My take ...

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Blade21 said:
I'd still argue both are/were, far superior managers to those who succeeded them. I do hope I'm wrong, I just don't see us improving under hecky and a massively reduced wage budget.
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Of course they were. They still had miserable failures though. There may be a decline but let’s see what happens during the close season. It’s gone quiet on the takeover though.
 
Fair scores. I'm actually quite upbeat as we really did get away with one today. Also, every broadcaster and neutral fan home and abroad are backing the Midlands Massive. Blades v Every Fcker Else come Tues. Bit of a comfort zone. Do I fancy us? Not really. Up for the fight? Abso-fcking-lutely.
 
pommpey said:
I think really, we can all admit that apart from a fucking miracle on Tuesday, we've peaked this season. Even if the unbelievable happens and we overcome Forest, even if we get past Luton or Huddersfield (who won't get past Forest) our future upstairs is fraught with everything we saw this afternoon, and then some. We have to start admitting that yes, the Wilder years were unbelievable but this lot - of whom many are of that era - are not good enough to wear the Premier League badge on their arms, and that freakish ninth place spot was earned by a system and players we can't identify with any more.

Sure, a packed to the rafters, noisy and wholly fucking excellent Bramall Lane was a perfect stage for us to come out and put Forest to the sword. For ten minutes it looked like we'd do exactly that. But it was sadly the same old story with the midfield playing cautious, benign football and Forest simply waiting for us to fuck up. They played exactly that game and all of their chances and goals came from us pretending we can play the Premier League game and being found out. Badly. For us to aspire to be one of them we must act like one of them and when you have a midfield who only turn up every other game, the players trusted with scoring can't do that. Since Villa away after the lockdown our story has been based on us being 'found out'. And unless we purge the last vestiges of Wilder from our system and start playing something different, talented and quick teams like Forest will always be there to make us pay. They did it in the league, they have done it in the first half of the playoffs. And I fear our trip to their ground on Tuesday may be filled with much of a muchness, with Forest just picking us off in an easy win.

Seemed to me the defence were pretty much as good as they could perform today, but were still several steps short of what was required. The menace of Johnson, Surridge and Zinkernagel were way, way ahead of what we could throw at them and credit in small heaps, some pretty key defensive notes were achieved. But on the break and closing down we are so weak and easy to snipe at. The midfield as a collective was outplayed and outmuscled. The 'threat' posed by Berge in the ten-role was mopped up and the two front men - essentially right and left side attacking midfielders were left to dig any chances out of lofted, long balls and fucked up ventures out wide.

There's too much to do on Tuesday. Unless we outplay, outmuscle and outthink Forest - who look every much that Premier League team in waiting (with about £250m of spending injected in) - we are simply turning up to fulfil the fixture. Sure, we are one down on aggregate, but we have shipped two (avoidable) away goals and look out of ideas how to take the away game to them and put them under pressure. I may be wrong, but today's team on paper was possibly the strongest we could field given injuries, and we are ninety minutes away now from HJ&SM making the mercy killings we need and some or other new owner coming in and backing their next season's challenge to top this league by some points. Today's game shows you the difference between what could be, and what is.

Foderingham 8/10: Some breathtaking saves in the first half and not to blame for either goal
Stevens 6/10: Struggled like fuck for long periods against Spence, who knew exactly what his defensive soft spots were
Robinson 7/10: I have given him 8/10 in my Fan's React because I thought he'd scored our goal. Turns out I was wrong. He still is a whole load more solid than of old and fights like fuck, despite his shortcomings. He is one for next season but never a PL player as long as my chuffer faces the deck
Egan 6/10: Made some cracking interceptions and headers throughout the game but loses an entire two points for that complacent, stupid fuck up that led to Lolley robbing him blind and their goal
Basham 8/10: Still 'Mr Dependable'. Attacked up his flank and stole yards off Forest, recovered to make the tackle. But he's slowing ... or worse still protecting an injury
Osborn 6/10: Expected more from him today. His old club and all that but still, when he gets down that wing into the crossing zone and there are options in on goal, pulling it backwards because he's not confident enough to cross on his right foot completely defeats the effort and puts us into the tippy-tappy shit out side scenarios oppositions know they can defeat us with.
Fleck 5/10: Have gone back on my Fans React score. Today he was ineffective and outplayed. Stupid yellow card too
Norwood 5/10: Back to his usual ineffective self. Some fruitless, dodgy playmaking which led directly to Forest counter-attacking. Good choice subbing him
Berge 6/10: For too long in the first and large parts of the second was basically an ineffective ball carrier, whom Forest had every plan to counter. Scored the goal. That's it.
Ndaiye 7/10: Battled hard and once again, dug the ball out of tackles. But he and ...
MGW 7/10: ... can't do it all. Both worked hard but when out midfield is not functioning, these two can't function either.

