My take ...

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No room for that kind of language directed towards someone is there. Apart from that dickhead Norwood.

Is Norwood your dad or summat?

Did you think he played well tonight? What do you think he did which contributed toward our development toward goal?

Do you think he's a worthy player, and is deserved of a start every week?

What are his strengths?

pommpey
 

Is Norwood your dad or summat?

Did you think he played well tonight? What do you think he did which contributed toward our development toward goal?

Do you think he's a worthy player, and is deserved of a start every week?

What are his strengths?

pommpey
What are his strengths?
Blatantly obvious!
He s good at pointing.
 
What are his strengths?
Blatantly obvious!
He s good at pointing.

For that alone, he gets a 10/10

Don't know whether you notice that when he's not got the ball, he's always pointing at someone else to pass it to as though he doesn't want it. And whoever has the ball ignores him completely

pommpey
 
Is Norwood your dad or summat?

Did you think he played well tonight? What do you think he did which contributed toward our development toward goal?

Do you think he's a worthy player, and is deserved of a start every week?

What are his strengths?

pommpey
When was I sticking up for his performance?
 
I have to disagree with some of that Pommey mi owd
Ramsdale from my view in the chair couldn’t be faulted for Osborn ball watching and the ball going into the side from whence it came
GG , went up the hill numerous times only to come back down with nowt to show for it
Osborn is a trier and a squad filler
Jackie long throw is a squad filler and our inability since JOC was crocked by Deano before the beginning of last season is still haunting us
Norwood/Fleck a shot a piece , another blocked one good 50/50 tackle in first half poor fucking corners yet again and nowt much else
Burke , 1 shot fast as fuck but unfortunately shit as fuck
Moose did show a bit of pace in the first half his 2 crosses in deserved more the one where he kicked it over than ran onto it was good
Berge good second half shite first , few more displays like that and a 35 million bid will be in
Diddzy ran around a lot , didn’t creat much but one of the most influential players on the grass
Brewster started well when he came on but stay up top lad your a striker mate
Think Slav wanted to see them in a game situation and hopefully he’ll get his shit and our team in order ,
Still think top 6 but it’ll be a slog watching this again
Always a pleasure to read your thoughts
UTB
 
When was I sticking up for his performance?

So you know him personally then?

Okay, I will reverse the debate here.

What makes him not a dickhead, in your view? I have made it quite clear why I think he is one. Now it's your turn to counter that with some compelling evidence.

pommpey
 
Well, that was a great evening, wasn't it?

All those fans, in BDTBL, and the loudest rendition of GCB I have ever heard, and still we are seriously sub optimal, with several tens of millions of pounds of players on the teamsheet. If anything it was confirmation of my previous posts that if we play as we have, we'll get what we get. We consistently failed to get chances on goal, we faffed endlessly realigning across the back with the ball, we gave the ball to Norwood to pump it diagonal into 'nothing' and we failed to get a single effective shot the keeper had to save. Tell me, my detractors. What has changed since last season? Oh yes, we ditched our errant midfield turd and we obtained a new manager, who must be in the dressing room as I speak glowering menacingly at certain players who simply didn't fucking deliver tonight. I don't really want to hear 'it's early days' and 'we shoulda had penalties'. They are excuses, not reasons a developing, pretty average Birmingham City beat us tonight. What they did do is watch last seasons videos and plan accordingly. Be patient, allow us possession and close down options. It's not fucking rocket science to beat Sheffield United now, today, as we speak. Just press the player in possession, make them track back, push them to a game of pissing about across the pitch and the game is won. The only outlet for us is, and was tonight, the hollywood diagonal for runner or the rare speculative Baldock break through. All distanced shots were piss poor, no one gambled on the ball across the box. We were there to be beaten tonight. Once we had the fist chin shot, we were staggering about the ring swinging at fresh air.

