My take ...

[Ralph Blade]

Really got away with one there, couldn’t have complained if we had come away with less.

8 minutes! I know we’ve been asking for referees to show some bottle and add on time when there’s blatant time wasting, but I can’t see where 8 minutes came from.

Bristol City for all their pressure had a load of mistakes in them that a faster player (Khadra) might have capitalised on. Given all the patience shown to persist with Oliver Burke, Khadra still deserves more opportunities and with the injuries mounting up looks likely to get them.

Did the clocks go back or the days go back because that was surely a Halloween appearance by the energy vampire that is Andy Hinchcliffe, sucking the life out of any small pleasure in that game with his constant Harry Enfield ’He didn’t want to do that, he should have done this’. I rarely regret dumping Sky and getting Now TV but the inability to sync with the radio commentary and turn his commentary off is truly lamentable. Even when we scored, we shouldn’t have done so, we were perpetually reminded, because Billy was offside.

Frustration, once upon a time it was easy to see who was responsible for delaying a cross into the box, e.g. Peter Beagrie trying to beat the same player twice. Now we’ve got a whole sub team at it, overplaying passes and inevitably losing possession. When we were in a position, near the end of the game to waste time in the corner, what did Osborn do? He crossed it! I will never fathom out the decisions some of our players make.

Thought Egan had a good game and it was good to see Wes back. Hope the injury toll isn’t too great.

 

[Aston max]

Cursed Blades - not tonight you lucky lucky bastards ( in Michael Palin voice). I actually think Doyle mcatee Basham mcburnie Ndiaye will be able to feature Saturday so even the injury stuff isn’t as bad as it could be. Back to our best back three Clarke, Egan , AA. They were so much brighter and energetic than us which is not traditionally how it goes. Blackburn lose. Some how after a complete Shitshow post int break we are still in touching distance of top. Championship isnt meant to be like that. whats that saying about lucky generals - Hecky might just be one. Seeing us win undeservedly is wierd - my baked in blades gloominess is being challenged

When Napoleon Bonaparte was criticised for winning battles simply because of luck, he famously retorted: “I'd rather have lucky generals than good ones.”

 

[pommpey]

Same as the, 'That's most unlike Norwood' when he blasts a shot into orbit.
No, it's not. It's actually most unlike Norwood to get a shot to trouble the keeper compared to all the wasted chances to hit the target.
Nice scrappy win though.

Not wanting to labour the Norwood point again too much (but I will) but most commentators when mentioning him masturbate copiously about him having a shot on him from distance. Oh aye? Watch many games do we? Last night was a case in question although full marks to Norwood, advancing on their box, option to left and right, defence backing off and the Blades fans screaming 'Shoot, you cunt!' he tamely rolled the ball two yards wide with a grasscutter rather than getting his instep under it to lamp it into the concourse at the back of the stand. Yet looking at their lad who smashed his shot off Wes's left hand upright, he got his body aligned correctly, standing foot planted and drove his foot straight through the back of the ball perpendicular to the line of travel. And he hit it so fucking hard the ball had one of these faces on it. Why can't old 'sweet feet' do that?

Best midfielder ever to wear a Blades shirt though. Oh yeah.

pommpey

 

[Lane Ender]

'Kin 'ell. Win dirty, on a dirty night in a dirty match. Three points ... barely deserved yet thoroughly deserved. Right up to NDaiye's stolen goal we looked pisspoor, disorganised and back to some below average outfit, but after that we suddenly gained some hope and dug deep. What a win.

Okay, resting McB and welcoming back Wes 'safe hands' and with other minor tweaks such as playing a 3-1-4-2 was somewhat risky but in an odd sense it worked. We rode our luck, we had the frame of the goal thoroughly rattled and parked the bus with two clearly struggling players out on the park. It's the stuff of SUFC legend where that three points may count toward what could end up a brilliant season for us. Certainly last week, and given how we were actually playing you'd have looked at new-manager WBA and a feisty, capable Brizzle City and thought a point from either game might be favourable. But we have six, a game in hand and goals for pressuring Blackburn and all to play for next game vs a challenging Burnley at the Lane. I feel it is all on Heck and the team to get the selection right, get players conditioned and ready to do 90 and for the fans to turn up and make BDTBL a blistering cauldron of noise for the clarets to fail at.

