We’ve been crap for a while

[blade too long]

we've. been crap for a while.......?????

After 16. games we were 5th
4 points. behind QPR. 15 points ahead of QPR

we are now 2nd 9 points clear of 3rd

define how crap we've been to do this
the statement carries. zero logic

 

[Silent Blade]

I can almost guarantee this game will finish 1-0

 

[Freddie]

Shitting on them because I know how well they can play and it’s incredibly frustrating to see us perform like that, because as a proper fan I care.

Bollocks

 

[robbiez666]

amount of abuse I’m getting is quite terrible from my fellow fans, if this game finished 1-0 (which we were lucky for it not to have) I would have looked in the right

Because we've apparently been crap for a while at the same time as winning 9 in 10. Every other team in this league must truly be dogshit if we're sitting pretty and winning games.

I'm not sure what silky EPL standard performances all the 'good' teams are putting in, but they aren't. You seem to think we should be walking every game while playing like Pele's Brazil.

We are still missing now 10 players from the first team squad, including half our strikers and midfielders.

No sexy football though

 

[Sean Thornton]

Surprised at the amount of blades that genuinely think it’s okay to abuse someone for having an opinion that doesn’t match theirs! I want the best for the team and have loved and supported this club my entire life and given our history of fucking up when in a good position it was easy to wet the bed.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. There’s someone on here who’s wife isn’t a three or four, let alone a ten. She’s negative, the poor cow. Not sure which of them l feel most sorry for. (It’s not you though after a pretty generic “doomed l tell ya” post, the kind of which appear from experts following a below par performance. A performance away from home where our crap team salvaged a late point)

 

[BladesOnToast]

amount of abuse I’m getting is quite terrible from my fellow fans, if this game finished 1-0 (which we were lucky for it not to have) I would have looked in the right

If everything I've ever said that was wrong had turned out to be right then I would always have been right... that's undeniable really. But pointing it out doesn't make the wrong things I said any less wrong.

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

we've. been crap for a while.......?????

After 16. games we were 5th
4 points. behind QPR. 15 points ahead of QPR
View attachment 150351
we are now 2nd 9 points clear of 3rd

define how crap we've been to do this
the statement carries. zero logic

You are not understanding the argument

We have been getting great results playing football in 20/30 minute spells because we have players that good that’s all they need to do

That performance last night we have put in plenty of them and won because ndiaye/Berge produce quality when they don’t we look bang average

That’s because we have a bang average manager and it will catch up with us

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

Surprised at the amount of blades that genuinely think it’s okay to abuse someone for having an opinion that doesn’t match theirs! I want the best for the team and have loved and supported this club my entire life and given our history of fucking up when in a good position it was easy to wet the bed.

Ignore the haters jimmy

A lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinions of sheep

 

[just ted]

It’s been said already but can you not see that inconsistency comes with being at the level we are at? Don’t get me wrong, last night was horrible and I was irritated as fuck but there is a simple truth that if our players played at their highest level every week, without dips, they’d be in the prem and not the championship. Why do we turn in a performance like that from time to time? Was it the opposition being good or us being off it, or both? Was it tactics or the players not executing? That’s where opinion comes in - but if you expect bankable near perfection every time, you need to go watch man citeh and not a proper football club like ours cos that just ain’t how it works

 

[Jimmy Fleck]

It’s been said already but can you not see that inconsistency comes with being at the level we are at? Don’t get me wrong, last night was horrible and I was irritated as fuck but there is a simple truth that if our players played at their highest level every week, without dips, they’d be in the prem and not the championship. Why do we turn in a performance like that from time to time? Was it the opposition being good or us being off it, or both? Was it tactics or the players not executing? That’s where opinion comes in - but if you expect bankable near perfection every time, you need to go watch man citeh and not a proper football club like ours cos that just ain’t how it works

I don’t expect us to play like Man City- even they play crap once in a while! But the level of performances these last few games haven’t matched that of a top 2 side and it’s concerning

 

[blade too long]

