Playing Style

[bricktop]

Having seen a poor performance today, one of my observations was that we didn't mix it up enough.

It's all well and good playing an attractive and expansive game, incorporating lots of passing but sometimes you need a change of tack, and i think today we should have played at a higher tempo, got plenty of balls pumped forward early in to the channels for the midfield runners to latch on, and tried to hit Charlton on the break, instead of fannying about with the ball and letting Charlton get men back before launching attacks.

At the end of the day we are Sheffield United and not fucking Barcelona.

 

[alcoblade]

Having seen a poor performance today, one of my observations was that we didn't mix it up enough.

It's all well and good playing an attractive and expansive game, incorporating lots of passing but sometimes you need a change of tack, and i think today we should have played at a higher tempo, got plenty of balls pumped forward early in to the channels for the midfield runners to latch on, and tried to hit Charlton on the break, instead of fannying about with the ball and letting Charlton get men back before launching attacks.

At the end of the day we are Sheffield United and not fucking Barcelona.

It's a bit of a fear of mine that when they gave Wilson the remit to play a more entertaining style, it could be taken too literally. We look too keen to not be the Sheffield United of old. More worrying though is that we don't have the players, even if the penny drops. If you're going to have forwards who aren't mobile you'd hope you'd have the luxury of relying on strength / aerial power. We've manage to avoid all those stregths, with none in replacement. I hope there's cash in the bank to do something, but I doubt it.

I thought at the end of last season that we were bad enough t be relegated again this. My target was consolidation. Though a good start has raised hopes, the reality is priority 1 is to get through this yer unscathed and offload our crippling wage bill. For me, next season is our chance. We could easily halve the wages and improve the squad, such is the mess we've previously made of things.

UTB

 

[SwissBlade]

I think we would've been less effective if we'd pumped it forward. The ball didn't stick up front, both porter and ched were poor and there was little supply into them as well.

We need pace and we need someone who can beat a defender.

 

[Kenilworth]

If we miss promo this season we will be third division bobbar for several more years.
I cannot see how shedding the wages of the high earners and working with a much, much smaller budget is going to make nay improvements.

 

[alcoblade]

If we miss promo this season we will be third division bobbar for several more years.
I cannot see how shedding the wages of the high earners and working with a much, much smaller budget is going to make nay improvements.

So, for example, you don't see how it's possible to save the £20,000 per week we pay Evans, pay someone £5,000 and still improve. Really?

Do you think that Monty, Quinn, Morgan, Cresswell, Simmo, Williamson, who all probably earn in the region of £10,000 - £15,000 per week, can't be bettered for a fraction of the cost?

It's a no brainer for me.

UTB

 

[Kenilworth]

No Alco. What I am saying is that we end the £20k a week hemorrhage and then look to survive on £2-4k players all through the squad - since that is the reality of the position we will be in - we will be in decline for many more years to come. If we stay in this division the budget will be SLASHED and we won't be able to afford anything decent. That's my concern.

BTW I'll bet that the likes of Flynn are on £5k. Is he the World beater you are seeking?

 

[alcoblade]

No Alco. What I am saying is that we end the £20k a week hemorrhage and then look to survive on £2-4k players all through the squad - since that is the reality of the position we will be in - we will be in decline for many more years to come. If we stay in this division the budget will be SLASHED and we won't be able to afford anything decent. That's my concern.

BTW I'll bet that the likes of Flynn are on £5k. Is he the World beater you are seeking?

He looks poor to me, but showed a little for once today. No way will he earn anything like £5,000 per week. Not a chance. We're scraping the barrel because of the existing playing staff.

However low our budget falls, there's plenty of reason to think that we'll have a well above average wage bill for this division. Your conclusion that we're destined to stay in this division for "many years" is your disappointment speaking.

UTB

 

[DuncDisorderly]

Be careful, fellow brothers of winning football. This talk that silky passing football on its own might not actually be the answer to all things, is dangerous stuff. I mean look at what happened to me last time I suggested it...

 

[William Large]

The passing in the first half was generally quite good but in and around the box there were numerous occassions where there was a clear opportunity to cross or shoot, but we continued to play pointless passes. I am glad to see us try and keep hold of the ball and work openings but it was really frustrating yesterday. Get into a decent position and cross the fucking thing! That said our strikers don't seem to be able to anticipate knock downs or chase down others shots as was blatant 2 or times.

