Time for a change

[Snake]

So is this forum about 100% support or you're a traitor? That seems to take away the point of the place.

Yesterday's performance wasn't great and if we play like that in the Prem we will be next seasons whipping boys....AGAIN.

We have to look to improve, rather than just allowing yesterday's standards to become the norm. We already know what lies ahead.

Hahaha some people really do make me laugh. Do you not think we have been "looking to improve" over the past 2 windows? And we have definitely "improved" over that time both on and off the pitch - also done with a positive net transfer balance!

"rather than allowing for yesterday's standards to become the norm" hahahaha - yep, we went to a historically very difficult place for us and dug out a 1-0 win and 3 points (keeping us 2nd in the league and increasing the gap to 3rd) against a team fighting for their life. Bet Burnley and West Brom wish they could have done that yesterday in very similar types of games.

 

[robbiez666]

There are a small minority of entitled fans who expect us to beat most teams and go straight back up.

I think most fans are more nervous than entitled. I can see how good we are and the unattractive aspects of football. I can also see that we create very little and rely on moments from a handful of players to get us across the line.

I can also see that, by and large, we're playing teams who aren't taking their chances or creating much against us. Take yesterday. Clarke could have easily scored from that header and then we only have one point. We've played teams who haven't punished us. Consistently. And while we're missing chances so are other teams. Hull punished us but every team in this division has the potential to do the same.

Do, it's for worry than anything else. Combined with the knowledge that Premier League teams would be thrashing us like last season.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

George Graham played far more attritional football and won Arsenal a title with it.
Success is ultimately what matters. How it's achieved isn't really important. Fact is there would be far more moaning if we were losing 3-2 every week. A few wanting their cake and eating it I think. Best games to watch this season involve Spurs. "I want to be entertained", ask Spurs fans about entertainment!

 

[Frank the tank]

There are a small minority of entitled fans who expect us to beat most teams and go straight back up.

I think most fans are more nervous than entitled. I can see how good we are and the unattractive aspects of football. I can also see that we create very little and rely on moments from a handful of players to get us across the line.

I can also see that, by and large, we're playing teams who aren't taking their chances or creating much against us. Take yesterday. Clarke could have easily scored from that header and then we only have one point. We've played teams who haven't punished us. Consistently. And while we're missing chances so are other teams. Hull punished us but every team in this division has the potential to do the same.

Do, it's for worry than anything else. Combined with the knowledge that Premier League teams would be thrashing us like last season.

Clarke chance was only a half chance a flick on at pace he did well to get anything on but was underneath

It's been bogged up by some on here to being miss of the century when in fact it would have Been an incredible fluke if he'd got it on target never mind scored

If that's their best chance ( and it was by far) then we are doing OK him that regard

 

[Selly]

Agree... The pigs put 4 past them tho and haven't spent nearly £40m on 2 strikers

They are also checks table 19 points behind us. I know where I would rather be.

 

[CopenhagenBlade]

There’s a lot to like about this team. Wilder has done a brilliant job getting us into this position. A lot of the criticism he gets is over the top and comes from people who never seem to post except when there’s something to moan about.

But we are boring to watch. We don’t create many chances and we don’t play exciting football. We were fortunate to win today against a really poor Derby team and it’s not the first time we’ve been a bit lucky against a team down at the bottom. I think Wilder has built a team that grinds out results even when we don’t play well, which is good. It’s just not that enjoyable to watch.

He’s been backed to the hilt in this window and now has a chance to build a more exciting team that also gets results.

Not saying that I agree, as I would love to see an exciting team but he has been backed to buy players to strengthen the way he wants to play and get results. Choudary is not going to contribute to an exciting’ team but he will contribute to the way Wilder wants to play and win games. This in turn will lead to promotion, which is why he has been backed.

 

[Cheesebored]

Clarke chance was only a half chance a flick on at pace he did well to get anything on but was underneath

It's been bogged up by some on here to being miss of the century when in fact it would have Been an incredible fluke if he'd got it on target never mind scored

If that's their best chance ( and it was by far) then we are doing OK him that regard

Mate that's bollocks. We were bang in line with it, he should've scored. Robinson also hacked one off the line just prior to that. In the big scheme it doesn't really matter. Teams are allowed to make chances against us. We won. Yes it was attritional and not free flowing but it was a victory, a great day out and another 3 points. We're clearly a work in progress and with Hamer back and more time together I think we'll kick on from here.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Agree... The pigs put 4 past them tho and haven't spent nearly £40m on 2 strikers

I couldn’t get a connection for our away game, so watched the Sheff Wed 4 Derby 2 game instead.
Wednesday were really lucky and apart from the 1st 15 minutes were outplayed by an attack minded Derby side.
However to be fair Wednesday looked comfortable playing like an away side, packing their defence and relying on occasional quick counter attacks.