Baldock 6/10: Back with us but still thrashing about and picking up yellows
Jebbison 5/10: Did he touch the ball?
RND 5/10: Him too?

HJ&SM: 6/10: They've done well, but Forest today showed them their limitations with the players they have. The only thing we can wish for is a 0-1 result on Tuesday where we can bow out on away goals with our heads held high and ready to take the flamethrower to the rest of Wilder's framework.

pommpey
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Pretty much bang on IMO.

My take, is that on Tuesday we do not need to take risks and go for it. They'll pick us off, like they did today. We need to be more solid, with the full backs playing more like full backs for the first 60 minutes. See where we are after 60 minutes and if we have to chuck the kitchen sink at it then so be it. By then we might have scored from a soft corner like today, or a bit of MGW magic, who knows

TBF I was impressed with Forest today. 30% chance on Tuesday IMO but it's still 1 from 4 and 18 other clubs would love to be in that fight.
 
We are basically 2-1 down at half time after being outplayed, but pulling back a soft goal before the interval. If we score first on Tuesday it could get interesting. Obviously as a Blade of 30 odd years, I can't see it, but Forest's keeper does look dodgy. I would probably put in RND and Baldock and move Ozzy into midfield. Whatever happens I hope we can recruit some players with pace and athleticism in the summer.
 
Blade21 said:
I'd still argue both are/were, far superior managers to those who succeeded them. I do hope I'm wrong, I just don't see us improving under hecky and a massively reduced wage budget.
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My view is that good managers leave you better off than when they arrive. Wilder and Warnock both fit that criteria.

In fairness to Hecky, we were 16th when he took over. Our record since then is impressive compared to our rivals

Blades 52pts / 27 G
Fulham 49pts / 28 G
Bnmouth 48pts / 28 G
Hudds 54pts / 28 G
Forest 56pts / 27 G
Luton 50 pts / 27 games

So our form under Hecky has been top 2/3.

My take on him as a manager - youngish (44) so still learning, a good motivator, good at handling pressure and the media side of things. Agood organiser. Can get tactically out thought and slow to react in game.

The unknown is what his recruitment is like. I'm guessing we find out this summer
 
blade67 said:
My view is that good managers leave you better off than when they arrive. Wilder and Warnock both fit that criteria.

In fairness to Hecky, we were 16th when he took over. Our record since then is impressive compared to our rivals

Blades 52pts / 27 G
Fulham 49pts / 28 G
Bnmouth 48pts / 28 G
Hudds 54pts / 28 G
Forest 56pts / 27 G
Luton 50 pts / 27 games

So our form under Hecky has been top 2/3.

My take on him as a manager - youngish (44) so still learning, a good motivator, good at handling pressure and the media side of things. Agood organiser. Can get tactically out thought and slow to react in game.

The unknown is what his recruitment is like. I'm guessing we find out this summer
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Also, we have been playing the last month with ZERO strikers.
 
Blade21 said:
Hecky = poor man's wilder

Blackwell = poor man's warnock

Hopefully we get taken over and don't slide back to league 1
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You need to go to Boro lad cos Hecky is better than Wilder, he’s picked up a poor performing team devastated by injuries and done a fantastic job without moaning and whinging, where did Boro finish by the way.
 
blade67 said:
My view is that good managers leave you better off than when they arrive. Wilder and Warnock both fit that criteria.

In fairness to Hecky, we were 16th when he took over. Our record since then is impressive compared to our rivals

Blades 52pts / 27 G
Fulham 49pts / 28 G
Bnmouth 48pts / 28 G
Hudds 54pts / 28 G
Forest 56pts / 27 G
Luton 50 pts / 27 games

So our form under Hecky has been top 2/3.

My take on him as a manager - youngish (44) so still learning, a good motivator, good at handling pressure and the media side of things. Agood organiser. Can get tactically out thought and slow to react in game.