Tonight's game though was somewhat underwhelming for a long spell. We were second best much of the first half, resorting to aimless lumps up the pitch into empty grass and unable to play round or behind their press. In short they were exactly the team we don't like playing against and they knew it. The more we passed, the more likely we were liable to cough it up and less likely to get anywhere. Khadra was ineffective ... anywhere ... and Fleck played duty traffic cone. Even hooking Khadra for McAtee ... a real gamble ... gave us nothing. With only two notable breaks in 45 and BCFC constantly nipping at us it needed a HT rethink or an early goal to change our fortunes.

So it came. Okay Billy was offside but didn't touch the ball and NDaiye stole the chance with real poachers ability but we hung on and hung on resolutely even if the full time whistle seemed a million miles away. Some decent, timely subs gave us some leg-up capability to deal with Bristol City's incessant need to pull one back and get something deserved from a filthy game of filthy temperament. With eight long minutes to endure we admirably managed the win ... something we have failed to do so many times. Really happy Blades fans are heading back home tonight on a pretty shitty route happy we have got six from two and remain viable promotion contenders into the dreaded WC break.

Foderingham 7/10: Welcome back Wesley. Did well with crosses and shots tonight. Hate seeing him go down injured though.
Baldock 7/10: Did well handing the ever present threat of Dasilva and Scott bombing down his flank and having a yard of pace more than him at times. Needs to replace the hand grenade pin in feisty moments though. We can ill afford to lose him to a red card
Basham 6/10: It's not nice seeing your favourite player now in his autumn years and losing his flair and touch. He's also easily beaten for pace too which he may need to step off attackers to give himself a yard to defend. Some errors tonight in a pretty solid game where he was involved until pulled for a hopefully fixable injury
Egan 7/10: Defended well tonight in large stretches and made key blocks and tackles when needed especially when they were in and around our box
Robinson 6.5/10: Decent full return for JLT. The long throw wasn't used at all but his much improved endeavour and tenacity dealt with Wells to a large extent.
Osborn 5/10: 3/10 for his struggling first sixty as LWB. Thought he was ineffective and over-ran and did his typical runs-about-a-lot-yet-doesn't-achieve-much schtick. When repositioned vice Fleck's hooking became a lot more involved and valuable, though not by much
NDaiye 7.5/10: First half - for fuck's sake, this player is NOT a right sided midfielder. He needs to be being active and terrorising opposition defences and nabbing goals. For the fist thirty he looked like he didn't know what to do. He isn't built or wired up for that shit. When switched alongside Billy up top suddenly he's our main (and only) outlet and conduit to goal. And so it came to pass. Hope he is okay and it is just fatigue/cramp because it looked like he was running on stumps near the end
Norwood 7/10: A pretty solid, if unspectacular workmanlike performance. Less hollywood and more graft but still at the heart of a midfield which can't create, connect or move up the pitch as a unit without overplaying it or surrendering possession. Lucky not to end up with a red for his tackle
Fleck 3/10: Never really in the game tonight and correctly hooked
Khadra 1/10: Simply dreadful. When he nabbed that goal at Swansea away I ... like many ... thought we have a baller on our hands here. Since then he's given us nothing. Bench him now until January to bring on late as a stop gap and send him back.
Sharp 4/10: Was never going to make much of an impact and never expected to do the full 90. The simple reason is that the system we play doesn't suit his 'feeds off scraps' or 'feeds off half opportunities' style. The midfield tonight was characteristically toothless with no ball carriers or creativity, even with McAtee on the pitch. Sharp had one half chance and that was it.

