Swansea City vs Sheffield United

V.
Championship Week 2 - Saturday 14th August 2021 - 20:00 - Liberty Stadium

Please keep all discussion related to the match within this thread.
​

Matchday Stats/Player Ratings - https://www.s24su.com/forum/match-day/match/swansea-city-vs-sheffield-united.553/

Officials:

Referee: Keith Stroud
Assistant Referee: Ian Cooper
Assistant Referee: Sam Lewis
Fourth Official: Sam Allison

Coverage:

Follow via S24SU Twitter: https://twitter.com/s24su

Live TV Coverage:



SUTV Live - https://live.sufc.co.uk/

 

[Dnblade]

Happy with the point, we were poor but still early days, we have to be a lot better.. Well done to the Blades fans who travelled, but very quiet.

 

[bromtom]

Better than Brum, since we at least got a point but today, McGoldrick and Berge had absolute stinkers.

If McGoldrick isn't going to pass the ball he needs to not be on the pitch, let Brewster play there and have McBurnie on if we're playing with every striker on the pitch.

He squares the ball for Bill first half and it's 1-0

As with Brum "the system" is unclear, at any time you can look and see Brewster behind Norwood and Berge, Osborn ahead of McBurnie, it's a bit of a mess and the players don't look comfortable with it.

Robinson is too negative and ruins any attack on the left by shifting himself and passing backwards, and down the right, they all think they're Neymar and get tripped up with their own feet.

For me, McG needs a rest, Vieira and Davies straight in if they're here for the next one for Norwood and Robinson, try and get the ball moving a) forwards and b) quickly.

Tonight I though Brewster did quite well but was in the wrong position entirely really, Osborn was good when he came on, Bill was good - still looks our most likely to score, and I thought McBurnie had a decent cameo, certainly better than Burke and McGoldrick for me tonight.

We've got a point, but still a long way off.

 

[Lawrence]

The last thing we need is even more strikers on the pitch.

Brewster is the 20 mil Striker and he plays him wide

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

I said last season that Wilder had sqeezed all the juice out of these lemons in the two promotion seasons and the first Prem season,all thats left is lemon rind and pith.

Serious surgery needed.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

'My Take' could melt the internet after this one!

 

[LJBlade]

Too slow in midfield and attack simple as, no urgency or nous to unlock a defence, West Brom are gonna batter us and this place and Twitter will go into meltdown.

To be fair, you were in meltdown mode about 10 hours ago when you predicted that we’d get nothing from tonight’s game.

 

[Chingo]

Swap grimes for Norwood and we piss that game tonight !

 

[Jimmy Fleck]

To be fair, you were in meltdown mode about 10 hours ago when you predicted that we’d get nothing from tonight’s game.

Didn’t think Swansea would be as useless as us upfront tbh, a communal meltdown is different,

 

[mickhep]

As i saw it Bromtom,for 50mins I though Billy played well but tired quickly afterthat.Berge looked tired s/h he wasn't in the game at all.
Norwood was Norwood, Only ting I disagree on is Osborn, plenty of energy no end product though, work in progress...

 

[robbiez666]

Dogshit between two very bang average sides who both seem about as dangerous upfront as a lollipop in a gunfight. If you can't score then you're going to be in trouble. Two blanks. Didn't really threaten them that much and they didn't really threaten us that much. Borefest. The shape was all over the shop. I have no idea what formation we were playing, it seemed to change every couple of minutes.

Ramsdale - 6 - Not much to do. Made a standard save. Messed up coming out for a cross. Distribution was mixed. Gets an extra point for seeing settled after the week he must have had.
Robinson - 5 - Left back or LCB? I have no idea where he was playing. Made a good block early on but gave away a number if stupid and unnecessary freekicks.
Egan - 5.5 - made a few good headers and despite not being exactly busy never looked entirely comfortable when they were around the edge of the box
Basham - 5.5 - same really. almost overdid a few things but had little to do. Stood off too much on the odd occasion they actually attacked. Looked a bit messy with him and Baldock at times.
Baldock - 5 - As above really. A bit mess at times. They had a lot of room down his side. For me he stood off too much.
Berge - 4 - Got muscled off the ball by two players smaller than him first half and gave it away dangerously. Looks like a player who want to sit deep and just play easy passes. On the one occasion he actually made the effort to get forward created our best chance. He looks PL class going forward and L2 class defending. Sorry, He's played 2 terrible 45 minutes, 1 ok one and one good one and our fans seem to only focus on the good one. If we can get 25 million for him get rid. He doesn't fit our style or this league. He needs to play in a slow European league.
Norwood - 5 - Get an extra mark for slightly better set pieces than normal. A few different long passes but defensively poor and players still just run past him. You can't play Norwood and Berge together.
McGoldrick - 3.5 - I'm sorry, however much I love Didzy he is a terrible striker. How many chances does he not take or not even test the keeper? He missed 3 decent chances today. Only got one on target. For all his good link up play he gets the majority of his chances and messes them up.
Burke - 3 - Dangerous with his pace but tires after about 30 minutes and zero end product. I don't see his point.
Sharp - 5 - Put himself about and used his nous to get in good positions. Should have done better with a couple of chances. Not good enough for me to be starting in that central role. Not enough elements to his game.
Brewster - 5 - Lively and at least tried thing. His shooting is so erratic but at least tried to take on their defenders.