The unknown is what his recruitment is like. I'm guessing we find out this summer
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I agree, I just wish the board had listened to wilder and gone out and got cooper in. I was willing to give slav time and see a change tactics and approach, but obviously the Prince and bettis pulled the trigger. For what its worth I see hecky as an average run of the mill championship manager, but to be honest I don't see why we should settle for this in our first parachute season, obviously the Prince has had enough and given up.
 
Just my thoughts having watched us get cut to ribbons In the second leg pack nine players in our half to prevent their wingers having any freedom close down and press rapidly as soon as we win the ball knock it long toward gibbs white and Ndiaye near tge halfway line this will
Put fear into their tactics we just cant allow them the freedom like today. Good chance of gibbs white and Ndiaye grabbing one.
If we play too open we will lose
Just my thoughts after watching that today
 
Well that made me feel better pommpey! I can't disagree that fleck and Norwood were poor today, but Norwood in particular has been on great form of late. I think we need more legs alongside Norwood, fleck has lost that ability/legs to drive past people like he used to. It's imperative that we sign more competition and younger bodies to compete for the midfield.

I'm not going to start thinking on next season just yet, it's not over yet but I admit I can't see us beating forest but I couldn't see us coming from 2 - 0 down in 2003 and we did then.
 
Booker4 said:
Well that made me feel better pommpey! I can't disagree that fleck and Norwood were poor today, but Norwood in particular has been on great form of late. I think we need more legs alongside Norwood, fleck has lost that ability/legs to drive past people like he used to. It's imperative that we sign more competition and younger bodies to compete for the midfield.

I'm not going to start thinking on next season just yet, it's not over yet but I admit I can't see us beating forest but I couldn't see us coming from 2 - 0 down in 2003 and we did then.
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That team had balls the size of melons. We also had warnock, it ain't happening, as much as I'd love it too. Cooper will out manoeuvre us regardless.
 



Good report, put succinctly: it was a game too far for us today.

Basham definitely MoM. The rest fairly average.

Better luck next season.
 
Agree mostly, as usual. Just think we were turned over by Ugly Steve and his bunch of professional ugly thug players. Florists penalty area was like a WWF bout. They won't get away with that in EPL. Don't get me wrong, going forward they ran our nervous defence ragged, with little or no support from Mr Pointy and Co. But they'd done their homework on our new holy trinity, and man marked them off the pitch. Well, let's hope we sort ourselves out a little better for the return leg. Maybe Florist will be a bit cocky and think they're already in the final. We need to turn up, be smarter and not get bullied. Faint hope I know. Thanks Pommps.
 
derekacorah said:
Good report, put succinctly: it was a game too far for us today.

Basham definitely MoM. The rest fairly average.

Better luck next season.
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I thought he was at fault for the first goal, wrong side and then could've easily blocked the cross.

It is what it is though, our squad depth has never been ran more thin and we have 4 potentially great strikers at this level all injured. I think Forest are by up and away the best team left in the play-offs and i didn't want to play them over two legs.

as for the Hecky stuff, he's done a fantastic job and the players seem to like him, we'd have all taken this situation when he came in. Him and McCall came in and didn't think the players were fit enough, so essentially ran their bollox off to get them into shape to win in the championship, its worked but come at a price of muscular injuries being at an all time high, it's dangerous to change the regime so much once you're already into a 46 game season, the players aren't conditioned to hold up with a huge workload change.

I think we've still got a real chance but we'll need Sharp, Baldock back in the team and the midfield to play much more cohesive to win the game. When your only attacking options on the bench are 2 18/19 year old strikers with no championship goals, you're in trouble if you're trying to get into the premier league.

Looking forward to seeing what Hecky brings in, how he prepares us with a full pre-season and stamps his own authority on the team if we do get knocked out at this stage. Wilder did a fantastic job but his signings were worse than Warnock's when he got given real money, we've only probably got 1/2 players we could actually get a significant fee back on, Egan and Berge, the others we wouldn't be able to move if we tried.
 
PittsburghBlade said:
I thought he was at fault for the first goal, wrong side and then could've easily blocked the cross.

It is what it is though, our squad depth has never been ran more thin and we have 4 potentially great strikers at this level all injured. I think Forest are by up and away the best team left in the play-offs and i didn't want to play them over two legs.

as for the Hecky stuff, he's done a fantastic job and the players seem to like him, we'd have all taken this situation when he came in. Him and McCall came in and didn't think the players were fit enough, so essentially ran their bollox off to get them into shape to win in the championship, its worked but come at a price of muscular injuries being at an all time high, it's dangerous to change the regime so much once you're already into a 46 game season, the players aren't conditioned to hold up with a huge workload change.

