Playing Style

[Jehovah]

Under Blackwell, I remmber beating Peterborough 1-0 at the lane. I walked out thinking it was one of the shittiest games I had ever seen and the fact we won did not negate the fact I felt I had just completley wasted £20.

 

[flash-blade]

Midfield runners?

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.

 

[cooperblade]

I think that against Wycombe and Charlton, we started off passing it about and looked reasonably likely to score. In both games, for differing reasons, we then lost faith in what we were doing and started to play more and more direct which was to our detriment.

I don't agree with passing for passing's sake but, with the players we currently have, I think a passing style will prove much more effective for us at the moment than going long.

Our best 3 players attacking players, Quinn, McDonald and Evans (4 if Williamson rediscovers something resembling form) are all much more suited to a passing game and totally wasted in a long ball side.

Who is our target man to win flick ons and knock downs if we go long? Who are the pacey front players to feed off him and get in behind the opposition's defence?

It's rare to be able to say this but, at the moment, most of our players are technically better than a lot of the players they will come up against.

We have got into good positions on a pretty regular basis this season, where we've come unstuck is the quality of the final ball in - that won't change based on tactics.

We need to be more composed in the final third, we need to settle on a right sided player who isn't Williamson, we need to add pace, and we need to improve our set pieces. I don't think we should go more direct though.

 

[Large Mendonca]

Does anyone know if Mendez-Laing was injured/suspended last Saturday, or just not included in the 16 ?

I commented earlier in the game that we had 4 central midfielders on the pitch, so I think we could have afforded both him and Flynn in the 16. We were desperately crying out for width........

 

[Jehovah]

Does anyone know if Mendez-Laing was injured/suspended last Saturday, or just not included in the 16 ?

I commented earlier in the game that we had 4 central midfielders on the pitch, so I think we could have afforded both him and Flynn in the 16. We were desperately crying out for width........

I agree. I was sat in a different area saturday right next to the dugout (view is crap so low down) but we had nothing down the right wing thanks to the completley ineffective Williamson. If fit I would have brought Mendez on at Half time.

 

[cooperblade]

The 'failure' of NML and Ryan Flynn so far is making it difficult for us to pick a balanced midfield. I think DW should decide which one he prefers at this moment in time and give them a run of 5 or 6 games to try and establish themselves.

I'd give Flynn a run and use NML off the bench either to replace Flynn or as an option down the middle.

 

[super_pig]

>I'd much rather see us winning game playing hoofball, than losing playing this so called total football
one.. we aren't playing total football far from it.. plus if you want to play hoofball then you need a good target man (deane) and quick runners from midfield (bryson, whitehouse) that can get up and support .. we have neither.. two.. hoofball is positional football in the sense it relies on freekicks/throwins and corners higher up than when you started.. so you need to be good at set pieces (which we are shit at) and need someone with great delivery of the set piece.. people used to moan about john gannon .. he does nowt.. get thi hair cut and all that.. he had one of the best delivery of set play in the first division.. that was all he was there for
btw don't delude yourself that blackwell football was hoofball.. i know we call him hoofy but it wasnt hoofball it was italian style football hoping to grab a one nil based on a brilliant back five.. that we then sold .. ahem

what we need to do is get more pace in the side.. the likes of doyle, porter and collins make us pedestrian, this means that although we can pass round teams they have chance to get back in postion again!.. put williamson in his proper postion somehow.. ie in the middle.. cut out the defensive fuckups.. (collins).. get rid of the midfield non contributors (doyle) and the toothless support forward (porter).. and i'm still not convinced about the keeper but we are close to a half decent outfit at this level.. that is what is so frustrating.:fatbastard:

edit: oh yeah and did i mention we seriously need to improve our set plays .. defending and attacking. it used to be the case that a corner would get the crowd in a frenzy of anticipation.. now noone is really bothered and waits for us to lose the ball

 

[bricktop]

Pace back in the side, Danny Webber rumoured to be coming back.

Am i thinking along the right lines.

 

[Kenilworth]

Does anyone know if Mendez-Laing was injured/suspended last Saturday, or just not included in the 16 ?..

NML tweeted that he was fit and fine and he was not in the squad as a result of the managers decision.

Seems to me like DW has the opinion that he needs to use the older, experienced heads in the games like Hudds and Charlton.
That's why Willo plays in those games.
Seems to me like that sort thinking has backfired spectacularly - we need the pace and enthusiasm tempered with a little experience. Otherwise it's too slow and predicatbel and we end up wi nowt but egg on us faces.