The stats show Derby had more possession 61%.
More shots 17 v 13
Derby also hit the woodwork 2 times and the Wednesday goalie pulled off 2 point blank saves,
The XG was Sheff Wed 2.13 Derby County 2.56

A fair result based on chances and play would have been Sheff Wed 1 Derby 3.

 

[SouthportBlade]

The problem, as ever, with football debate is the lack of nuance in any argument or viewpoint.

Wilders interview was pretty on the money. Result important, but a lot not to like about performance.

Rightly so, called out

Plenty of new players in line up.
Players without much first team football recently.
Players returning from injury, not yet 100%.
Opposition trying to make it difficult.
Poor pitch.
Some of best players still out injured.

We’ve scraped through injury crisis for the last few months and there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel, granted if we drop down the table or performances don’t improve in the next month more legitimate questions can be posed.

 

[s20Blade]

There is no magical new system like before that other teams can't figure out how to defend against. It's value for money top players in this league doing enough to win us games done well enough to get us where we are.

As for the Blades in general this is the highest point we have been for decades now, football has changed in a bad way but hopefully we now have owners to compete in a decent level.

All is good UTB.

 

[Stretch]

but we signed him and these boards were red hot with fans wanting to hear news of him - equally, those fans would have gone fucking banzai if he’d gone elsewhere in the Championship….

Damned if we do or we don’t with our fans.

Absolutely

 

[CarlMcBlade]

I’m loving the 3 points and the fact we’re scraping wins ultimately doesn’t really matter. But it’s not being “entitled” to have concerns regarding our inability to push home the advantage when we’re on top. Inviting teams on to us for the last 20/30 minutes isn’t great for our health either.

 

[JohnDenver]

The resilience in this squad is brilliant.

It genuinely is. From where it was 8 months earlier, and given the inexperience we’ve relied on, and the loss of key players, it’s a hell of an achievement.

 

[gordoncharles]

George Graham played far more attritional football and won Arsenal a title with it.
Success is ultimately what matters. How it's achieved isn't really important. Fact is there would be far more moaning if we were losing 3-2 every week. A few wanting their cake and eating it I think. Best games to watch this season involve Spurs. "I want to be entertained", ask Spurs fans about entertainment!

George Graham's success was over 30 years ago. We're going back to the halcyon days of Sheffield Wednesday, it's that dim a memory. We may as well discuss Stanley Matthews, Jimmy Hagan, long shorts and leather footballs.

If you'd like to give me a list of sides that have had any success with that sort of football in a major league in the last decade then please tell me who that is? I can only think of Atletico Madrid, and even they've changed.

"Success" though is a pliable word. Promotion to a higher division is a success but it's empty if you can't build on it. I have no desire, and I think a lot of fans would share this opinion, to experience a re-run of 2023/24, and there's very little about our play that (currently) gives me any confidence we won't be subjected to something similar again.

We're currently signing players not considered good enough to make the squad of sides stinking out the PL which would be fine and dandy if we had a way of playing that integrates those players so well that they suit us far better than Southampton, Ipswich and Leicester, but we don't. We just rely on our players being better man-for-man than our Division 2 opponents. And they are, by and large.

Next season, assuming we were to go up, then what?

 

[91stMinute]

It’s time for a change of mind set and attitude of what seems to be an increasing number of suddenly self entitled Blades’ fans. It wasn’t great today, it wasn’t great against Hull or Swansea or Watford but the facts are we won today and remain second in the league and have now established a 3 point lead over third placed Burnley. 61 points after 30 games even after a 2 point deduction. All this in the context of a team that started the closed season as a virtual blank sheet of paper. On top of that, two of our key players suffered season ending injuries….and still some people are calling for Wilder’s replacement. Unbelieveable. On top of that a new set of owners, for the first time in living memory, are actually pump priming our renaissance with hard cash rather than pleading poverty (cf. Chansiri)

So you Blades who have suddenly acquired an attitude of we want to win ‘in style’ rather than ‘just win’ just get over yourselves. We are Blades and we don’t mind winning ugly when we have to. We aren’t entitled to roll over any other club in this or any other league. Leave the arrogance to the petrodollar fuelled plastics of the ‘top six’. Great win today, more great days to come as the team gells. We have some truly talented players who want to play for us and have chosen us over some tough opposition. Alternatively, stand on the wind and rain blasted terraces of Hartlepool in the old 4th division as many of us did several years ago and tell us about Wilder and his team’s ‘failures’.