Okay, small flashes of capability show. Berge and McGoldrick vie for a begrudging man of the match for us but that doesn't cover for the rest of the team who look disorganised and clueless. There's no meaningful movement, balls forward are predictably speculative and when we look like advancing and threatening, the end result is laughably shit. To have a fairly full BDTBL silenced and out sung by the BLLT is shameful, but I can't blame Unitedites for any of that. The team played fucking crap tonight - almost Adkins-level crap - and the fans pouring out at the end was understandable.

We are on zero points now, joint bottom with many other teams. On paper, we should have beaten Birmingham tonight but on grass we were really found wanting. Slav needs to get his scalpel out and cut the malignancy out of the team, get some quality in to get our momentum going. Leaving Basham out was a critical mistake, and having a limited pre-season is a shit excuse.

Ramsdale 5/10: He didn't have much to do, however his positioning for Colin's header and his feet and dive was characteristically shit
Baldock 5/10: Looks like he's struggling a bit and Chong was giving him a reyt run out.
Egan 5/10: Again, doing the centrebacking all on his own. However he doesn't look sharp. Good block early doors
Robinson: 3/10: I have no idea why Slav is playing him, apart from he has a left foot he can apparently use. He looked decidedly vulnerable tonight against Hogan and Jutkewitz
Osborn 4/10: Not a great match for him. Yep, he thrashes about and gets stuck in., but the outcome is mostly poor. Good cross at the end which everyone fucking missed, sadly but that was it really. Like Baldock, loads of goes forward, drags it back horseshit. Can't shoot at goal for toffee. What the fuck he was doing for their goal was anyone's guess
Berge 6/10: There are vast holes in that ninety minutes where you possibly think Berge has fucked off for a shit, and is sat looking at TikTok in trap four in the changing room. Then he's finished, pulls up his shorts, comes back on and gets on the ball and because no one is available he drops a shoulder and ghosts past two opposition players and is moving forward purposefully eventually into a brick wall or has to haul it back and give it to ...
Norwood 2/10: Look. You know what I am going to say. I have said it enough times but what I will say is this: Sheffield United won't progress with this dickhead in the side. He gets his two, and only just two, for his speculative kick at goal and a couple of long balls which went near our players a couple of times.
Fleck 3/10: I did hope John was playing tonight and certainly he made that great tackle in the first half. But the second half he was anonymous. When we signed him from Coventry we were all 'Oh, who the fuck is this? Even some of their supporters say he's shit!' Well, he's going back there, PDQ. Please tell me we don't have to look hard for the glimmers of what we once saw two long seasons ago.
Burke 3/10: Cor, can he run! Shit, can he not play football. He gets his three for the post hit, which if anything was possibly a miskick.
McGoldrick 6/10: Again, the only player who seems to get 'football' out there and try his best to create, harass and do something positive to appear like we might have a plan
Mousset 1/10: Injured again. As the commentators say, has never finished 90 minutes in his time in the UK and didn't disappoint. Anyone who said 'he's up for it' needs to gargle Fairy Liquid

Brewster 4/10: and early foray forward which got me out of my seat and then ... business as usual. Static, in the wrong place and for a striker, incredibly unclinical
Sharp unmarked. No chance to have an effect
McBurnie unmarked, but for fuck's sake man, get and stay in the box. Mixing it up outside just lets the players you should be terrorising off the hook

Birmingham had a fairly bruise-free encounter tonight and yes, their chants of 'Premier League, you're having a laugh' should ring in our players ears, We were playing PL football a short time ago and they are still on big paying contracts. It is inexcusable for anyone to defend tonight's match with bullshit smelling like 'no preseason', 'early days for Slav' and 'the ref was a cunt'. We played predictable, beatable football again under a new manager. The players who can't play any other way should be shipped out and we need Slav to shape a side who first of all has something different that doesn't involve Norwood's limited talents and secondly has the strikers punishing defences and executing their chances.

