That we massively miss O’Connell I can definitely accept, although we left ourselves with little time and money to find an adequate replacement after we fannied about all transfer window trying to bag Brewster. We knew about the Henderson situation long enough to address this. We tried with Ramsdale who, unfortunately, hasn’t been as good for us. Probably not our fault as Henderson was out of our reach financially. However, Ramsdale certainly hasn’t been as bad as some have made out and he has kept the score down on at least a couple of occasions so I’m not sure this has had that big an impact. He seems to be facing more shots and more “unstoppable” chances than Hendo ever did! Granted that’s anecdotal and not based on stats, so I may be wrong.
As for no fans. Every team is dealing with this. It smacks of a lack of professionalism from our lot if they can’t overcome this and put in the same level of performance. Their personal pride really shouldn’t let them give any less, just because we aren’t physically there shouting for them. Everything seems to have gone, the organisation, the fitness, the ability to pass to a teammate. This isn’t down to the fans.
Did he have to use that specific word? The sentiment this season has definitely shifted from one of “we fear nobody” to “well, how can we be expected to compete? Look how much they’ve spent and the class of their players.” It’s all become very defeatist, very “little old Sheffield United” and very Warnock’s PL season and I don’t particularly like it.