I think we've still got a real chance but we'll need Sharp, Baldock back in the team and the midfield to play much more cohesive to win the game. When your only attacking options on the bench are 2 18/19 year old strikers with no championship goals, you're in trouble if you're trying to get into the premier league.

Looking forward to seeing what Hecky brings in, how he prepares us with a full pre-season and stamps his own authority on the team if we do get knocked out at this stage. Wilder did a fantastic job but his signings were worse than Warnock's when he got given real money, we've only probably got 1/2 players we could actually get a significant fee back on, Egan and Berge, the others we wouldn't be able to move if we tried.
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Completely agree with your assessment.

Heckingbottom has done a great job, to get the results he has with what he has available to him has been pretty damn good, and this is coming from someone who wasn't enthused by his appointment at the time. Whilst Hecky calls the shots, it's easy to underestimate the importance of the role the management team has. I'm sure McCall and Lester will have also played their part in revitalising the dressing room, just like Alan Knill did under Wilder.

Egan and Berge as you say are the 'saleable assets' - but even then, I think we would do quite well to scoop £25m in total for both. I would think Berge's value would start around the £18m mark (with him still being a Norwegian international). Perhaps we could squeeze somewhere between £6m to £8m for Egan. If they do happen to go, I just hope Hecky sees the majority of the income so he can rebuild the team. I think he deserves the chance to do it.

As another poster here said, we can look at these play-off games and see the immediate opportunity to get into the PL, and of course we want that, but there's also a rebuilding job to be done whatever happens.
 
From the league game at the Lane and us now having recognised centre forward I knew it was going to be a question of whether we could play through their press to the feet of Berge, Ndiaye and MGW. And whether we could contain their counter attacks - particularly down our left side. Hecky had a few key decisions to make:

Do you change the wingbacks to contain them? Particularly our left side which was almost certainly going to face a stern examination.

We got this badly wrong. Enda, Robinson and Fleck were overrun on the break again and again. Robinson and Fleck getting a booking for good measure. Forest always had an easy out ball which was to hook it into the channel between Robbo and Enda and back themselves in a foot race. United's press was ineffectual for the most part which also made it possible for them to also play into feet of Spence and Johnson and build up. They should've ended this game via attacks down this side alone. I also think we missed a trick not sticking one of our front three permanently behind Spence all game. If MGW played in a fixed position up against him you'd make him think twice about attacking, and punish him for daring to venture forward. Defeat Forest's right hand side and you go a long way to defeating Forest.


Do we solidify the middle playing Berge deeper allowing us to play out easier and avoid said press and their counters? Maybe introducing an orthodox forward?

We went with the same style. We couldn't get a foundation and the front three were taken out of the game for long spells. What worked at Fulham and QPR didn't work here. The obvious change then is to pack the midfield and to bring an orthodox forward who can hold the ball up. Then you can make the ball stick and gain a measure of control in midfield. Stop them transitioning due to the deeper positioning and increased numbers further back. Increase the ease you can play out due to the deeper positioning of our midfielders.

Would United's press work?

Apart from 15-20 minutes at the start of the second half the answer is no. Forest played over it and through it. The problem having no forward is that if your press doesn't work you are effectively neutralising the high up midfield three as they can't get on the ball facing the opponent's goal. They were then essentially passengers. It was crying out for a change of shape.

Did we expose Colback?

This is the area to target. The majority of United's attacks came down this wing but again and again Osborn refused to cross with his right foot. Playing an orthodox three in midfield would leave Berge vs Colback which is food for thought. Surely we have to play Baldock and change the shape on Tuesday? If he goes with the same again we have to overload this side with one of the three told to stay out here. Berge put in one fantastic cross second half from this side which showed us a glimpse of what we need.
 
Thanks for the report. This is one weird shit type of season and I don't think it finishes on Tuesday. If Sam can do the unthinkable yesterday do not see why we can not.
 