 

[bricktop]

Good football comes when you become hard to beat, but you need to become hard to beat before you attempt to start playing good football.

One thing i think we need is a strong spine of the team, and yesterday we didn't seem to have that.

I've seen three of four managers try and change the culture of the club by playing this mythical total football, and to be honest it has failed every time.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Kendall and Spackman did quite well at it.

 

[oaklandrdblade]

My conclusion whilst watching yesterday is not that our players can't pass, it is that too often there is so little movement, so the player in possession has to either play a wonder pass to find his team mate or try and beat his man with little space to move into himself. This has been a major problem for me for quite a few seasons now.

 

[beechblade]

First half we used the width of the field and looked more dangerous, strecthing Chartlon by playing good passes and also moving into space off the ball, making them chase us, towards the end of the half we started to stop playing this way and allowed Charlton back into the game. Second half we started to play more centrally and our movement off the ball was almost non-existent, without the movement we gave the ball away needlessly. We need to use our wings more and for that we need to use our wingers, Quinn and Willo naturally start to gravtiate to the middle of the field were they're comfortable, doing this not only makes us predictable in attack it makes us easy to counter against.

 

[bricktop]

Kendall and Spackman did quite well at it.

Under both of those we still had a solid defence and made ourselves hard to beat.

 

[raul]

I would also have expected a Blackwell side to have had a go too. He would have fired them up a bit.

 

[Jonboy60]

long ball,total football,whatever you want to call any style is irrellevant. Its all about points.We need to get out of this league as soon as,don't care how we play.As we progress up the tables,2nd tier,championship and hopefully premiere the style of play should be an ongoing thing,NOT trying to play like Barcelona from the off.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Good football comes when you become hard to beat, but you need to become hard to beat before you attempt to start playing good football.

One thing i think we need is a strong spine of the team, and yesterday we didn't seem to have that.

I've seen three of four managers try and change the culture of the club by playing this mythical total football, and to be honest it has failed every time.

No spine Brownie - just jelly

---------- Post added at 03:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:35 PM ----------

Under both of those we still had a solid defence and made ourselves hard to beat.

3-5-2 mostly as well if I remember rightly. I :heart: 3-5-2 so much that when I was captain of Clitheroe House 2nd XI (De La Salle in the 60s), that's what we played and we were unbeaten for two seasons scoring an average of 5 goals and conceded less than 1 per game.

It did help that the opposition was crap

 

[mall]

Having seen a poor performance today, one of my observations was that we didn't mix it up enough.

It's all well and good playing an attractive and expansive game, incorporating lots of passing but sometimes you need a change of tack, and i think today we should have played at a higher tempo, got plenty of balls pumped forward early in to the channels for the midfield runners to latch on, and tried to hit Charlton on the break, instead of fannying about with the ball and letting Charlton get men back before launching attacks.

At the end of the day we are Sheffield United and not fucking Barcelona.

We played poorly today because Charlton didn't buckle under a first ten minute onlaught in which we looked on fire.Charlton went on to play their game which quitened us and kept composed and began to unravel us at their leisure.
They were a very good unit which highlighted our shortcomings all over the park.

 

[bricktop]

I would also have expected a Blackwell side to have had a go too. He would have fired them up a bit.

People can say what they like about Blackwell, but the players always went out there, put a shift in, and we looked a more organised side, and what's more we became a difficult team to beat.

I'm still of the opinion that if we hadn't rashly sacked Blackwell, then we would not be in this division. I also think that we was a bit too rash in sacking Micky Adams as well.

 

[Highbury_Blade]

I'm still of the opinion that if we hadn't rashly sacked Blackwell, then we would not be in this division. I also think that we was a bit too rash in sacking Micky Adams as well.

Agree on your 1st point but by god disagree vehemently on your second. He should have been binned long before the end of the season.

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

The main problem is in the final third.

As Swiss alluded to, if the ball doesnt stick up top you will have problems.

The ball will just keep coming back and the opposition will gradually get a foothold.

At any level of football you need good movement up front to press the opposition.

We dont have that and it makes life difficult when we lose the ball.