Take a bow sir. Very well worded and as a few others have already posted what the majority of Blades really think/feel.
I wonder if it’s a generational thing? Many of us “older Blades” have witnessed far far worse than what is perceived as bad today. After browsing through posts on here some days, I have to come off and take a minute to look at the reality of us winning games and being second in the league with what is still a very new team who have suffered more that’s there fair share of injuries.

I’ll also add what a brave post considering all the pelters/insults etc you could take from some.
I still believe a lot of these negative Nellie’s are not Blades supporters. Some might even be one person on the wind up. We should really ignore.

 

[Jan Age]

So you don't expect us to win as that's entitled, you just want us to play good football and... Be... Successful... In the division above

Want v expectation are very different things ….

Yes I want us to

Do I expect it will happen as if by magic ? No

 

[sheff_blade90]

i always say good football is winning football. look at ange postegcolu, hes on the verge of the sack with injuries aside. because of how entertaining he was. as i always say stoke fans only started moaning when in a relegation battle. no stoke fans were in Valencia moaning the footballs crap

we are currently having our greatest championship season under wilder or hecky.
2018/19 - 30 games 16 wins 54pts
2022/23 - 30 games 18 wins 61pts
2024/25 - 30 games 19 wins 63pts*

 

[Frank the tank]

Want v expectation are very different things ….

Yes I want us to

Do I expect it will happen as if by magic ? No

But the topic in discussion on this thread is entitlement
And your views, (very reasonable and sensible long term views) are not the ones being expressed on here by a vocal minority
They are the views of people who don't care that we have a lower budget wage wise and thinner squad than our competitors, or that we have less cohesion due to injury's brought about by said thinner squad or that we are now integrating new players into the squad

The positives of the players showing real heart and commitment to keep us in touch during this period is also swept aside as is the quality of any new signing compared to the ones anyone else makes or who is just out of our reach financially

Our support Is very much entitled but maybe I'm the odd one out, I happen to take a lot of pride in blades being the underdogs and scrapping for every ball and think. If we lose that we just become another beige club like Preston or the pigs

 

[Cheeky Blade]

Wilder is a victim of his own success this season. The club is overachieving given the shit-show we are hopefully now emerging from.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

George Graham's success was over 30 years ago. We're going back to the halcyon days of Sheffield Wednesday, it's that dim a memory. We may as well discuss Stanley Matthews, Jimmy Hagan, long shorts and leather footballs.

If you'd like to give me a list of sides that have had any success with that sort of football in a major league in the last decade then please tell me who that is? I can only think of Atletico Madrid, and even they've changed.

"Success" though is a pliable word. Promotion to a higher division is a success but it's empty if you can't build on it. I have no desire, and I think a lot of fans would share this opinion, to experience a re-run of 2023/24, and there's very little about our play that (currently) gives me any confidence we won't be subjected to something similar again.

We're currently signing players not considered good enough to make the squad of sides stinking out the PL which would be fine and dandy if we had a way of playing that integrates those players so well that they suit us far better than Southampton, Ipswich and Leicester, but we don't. We just rely on our players being better man-for-man than our Division 2 opponents. And they are, by and large.

Next season, assuming we were to go up, then what?

Assuming the new owners don't/can't throw £200m at it, we likely come back down next season. We're 2 windows into a complete overhaul of the squad, boardroom and likely whole club infrastructure. I think a few want to run before we can walk. The past is gone, the future undecided, so enjoy the present, a 1-0 win at Derby is much better than a stream of 5-0 6-0 and 8-0 defeats whatever the level.

 

[Darnall Siam Blade]

Some good suggestions on here. Might I add that we consider a style that ensures we equalise before they score.

 

[sitwell]

I have banned myself from Shoutbox as I upset too many people, I had a look back at yesterdays and fuck me so glad I did. Dont know if some are just trolling but there are also regulars almost willing us to concede. The dislike of anything Utd by some is unreal.