McAtee 5/10: Don't really think it was him who marginally affected our output when Khadra was hooked more so the movement of NDaiye and reorganising of the midfield. Hope his injury from that fucking horror tackle isn't serious
Stevens 5/10: Good to see him getting minutes on the pitch and a more robust, redoubtable option than the diminutive Osborn
McBurnie 7/10: very involved in leading the line especially when NDaiye dropped deep and struggled late in the game. I like this McBurnie
Clark 5/10: Nice to see him back but he looks short of match awareness at times. Its basically a system reset for him

HJ&SMcC 8/10: Congrats to them for two good, valuable away wins back to back. They did game manage tonight quite well and did the right things to the end.

pommpey

Poor performance but we’ll take the result
Osborn is doing his best but fucking Fleck makes my blood boil with his non input.

 

[Lane Ender]

Not wanting to labour the Norwood point again too much (but I will) but most commentators when mentioning him masturbate copiously about him having a shot on him from distance. Oh aye? Watch many games do we? Last night was a case in question although full marks to Norwood, advancing on their box, option to left and right, defence backing off and the Blades fans screaming 'Shoot, you cunt!' he tamely rolled the ball two yards wide with a grasscutter rather than getting his instep under it to lamp it into the concourse at the back of the stand. Yet looking at their lad who smashed his shot off Wes's left hand upright, he got his body aligned correctly, standing foot planted and drove his foot straight through the back of the ball perpendicular to the line of travel. And he hit it so fucking hard the ball had one of these faces on it. Why can't old 'sweet feet' do that?

Best midfielder ever to wear a Blades shirt though. Oh yeah.

pommpey

Shooting he isn’t the best but he’s one of the best midfielders in the Championship

 

[Houston_Blade]

Not wanting to labour the Norwood point again too much (but I will) but most commentators when mentioning him masturbate copiously about him having a shot on him from distance. Oh aye? Watch many games do we? Last night was a case in question although full marks to Norwood, advancing on their box, option to left and right, defence backing off and the Blades fans screaming 'Shoot, you cunt!' he tamely rolled the ball two yards wide with a grasscutter rather than getting his instep under it to lamp it into the concourse at the back of the stand. Yet looking at their lad who smashed his shot off Wes's left hand upright, he got his body aligned correctly, standing foot planted and drove his foot straight through the back of the ball perpendicular to the line of travel. And he hit it so fucking hard the ball had one of these faces on it. Why can't old 'sweet feet' do that?

Best midfielder ever to wear a Blades shirt though. Oh yeah.

pommpey

It was a shit shot and he’s a decent player. The 2 don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

 

[sitwell]

It was a shit shot and he’s a decent player. The 2 don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

He wanted to give it to Ndaiye but he pulled up with cramp at just the wrong time.

 

[Houston_Blade]

He wanted to give it to Ndaiye but he pulled up with cramp at just the wrong time.

Definitely, but I wasn't on about the lack of a pass. The reason for that was obvious, Iliman was incapable of receiving the ball, their defender knew that so pressed Norwood instead. The shot was still piss poor from that range. But like I say, Norwood is decent and despite playing within himself in terms of tackling/fouling last night he was still one of the better players.

 

[Charlieblade]

'Kin 'ell. Win dirty, on a dirty night in a dirty match. Three points ... barely deserved yet thoroughly deserved. Right up to NDaiye's stolen goal we looked pisspoor, disorganised and back to some below average outfit, but after that we suddenly gained some hope and dug deep. What a win.

Okay, resting McB and welcoming back Wes 'safe hands' and with other minor tweaks such as playing a 3-1-4-2 was somewhat risky but in an odd sense it worked. We rode our luck, we had the frame of the goal thoroughly rattled and parked the bus with two clearly struggling players out on the park. It's the stuff of SUFC legend where that three points may count toward what could end up a brilliant season for us. Certainly last week, and given how we were actually playing you'd have looked at new-manager WBA and a feisty, capable Brizzle City and thought a point from either game might be favourable. But we have six, a game in hand and goals for pressuring Blackburn and all to play for next game vs a challenging Burnley at the Lane. I feel it is all on Heck and the team to get the selection right, get players conditioned and ready to do 90 and for the fans to turn up and make BDTBL a blistering cauldron of noise for the clarets to fail at.