Sometimes you have to hold your hands up & say we got beaten by the better side & they could have been out of site by half time if it wasn’t for Fodderingham . Thought we looked very nervous & they looked a lot slicker & fitter in midfield , only Berge for me had a good game in there , Norwood & Fleck seemed to panic whenever they were closed down .
Thought yesterday really highlighted that we didn’t have a fit natural striker on the pitch , we were crying out for someone to hold the ball up & bring players in but MGW & Ndiaye are not that type of player . The late goal has kept the tie alive & we will have to play a hell of a lot better to get a result at their place , but we’ve done it before Ipswich in 97 after the draw at The Lane so who knows ?
I think what yesterday did highlight is that if this side went up you’d need a hell of a lot of investment to make it remotely competitive in that that league .
Anyway roll on Tues , UTB ⚔️
 
Generally agree with your assessment Pommpey.

You have said it in a nutshell here: this lot - of whom many are of that era - are not good enough to wear the Premier League badge on their arms, and that freakish ninth place spot was earned by a system and players we can't identify with any more.

When Hecky came in we were 17th. So what he has done with the players at his disposal has been amazing. To still be in with a chance (its the hope that kills you) is doubly amazing. I always want the Blades to do well. I would love them to play at the highest level.
But seriously. This squad wont cut it.
Should a miracle occur (and the Blades dont normally do miracles) and we were to go up, the repercussions would be awful to watch.
Can anyone see Princy investing properly in a Premiership campaign?
I cant.

Look at this current team now. How many could perform to the required standard in the Prem?

Wes, deserved his players player of the year without a doubt. But is he really Premiership quality?
Stevens and Balldock. Both had an amazing first season in the Prem. But neither are no where near that quality now.
Egan. Yes definitely has the quality to play in the Prem.
Jack Robinson. Hugely improved player. But the mistakes he still has in him will be far too costly for the Prem.
Uermovic. Will we buy him? Is he good enough for the Prem. Probably
Bogle. Yes. has shown he has what it takes.
RND. Championship yes. Premiership no!
Norwood. On his day yes. But he needs to be more consistent to to make an impact in the Prem
Berge. Yes. The quality is there but I can see him leaving in the summer.
MGW. Definitely . But will the Prince pay the price Wolves will want? I doubt it.
Fleck. John Fleck yes. But where is he? His alter ego Jimmy is way off the mark.
Osborn. Cant fault his effort and energy. He covers every blade of grass. But wheres the end product?
Basham. Mr dependable. Has the quality, but for how much longer?
Hourihane. Only on loan. Not good enough to take the risk for me.
Ndaiye. Yes. has all the attributes. Will only get better.
McBurnie. No chance. I know hes been injured for a while but zero goals over a season says it all. No way
Brewster. I ve seen enough . We ve been had!!! For me he has had enough chances to show his worth. Get rid. Im sure others will disagree.
Jebbison. Potential is there. But he s no where near as yet.
Osula. See Jebbison above.
Billy. What a pro. Blade through and through. Love him. But would he be effective in the Prem? Probably as an impact sub yes. But for a full campaign at his age,I doubt it.

The above is all my opinion. Im more than happy to be shot down in flames if anyone differs.

Tuesday night is all there to play for. Berge s goal has given us a life line. The Scabs thought they were home and hosed. But psychologically the doubts will be there in their minds now. Despite home advantage, the next goal will be crucial. If we get it they will shit themselves.

If the team that played in the last 45 at QPR and the 90 minutes v Fulham turn up we have nothing to fear.

I do think we have the nucleus of a team to mount a successful Championship campaign next season. But no where near a good enough one for the Prem.
 
Great report and totally agree with your analysis. I think we all know this team isn't Premier League standard and whilst I want the glory of going up, I dread to think how this group would perform next season in the top flight.

I think Forest have our number more than any club in the league. They exploit all our weaknesses
 
pommpey said:
I think really, we can all admit that apart from a fucking miracle on Tuesday, we've peaked this season. Even if the unbelievable happens and we overcome Forest, even if we get past Luton or Huddersfield (who won't get past Forest) our future upstairs is fraught with everything we saw this afternoon, and then some. We have to start admitting that yes, the Wilder years were unbelievable but this lot - of whom many are of that era - are not good enough to wear the Premier League badge on their arms, and that freakish ninth place spot was earned by a system and players we can't identify with any more.