 

[SUFCinks]

Assuming the new owners don't/can't throw £200m at it, we likely come back down next season. We're 2 windows into a complete overhaul of the squad, boardroom and likely whole club infrastructure. I think a few want to run before we can walk. The past is gone, the future undecided, so enjoy the present, a 1-0 win at Derby is much better than a stream of 5-0 6-0 and 8-0 defeats whatever the level.

I think the criticism, from what I have raised and others is mainly aimed at avoiding next seasons potential 5-0, 6-0 and 8-0s. Being more proactive now might enable us to develop a better style of play that could potentially avoid that. There is no way that when/if we get promoted we can change our style overnight, against much better opponents. It needs to start to be implemented months ago. Our current style of play is no different to when we last went up which is the concern, the only difference is we are playing inferior opponents.

There is a lot of talk of lets just get promoted and then work it out, but I find that extremely short sighted and a little naive that we can just change things closed season and be competitive for the first game. My view is it would be better to slow down a bit on focus on a style of play that would bring us more long term success and sign players and implement a system around it.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

I think the criticism, from what I have raised and others is mainly aimed at avoiding next seasons potential 5-0, 6-0 and 8-0s. Being more proactive now might enable us to develop a better style of play that could potentially avoid that. There is no way that when/if we get promoted we can change our style overnight, against much better opponents. It needs to start to be implemented months ago. Our current style of play is no different to when we last went up which is the concern, the only difference is we are playing inferior opponents.

There is a lot of talk of lets just get promoted and then work it out, but I find that extremely short sighted and a little naive that we can just change things closed season and be competitive for the first game. My view is it would be better to slow down a bit on focus on a style of play that would bring us more long term success and sign players and implement a system around it.

It's the dilemma of planning for going up and ensuring we do go up.
Can we go and get ready for PL league players now? Unlikely
Do we start planning signings now for the summer for the identified areas for upgrade? More realistic

Horses for courses, what works in this league doesn't work in the PL, but priority is to get out the league and we have a real chance this season. A more long term strategy may be desirable, but you wouldn't give up this promotion chance to start implementing that.

The fears of repeating the last PL season are understandable, especially as we look like being promoted in a similar fashion to last time, but short of chucking a fortune at it al you can do is trust the sumer recruitment adds the quality where it's needed to stay up.

 

[Speedracer]

I think a fair proportion of our fans are stuck between a rock & a hard place, looking down on other teams in our league & below yet cap doffing Premier League teams & calling them light years ahead of us.

Just let that sink in a bit. How do we progress? There is no doubt that Wilder was scarred by our previous failure to compete in the top league, as I am sure the players were too, so it made sense that he wanted us to be a resolute, hard working side, especially so as we had a huge transition of players both in & out, yet not enough quality or depth to play swashbuckling football sweeping everyone aside.

The first 20 games or so we did far, far better than anyone expected, but with a threadbare squad ravaged by long term injuries we couldn't keep it going. Yet we are still in there, fighting hard, giving it our all but with a drop in any expansive football we played pre Christmas.

To those who say we can't go up into the Premier playing the same kind of football, I don't think we will, should we achieve promotion. Hopefully some of the new January signings will prove to be good buys who improve the first 11, but if not they will become better squad fillers than we currently have. I also wouldn't be surprised if some of those signings are sold straight away if they don't measure up.

It might not be what people want to hear, but being hard to beat in the league above will be the aim firstly, depending on how much cash Wilder is given to spend pre-season.

 

[ekke287]

We had four new players all signed this window, two of whom were making their debuts. Come on.

Have you read any of my posts on this thread? I’ve said I do t have an issue but can see why some people do. People are allowed opinions.

 

[SUFCinks]

It's the dilemma of planning for going up and ensuring we do go up.
Can we go and get ready for PL league players now? Unlikely
Do we start planning signings now for the summer for the identified areas for upgrade? More realistic

Horses for courses, what works in this league doesn't work in the PL, but priority is to get out the league and we have a real chance this season. A more long term strategy may be desirable, but you wouldn't give up this promotion chance to start implementing that.

The fears of repeating the last PL season are understandable, especially as we look like being promoted in a similar fashion to last time, but short of chucking a fortune at it al you can do is trust the sumer recruitment adds the quality where it's needed to stay up.