Tonight's game though was somewhat underwhelming for a long spell. We were second best much of the first half, resorting to aimless lumps up the pitch into empty grass and unable to play round or behind their press. In short they were exactly the team we don't like playing against and they knew it. The more we passed, the more likely we were liable to cough it up and less likely to get anywhere. Khadra was ineffective ... anywhere ... and Fleck played duty traffic cone. Even hooking Khadra for McAtee ... a real gamble ... gave us nothing. With only two notable breaks in 45 and BCFC constantly nipping at us it needed a HT rethink or an early goal to change our fortunes.

So it came. Okay Billy was offside but didn't touch the ball and NDaiye stole the chance with real poachers ability but we hung on and hung on resolutely even if the full time whistle seemed a million miles away. Some decent, timely subs gave us some leg-up capability to deal with Bristol City's incessant need to pull one back and get something deserved from a filthy game of filthy temperament. With eight long minutes to endure we admirably managed the win ... something we have failed to do so many times. Really happy Blades fans are heading back home tonight on a pretty shitty route happy we have got six from two and remain viable promotion contenders into the dreaded WC break.

Foderingham 7/10: Welcome back Wesley. Did well with crosses and shots tonight. Hate seeing him go down injured though.
Baldock 7/10: Did well handing the ever present threat of Dasilva and Scott bombing down his flank and having a yard of pace more than him at times. Needs to replace the hand grenade pin in feisty moments though. We can ill afford to lose him to a red card
Basham 6/10: It's not nice seeing your favourite player now in his autumn years and losing his flair and touch. He's also easily beaten for pace too which he may need to step off attackers to give himself a yard to defend. Some errors tonight in a pretty solid game where he was involved until pulled for a hopefully fixable injury
Egan 7/10: Defended well tonight in large stretches and made key blocks and tackles when needed especially when they were in and around our box
Robinson 6.5/10: Decent full return for JLT. The long throw wasn't used at all but his much improved endeavour and tenacity dealt with Wells to a large extent.
Osborn 5/10: 3/10 for his struggling first sixty as LWB. Thought he was ineffective and over-ran and did his typical runs-about-a-lot-yet-doesn't-achieve-much schtick. When repositioned vice Fleck's hooking became a lot more involved and valuable, though not by much
NDaiye 7.5/10: First half - for fuck's sake, this player is NOT a right sided midfielder. He needs to be being active and terrorising opposition defences and nabbing goals. For the fist thirty he looked like he didn't know what to do. He isn't built or wired up for that shit. When switched alongside Billy up top suddenly he's our main (and only) outlet and conduit to goal. And so it came to pass. Hope he is okay and it is just fatigue/cramp because it looked like he was running on stumps near the end
Norwood 7/10: A pretty solid, if unspectacular workmanlike performance. Less hollywood and more graft but still at the heart of a midfield which can't create, connect or move up the pitch as a unit without overplaying it or surrendering possession. Lucky not to end up with a red for his tackle
Fleck 3/10: Never really in the game tonight and correctly hooked
Khadra 1/10: Simply dreadful. When he nabbed that goal at Swansea away I ... like many ... thought we have a baller on our hands here. Since then he's given us nothing. Bench him now until January to bring on late as a stop gap and send him back.
Sharp 4/10: Was never going to make much of an impact and never expected to do the full 90. The simple reason is that the system we play doesn't suit his 'feeds off scraps' or 'feeds off half opportunities' style. The midfield tonight was characteristically toothless with no ball carriers or creativity, even with McAtee on the pitch. Sharp had one half chance and that was it.

McAtee 5/10: Don't really think it was him who marginally affected our output when Khadra was hooked more so the movement of NDaiye and reorganising of the midfield. Hope his injury from that fucking horror tackle isn't serious
Stevens 5/10: Good to see him getting minutes on the pitch and a more robust, redoubtable option than the diminutive Osborn
McBurnie 7/10: very involved in leading the line especially when NDaiye dropped deep and struggled late in the game. I like this McBurnie
Clark 5/10: Nice to see him back but he looks short of match awareness at times. Its basically a system reset for him

HJ&SMcC 8/10: Congrats to them for two good, valuable away wins back to back. They did game manage tonight quite well and did the right things to the end.

pommpey

I honestly thought they would offer more of a challenge especially on such a shitty night, with most of our players having a bad day.
Full marks to Hecky for spotting the tactical error and changing it early enough. Pleased with 3 points which we didn’t really deserve. This is a typical championship result, from swings and roundabouts.