You are not understanding the argument

We have been getting great results playing football in 20/30 minute spells because we have players that good that’s all they need to do

That performance last night we have put in plenty of them and won because ndiaye/Berge produce quality when they don’t we look bang average

That’s because we have a bang average manager and it will catch up with us

so we were poor versus burnley
and a bang average manager whos won 91 points in 2022

breath taking assessment
the idea of league football is collecting points, not aesthetics
man city were bang average v Everton and they cost nearly 2 billion quid
How much has Heckingbottom spent

 

[bartman]

I don’t expect us to play like Man City- even they play crap once in a while! But the level of performances these last few games haven’t matched that of a top 2 side and it’s concerning

Coventry- played well, controlled the game after the Egan sending off. never looked like conceding a 2nd
Blackpool - good away performance . We conceded from a set piece but again a 2nd for them never looked likely. Missed McBurnie
QPR- played OK in patches, draw a fair result. Missed McBurnie

7 points out of 9 over the Xmas period..a return the majority of fans would have been happy with.

Are we playing great ? No
Do we have the best defence in the league and scored the 2nd most goals? Yes
Can we improve ? Certainly

We look weak upfront until McBurnie comes back but our form over the last 10 games suggests we are a top two side

20 games left. 12 wins and a few draws and we should be ok unless a tem goes on an amazing run ( wins 15/16 out of 20) and if they do, they will deserve to go up

 

[PokerBlade]

I think you have to separate "not playing your best" from "playing badly".

Last night, that first 60-70 minutes...we played badly. Giving the ball away for the goal...gash. Berge was poor, Sharp wasn't in the game, we were looking desperate in defence, just general crap across the pitch. And still, took a lucky deflection for them to score and when we picked the pace up and made our changes (even with players missing) a goal for us was almost inevitable (bit of a scrappy one though). Even with us off our game and the commentary team talking about how better QPR looked than recent form...it still wasn't enough for them.

If we get to anything like our best we're better than anyone else aside from Burnley. At our best we even took them by a margin (although I think that result might not be repeated in the next one).

We might not have played like our best in a fair few of the last eleven, but I don't buy that we've played badly. We've still still been too much for the opposition.

 

[ormester]

And this result will show it

Aged well

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

so we were poor versus burnley
and a bang average manager whos won 91 points in 2022

breath taking assessment
the idea of league football is collecting points, not aesthetics
man city were bang average v Everton and they cost nearly 2 billion quid
How much has Heckingbottom spent

The first half against Burnley we could have been 3-0 down

That performance is an anomaly we have played like that about 3/4 games this season

Again it’s the quality of the players that got us that record and not the quality of the manager IMO

 

[DaleHillBlade]

I’ve not seen any team achieve success over a season by playing scintillating football for the entirety of every match. Celtic are cantering along to another SPL title and at times looked very ordinary yesterday (then took a point away from Ibrox with a late equaliser ). I’m sure their fans will steady their inevitable celebrations by reflecting on a poor period of play in January.

 

[blade too long]

The first half against Burnley we could have been 3-0 down

That performance is an anomaly we have played like that about 3/4 games this season

Again it’s the quality of the players that got us that record and not the quality of the manager IMO

Burnley have spent 8 years in the prem and. had. Real quality players and. I expected them to be around where they are
We've been decimated with long term injuries and Hecky has found whatever way its necessary for us to play with what he was left with. To be. where we. are is down to him and mcCall getting a tune out of them

 

[Jan Age]

You are tirelessly negative and usually wrong.

No idea who's wife you are on about though.

I’m really not negative at all…. Some people on here just don’t want to face facts that performances have been poor … results have been good though and as I’ve said before I’m happy with where we are in the league but we can always and will need to improve.

Now you’re getting tiresome

 

[Maidenhead]

Which bit of that shows that we were "crap"?

xg 1.32 - 1.68 in our favour

shots on target 6 - 2 in our favour

Wes made 1 save to their 5

The stats all look pretty much in our favour to me except the one that really matters which was a disappointing 1-1 draw.