I expected a win tonight, and so did everyone else. Continue with this shite and we are in trouble. Next kick off I expect to see a lot of changes, both in system and style and also the players. Leaving Basham out for example - our only player who doesn't stop and go backwards when an opposition player fronts up and can beat a player with pace and skill like Berge can (when he's arsed) is a fucking crime.

pommpey
I just wish you'd say what you really think 🤣
 
Was it just me that thought it was just a CWAK side ?
I'm not just talking about players,but system?,was no different, effort first half poor.
Sad to say,but our blades have become really boring to watch.
No individuality, no flair, no intelligence, no interest for the most part,I dont envy our new man,not at all !
 
So you know him personally then?

Okay, I will reverse the debate here.

What makes him not a dickhead, in your view? I have made it quite clear why I think he is one. Now it's your turn to counter that with some compelling evidence.

pommpey
I don’t know him at all.

So you do actually personally dislike the bloke because, again, you don’t rate his football ability? I find it very bizarre, even on top of the narcissistic tone in every single one of your posts. It shows you up to be a pretty unpleasant bloke.
 
Fleck 3/10: I did hope John was playing tonight and certainly he made that great tackle in the first half. But the second half he was anonymous. When we signed him from Coventry we were all 'Oh, who the fuck is this? Even some of their supporters say he's shit!' Well, he's going back there, PDQ. Please tell me we don't have to look hard for the glimmers of what we once saw two long seasons ago.

Spot on as pretty much always Pomps although we've had some disagreements in the past. Fleck is literally my favourite player of the CW years, just ahead of Duffy, but I'm really struggling to see what he brings to the team anymore. He doesn't create, offers no threat from dead balls and doesn't get up and down any more like he used to. An absolute passenger unfortunately.

Burke 3/10: Cor, can he run! Shit, can he not play football. He gets his three for the post hit, which if anything was possibly a miskick.

A semi-official account on Twitter that does commentary for the hard of hearing gave him our MOTM. Based on tonight I'd suggest they go from hard of hearing to hard of seeing! Starting with themselves!

Brewster 4/10: and early foray forward which got me out of my seat and then ... business as usual. Static, in the wrong place and for a striker, incredibly unclinical
Sharp unmarked. No chance to have an effect
McBurnie unmarked, but for fuck's sake man, get and stay in the box. Mixing it up outside just lets the players you should be terrorising off the hook

Pretty hard to mark any of the substitute strikers/forwards as none of them had any service whatsoever. Even Harry Kane would struggle to score in this team!
 
I won’t waste everyone’s time repeating what I said about the game in Deadbats thread but will chime in to say I think that’s a very good summary Pompey.

My biggest concern was Jokanovic’s tactical naivety and the poor way he used the players at his disposal. Early days but worrying.
 
Unfortunately we now are now left with a whole bunch of players, who are past it or were just awful signings by CW on big contracts
We need desperately a creative centre midfield player and a winger
It’s clearly only the first match and early days but what Birmingham did to us last night is the same as what every other team will do, work hard, be organised and play on the break
We know this is a tough demanding division, but last night was just so much like a continuation of last season unfortunately
 
The pattern of the game was set inside the first 5 minutes,and apart from the odd minute or 2 here and there,it never changed.Most of our possession was in non dangerous areas,the whole performance smelled of fear,leader less,rudderless,no risk,no responsibility,what am I supposed do be doing fear,seen dozens of games like this over the years,and it definitely gets worse before it gets better,and in a lot of cases,does not end well.
 
Well, that was a great evening, wasn't it?

