The fantastically fickle minds of football fans

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Sheff de party

Sheff de party

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Just looking at some of the comments on here, and on Twitter/WhatsApp groups, about Norwood now being an integral part of the team. A few weeks ago he was weak as piss, couldn’t pass any more and needed farming out during a complete rebuild.

Hecky has gone from the cheap option to the Messiah, Brewster has metamorphosed from a complete waste of money to utter despair at his injury and as for McGoldrick, I never understand some of the stuff that’s written about him.

McBurnie can now save our season after a couple of cameos, Bogle is actually good at football and Hourihane can play a bit too.

League One Wes has been promoted to Champions League Wes, Billy actually can hit the target and even Robinson is now a proper defender.

It’s almost as if players who have proven themselves to be quality over a number of years can have bad patches during which time the toys don’t need to be thrown out of the pram. What a difference a few wins make.

And for the avoidance of doubt, I am obviously guilty of it too :)
 



Sheff de party said:
Just looking at some of the comments on here, and on Twitter/WhatsApp groups, about Norwood now being an integral part of the team. A few weeks ago he was weak as piss, couldn’t pass any more and needed farming out during a complete rebuild.

Hecky has gone from the cheap option to the Messiah, Brewster has metamorphosed from a complete waste of money to utter despair at his injury and as for McGoldrick, I never understand some of the stuff that’s written about him.

McBurnie can now save our season after a couple of cameos, Bogle is actually good at football and Hourihane can play a bit too.

League One Wes has been promoted to Champions League Wes, Billy actually can hit the target and even Robinson is now a proper defender.

It’s almost as if players who have proven themselves to be quality over a number of years can have bad patches during which time the toys don’t need to be thrown out of the pram. What a difference a few wins make.

And for the avoidance of doubt, I am obviously guilty of it too :)
Click to expand...
I think the players have really stepped up their games, and a lot of the negativity was warranted.
Norwood is certainly one of those. He's got notably more aggressive and assertive.

Can they only play one way? Probably. Hence why trying to rebuild with a foreign manager who has major success playing 4-3-3 with quick, skillful players was a bit of an odd one in the first place.
 
Yep, well it's all part of the fun I s'pose and as you say, we're all at least partially guilty of it. And Heckingbottom is giving players their confidence back so there's signs of a Coutts-like turnaround in one or two.

I do reckon folk's reactions are getting a bit more extreme generally though and some set their stall out to like/hate/defend/slag off a player no matter how they actually play- a few decent examples of that on here last weekend.
 
I'm bad for this, at the moment I wouldn't have Fleck or Stevens anywhere near the team. 2 seasons ago they were 2 of my favourite Blades players ever.

Norwood has come in for some stick and I don't think he's become amazing, everyone has just realised that we need him in the team as we are crap without him.
 
Whims,tantrums,hyperbole,the self righteous,the snowflakes and the odd knuckle dragger as long as I don’t have to sit next to em at the lane it’s all good.
 
It’s chicken and egg really. I don’t really go in for abusing players as it’s counter productive but

Fans want to get behind the players - in the same instance we need something to shout about! Give us a performance or two and the majority will be right behind you.

That said there’s are some scars of going months and months without anything to celebrate. It’s not a shock that We are finally getting some results at the minute and it coincided with more positive reaction from the fans.
 
Scarebus said:
I'm shit at football, but I did get Torquay United from National League to the Champions League on Football Manager, so I'd like to think I know a thing or 2
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I persuaded Mbappe’ and Messi to join the Blades so I could beat my son on FIFA 22…..easy innit!
 
Lets be honest - those players had been really poor for 18 months and deserved critizing. Many were on Prem wages getting the run around by low championship teams.

Its great that they have hit some form, but some of them need to show its not just a flash in the pan.

Still question marks over Mcburnie, Fleck, Berge, and Brewster (4/5 good games so far)
 
That is why I take most things written on this board with a pinch of salt. The majority of our more vocal members (in written terms, not sure how many actually go to the games) are way over the top with criticism, but then generally change their mind after a couple of 'better' performances. I really hope that the players don't read the shit that is often posted on here (but alas they are internet generation blokes, so I reckon that some do). No matter what somebody thinks about themself, none of us are real football people, otherwise we wouldn't be sat in the stand/in front of the tv watching it and giving our uneducated opinion on it, rather we'd be actively involved. When Hecky makes a change or two, the reactions on here are often hilarious - but we don't know the players physical or current mental state. We don't know shit really, do we.