We started the game well and had Egan not gifted them a goal after 10 minutes I'm certain in my own mind that we would have gone on to win easily but as they say goals change games.

Before the goal their players were scared of making a mistake playing safe, simple balls and not really trying to test us at all.

However you could see the confidence start to flow through their veins after they took the lead and they became a completely different proposition, yet despite this they never seriously threatened to score again whereas we had both Billy and Iliman through one on one with the keeper and neither made it count, and Billy beating the keeper to the ball on the edge of the box but then landing it on the top of the net.

For most of the game we were comfortably the better team in the areas that count and just managed to squeeze in the equaliser that we fully deserved.

I do wonder at times what perverse pleasure many of our fans get from their constant pessimism and incessant whinging?

We have above average players for the Championship, a manager that has a much better understanding of what he's doing than any of his constant detractors on here, and a league position to illustrate that, but for some people that's just not good enough.

I just don't get it. A bit like west ham fans moaning when they stay up because the team isn't playing "the west ham way".

It's bloody ludicrous.

The league table doesn't lie and the end justifies the means,

 

[Charlieblade]

I just think we’ve had a bit of luck recently because our performances haven’t always represented that of a top 2 side. We’ve got a great chance this year and it would be putrid if we went on a poor run of form.

Isn’t it equally possible that, after a series of less than perfect (but winning) performances, the same squad could get frustrated and pull out a few cracking performances? If we really are a top two side, that’s exactly what I would expect us to do!

 

[Sheffsteel]

I don’t expect us to play like Man City- even they play crap once in a while! But the level of performances these last few games haven’t matched that of a top 2 side and it’s concerning

Agree it's not been the prettiest but the fact remains that we continue to create plenty of chances and still look able to score from almost nothing.
Our defence has been quite busy recently but our goalie has hardly has anything to do all season.

As Wilder used to mention several times, imagine splitting the pitch into 3 thirds.
He'd comment that we might have played well in the middle 3rd (centre circle) area but the result revolves around what happens in the 3rds where the goals are.

I'd agree that in the middle 3rd (centre circle) area we've been poor for a while.
It's as though we have less men in midfield because the opposition always seem to dominate it.
Agree for a promotion team we don't impress because we've stopped controlling midfield,
also the last 10 minutes often seems to be backs to wall defending, fortunately we're excellent at that type of defending.

However we still look impressive defensively, terrible blunder from Egan but QPR hardly created any good chances.
In fact all season the data shows that the opposition always struggle to create clear chances against us.
Where as we didn't attack that much but with McAtee, N'Diaye, Berge etc we ALWAYS look more dangerous than the opposition.

So I'd argue it's actually a positive that we can play well below par BUT still create more chances than the opposition virtually every match.
Also bare in mind we'd never played our strongest side or a settled side yet, so in theory we should improve in the 2nd half.

All the trends regards future results are very positive, however agree the lack of cohesion in midfield and loss of composure through out the team (treating the ball like a hot potato) in the last 10 minutes of each game when we only had a 1 goal lead, is concerning.

 

[dsr-burnley]

Burnley have spent 8 years in the prem and. had. Real quality players and. I expected them to be around where they are
We've been decimated with long term injuries and Hecky has found whatever way its necessary for us to play with what he was left with. To be. where we. are is down to him and mcCall getting a tune out of them

As it happened, the Burnley side that played at Bramall Lane had only one player with PL experience. (Cork.) Normally we would have three or four.

But I agree we were stuffed in that match - just one of those days (second half) when it all went wrong. The poster above you who said it could have been 3-0 at half time? Could, in a strange set of circumstances, perhaps; but in all but the score Sheffield were better first half as well.

In a way the swansea match just gone was a carbon copy in the first half, Burnley 2-1 up but perhaps didn't deserve it. It seems they have learned something about how to play the second halves of such matches!