All those fans, in BDTBL, and the loudest rendition of GCB I have ever heard, and still we are seriously sub optimal, with several tens of millions of pounds of players on the teamsheet. If anything it was confirmation of my previous posts that if we play as we have, we'll get what we get. We consistently failed to get chances on goal, we faffed endlessly realigning across the back with the ball, we gave the ball to Norwood to pump it diagonal into 'nothing' and we failed to get a single effective shot the keeper had to save. Tell me, my detractors. What has changed since last season? Oh yes, we ditched our errant midfield turd and we obtained a new manager, who must be in the dressing room as I speak glowering menacingly at certain players who simply didn't fucking deliver tonight. I don't really want to hear 'it's early days' and 'we shoulda had penalties'. They are excuses, not reasons a developing, pretty average Birmingham City beat us tonight. What they did do is watch last seasons videos and plan accordingly. Be patient, allow us possession and close down options. It's not fucking rocket science to beat Sheffield United now, today, as we speak. Just press the player in possession, make them track back, push them to a game of pissing about across the pitch and the game is won. The only outlet for us is, and was tonight, the hollywood diagonal for runner or the rare speculative Baldock break through. All distanced shots were piss poor, no one gambled on the ball across the box. We were there to be beaten tonight. Once we had the fist chin shot, we were staggering about the ring swinging at fresh air.

Okay, small flashes of capability show. Berge and McGoldrick vie for a begrudging man of the match for us but that doesn't cover for the rest of the team who look disorganised and clueless. There's no meaningful movement, balls forward are predictably speculative and when we look like advancing and threatening, the end result is laughably shit. To have a fairly full BDTBL silenced and out sung by the BLLT is shameful, but I can't blame Unitedites for any of that. The team played fucking crap tonight - almost Adkins-level crap - and the fans pouring out at the end was understandable.

We are on zero points now, joint bottom with many other teams. On paper, we should have beaten Birmingham tonight but on grass we were really found wanting. Slav needs to get his scalpel out and cut the malignancy out of the team, get some quality in to get our momentum going. Leaving Basham out was a critical mistake, and having a limited pre-season is a shit excuse.

Ramsdale 5/10: He didn't have much to do, however his positioning for Colin's header and his feet and dive was characteristically shit
Baldock 5/10: Looks like he's struggling a bit and Chong was giving him a reyt run out.
Egan 5/10: Again, doing the centrebacking all on his own. However he doesn't look sharp. Good block early doors
Robinson: 3/10: I have no idea why Slav is playing him, apart from he has a left foot he can apparently use. He looked decidedly vulnerable tonight against Hogan and Jutkewitz
Osborn 4/10: Not a great match for him. Yep, he thrashes about and gets stuck in., but the outcome is mostly poor. Good cross at the end which everyone fucking missed, sadly but that was it really. Like Baldock, loads of goes forward, drags it back horseshit. Can't shoot at goal for toffee. What the fuck he was doing for their goal was anyone's guess
Berge 6/10: There are vast holes in that ninety minutes where you possibly think Berge has fucked off for a shit, and is sat looking at TikTok in trap four in the changing room. Then he's finished, pulls up his shorts, comes back on and gets on the ball and because no one is available he drops a shoulder and ghosts past two opposition players and is moving forward purposefully eventually into a brick wall or has to haul it back and give it to ...
Norwood 2/10: Look. You know what I am going to say. I have said it enough times but what I will say is this: Sheffield United won't progress with this dickhead in the side. He gets his two, and only just two, for his speculative kick at goal and a couple of long balls which went near our players a couple of times.
Fleck 3/10: I did hope John was playing tonight and certainly he made that great tackle in the first half. But the second half he was anonymous. When we signed him from Coventry we were all 'Oh, who the fuck is this? Even some of their supporters say he's shit!' Well, he's going back there, PDQ. Please tell me we don't have to look hard for the glimmers of what we once saw two long seasons ago.
Burke 3/10: Cor, can he run! Shit, can he not play football. He gets his three for the post hit, which if anything was possibly a miskick.
McGoldrick 6/10: Again, the only player who seems to get 'football' out there and try his best to create, harass and do something positive to appear like we might have a plan
Mousset 1/10: Injured again. As the commentators say, has never finished 90 minutes in his time in the UK and didn't disappoint. Anyone who said 'he's up for it' needs to gargle Fairy Liquid

Brewster 4/10: and early foray forward which got me out of my seat and then ... business as usual. Static, in the wrong place and for a striker, incredibly unclinical
Sharp unmarked. No chance to have an effect
McBurnie unmarked, but for fuck's sake man, get and stay in the box. Mixing it up outside just lets the players you should be terrorising off the hook