Subs

Osborn - 6 - Had acres of room, but inside and had a poor shot on his wrong foot. Got to the by-line and put a couple of good crosses in. At least brought energy and fight to the play. I'd rather have him next to Berge
McGoldrick - 3 - Got booked for being a dickhead. Did jack shit really. More intent on posing for his fans.
Bogle - 3 - He's tricky but in an aboslutely obvious way. When he's called on to do anything defensively he looks terrible.

Slav - 3 - No idea how we set up. 4-2-4 changing to a 4-2-1-3 to a 4-3-3 maybe. I wasn't sure where everyone was playing or what there role was. 2 games, zero goals. Swansea offered very little and it was 50/50 on which team was more dangerous. Hopefully he'll be able to play the way he wants to when Vieira and Davies come in. It just seems like a mess without a plan at the moment.

 

[JoeG]

If Slav knew he wanted to play with wingers when he came he should have made it an absolute priority to sign some. Brewster did his best playing in a completely unfamiliar position and Burke is just pure shite

 

[Geordie Blade]

Dogshit between two very bang average sides who both seem about as dangerous upfront as a lollipop in a gunfight. If you can't score then you're going to be in trouble. Two blanks. Didn't really threaten them that much and they didn't really threaten us that much. Borefest. The shape was all over the shop. I have no idea what formation we were playing, it seemed to change every couple of minutes.

Ramsdale - 6 - Not much to do. Made a standard save. Messed up coming out for a cross. Distribution was mixed. Gets an extra point for seeing settled after the week he must have had.
Robinson - 5 - Left back or LCB? I have no idea where he was playing. Made a good block early on but gave away a number if stupid and unnecessary freekicks.
Egan - 5.5 - made a few good headers and despite not being exactly busy never looked entirely comfortable when they were around the edge of the box
Basham - 5.5 - same really. almost overdid a few things but had little to do. Stood off too much on the odd occasion they actually attacked. Looked a bit messy with him and Baldock at times.
Baldock - 5 - As above really. A bit mess at times. They had a lot of room down his side. For me he stood off too much.
Berge - 4 - Got muscled off the ball by two players smaller than him first half and gave it away dangerously. Looks like a player who want to sit deep and just play easy passes. On the one occasion he actually made the effort to get forward created our best chance. He looks PL class going forward and L2 class defending. Sorry, He's played 2 terrible 45 minutes, 1 ok one and one good one and our fans seem to only focus on the good one. If we can get 25 million for him get rid. He doesn't fit our style or this league. He needs to play in a slow European league.
Norwood - 5 - Get an extra mark for slightly better set pieces than normal. A few different long passes but defensively poor and players still just run past him. You can't play Norwood and Berge together.
McGoldrick - 3.5 - I'm sorry, however much I love Didzy he is a terrible striker. How many chances does he not take or not even test the keeper? He missed 3 decent chances today. Only got one on target. For all his good link up play he gets the majority of his chances and messes them up.
Burke - 3 - Dangerous with his pace but tires after about 30 minutes and zero end product. I don't see his point.
Sharp - 5 - Put himself about and used his nous to get in good positions. Should have done better with a couple of chances. Not good enough for me to be starting in that central role. Not enough elements to his game.
Brewster - 5 - Lively and at least tried thing. His shooting is so erratic but at least tried to take on their defenders.

Subs

Osborn - 6 - Had acres of room, but inside and had a poor shot on his wrong foot. Got to the by-line and put a couple of good crosses in. At least brought energy and fight to the play. I'd rather have him next to Berge
McGoldrick - 3 - Got booked for being a dickhead. Did jack shit really. More intent on posing for his fans.
Bogle - 3 - He's tricky but in an aboslutely obvious way. When he's called on to do anything defensively he looks terrible.

Slav - 3 - No idea how we set up. 4-2-4 changing to a 4-2-1-3 to a 4-3-3 maybe. I wasn't sure where everyone was playing or what there role was. 2 games, zero goals. Swansea offered very little and it was 50/50 on which team was more dangerous. Hopefully he'll be able to play the way he wants to when Vieira and Davies come in. It just seems like a mess without a plan at the moment.