 

[Snowflake]

You are not understanding the argument

We have been getting great results playing football in 20/30 minute spells because we have players that good that’s all they need to do

That performance last night we have put in plenty of them and won because ndiaye/Berge produce quality when they don’t we look bang average

That’s because we have a bang average manager and it will catch up with us

To be average he would need 45 of the managers to be better than him ! Really ?

 

[N20 Blade]

Let's hope Boro & WBA don't maintain their form and runs. If they'd not had such dreadful starts they would be up with us and Burnley. So far the cards have fallen kindly for us, let's hope it continues that way. Including us and the aforementioned, there are four decent team in the league. Norwich and Watford will surely do better second half of the season? We've a buffer and it will be vital, I'd be surprised if we finish nine points clear of 3rd come May.

 

[dsr-burnley]

Let's hope Boro & WBA don't maintain their form and runs. If they'd not had such dreadful starts they would be up with us and Burnley. So far the cards have fallen kindly for us, let's hope it continues that way. Including us and the aforementioned, there are four decent team in the league. Norwich and Watford will surely do better second half of the season? We've a buffer and it will be vital, I'd be surprised if we finish nine points clear of 3rd come May.

In the last 6 games, Burnley 18 points, Sheff U 16, WBA 15, Middlesbrough 15. In the last 10, Burnley 27, Sheff U 25, WBA 24, Middlesbrough 22. Even while Middlesbrough and WBA are supposedly in stupendous form, they've been losing ground on us both.

 

[Nightsweats]

Because we've apparently been crap for a while at the same time as winning 9 in 10. Every other team in this league must truly be dogshit if we're sitting pretty and winning games.

I'm not sure what silky EPL standard performances all the 'good' teams are putting in, but they aren't. You seem to think we should be walking every game while playing like Pele's Brazil.

We are still missing now 10 players from the first team squad, including half our strikers and midfielders.

No sexy football though

Who are the 10 first team squad players we are missing. Don't bother with JOC.

 

[georgebernardshaw]

Seems pretty obvious that the problems in the NHS have caused the cancellation of two frontal lobotomies here…

⛏⛏

 

[Sheffsteel]

In the last 6 games, Burnley 18 points, Sheff U 16, WBA 15, Middlesbrough 15. In the last 10, Burnley 27, Sheff U 25, WBA 24, Middlesbrough 22. Even while Middlesbrough and WBA are supposedly in stupendous form, they've been losing ground on us both.

Think you need to realise that because our history many Blades are quite paranoid about receiving some incredible bad luck.
We always joke about the footballing Gods thinking of a new plan to teach us a lesson.

It goes back over many decades.
In 1939 we have a great team that has just been promoted with Jimmy Hagan, probably the best player in our history.
Big excitement around the club, we start off really well in the top flght, believe we were 2nd in the league and early pace setters for the title .
What could go wrong? Hitler decides to invade Poland and the season is ended and not re-started for another 6 years.

We've lost (almost always narrowly by a single goal in a very close contest) our last 5 consecutive FA cup semi finals.
We've lost every time (twice) (again very narrowly where the result could go either way) we've been in the league cup semi final
We've lost all 5 play-off finals (usually narrowly and in cruel fashion), we've lost conceding in injury time and we were once about to take a penalty to go 3-0 up on penalties against Huddersfield, we missed then ended up losing 12-10 on penalties.

We were odds on favourites to clinch promotion from league 1 with our best player in fantastic form (Ched Evans).
Then out of the blue he receives an instant prison sentence, the morale at the club drops through the floor and we struggle in our last few matches without him
missing out on the autos and being pipped right at the end by our arch rivals Sheff Wed.

3 years ago we were 7th in the Premier League looking good to finish the season in a Europa Cup place.
What could go wrong? Covid19 breaks out and the season is temporarily suspended, then re-started played behind closed doors and we struggle.
The following season with no fans in the stadium, we somehow seem to lose every match by 1 goal and are relegated in an empty stadium.

