Sander Berge

[Kevincarterversion2.0]

Berge clearly has talent, but I am not convinced he can play in the same team as Norwood. He was a total passenger for most of the game.

 

[Harry's Game]

When we signed him I remember a quote from the Norway manager saying he had “all the tools” to develop into a Viera style box to box midfielder And physically that looks true.

I think that is the role we have bought him for, but he’s not yet shown any indication that he can do that, he may grow into it but it looks a bit of a gamble at the moment.

 

[PokerBlade]

I've seen a few nice touches from Berge to give me hope but based on performances so far we look like a worse team with him in it. To be fair, it's hard making the move overseas, it's hard finding your feet in the Prem of all places, and with the way we play it's probably harder for players to settle in our system than a lot of other teams. And let's not forget that of all players he'll be one of those hit hardest by the break because it's set back his chance to gel with the squad.

I'm more than willing to believe (and I hope) that in a few months or a season's time we'll be laughing at comments about Berge in exactly the same way we laugh at the Coventry fans for saying they wouldn't miss Fleck, or less than a season ago when we thought Lundstram was well out of the picture. But right now Lundstram and Freeman are ahead of him from what I've seen, and I don't think it's that close. To be fair, Wilder doesn't tend to pick his teams based on name or price tag so he must be doing something right in training.

 

[CentralQuay]

I'll flip the coin and look at the other side too, instead of being purely positive.....

One worry about Berge that I would have, is why it has taken so long for anyone to take a punt on him.
He's been known about for a good few years, he's not some complete unknown that the bigger sides have missed out on.....And for just around £20 million, it's nothing for say a Barcelona to look at for 12 months, and if they don't think he's all that, they can move him on without a loss at that price.

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

Someone gets it.

Busquets and Iniesta were both midfielders in one of the greatest club sides ever.....
Put them in each others positions, that system is nowhere near as effective, and Barcelona win nothing during that era.





Running around a lot is one of the most overrated aspects of the 'British football fan'.

Busquets/Iniesta/Xavi were not a mobile midfield at all, they were not sprinting about the place at all. But they controlled every midfield they played against by keeping the ball when they had it, and being two steps ahead when they did not.......I've never seen Busquets sprint in his whole career.

So lets see how many goals [the reportedly £52 million] Timo Werner gets next season, Be lucky if it is 12, but 15 would be thought of as a success!

That's the cost of buying someone who has been a success in a decent league abroad!

Scoring 30 goals in the German league is a bit better than been a good prospect in the Belgian league

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

Berge clearly has talent, but I am not convinced he can play in the same team as Norwood. He was a total passenger for most of the game.

He can’t he either plays along side him or with him

 

[Bert]

Scoring 30 goals in the German league is a bit better than been a good prospect in the Belgian league

He's played 20 times for Norway.

 

[RWE]

Berge playing in the wrong position. Norwood poor. Lundstram on the left. Not hard to realise why our midfield was poor last night (including first game back in 3 months) L.Freeman has to start if Fleck not playing.

PS. If that goal wasn’t fucked up by technology/incompetence we’d all be feeling much better with 3 points. No need to panic.

 

[Birley Blade]

Berge playing in the wrong position. Norwood poor. Lundstram on the left. Not hard to realise why our midfield was poor last night (including first game back in 3 months) L.Freeman has to start if Fleck not playing.

He’s bang on. There’s got to be some attacking flair you can’t start with three fairly flat midfielders, a target man and a poacher up top. Needs to be some players who can drive forward (Freeman) and Didzy on to pick the ball up and take it forward. It’s got to be addressed pretty quickly or we’ll reap the consequences.

 

[Rodley]

With Berge you have to remember he is from Ghent, I was there last year, it's a small touristy type of place, not sure if it's a Town or a City but to move from there to another country at his age, and Sheffield at that - a big city in comparison with a totally different culture to what he is used to, and that's before the football side of things, he will need time to adapt to a new way of living and playing at a bigger club, give the lad time ffs.

UTB - upwards and upwards we go.

Think Sander was from Genk, which i think is a small industrial town. Not particularly quaint but pretty quiet I understand.