Birmingham had a fairly bruise-free encounter tonight and yes, their chants of 'Premier League, you're having a laugh' should ring in our players ears, We were playing PL football a short time ago and they are still on big paying contracts. It is inexcusable for anyone to defend tonight's match with bullshit smelling like 'no preseason', 'early days for Slav' and 'the ref was a cunt'. We played predictable, beatable football again under a new manager. The players who can't play any other way should be shipped out and we need Slav to shape a side who first of all has something different that doesn't involve Norwood's limited talents and secondly has the strikers punishing defences and executing their chances.

I expected a win tonight, and so did everyone else. Continue with this shite and we are in trouble. Next kick off I expect to see a lot of changes, both in system and style and also the players. Leaving Basham out for example - our only player who doesn't stop and go backwards when an opposition player fronts up and can beat a player with pace and skill like Berge can (when he's arsed) is a fucking crime.

pommpey
Can't disagree with you at all there pomps. Wow we are a shadow of the spritely team that finished 9th in the prem.
Not sure how we get out of this but by selling and buying a lot but that wont be easy. I'm very concerned. The thing that worries me the most is we have a losing mentality now and have to change it quick.
 

We lost something like 3 out of our first 6 games last season and still won the league at a canter. The only advicei’d give though is that finishing 9th in the premier league 2 seasons ago is irrelevant to now and harkingback to halcyon times under Wilder is equally irrelevant. This league isa scrap and you’ve got to be ready and up for it. Thinking you are fancy Dans and a cut above will get you nowhere.,you’re in this league for a reason, fans included,.
 
We lost something like 3 out of our first 6 games last season and still won the league at a canter. The only advicei’d give though is that finishing 9th in the premier league 2 seasons ago is irrelevant to now and harkingback to halcyon times under Wilder is equally irrelevant. This league isa scrap and you’ve got to be ready and up for it. Thinking you are fancy Dans and a cut above will get you nowhere.,you’re in this league for a reason, fans included,.
Your first sentence is puzzling.
 
Apologies to Pompey, as I skimmed the op, and to others, I skipped big chunks of the thread, because I had just read a lot of negative stuff on the match thread.

I agree we should be putting up better performances, but the 75% possession is based on slow build up, which is clearly not what Slav wants. Plenty of shots from outside the area is a positive, but midfielders getting stuck down channels with no outlet or support probably caused that stat?

It seems the team are stuck in last seasons time loop, and because, if they are not match fit, they revert to what they did last year in most cases. I was right to be concerned about Fleck and Norwood. Both on a down slope now in terms of their fading skills and physical ability. Mind you, if Didzy can still do it, what’s the excuse for the rest.

Berge, McBurnie and Sharp all coming back from injury. Osborne probably not a natural full back, but will not stint on effort. So many times people use the phrase, ‘he needs a full pre-season’. None of them have, none more so than Slav. He has decent squad on paper but it will take time, training and big effort to switch styles. He’s only been here a month and most of that has been wrecked by a poorly thought out fixture list and Covid isolation.

Not worried about him too much,, but the squad need to put their hands up in most cases. Accept your shortcomings and get your working boots on.
 
I don''t blame the likes of Robinson and Osborn, they're not good enough and that's not their fault. They should never have been signed by a club playing in the Premier League and those responsible for sanctioning it should be forced into a minimum six-month sabbatical where they have to watch EPL and La Liga matches for 84 hours a week until they fully understand what a top flight player actually looks like.

Both of those try their best so I exempt them from personal criticism. Last winter I did report Wilder to Amnesty International for torturing dear Jack by putting him up every week against Premier League players but they mumbled something about Calais and the Mexican Border and obviously never got round to it, because here he is again, now being provoked, at an admittedly lower level, by an entirely different captor. I'm sure that a 2-minute appeal on his behalf will soon be aired during the ad breaks on ITV3. Maybe Sean Bean could do the voiceover.