Sure, a packed to the rafters, noisy and wholly fucking excellent Bramall Lane was a perfect stage for us to come out and put Forest to the sword. For ten minutes it looked like we'd do exactly that. But it was sadly the same old story with the midfield playing cautious, benign football and Forest simply waiting for us to fuck up. They played exactly that game and all of their chances and goals came from us pretending we can play the Premier League game and being found out. Badly. For us to aspire to be one of them we must act like one of them and when you have a midfield who only turn up every other game, the players trusted with scoring can't do that. Since Villa away after the lockdown our story has been based on us being 'found out'. And unless we purge the last vestiges of Wilder from our system and start playing something different, talented and quick teams like Forest will always be there to make us pay. They did it in the league, they have done it in the first half of the playoffs. And I fear our trip to their ground on Tuesday may be filled with much of a muchness, with Forest just picking us off in an easy win.

Seemed to me the defence were pretty much as good as they could perform today, but were still several steps short of what was required. The menace of Johnson, Surridge and Zinkernagel were way, way ahead of what we could throw at them and credit in small heaps, some pretty key defensive notes were achieved. But on the break and closing down we are so weak and easy to snipe at. The midfield as a collective was outplayed and outmuscled. The 'threat' posed by Berge in the ten-role was mopped up and the two front men - essentially right and left side attacking midfielders were left to dig any chances out of lofted, long balls and fucked up ventures out wide.

There's too much to do on Tuesday. Unless we outplay, outmuscle and outthink Forest - who look every much that Premier League team in waiting (with about £250m of spending injected in) - we are simply turning up to fulfil the fixture. Sure, we are one down on aggregate, but we have shipped two (avoidable) away goals and look out of ideas how to take the away game to them and put them under pressure. I may be wrong, but today's team on paper was possibly the strongest we could field given injuries, and we are ninety minutes away now from HJ&SM making the mercy killings we need and some or other new owner coming in and backing their next season's challenge to top this league by some points. Today's game shows you the difference between what could be, and what is.

Foderingham 8/10: Some breathtaking saves in the first half and not to blame for either goal
Stevens 6/10: Struggled like fuck for long periods against Spence, who knew exactly what his defensive soft spots were
Robinson 7/10: I have given him 8/10 in my Fan's React because I thought he'd scored our goal. Turns out I was wrong. He still is a whole load more solid than of old and fights like fuck, despite his shortcomings. He is one for next season but never a PL player as long as my chuffer faces the deck
Egan 6/10: Made some cracking interceptions and headers throughout the game but loses an entire two points for that complacent, stupid fuck up that led to Lolley robbing him blind and their goal
Basham 8/10: Still 'Mr Dependable'. Attacked up his flank and stole yards off Forest, recovered to make the tackle. But he's slowing ... or worse still protecting an injury
Osborn 6/10: Expected more from him today. His old club and all that but still, when he gets down that wing into the crossing zone and there are options in on goal, pulling it backwards because he's not confident enough to cross on his right foot completely defeats the effort and puts us into the tippy-tappy shit out side scenarios oppositions know they can defeat us with.
Fleck 5/10: Have gone back on my Fans React score. Today he was ineffective and outplayed. Stupid yellow card too
Norwood 5/10: Back to his usual ineffective self. Some fruitless, dodgy playmaking which led directly to Forest counter-attacking. Good choice subbing him
Berge 6/10: For too long in the first and large parts of the second was basically an ineffective ball carrier, whom Forest had every plan to counter. Scored the goal. That's it.
Ndaiye 7/10: Battled hard and once again, dug the ball out of tackles. But he and ...
MGW 7/10: ... can't do it all. Both worked hard but when out midfield is not functioning, these two can't function either.

Baldock 6/10: Back with us but still thrashing about and picking up yellows
Jebbison 5/10: Did he touch the ball?
RND 5/10: Him too?

HJ&SM: 6/10: They've done well, but Forest today showed them their limitations with the players they have. The only thing we can wish for is a 0-1 result on Tuesday where we can bow out on away goals with our heads held high and ready to take the flamethrower to the rest of Wilder's framework.

pommpey
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Away goals dont count !!
 
watched it on sky here in Spain and the telling moment for me was a shot of the benches second half and our first 4 choices of striker all sat in the stand

its this thats edged it in forests favour more than tactics

we didnt have the balance or spine we needed as we were devoid of striking options
 



pommpey said:
I think really, we can all admit that apart from a fucking miracle on Tuesday, we've peaked this season. Even if the unbelievable happens and we overcome Forest, even if we get past Luton or Huddersfield (who won't get past Forest) our future upstairs is fraught with everything we saw this afternoon, and then some. We have to start admitting that yes, the Wilder years were unbelievable but this lot - of whom many are of that era - are not good enough to wear the Premier League badge on their arms, and that freakish ninth place spot was earned by a system and players we can't identify with any more.