 

[Bobby b]

When people say his natural position is occupied by Norwood, but hes a different player altogether as I haven't seen berge even attempt the range of passes that Norwood does in every single game.
Ok you may say that he may not be the same type of player but he wants to occupy the same area of the pitch as he is more defensive, but he doesn't put many tackles in and if hes tracking a player he will stop at some point for someone else to make the tackle, hes slow he doesn't see many forward passes and tends to go sideways.
But.but like others have said I thought the same with coutes when he first came and I always thought that there was a player in lundstum but I seriously doubted we'd ever see it, so I hope I'm wrong, and that's not unusual for me, and that next season we see the player wilder saw.

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

He's played 20 times for Norway.

And ......

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

Paul Coutts was crap for about 2 years until he played in his proper position

 

[Grizzly blade]

Berge made a name for himself against Liverpool. And seems to be playing within himself, perhaps shackled a little by the system.
Maybe another position will suit him, but even off Norwood was missing I’m not sure he would add the same as Ollie does in that role.

I would like to see us raiding the German leagues, you rarely see a poor German player who fails here. Always technically excellent and seem to be grafters. I know we have looked to Retsos, but he’s not really succeeded in Germany

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

I have thought about this myself, but the only way to play Norwood & Berge as a pair would be to sacrifice a striker & I'm not sure any of our strikers are capable of playing a full 90 on their own.
So it would therefore involve bringing a striker in (very expensive) & also finding a very good replacement for Lundstram on the right hand side who can get up & support our attacks (also likely to be expensive).

From what I've seen, I'm not sure Berge justifies a reshuffle of the system to accommodate him.

Would it though? This formation really works best with Didsy as one of the forwards but he regularly drops really deep so we often play with one upfront but we have many who join the attack quickly, be that Didsy, JL7 or Fleck. Given this, maybe you aren't looking to buy a forward to replace Dids, but an attacking midfielder who can also take up positions upfront.

So you could have something like Norwood and Berge deeper allowing Fleck and/or the centre halves and wing backs to push on more as they did in the Championship. Up top you have a striker who can hold up the ball and the McGoldrick replacement running themselves to death filling out the midfield when we don't have the ball and up with the forward when going forward. Depending on the opposition, that role could be more akin to a Duffy role than an out and out forward.
Having Berge and Norwood as a defensive screen and also able to start attacks from that deep lying position means we can be less reserved when looking to push numbers on causing more overloads as well as stopping teams who look to pin our wingbacks in.

Just my idle thoughts of course.

 

[Espania blade]

Gi or you big snowflake.

Think Sander was from Genk, which i think is a small industrial town. Not particularly quaint but pretty quiet I understand.

Maybe Ghenk is in Wales (explains typo) It was Genk in Belgium we visited it was very pretty in a kind of "Snowflakey" sort of way .

Rodley, I was born and raised in Pitsmoor, i still have the scars to prove it - how can i be a "Snowflake" ?
If Sander was put into lodgings in Pitsmoor he would "grow a pair" very quickly

 

[Freethinker]

Two things to contribute.
1. Yes we looked better when Freeman came on, but Villa also looked knackered by then from all the pressing they had done by that time.
2. The demand for “Running around a lot” is in danger of becoming forum members replacement for demands for more “hoofball” - whatever became of that?

Hoofball was evident for 70 minutes last night only last twenty when we started to play through midfield

 

[pudseyblade]

How far we have come that the general consensus seems to be not fussed if we're sticking a TWENTY-FIVE MILLION POUND player on our bench. Magic.

 

[Sheff de party]

I agree with what many are saying that Berge has real quality and he will be excellent for us, but he’s been pretty average so far. He looks a bit overawed.

I don’t really understand why people like McBurnie so much though. £20m looks very expensive. He hardly ever scores anyway so why is he starting ahead of McGoldrick, who is the much more intelligent, creative and better hold up player.

 

[robbiez666]

I agree with what many are saying that Berge has real quality and he will be excellent for us, but he’s been pretty average so far. He looks a bit overawed.

I don’t really understand why people like McBurnie so much though. £20m looks very expensive. He hardly ever scores anyway so why is he starting ahead of McGoldrick, who is the much more intelligent, creative and better hold up player.

Look at our strikers. Not exactly a shedload of goals between them. We create very little. Especially for a striker like McBurnie.

 

[ShockingBadBuy]

Among everything else going off last night—thunder storm repeatedly taking out my Sky signal; Hawkeye/VAR rubbish; alternating between crowd noise and no noise; speculation about Retsos; provision of pies for BadBuy junior—I wasn’t able to concentrate properly on Sander’s contribution.

So I missed the vital stuff.