 

[Micalijo]

I would also have expected a Blackwell side to have had a go too. He would have fired them up a bit.

Is this a sick joke?

---------- Post added at 10:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 AM ----------

People can say what they like about Blackwell, but the players always went out there, put a shift in, and we looked a more organised side, and what's more we became a difficult team to beat.

I'm still of the opinion that if we hadn't rashly sacked Blackwell, then we would not be in this division. I also think that we was a bit too rash in sacking Micky Adams as well.

Is it comedy hour already?

 

[Darren]

Agree on your 1st point but by god disagree vehemently on your second. He should have been binned long before the end of the season.

Agreed. Has we stuck with Blackwell all season we would have ended up with a solid mid tabe 60 point finish. Had we had Adams all season we would have had a beyond hopelessness rock bottom 35 point finish.

 

[JJ Sefton]

Ive never understood the idea that playing lots of sideways passes in midfield makes for 'entertainment'. Personally Im entertained when the ball is in the opposition penalty box and it bothers me little whether it gets there following 67 passes or one long hoof from the centre half. We passed the ball plenty at Wycombe and I cant say I was overly entertained.

 

[Revolution]

Agreed. Has we stuck with Blackwell all season we would have ended up with a solid mid tabe 60 point finish

I don't think this is necessarily the case. Blackwell may have done a little better than Adams but not necessarily better than Speed. He had a wretched close season - the vast majority of the crap on the books were his signings, and his big idea was a midfield of scrappy non scoring midgets with Simon Walton somehow pulling the strings.

The writing was on the wall as early as the Hartlepool game.

 

[Rustyblade]

We can pass the ball plenty but it'll never really be effective as long as we have no pace in the side. All our passing does at the moment is allow the opposition to get men behind the ball.

 

[Revolution]

Ive never understood the idea that playing lots of sideways passes in midfield makes for 'entertainment'. Personally Im entertained when the ball is in the opposition penalty box and it bothers me little whether it gets there following 67 passes or one long hoof from the centre half. We passed the ball plenty at Wycombe and I cant say I was overly entertained.

I am reminded of the Luton game early in Kendall's reign, where United had 90% of the possession and spent the whole game passing beautifully to each other between the two penalty areas, and Luton sat back, watched them do it, and won 1-0 from a direct free kick.

Mind you, that team did start to win, but then again it had good players in it.

 

[Darren]

Agreed. Has we stuck with Blackwell all season we would have ended up with a solid mid tabe 60 point finish

I don't think this is necessarily the case. Blackwell may have done a little better than Adams but not necessarily better than Speed. He had a wretched close season - the vast majority of the crap on the books were his signings, and his big idea was a midfield of scrappy non scoring midgets with Simon Walton somehow pulling the strings.

The writing was on the wall as early as the Hartlepool game.

I don't think you can read too much into early defeats in the League Cup - after all we had an equally crap first round exit at home to Port Vale the previous season and 2 youngsters who have had no sniff of the first team since - James and Chappell - were played at Hartlepool.

Agreed that close season 2010 didn't exactly set the pulses running, but of the 11 who started and got that decent 1-1 draw at Cardiff in the first game only two - Ertl and Britton - were new signings. The rest were players who had acheived a solid 8th placed finish the previous season. I think that team would have been easily capable of a 10th-15th place finish under an half decent manager.

 

[raul]

Is this a sick joke?

---------- Post added at 10:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 AM ----------



Is it comedy hour already?

Mic, when the added time board whet up, there was universal disinterest, even under Blackie there would still have been that roar of encouragement and the belief we could still have got something.

 

[Revolution]

I don't agree Darren.

The form of Cresswell, Simonsen, Nosworthy and Quinn collapsed
Ditto Ward, who then got injured.
Yeates played well when Reid was here and was dreadful otherwise
Monty was worse than the previous year
We didn't have half a year of Walker or Kilgallon
Britton was even worse than Harper had been
Morgan was injured nearly all season

That team was significantly worse than the season before. Many of the players fell off a cliff. And I'm not sure that was down to a new manager, as only Quinn is appreciably better under any of 3 3 who've managed for any period of time since.

Hartlepool is a key game because it was the game when various people I have spoken to and who post on here started to talk seriously about relegation. My father said to me that night that he could not see where the goals were going to come from that season, and he was right.