Luckily me and my 8 - 12 or so mates that go to the games together are all of the same ilk. We have a pint, take the piss out each other and offer our completely admitted uneducated and unqualified opinions on how the team should set up and play - but at the end of the day, accept that the blokes who are actually in the game and have to make those decisions for real know faaaaaar more than we do. Like with everthing in life, sometimes they'll get things right and sometimes they'll get things wrong. But should be judged on overall performance.
 



Most, if not all, of the players in the current squad have had at least one awful period over the last 2 years. I think it's just important to not completely write players off.

I had done with Brewster before he started to look like a good prospect again before his injury.
 
There are a lot of good points on this thread.

It does feel like we're a fickle bunch, slating players one minute and hailing them the next. However I don't track everyone's activity so maybe it's not the same ones, just differences of opinions or just the mindset of different people. I got talking to a supposed Blade fella in our local about 2 years ago when we were 5th or 6th in the Premier League and he was still moaning about us! I nearly fell out with him because I was saying, "What do you really expect?" and "I'd hate to have met you when we were mid table in League One!". For some people, it's never good enough, we don't play the right way, we don't spend gazillions on players, so and so is crap blah blah blah... I do wonder what enjoyment these people get out of it.

For me, players don't suddenly become shite overnight and neither do managers. There are many factors that contribute to whether we're winning or losing. There are many factors that contribute to how a player performs, are they carrying an injury, have they lost confidence and belief, are they not happy or uncomfortable with what the manager wants them to do, were they actually OVER-performing and at the top of their game before and have been unable to sustain it.

Paul Coutts is a good example. When he signed for us, he was clearly still struggling coming back from a bad injury. Then he was clearly unhappy or uncomfortable with his role and the way the team was set up to play. Wilder came in, realised he was a good ball player that keeps possession and played him in a set up that suited him much better.

For all we now rave about Bash, he was in a similar situation. Before Wilder came in and transformed him into the roving RCB we are now accustomed to, he was a nothing player, a bang average midfielder, centre back or sometimes right back or wing back - he had no settled role in the team and suffered because of it.
 
Whilst I get the point from the OP, would be a pretty bland forum without. I often think that football heaven/ praise & grumble is really only worth listening to, when teams are going through a bad patch.
 
Sheff de party said:
Just looking at some of the comments on here, and on Twitter/WhatsApp groups, about Norwood now being an integral part of the team. A few weeks ago he was weak as piss, couldn’t pass any more and needed farming out during a complete rebuild.

Hecky has gone from the cheap option to the Messiah, Brewster has metamorphosed from a complete waste of money to utter despair at his injury and as for McGoldrick, I never understand some of the stuff that’s written about him.

McBurnie can now save our season after a couple of cameos, Bogle is actually good at football and Hourihane can play a bit too.

League One Wes has been promoted to Champions League Wes, Billy actually can hit the target and even Robinson is now a proper defender.

It’s almost as if players who have proven themselves to be quality over a number of years can have bad patches during which time the toys don’t need to be thrown out of the pram. What a difference a few wins make.

And for the avoidance of doubt, I am obviously guilty of it too :)
Click to expand...
Welcome to the internet, a place where opposing opinions are greeted like personal insults, praise is taken as simping and no good deed is left unpunished. What we all (me included) need to remember is that all “opinions”, by their very nature, are wrong, otherwise they would be facts. Obviously some opinions (mine clearly) are more worthy than others, but they are all wrong. (Except this one!) UTB
 
coaxingstar71 said:
Exactly. To give an incredibly simple example, Norwood could be playing fantastic balls, but if no fucker reads it or runs onto it, he's going to look a cunt.
Click to expand...
Or another one: Berge might beat the first man then look for a player for a simple 10 yard pass but if they're all marked or behind play he's going to have to turn and play the ball backwards.
 
I just call it as it is… for 18 months they have been piss poor and have rightly been criticised.

Now they are slowly turning it around and increasing their performance levels they are rightly getting praise.
 
Balham Blade said:
Or another one: Berge might beat the first man then look for a player for a simple 10 yard pass but if they're all marked or behind play he's going to have to turn and play the ball backwards.
Click to expand...

….or he plays a ball for Billy to score from and the only discussion on shoutbox is that the pass wasn’t meant for him.
 



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