.

It can be like poetry at times.

They could have spent half an hour analysing us. They didn’t even touch on our off the ball stuff, why we don’t concede, how we vary our approach to try to manage the game.

 

[SwissBlade]

I’ve said it before but the first few games of the season teams seemed to believe that they could roll us over without too much research. They played their own way and we gave them problems whilst we were building our con

However, in the last few games - villa, Norwich, Newcastle and Wolves, we’ve faced all of those managers in the championship, so they all know how we play.

I’d say that this season, only Wolves, Leicester and Liverpool look to have not only coped but really had us on the back foot.

Great to see the analysis from Carra, the wingback overloads are a huge part of our system. But it also allows for the runs from midfield from Fleck and Lunny

 

[blademark]

Excellent insight (once I'd put subtitles on)

 

[KoppedOff]

I'd love Crooks to be called out on tv by one of his colleagues and asked to explain what he means by 'basic'.

Must have said it half a dozen times now.

Its an interesting point- Alan Shearer has been heaping praise on us all season. So has Jermaine Jenas, Dion Dublin and other BBC/MOTD/Football Focus pundits. Even Dan “Part Time Pig” Walker has praised us.

So Crooks is essentially saying his fellow BBC pundits are wrong. Not only wrong, but hugely wrong. It would be nice if one of them called him out, but they seem to keep him nicely away from the ones who might do (Shearer, namely). Its the BBC; they dont like conflict. Everybody must get along at all times with no controversy ever.

 

[TCsLoveChild]

Can you imagine Garth Crookes on that program, he would literally sit there open mouthed without saying a word, wondering what the feck they were talking about UTB

 

[BettingBlade]

Coady was talking about his time on loan he as well towards the end of the show. Got a bit of stick from Carra when he Coady mentioned that he played as an attacking midfielder at times. He was a top player for us.

Interesting that all the pundits who are known for the in depth analysis, Carragher and Neville on MNF, Shearer etc on MOTD and Kamara on GOS for example, are the ones who are actually really impressed by us. The only ones who are still critical are people like Mills on talkshite and Crooks who also talks shite but on the BBC.

 

[MightyBlades]

Crookes has been stealing a massive wage from the BBC (me and you) for decades now.

Nothing at all to do with the colour of his skin, that he's still got a cushy job there, even though he's completely fucking clueless!

 

[Gimli]

Coady was talking about his time on loan he as well towards the end of the show. Got a bit of stick from Carra when he Coady mentioned that he played as an attacking midfielder at times. He was a top player for us.

Interesting that all the pundits who are known for the in depth analysis, Carragher and Neville on MNF, Shearer etc on MOTD and Kamara on GOS for example, are the ones who are actually really impressed by us. The only ones who are still critical are people like Mills on talkshite and Crooks who also talks shite but on the BBC.

It’s becoming embarrassing for those pundits who still can’t be arsed to do even a modicum of research about us - like Savage said to a caller on 6-0-6 “you haven’t watched Sheff United play have you” - that was just an average fan, you’d expect pundits to have at least a , dare I say, ‘basic’ understanding of our system and style

 

[BigBed]

Some intelligent analysis of the Blades from the mainstream media at last, been a long time coming.

Thought it was interesting though that they still didn't highlight the importance of Norwood's passing ability to this system - we're able to switch the play so effectively because of the f***ing ping.

Even in the clips they show, you can see Didsy in midfield linking up.

ATTENTION GARTH CROOKS!!!!!
THIS BLOKE HERE KNOWS WHAT HES TALKING ABOUT, MAYBE YOU SHOULD SIT NEXT TO HIM IN CLASS THIS WEEK, TWAT.

 

[Jonboy60]

 

[shorehamview]

Our basic system is basically really complex and sophisticated, so basically basic teams can’t comprehend what’s basically going on, to be basic.

 

[Red Wing Blade]

It's no longer a surprise seeing these videos, they've been around all season. We've had consistent praise coming from pundits throughout. Funnily enough Crooks and Mills have gone very quiet when it comes to us, though Crooks has acknowledged players by selecting them in his team of the week, even if he is still massively ignorant towards our style of play.

Alan Shearer once again selected a Blade for his team of the week. I think we've had a player in his team at least half of the time so far.

Shearer, Jenas, Cahill, Dublin, Carragher and Neville have been full of praise for us all season and have never put our results down to the opposition having an off day.

Sometimes posts in these threads can come across as sour grapes, when there's nothing to be sour about. Unfortunately negativity often stands out and is remembered over praise, so Crooks and Mills get more attention than the guys who admire us.