 

[Varkanoid]

Thanks for the report agree there.

Will we ever see our full fit 1st eleven ever again ? Seems like a pipe dream.

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

Well it's bloody obvious to old-timers like me just how much the game has changed over the last 60 years, but I have to say I don't see the same level of advancement in the thinking of your average football fan. Given the length of our injury list and the fact we have to chuck players in who are desperately short of competitive gametime, plus trying to fit square pegs in round holes and shuffle the pack on-the-fly, I'd say our position in the Champ is a gnat's pecker short of a fucking miracle. How any Blades fan can whinge on about this, that 'n t'effin' other is testimony to the conclusion drawn in my 1st sentence.

 

[pommpey]

Shooting he isn’t the best but he’s one of the best midfielders in the Championship

One of the best, out of how many?

pommpey

 

[ATL Recs]

Not wanting to labour the Norwood point again too much (but I will) but most commentators when mentioning him masturbate copiously about him having a shot on him from distance. Oh aye? Watch many games do we? Last night was a case in question although full marks to Norwood, advancing on their box, option to left and right, defence backing off and the Blades fans screaming 'Shoot, you cunt!' he tamely rolled the ball two yards wide with a grasscutter rather than getting his instep under it to lamp it into the concourse at the back of the stand. Yet looking at their lad who smashed his shot off Wes's left hand upright, he got his body aligned correctly, standing foot planted and drove his foot straight through the back of the ball perpendicular to the line of travel. And he hit it so fucking hard the ball had one of these faces on it. Why can't old 'sweet feet' do that?

Best midfielder ever to wear a Blades shirt though. Oh yeah.

pommpey

Certainly the best in the last 20 plus years. The weakness in his game is scoring or at least getting close to scoring if it wasn't he would have spent more time in the Premiership when he was younger, not just the 2 years he did with us

 

[pommpey]

Certainly the best in the last 20 plus years. The weakness in his game is scoring or at least getting close to scoring if it wasn't he would have spent more time in the Premiership when he was younger, not just the 2 years he did with us

So Fulham and Brighton jettisoning him when promoted resonates somewhat then?

Given the past 20 years contains Michael Brown, Jags (a midfielder once, as was Conor Coady and McDonald), Tongy, Stuart McCall, Monty, Gary Speed, and a few others, I'd say that's worthy of challenge.

Pound for pound and match for match, I'd say the comparable output is Brian Howard or even Michael Doyle over the seasons. He's been spectacularly shit for a long time and now hit form in the division he is possibly best at. We'll be destroyed in the middle of the park with him in the PL

pommpey

 

[reedy63]

Now we have 3 games left before the world cup break. I will be happy to get six points out of those games. then while the World Cup is on. all our injured players
can recover hopefully.

 

[bakeblade]

'Kin 'ell. Win dirty, on a dirty night in a dirty match. Three points ... barely deserved yet thoroughly deserved. Right up to NDaiye's stolen goal we looked pisspoor, disorganised and back to some below average outfit, but after that we suddenly gained some hope and dug deep. What a win.

Okay, resting McB and welcoming back Wes 'safe hands' and with other minor tweaks such as playing a 3-1-4-2 was somewhat risky but in an odd sense it worked. We rode our luck, we had the frame of the goal thoroughly rattled and parked the bus with two clearly struggling players out on the park. It's the stuff of SUFC legend where that three points may count toward what could end up a brilliant season for us. Certainly last week, and given how we were actually playing you'd have looked at new-manager WBA and a feisty, capable Brizzle City and thought a point from either game might be favourable. But we have six, a game in hand and goals for pressuring Blackburn and all to play for next game vs a challenging Burnley at the Lane. I feel it is all on Heck and the team to get the selection right, get players conditioned and ready to do 90 and for the fans to turn up and make BDTBL a blistering cauldron of noise for the clarets to fail at.