Can anyone comment on what he brought to the fisting?

 

[Bladesman]

On the occasions we've now seen him play, it's becoming clearer that he doesn't fit into our current system. Let's not kid ourselves. He is obviously an immense talent and I'm sure he'd be excellent in another set-up, perhaps Serie A, but our whole success is built upon every single one of our players having tenacity and a desire to win every ball. I'd cut our losses in the summer and accept we've made the wrong move. Things go wrong with signings, even if they are record ones.

A bit too soon to sack him off just yet and if you have a problem with that view then play me in our league match on FIFA.

 

[Sheff de party]

Look at our strikers. Not exactly a shedload of goals between them. We create very little. Especially for a striker like McBurnie.

I’d still expect a £20m to look dangerous but he never really does.

Mousset is miles better than him in my view.

 

[wavy-blade]

I think Chris will move him on if he doesn't pick up, He (Chris) has made mistakes before with signings and for one thing or another its not worked out . But the one thing Chris doesn't do is keep a player that doesn't work out , if he doesn't start performing by mid next season he will be gone .

 

[robbiez666]

I’d still expect a £20m to look dangerous but he never really does.

Mousset is miles better than him in my view.

I would be shocked to see Moisset here next year. If he put a shift in, he'd start every game. He doesn't do the tracking back or tackling anymore.

 

[raimond]

11 pages of this bleedinell, gi' 'im a break!! Our first spell of possession yesterday he dropped deep and we played through him for 5 or 6 passes, he looked class and he's shown ability every game he's played.

Absolutely he's not been dominating or imposing himself, and 100% he looks a bit overawed and out of his depth...for now. But he's 22!! And poor sod's just been in lockdown in a city he's just moved to and doesn't know.

Some drivel written here about his attitude and determination, don't talk bollocks, he's just settling in. And read if he was any good why hasn't someone got him before??!! He's twenty fucking two!!

I'm not the Berge fan club, he's been slightly Willie Falconer-esque in his performances so far but you can see he's got class. I don't buy that people think he's that bad, he's had the cheek to cost money so we demand he's the finished product instantly, and he's the latest scapegoat. Just f***ing shut up it's boring, let's see how he gets on first.

 

[BushBlade]

Among everything else going off last night—thunder storm repeatedly taking out my Sky signal; Hawkeye/VAR rubbish; alternating between crowd noise and no noise; speculation about Retsos; provision of pies for BadBuy junior—I wasn’t able to concentrate properly on Sander’s contribution.

So I missed the vital stuff.

Can anyone comment on what he brought to the fisting?

A small bottle of Norwegian cooking oil.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Do you pay top whack for an Oled Ultra HD 4K TV, only for it to perform at SD level ?

Top whack for a gore-tex jacket only for it to let the wind/ rain through ?

Bring in the numero uno sales director in his / her field to your company only to see him / her underperform agreed and achievable KPIs ?

The world is a very demanding place. Everything is instant. Blame Steve Jobs and a few others !!

Because of this, people want instant gratification. Instant results.

Not saying it’s right or that I totally agree with it but that’s the way it is. FACT.

As such, and whatever sample sizing of minutes / games you are making the judgement call from, it is fair to say the two lads in question here simply have not hit the ground running, and have consistently underperformed thus far. And so the criticism levied is therefore both constructive AND fair.

This may of course change over time.

Question is in the fast moving world of PL football, how long do you give it b4 you give up the ghost and admit defeat ?

Answers on a postcard .

UTB

 

[Bashamsarriving]

I was referring to Norwood's performance over this season so far , but I'm not a statto - are your figures based on last night's match alone ? They are percentage success rates - but how many actual duels/tackles were made by each player ?

Based off each of their games played so far this season, in all fairness Norwood has played a lot more games so it’s dumb to compare them right now but I just wanted to clear up how it’s abit silly to say berge ‘couldn’t tackle a fish supper’

 

[BushBlade]

It takes most players who come from abroad a while to settle in. Firmino wasn’t brilliant when he first came to Liverpool, nor was Son at Spurs and they were both highly rated in the Bundesliga. And Bale was fucking rubbish when he first joined Spurs and he wasn’t even foreign.

Either they’ll improve and become regulars or they won’t and they’ll get moved on. But we have the same discussions about many of our players. I’ll even admit to writing Stevens off a bit too quickly and saying Coutts was fucked from his injuries. I won’t make that mistake again.