 

[Sheffsteel]

It's no longer a surprise seeing these videos, they've been around all season. We've had consistent praise coming from pundits throughout.

Agree but some of it is contrascending praise.

Ray Houghton bigged us up on Talksport yesterday afternoon saying how we’ve been a breathe of fresh air to the PL.
He said we play pass and move with unbelievable work rate and movement, apparently we play with no pressure and play with a smile on our faces.

He said our fans should enjoy it because it won’t last, said the individual players all have a journeymen background and eventually they will tire or be tactically found out 2nd half of the season. However Houghton agreed with the other presenters that we’ve probably already amassed enough points to stay up so we can have one eye preparing for next season and that will be a massive test of Wilders management credentials.

He wondered how the morale within the squad will cope when better players are brought in to replace the regular 1st teamers.
Houghton asked how we’ll cope with 2nd season syndrome. How we’d cope with higher expectation and other PL coaches being better prepared next time.

 

[Rochdaleblade]

Crookes has been stealing a massive wage from the BBC (me and you) for decades now.

Nothing at all to do with the colour of his skin, that he's still got a cushy job there, even though he's completely fucking clueless!

Has anyone ever seen him and Dianne Abbott at the same time? Could it be that he just puts on a wig and glasses and becomes a member of the Labour front bench? They both have the habit of speaking very slowly whilst staring blankly in to space and talking shite about things that they clearly haven't bothered to look up.

 

[metalblade]

Agree but some of it is contrascending praise.

Ray Houghton bigged us up on Talksport yesterday afternoon saying how we’ve been a breathe of fresh air to the PL.
He said we play pass and move with unbelievable work rate and movement, apparently we play with no pressure and play with a smile on our faces.

He said our fans should enjoy it because it won’t last, said the individual players all have a journeymen background and eventually they will tire or be tactically found out 2nd half of the season. However Houghton agreed with the other presenters that we’ve probably already amassed enough points to stay up so we can have one eye preparing for next season and that will be a massive test of Wilders management credentials.

He wondered how the morale within the squad will cope when better players are brought in to replace the regular 1st teamers.
Houghton asked how we’ll cope with 2nd season syndrome. How we’d cope with higher expectation and other PL coaches being better prepared next time.

Who gives a toss what Ray Houghton thinks, those last two paragraphs could have been lifted from Porktalk the week after we gave them the 2-4 drubbing. We have heard it all before one day it will come true after all a stopped clock is right twice a day.
I'd say our tactics are fairly simple ................... organised chaos. Take any one of our players and at some point in the game he will pop up in an area he should never be in if he was playing in other teams. We play with a huge amount of freedom all over the pitch and must be a nightmare to man mark, more and more teams seem to be trying the park the bus tactics against us.

 

[Jonboy60]

Agree but some of it is contrascending praise.

Ray Houghton bigged us up on Talksport yesterday afternoon saying how we’ve been a breathe of fresh air to the PL.
He said we play pass and move with unbelievable work rate and movement, apparently we play with no pressure and play with a smile on our faces.

He said our fans should enjoy it because it won’t last, said the individual players all have a journeymen background and eventually they will tire or be tactically found out 2nd half of the season. However Houghton agreed with the other presenters that we’ve probably already amassed enough points to stay up so we can have one eye preparing for next season and that will be a massive test of Wilders management credentials.

He wondered how the morale within the squad will cope when better players are brought in to replace the regular 1st teamers.
Houghton asked how we’ll cope with 2nd season syndrome. How we’d cope with higher expectation and other PL coaches being better prepared next time.

I will we cope ray.
I don’t know, let’s ask Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche.

 

[Grecian2000]

He wondered how the morale within the squad will cope when better players are brought in to replace the regular 1st teamers.
Houghton asked how we’ll cope with 2nd season syndrome. How we’d cope with higher expectation and other PL coaches being better prepared next time.

Who was he "wondering" to?
If he was asking me that shit I'd have said:
1. Ask John Fleck and Billy Sharp
2. Perhaps in the same way we coped with 2nd season syndrome in Div2.
3. Who is this higher expectation coming from?
4. Why weren't these world class coaches prepared for us THIS season? Are they really just a bunch of lazy cunts who couldn't be bothered to check us out prior to playing us?

I really don't care what anyone else is saying or doing. I'm enjoying us playing MORE than at any other time since I saw my first game in 1963. All the rest can have their opinions, won't stop me one iota and, if anything, I look forward to us tweaking for the better, not worrying for the worse.