Is anyone old enough to remember kids program "The Herbs? Every time I watch Osborn I'm reminded of Dill the Dog. There he is again, scampering around in circles. busy to no great effect.

These criticisms sound personal but I don't mean them to be, both would be perfectly fine players at a lower level then we are meant to be aspiring to. Osborn is actually worth keeping as a squad player and Robinson would probably be commanding in L1.

Some of the others, though, are almost beyond words. In their case, it's thanks for the memories, football being a cruel sport where past achievements are quickly forgotten. I try to overcome that but then I think about the possibility of Norwood, Fleck et al helping to ruin another weekend.

I think we all know that the ones with anything about them are Basham, Baldock, Egan and McGoldrick, and even the later three played poorly by their own standards. And is someone going to suggest that there's a DoF somewhere who's going to look at that match last night and sanction £20m for Berge? If there is one out there, and I was the owner, I'd be telling him that we couldn't get the money together because the Thai Government won't allow us to transfer any funds.
 
It's a timely reminder we can't let jebbison go out on loan. No fucking way. RND "may" be difference when he's fit and I'd focus on giving Bogle his chance.

Might be time for the likes of Slater to get a chance plus a new midfielder (Viera?) however I'm mostly concerned with our forwards. Mousset looked the most unlaziest in a while and maybe Brewster needs game time as I'm sure there's potential there.
 
Osborn is being picked out here as the weak link defender,but the cross for the goal and all the other crosses that should have put them 3 up all came from the right full back position so who's the weak link here?
 
We need:
A LCB who can defend but almost more importantly doesn't take 25 minutes to control and pass. Robinson slows everything down so much.
A left back who's actually a left back.
Another ball carrier in midfield, preferably of at least average height and build.
A number 9 to act as a central focus point.
Anyone else on set pieces. Even Breeze Block Burke might be an improvement.
To figure out a way to play that keeps Didzy on the pitch because he's a terrible fit for 433
 
Bl
Mitigating factors - new manager, limited time, new system, lack of friendlies. Otherwise no new blood, same players looking even more at sea, poor selection (Osborne is not a LB, Robinson is a poor CH, Burke should be in Tokyo not on a football pitch, Mousset is an expensive lost cause, Norwood is a busted flush and Fleck looks increasingly ineffectual, Berge goes missing for huge chunks of the game, is slow thinking and cannot defend] serious ballwatching defensively. slow build up, lack of invention, team used to losing. If this is the group of players we have for the season its going to be a hard watch and tough going.

That cheered me up..but agree 100%
I still think the majority of players need fucking off unfortunately.

I fear we may be lingering around the wrong end of the table this season.
Hopefully we can hold on to sell the likes of berge etc to get some funds in and change the squad and get some players in he wants, otherwise......its-squeaky-bum-time-and-you-know-it.jpg
 
Very disappointed in the overall performance. When the ball went in my immediate thought was Ramsdale should have saved it. On reflection I think he definitely should have done a lot better a) come off his line to clear the cross? 2) positioning was (slightly) out & 3) reaction was abysmal i.e. he was was slow. Berge did vanish for periods in the game but going forward looked better - is RM right for him? A more central role further up the pitch? The main concern is the lack of belief & motivation. There was no fight in the side after they went behind. SJ stood looking like he was planning a mass extermination won't cut it. The result is important - the performance is more important - you can't argue against being beaten by a better side but tonight's display was not encouraging.
 
The pattern of the game was set inside the first 5 minutes,and apart from the odd minute or 2 here and there,it never changed.Most of our possession was in non dangerous areas,the whole performance smelled of fear,leader less,rudderless,no risk,no responsibility,what am I supposed do be doing fear,seen dozens of games like this over the years,and it definitely gets worse before it gets better,and in a lot of cases,does not end well.
Agree with every word of that. My only hope is that SJ has a reputation of changing things up, even early in games. He's got a job on with this squad as it stands. None of them look up for taking responsibility and that spreads like, er, a virus.
 

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