There's many more hard luck scenarios , you have the Teves West Ham situation where we were relegated on goal difference
and many other weird conceding in the last minute relegations. It's quite bizarre really how fate plays it's hand.

So some of our fans joke that Boro might win 20 of their final 20 matches and we end up losing in the play-offs again.
It's a joke....but it would be a new way to miss out and something we can add to our hard luck stories.

 

[dsr-burnley]

Think you need to realise that because our history many Blades are quite paranoid about receiving some incredible bad luck.
We always joke about the footballing Gods thinking of a new plan to teach us a lesson.

It goes back over many decades.
In 1939 we have a great team that has just been promoted with Jimmy Hagan, probably the best player in our history.
Big excitement around the club, we start off really well in the top flght, believe we were 2nd in the league and early pace setters for the title .
What could go wrong? Hitler decides to invade Poland and the season is ended and not re-started for another 6 years.

We've lost (almost always narrowly by a single goal in a very close contest) our last 5 consecutive FA cup semi finals.
We've lost every time (twice) (again very narrowly where the result could go either way) we've been in the league cup semi final
We've lost all 5 play-off finals (usually narrowly and in cruel fashion), we've lost conceding in injury time and we were once about to take a penalty to go 3-0 up on penalties against Huddersfield, we missed then ended up losing 12-10 on penalties.

We were odds on favourites to clinch promotion from league 1 with our best player in fantastic form (Ched Evans).
Then out of the blue he receives an instant prison sentence, the morale at the club drops through the floor and we struggle in our last few matches without him
missing out on the autos and being pipped right at the end by our arch rivals Sheff Wed.

3 years ago we were 7th in the Premier League looking good to finish the season in a Europa Cup place.
What could go wrong? Covid19 breaks out and the season is temporarily suspended, then re-started played behind closed doors and we struggle.
The following season with no fans in the stadium, we somehow seem to lose every match by 1 goal and are relegated in an empty stadium.

There's many more hard luck scenarios , you have the Teves West Ham situation where we were relegated on goal difference
and many other weird conceding in the last minute relegations. It's quite bizarre really how fate plays it's hand.

So some of our fans joke that Boro might win 20 of their final 20 matches and we end up losing in the play-offs again.
It's a joke....but it would be a new way to miss out and something we can add to our hard luck stories.

Ah well, these things happen (as you say in yorkshire!)

I do wonder sometimes about luck. In general, when it comes to the last game "win or bust", Burnley tend to get away with it. Last season being an exception, of course. But we have had 2 promotions from 3 appearances in play-offs in all divisions, one of which you well remember; and I think we do better than average in "last match promotion/relegation deciders". Better to be lucky than good.

We can match you in league cups, though - 0 for 4 in semi-finals including a last minute Spurs goal in the year of our PL play-off. And it is my firm belief that it was that disappointment that geed the players up to get play-off promotion, so you have something to curse about there as well!

Sorry!

 

[Sheffsteel]

Ah well, these things happen (as you say in yorkshire!)

I do wonder sometimes about luck. In general, when it comes to the last game "win or bust", Burnley tend to get away with it. Last season being an exception, of course. But we have had 2 promotions from 3 appearances in play-offs in all divisions, one of which you well remember; and I think we do better than average in "last match promotion/relegation deciders". Better to be lucky than good.

We can match you in league cups, though - 0 for 4 in semi-finals including a last minute Spurs goal in the year of our PL play-off. And it is my firm belief that it was that disappointment that geed the players up to get play-off promotion, so you have something to curse about there as well!

Sorry!

Yeh remember the Burnley play-off final, I was there. Forgot to tell you, in our 5 play-off finals we’ve not even scored a single goal, so nothing for the fans to even celebrate, probably explains why some of our fans aren’t that enthusiastic with the prospect of the play-offs.

The Burnley play-off final was a non event. Pretty close match, you score then I expected us to take risks, push players forward with your team sitting back desperately defending hoping to hold out.

But credit to Burnley, there wasn’t much of a reaction from us, not much action overall; you managed it out really well.