Tonight's game though was somewhat underwhelming for a long spell. We were second best much of the first half, resorting to aimless lumps up the pitch into empty grass and unable to play round or behind their press. In short they were exactly the team we don't like playing against and they knew it. The more we passed, the more likely we were liable to cough it up and less likely to get anywhere. Khadra was ineffective ... anywhere ... and Fleck played duty traffic cone. Even hooking Khadra for McAtee ... a real gamble ... gave us nothing. With only two notable breaks in 45 and BCFC constantly nipping at us it needed a HT rethink or an early goal to change our fortunes.

So it came. Okay Billy was offside but didn't touch the ball and NDaiye stole the chance with real poachers ability but we hung on and hung on resolutely even if the full time whistle seemed a million miles away. Some decent, timely subs gave us some leg-up capability to deal with Bristol City's incessant need to pull one back and get something deserved from a filthy game of filthy temperament. With eight long minutes to endure we admirably managed the win ... something we have failed to do so many times. Really happy Blades fans are heading back home tonight on a pretty shitty route happy we have got six from two and remain viable promotion contenders into the dreaded WC break.

Foderingham 7/10: Welcome back Wesley. Did well with crosses and shots tonight. Hate seeing him go down injured though.
Baldock 7/10: Did well handing the ever present threat of Dasilva and Scott bombing down his flank and having a yard of pace more than him at times. Needs to replace the hand grenade pin in feisty moments though. We can ill afford to lose him to a red card
Basham 6/10: It's not nice seeing your favourite player now in his autumn years and losing his flair and touch. He's also easily beaten for pace too which he may need to step off attackers to give himself a yard to defend. Some errors tonight in a pretty solid game where he was involved until pulled for a hopefully fixable injury
Egan 7/10: Defended well tonight in large stretches and made key blocks and tackles when needed especially when they were in and around our box
Robinson 6.5/10: Decent full return for JLT. The long throw wasn't used at all but his much improved endeavour and tenacity dealt with Wells to a large extent.
Osborn 5/10: 3/10 for his struggling first sixty as LWB. Thought he was ineffective and over-ran and did his typical runs-about-a-lot-yet-doesn't-achieve-much schtick. When repositioned vice Fleck's hooking became a lot more involved and valuable, though not by much
NDaiye 7.5/10: First half - for fuck's sake, this player is NOT a right sided midfielder. He needs to be being active and terrorising opposition defences and nabbing goals. For the fist thirty he looked like he didn't know what to do. He isn't built or wired up for that shit. When switched alongside Billy up top suddenly he's our main (and only) outlet and conduit to goal. And so it came to pass. Hope he is okay and it is just fatigue/cramp because it looked like he was running on stumps near the end
Norwood 7/10: A pretty solid, if unspectacular workmanlike performance. Less hollywood and more graft but still at the heart of a midfield which can't create, connect or move up the pitch as a unit without overplaying it or surrendering possession. Lucky not to end up with a red for his tackle
Fleck 3/10: Never really in the game tonight and correctly hooked
Khadra 1/10: Simply dreadful. When he nabbed that goal at Swansea away I ... like many ... thought we have a baller on our hands here. Since then he's given us nothing. Bench him now until January to bring on late as a stop gap and send him back.
Sharp 4/10: Was never going to make much of an impact and never expected to do the full 90. The simple reason is that the system we play doesn't suit his 'feeds off scraps' or 'feeds off half opportunities' style. The midfield tonight was characteristically toothless with no ball carriers or creativity, even with McAtee on the pitch. Sharp had one half chance and that was it.

McAtee 5/10: Don't really think it was him who marginally affected our output when Khadra was hooked more so the movement of NDaiye and reorganising of the midfield. Hope his injury from that fucking horror tackle isn't serious
Stevens 5/10: Good to see him getting minutes on the pitch and a more robust, redoubtable option than the diminutive Osborn
McBurnie 7/10: very involved in leading the line especially when NDaiye dropped deep and struggled late in the game. I like this McBurnie
Clark 5/10: Nice to see him back but he looks short of match awareness at times. Its basically a system reset for him

HJ&SMcC 8/10: Congrats to them for two good, valuable away wins back to back. They did game manage tonight quite well and did the right things to the end.

pommpey

I can't understand Hecky’s thinking on Ndiaye these last 3 games. He drops him against Norwich to give him a rest, then plays him for the full game against WBA including moving him to midfield.
Last night he starts him in midfield, then moves him upfront and plays the full game.
Hecky - just start him upfront and leave him there, if appropriate give him a rest by taking him off.