Sure, a packed to the rafters, noisy and wholly fucking excellent Bramall Lane was a perfect stage for us to come out and put Forest to the sword. For ten minutes it looked like we'd do exactly that. But it was sadly the same old story with the midfield playing cautious, benign football and Forest simply waiting for us to fuck up. They played exactly that game and all of their chances and goals came from us pretending we can play the Premier League game and being found out. Badly. For us to aspire to be one of them we must act like one of them and when you have a midfield who only turn up every other game, the players trusted with scoring can't do that. Since Villa away after the lockdown our story has been based on us being 'found out'. And unless we purge the last vestiges of Wilder from our system and start playing something different, talented and quick teams like Forest will always be there to make us pay. They did it in the league, they have done it in the first half of the playoffs. And I fear our trip to their ground on Tuesday may be filled with much of a muchness, with Forest just picking us off in an easy win.

Seemed to me the defence were pretty much as good as they could perform today, but were still several steps short of what was required. The menace of Johnson, Surridge and Zinkernagel were way, way ahead of what we could throw at them and credit in small heaps, some pretty key defensive notes were achieved. But on the break and closing down we are so weak and easy to snipe at. The midfield as a collective was outplayed and outmuscled. The 'threat' posed by Berge in the ten-role was mopped up and the two front men - essentially right and left side attacking midfielders were left to dig any chances out of lofted, long balls and fucked up ventures out wide.

There's too much to do on Tuesday. Unless we outplay, outmuscle and outthink Forest - who look every much that Premier League team in waiting (with about £250m of spending injected in) - we are simply turning up to fulfil the fixture. Sure, we are one down on aggregate, but we have shipped two (avoidable) away goals and look out of ideas how to take the away game to them and put them under pressure. I may be wrong, but today's team on paper was possibly the strongest we could field given injuries, and we are ninety minutes away now from HJ&SM making the mercy killings we need and some or other new owner coming in and backing their next season's challenge to top this league by some points. Today's game shows you the difference between what could be, and what is.

Foderingham 8/10: Some breathtaking saves in the first half and not to blame for either goal
Stevens 6/10: Struggled like fuck for long periods against Spence, who knew exactly what his defensive soft spots were
Robinson 7/10: I have given him 8/10 in my Fan's React because I thought he'd scored our goal. Turns out I was wrong. He still is a whole load more solid than of old and fights like fuck, despite his shortcomings. He is one for next season but never a PL player as long as my chuffer faces the deck
Egan 6/10: Made some cracking interceptions and headers throughout the game but loses an entire two points for that complacent, stupid fuck up that led to Lolley robbing him blind and their goal
Basham 8/10: Still 'Mr Dependable'. Attacked up his flank and stole yards off Forest, recovered to make the tackle. But he's slowing ... or worse still protecting an injury
Osborn 6/10: Expected more from him today. His old club and all that but still, when he gets down that wing into the crossing zone and there are options in on goal, pulling it backwards because he's not confident enough to cross on his right foot completely defeats the effort and puts us into the tippy-tappy shit out side scenarios oppositions know they can defeat us with.
Fleck 5/10: Have gone back on my Fans React score. Today he was ineffective and outplayed. Stupid yellow card too
Norwood 5/10: Back to his usual ineffective self. Some fruitless, dodgy playmaking which led directly to Forest counter-attacking. Good choice subbing him
Berge 6/10: For too long in the first and large parts of the second was basically an ineffective ball carrier, whom Forest had every plan to counter. Scored the goal. That's it.
Ndaiye 7/10: Battled hard and once again, dug the ball out of tackles. But he and ...
MGW 7/10: ... can't do it all. Both worked hard but when out midfield is not functioning, these two can't function either.

Baldock 6/10: Back with us but still thrashing about and picking up yellows
Jebbison 5/10: Did he touch the ball?
RND 5/10: Him too?

HJ&SM: 6/10: They've done well, but Forest today showed them their limitations with the players they have. The only thing we can wish for is a 0-1 result on Tuesday where we can bow out on away goals with our heads held high and ready to take the flamethrower to the rest of Wilder's framework.

pommpey
Click to expand...
Thanks Pommps,

Was torn between watching the second leg and a performance of Handel's Messiah at the local town hall. I sure hope the violinist is on form.
 
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