If McGoldrick took his chances today, we’d be talking about a decent team performance. 2-0 or 3-0 at Swansea would have been an excellent result.

 

[LJBlade]

Better than Brum, since we at least got a point but today, McGoldrick and Berge had absolute stinkers.

If McGoldrick isn't going to pass the ball he needs to not be on the pitch, let Brewster play there and have McBurnie on if we're playing with every striker on the pitch.

He squares the ball for Bill first half and it's 1-0

As with Brum "the system" is unclear, at any time you can look and see Brewster behind Norwood and Berge, Osborn ahead of McBurnie, it's a bit of a mess and the players don't look comfortable with it.

Robinson is too negative and ruins any attack on the left by shifting himself and passing backwards, and down the right, they all think they're Neymar and get tripped up with their own feet.

For me, McG needs a rest, Vieira and Davies straight in if they're here for the next one for Norwood and Robinson, try and get the ball moving a) forwards and b) quickly.

Tonight I though Brewster did quite well but was in the wrong position entirely really, Osborn was good when he came on, Bill was good - still looks our most likely to score, and I thought McBurnie had a decent cameo, certainly better than Burke and McGoldrick for me tonight.

We've got a point, but still a long way off.

Sensible, reasoned analysis? Can’t be having that on here.

Personally, I thought Berge was hampered by the formation. Playing in a defensive two with Norwood obviously meant he wasn’t able to run the ball forward like he did last week. Having said that, he still wasn’t great. Totally agree about McGoldrick. Possibly one of his worst games for us, I would’ve taken him off and left Brewster on.

As for the formation, I think it’s supposed to be extremely fluid, hence players seemingly being all over the place at times. Normally playing that way would open up opportunities but we haven’t got the creativity in midfield to capitalise on them.

 

[LJBlade]

Didn’t think Swansea would be as useless as us upfront tbh, a communal meltdown is different,

Good to see you’ve kicked off the ridiculousness early

 

[robbiez666]

If McGoldrick took his chances today, we’d be talking about a decent team performance. 2-0 or 3-0 at Swansea would have been an excellent result.

If I'd have made a number a good decisions I might have a happy life.

He didn't miss any sitters. You could say the same for them. they had a couple they should have done better with.

How can you possible thing that was a decent team performance?

 

[LJBlade]

If Slav knew he wanted to play with wingers when he came he should have made it an absolute priority to sign some. Brewster did his best playing in a completely unfamiliar position and Burke is just pure shite

I might have seen it differently but we didn’t play with wingers today, did we?

 

[Aston max]

Can the doom and gloom merchants give it a rest , fuck me I am one of the worst glass half empty blades in the 60 years I have been supporting them, I can't believe how many people believe that we just needed to turn up and we will go straight back up, give Slav time to get it right be patient and see where we are at Xmas then start slagging him off,we all know we need a rebuild including 5/6 new players, give berge a chance when he has got some quality with him and you will see the player he is ,I agree Burke should be playing rugby not football

Just give it time Ffs
UTB

 

[Geordie Blade]

If I'd have made a number a good decisions I might have a happy life.

He didn't miss any sitters. You could say the same for them. they had a couple they should have done better with.

How can you possible thing that was a decent team performance?

I don’t think it was a decent performance - it was average at best. My point is that if he had taken those chances (I think the header was a sitter), it changes everyone’s views.

 

[Chilttheblade]

No midfield. Anyone got Mo Besic’s phone number?

Is'nt he from the wrong side of Yugoslavia?

 

[bromtom]

Sensible, reasoned analysis? Can’t be having that on here.

Personally, I thought Berge was hampered by the formation. Playing in a defensive two with Norwood obviously meant he wasn’t able to run the ball forward like he did last week. Having said that, he still wasn’t great. Totally agree about McGoldrick. Possibly one of his worst games for us, I would’ve taken him off and left Brewster on.

As for the formation, I think it’s supposed to be extremely fluid, hence players seemingly being all over the place at times. Normally playing that way would open up opportunities but we haven’t got the creativity in midfield to capitalise on them.

Berge played in a way that reminded me of when I've watched him playing for Norway, which is extremely boring and doesn't use his talents at all.

He might have been a holding midfielder at Genk, and spend nearly the entire game in the centre circle for Norway but by forcing him to play RM, Wilder showed how his power and ball retention (when he's not having a shocker) are a dangerous attacking tool. Not using him to move us forward is daft.

As is not using Bash to get us forward, even if he's in a 2, Slav needs to recognise his ability to drive us up the pitch and maybe work it out with other players to stay back and let Bash run occasionally.