 

[Lane Ender]

One of the best, out of how many?

pommpey

He would walk into any championship midfield

 

[pommpey]

He would walk into any championship midfield

Not a massively high bar though, is it? Sure, some clubs would want him, but he can only play in one formation doing one thing ... defensive quarterback in a 5-3-2. Ask him to be a playmaker, a regista, a box-to-box or in a central pairing in a 4 man MF and he's fucked.

So which midfields in the Championship would you think he'd fit into say in the top six and most of all, be effective?

pommpey

 

[robbiez666]

He would walk into any championship midfield

I'm a fan of Norwood. I think he's been holding our midfield together, often on his own.

He wouldn't though. He's 31, he can't play in a midfield two anymore. There are a number of better midfielders in the league. It's credit to him that he gets the most out of his ability whereas others don't

 

[Lane Ender]

Not a massively high bar though, is it? Sure, some clubs would want him, but he can only play in one formation doing one thing ... defensive quarterback in a 5-3-2. Ask him to be a playmaker, a regista, a box-to-box or in a central pairing in a 4 man MF and he's fucked.

So which midfields in the Championship would you think he'd fit into say in the top six and most of all, be effective?

pommpey

I’ve criticised him in the past but this season he’s picked up his game great striker of a dead ball excellent passer proven beyond doubt at this level.
Premiership is beyond him always was but as you say a defensive quarterback not one better than him in the Championship our set up suits him.

 

[pommpey]

I’ve criticised him in the past but this season he’s picked up his game great striker of a dead ball excellent passer proven beyond doubt at this level.
Premiership is beyond him always was but as you say a defensive quarterback not one better than him in the Championship our set up suits him.

And that's most of the problem. Play him outside of the Wilderball setup and he is isolated and outplayed. And dead-ball striker? Have you seen his free kicks? Save for the one that went in earlier this season, they invariably clear the frame of the goal. His corners, recently better, have habitually struck the first man or plainly sailed over everyone's heads. Passing? I was counting but lost count how many of his 'passes' which make up the brilliant Sky stats actually go backwards.

pommpey

 

[CornwallBlade]

We certainly battled hard, great commitment and dug in, road our luck at times obviously
Egan, Bash Robinson and Baldock were excellent
Great win with the current injury problems

 

[CornwallBlade]

I'm a fan of Norwood. I think he's been holding our midfield together, often on his own.

He wouldn't though. He's 31, he can't play in a midfield two anymore. There are a number of better midfielders in the league. It's credit to him that he gets the most out of his ability whereas others don't

This, he tackles when required and distributes pretty well. However, he’s not a ball carrier, can’t work box to box and can’t shoot. Nor is he going to play killer passes around the box. He fits our style and does a pretty decent job most of the time but, ultimately it is limiting our options to shift things up. Sander being out amplifies the issue of our system with Norwood at the heart of things.

 

[Lane Ender]

And that's most of the problem. Play him outside of the Wilderball setup and he is isolated and outplayed. And dead-ball striker? Have you seen his free kicks? Save for the one that went in earlier this season, they invariably clear the frame of the goal. His corners, recently better, have habitually struck the first man or plainly sailed over everyone's heads. Passing? I was counting but lost count how many of his 'passes' which make up the brilliant Sky stats actually go backwards.

pommpey

Ok pal but I stand by what I said we are a better side with him in it.

 

[pommpey]

Ok pal but I stand by what I said we are a better side with him in it.