 

[Scooter_mcgavin]

Who was he "wondering" to?
If he was asking me that shit I'd have said:
1. Ask John Fleck and Billy Sharp
2. Perhaps in the same way we coped with 2nd season syndrome in Div2.
3. Who is this higher expectation coming from?
4. Why weren't these world class coaches prepared for us THIS season? Are they really just a bunch of lazy cunts who couldn't be bothered to check us out prior to playing us?

I really don't care what anyone else is saying or doing. I'm enjoying us playing MORE than at any other time since I saw my first game in 1963. All the rest can have their opinions, won't stop me one iota and, if anything, I look forward to us tweaking for the better, not worrying for the worse.

Exactly - tweaking.

Wilder has said in many interviews that clubs can't stand still. This is both from a recruitment perspective and tactical.

I have faith that Wilder and Knill know what they're doing.

Regarding being sussed out....so far we're yet to be. On Talksport yesterday afternoon Danny Murphy was asked if anyone had worked us out yet... he said"Well Liverpool and Newcastle won there".

However neither of those victories were down to nullifying us and working us out.

 

[FreePaulRodgers]

Our basic system is basically really complex and sophisticated, so basically basic teams can’t comprehend what’s basically going on, to be basic.

What about Mo basic ?

 

[PokerBlade]

They could have spent half an hour analysing us. They didn’t even touch on our off the ball stuff, why we don’t concede, how we vary our approach to try to manage the game.

The main part that gets overlooked is how few goals we concede, relatively speaking, on the counter-attack. It's easy to commit bodies forward but the fascinating thing is that while we score goals with our centre-back on the edge of the opposition box, and against Norwich with a cross from wingback to wingback, we rely on the intelligence of Norwood (and the other two depending on the flow of the game) to drop into the missing defensive positions. This is why I loved the description of "organised chaos".

We have players comfortable drifting into different positions as needed (last season Fleck would often find himself covering what looked like a full back position, McGoldrick drops deep and plays across the midfield, Duffy would play both wings and in behind the front two) but it's all underpinned by the intelligence of the players to know when to support an attack and when to drop into cover an exposed position.

 

[Grizzly blade]

Agree but some of it is contrascending praise.

Ray Houghton bigged us up on Talksport yesterday afternoon saying how we’ve been a breathe of fresh air to the PL.
He said we play pass and move with unbelievable work rate and movement, apparently we play with no pressure and play with a smile on our faces.

He said our fans should enjoy it because it won’t last, said the individual players all have a journeymen background and eventually they will tire or be tactically found out 2nd half of the season. However Houghton agreed with the other presenters that we’ve probably already amassed enough points to stay up so we can have one eye preparing for next season and that will be a massive test of Wilders management credentials.

He wondered how the morale within the squad will cope when better players are brought in to replace the regular 1st teamers.
Houghton asked how we’ll cope with 2nd season syndrome. How we’d cope with higher expectation and other PL coaches being better prepared next time.

Let’s be fair, most of the time Houghton would be absolutely right, and even Wolves started a little dodgy like they might be another example!
However, this ain’t an ordinary team or an ordinary manager, and I doubt very much that Wilder has any intention of out and out replacing many of those currently starting.
He’s more likely to strengthen up top, and add competition in midfield rather than out and out replace.
I mean who in the premier would we take to replace Norwood? Or Fleck? And the midfield is the engine room that wins games!!

so although we will of course get more players in, it’s more likely to be less of a change than many think and more a steady and gradual improvement (as we have up to now)

 

[Large Mendonca]

That'll be another quote pinned onto the Blades notice board by Wilder - think we'll have to buy a bigger notice board at this rate !

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Exactly - tweaking.

Wilder has said in many interviews that clubs can't stand still. This is both from a recruitment perspective and tactical.

I have faith that Wilder and Knill know what they're doing.

Regarding being sussed out....so far we're yet to be. On Talksport yesterday afternoon Danny Murphy was asked if anyone had worked us out yet... he said"Well Liverpool and Newcastle won there".

However neither of those victories were down to nullifying us and working us out.

Liverpool beat us because they have an outstanding side. We rode them close & were eventually unstuck by a goalkeeping error, but outside of this they still did have some great opportunities to score.

Newcastle, you could argue, to some extent "figured us out." Our style of play is less effective against teams that defend deep & allow us possession. I expect Watford to follow that model on Boxing Day.