 

[Yogi]

I agree both Norwood and berge were poor but the formation didn’t help them. Committing to playing 4 up top meant the two fullbacks had to be very disciplined and really quite conservative in order for us to not get over run this meant there was a large gap between fullback and the wide forwards and Swansea knew it all their play went into that unoccupied space pulling berge and Norwood wide to try and compensate. They just played round our midfield two (not hard to do really when there’s only two players there) although once they’d done this they had no idea how to exploit it.

 

[JoeG]

I might have seen it differently but we didn’t play with wingers today, did we?

Where were Brewster and Burke playing then?

 

[Jinxy1966]

Flat as a witch's tit, new faces needed asap.

Fresh blood required to purge the negativity & lack of confidence that’s carried over from last season. Too many players still to scared to play forwards & going back/sideways. Commentator pointed out one occasion when Robinson apologised to Osborn for not playing it forwards when he was available down the left flank. Got to give Slav time to get his targets in & impose his style. For now he’s trying to get the best out of the squad that he inherited & as much as I appreciate all that Wilder achieved we’ve ended up with a squad that lacks confidence & dynamism.

 

[LJBlade]

Berge played in a way that reminded me of when I've watched him playing for Norway, which is extremely boring and doesn't use his talents at all.

He might have been a holding midfielder at Genk, and spend nearly the entire game in the centre circle for Norway but by forcing him to play RM, Wilder showed how his power and ball retention (when he's not having a shocker) are a dangerous attacking tool. Not using him to move us forward is daft.

As is not using Bash to get us forward, even if he's in a 2, Slav needs to recognise his ability to drive us up the pitch and maybe work it out with other players to stay back and let Bash run occasionally.

Agree entirely. Particularly in this division Berge has the ability to get us up the pitch. He wasn’t able to do so today because of the formation.

 

[LJBlade]

Where were Brewster and Burke playing then?

Wide of an attacking 3 is where I thought. As I say, I may have seen it differently

 

[Constantly Optimistic...]

performance

If, if, if......we were garbage, no idea how to attack at all. I will give Slavisa time, but so far, about 300 minutes played against poor opposition and one goal to show for it. Not good enough for the wages paid.

 

[robbiez666]

I don’t think it was a decent performance - it was average at best. My point is that if he had taken those chances (I think the header was a sitter), it changes everyone’s views.

I don't think they were guilt-edge though. He misses those kind of chances most games.

Swansea were dreadful. Clueless even. It's not a point against a good Swansea side. If they keep playing like that they'll be looking at the bottom of the league. They kept getting loads of space on their left and yet they didn't once try and take George on. Awful. Just kept passing sideways and backwards and then try a short from 35 yards.

 

[Hockey'sBeard]

Can see that SJ is shuffling the pack, trying all the players all over the place to try and work out who can play where but not many are showing themselves worthy !
Problem is that manager interviews with him are never going to be as enlightening or open as CW used to be (last season aside) so we will never be sure until he settles on his side and formation, hopefully with a couple of his signings too

 

[Lawrence]

Can see that SJ is shuffling the pack, trying all the players all over the place to try and work out who can play where but not many are showing themselves worthy !
Problem is that manager interviews with him are never going to be as enlightening or open as CW used to be (last season aside) so we will never be sure until he settles on his side and formation, hopefully with a couple of his signings too

For WBA we should go to ‘what we know’ 3 at the back, 2 wingbacks 3 across the middle 2 up front and then if Slav want to mess with it, change it, tweek it, over time that’s common sense! because at Swansea it looked like nobody knew what they were supposed to do!
Rammers
Bogal - Bash - Egan - Robinson - Baldo
Fleck - Didzy - Sanda (Norgood? Ozzy?)
and pick any 2 forwards (not Burke)
That formation would have walled the Swansea game!
IT’S NOT ROCKET SIENCE!
Or is Slav stubborn?

 

[SB_90]

this is all going to take patience unfortunately, which is disappointing, as i always say fulham were 17th when came to us in their promotion season. can you imagine the meltdown on here being 17th in november

i said last month that i had never had as much confidence in a sheff utd team. which is not baring fruit at the moment. but we have a point which better than nothing, the defensive organisation has improved compared to last saturday & in all 3 games we have had spells which shows what is to come. as the last 20 mins of both league games & 1st half of carlisle we got into some dangerous places. but this was always a possibility for any new manager which i why i wanted to keep wilder for continuity & to avoid the teething problems. but that was impossible due the falling out.

so as i said i know we dont have much of it just like when we had very little of it at the start of wilder reign when the rumours were he wouldve been sacked if we had lost to oxford. just have to wait