I think it's more a case of many observers being conditioned to him and him being practically the only player who can play in that one position. When we try to alter the formation, players like Egan, Basham, Baldock and Duffy have their navigation upset because that receiver isn't there any more. So his mere presence limits our options to develop the team past Wilderball. It was the blindingly obvious aspect of the Slav period when he tried to break the Wilder mould and stop us playing to a pattern we'd played since Wilder's departure with Hecky #1. When he is asked to do anything else than his pretty one dimensional style of play, basically receive-look-up-thump-to-wings or pass-back-to-Egan he's fucked.

People say 'we'll miss him when he's gone'. I refute that. I think with the right midfielder and a bit of vision, we'll have our midfield back again.

pommpey

 

[Freddie]

Uncharacteristically high marks for a lot of players but otherwise spot on (spelling of Ndiaye excepted as always ).

Proper shithouse win, appeh.

He’ll spell how he wants
He’ll spell how he wants
That boy Pompaiye
He’ll spell how he wants

 

[Lane Ender]

I think it's more a case of many observers being conditioned to him and him being practically the only player who can play in that one position. When we try to alter the formation, players like Egan, Basham, Baldock and Duffy have their navigation upset because that receiver isn't there any more. So his mere presence limits our options to develop the team past Wilderball. It was the blindingly obvious aspect of the Slav period when he tried to break the Wilder mould and stop us playing to a pattern we'd played since Wilder's departure with Hecky #1. When he is asked to do anything else than his pretty one dimensional style of play, basically receive-look-up-thump-to-wings or pass-back-to-Egan he's fucked.

People say 'we'll miss him when he's gone'. I refute that. I think with the right midfielder and a bit of vision, we'll have our midfield back again.

pommpey

The only player in the squad who is capable of hitting a 60 yard ball to feet .

 

[pommpey]

The only player in the squad who is capable of hitting a 60 yard ball to feet .

How many times ... be honest now ... has that 60 yard ball resulted in a goal in say, the past two seasons?

Call me old fashioned, but my metric on football is the white (usually) spherical object ending up hitting the back of the goal net from the field of play, not impressive lofted, backlifted punts out to a wingback being closed down and it ending up coming backwards

pommpey

 

[Alan Birchenall's hair]

I've no idea how the stats on Sky TV are compiled, but watching his performances and correlating them with the stats doesn't seem to work. His shooting in open play is abysmal, and his free kicks are even worse. I sit halfway up the Kop, and if he shapes as if he's going to shoot, everyone around puts their hands up to anticipate catching the ball. (He's not alone in the on that score though. It's 8 yards wide and 8 ft high. Can't be that hard to a at least hit the target). And 60 yard passes should only be played by the goalie to catch teams out who have pushed up for a corner or free kick. In open play, the time the ball is in the air just allow defenders time to position themselves to snuff them out. Having said that, he probably is worth his place in the team, but he's nowt like the stats would seem to suggest.

 

[Cyprus Blade]

I agree with a lot of what you say pommps but some of your marks are way too high for some of the players. Yes our cobbled together team hung on well for the result, but that was as much down to their poor finishing as to our steadfast defending. We also rode our luck quite a bit. I thought the first half performance was abysmal, much of which was Hecky's tactical blunder which, to his credit he has owned up to - I'd have docked at least 2 points from them for that alone even if they did respond by changing it after half an hour (by which time the pattern of play had been pretty much been set).

Basham as MotM is a mystery to me - he seems to have lost a yard of pace and to be lacking in confidence all round especially going forward ( he never used to just lump balls forward) - but he is much better on the right side rather than the left of defence. Is he nursing an injury? Our MF struggled against a heavy press ( which it always does). Fleck was almost totally anonymous and on a par with Khadra who I think will be gone by January , injuries permitting. I'm hoping Doyle will be back soon. Osborn had one of his worst games at LWB (ballwatching & out of position several times). No more than a 3 for the match. Was good to see Wes back in goal and JLT & Stevens back (if lacking match practice). Norwood was the best of the MF but a 7 flatters him - he is too one dimensional for my liking and his shooting would be more Austrsalian Rules than premiership. McB was a definite improvement for us at both ends of the pitch, although we rarely threatened their makeshift defence. All in all one of those important ugly wins.

.