I would agree with most of that but I do think that most of the teams that have managed to escape the Championship for the promised land have had a more defined style of play. They do also have lots of money. I can't think of many teams that have managed to stay up by just being a bit steady or successfully changed their style of play to adjust to the prem once they arrived. Sometimes teams dial down a lot of their play to try to survive which wouldn't leave us with much.

We can certainly add players to the mix but that style of play will be bedded in. I feel we have the ability to play better and set good foundations/habits for a more successful future.

it's a tricky/complex situation. Charge for promotion and potentially repeat our last spell and end up back in the same position or focus on style of play and risk losing out on promotion this season for a longer term goal. In an ideal world we would focus on the style of play and get promotion whilst being more competitive next season.

 

[Bladeulike]

I think the criticism, from what I have raised and others is mainly aimed at avoiding next seasons potential 5-0, 6-0 and 8-0s. Being more proactive now might enable us to develop a better style of play that could potentially avoid that. There is no way that when/if we get promoted we can change our style overnight, against much better opponents. It needs to start to be implemented months ago. Our current style of play is no different to when we last went up which is the concern, the only difference is we are playing inferior opponents.

There is a lot of talk of lets just get promoted and then work it out, but I find that extremely short sighted and a little naive that we can just change things closed season and be competitive for the first game. My view is it would be better to slow down a bit on focus on a style of play that would bring us more long term success and sign players and implement a system around it.

That’s a well reasoned response. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Do the players need to fit the system or the system fit the players that we have? I think the catastrophic COVID season when we went down was heavily Influenced by an over reliance on a system that had largely been rumbled. Jokanovic was a disaster when he tried to implement a system that didn’t suit the players he had at his disposal at all. To have built a squad around the system he wanted to create would have been would have required taking a virtual flamethrower to the existing squad and starting again - at best risky and at worst suicidal. Hecky stepped in and got us promoted by moulding a system around existing player strengths. There’s no clear right or wrong but I maintain that my criticism of some fans (too many in view, obviously, which I why I posted originally) is that they have lost sight of context and are criticising the management team on the basis of some speculative future return to the Premiership which is by no means certain. That’s what I meant by ‘entitled’ - criticising a future scenario and losing touch with who and where we are now.

In my view, there’s no off the peg system we can or should adopt. For goodness sake, let’s at least get decent footballers that we can afford through the door first and then grow the system organically from there. Give them a break - they’ve barely learned each other’s first names yet! Cannon, BBD, Hamer, Cooper, Souza, Burrows et al are bloody good footballers who will open up options and flexibility as they gel together as a team. That’s been achieved by, at long bloody last, some serious financial support from our new owners. It’s a team we would never have dreamed of when we released 18 players in the summer. Let’s support what very well could be a dream in the making and see how we go rather than waste time and emotion on nightmare futures that haven’t happened.

UTB

 

[petcharlie]

Take a bow sir. Very well worded and as a few others have already posted what the majority of Blades really think/feel.
I wonder if it’s a generational thing? Many of us “older Blades” have witnessed far far worse than what is perceived as bad today. After browsing through posts on here some days, I have to come off and take a minute to look at the reality of us winning games and being second in the league with what is still a very new team who have suffered more that’s there fair share of injuries.

I’ll also add what a brave post considering all the pelters/insults etc you could take from some.
I still believe a lot of these negative Nellie’s are not Blades supporters. Some might even be one person on the wind up. We should really ignore.

My thoughts entirely .I think there are some who are not blades who are just hell bent on stirring the pot . If they are fans they have a strange way of showing it .

 

[SUFCinks]

That’s a well reasoned response. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Do the players need to fit the system or the system fit the players that we have? I think the catastrophic COVID season when we went down was heavily Influenced by an over reliance on a system that had largely been rumbled. Jokanovic was a disaster when he tried to implement a system that didn’t suit the players he had at his disposal at all. To have built a squad around the system he wanted to create would have been would have required taking a virtual flamethrower to the existing squad and starting again - at best risky and at worst suicidal. Hecky stepped in and got us promoted by moulding a system around existing player strengths. There’s no clear right or wrong but I maintain that my criticism of some fans (too many in view, obviously, which I why I posted originally) is that they have lost sight of context and are criticising the management team on the basis of some speculative future return to the Premiership which is by no means certain. That’s what I meant by ‘entitled’ - criticising a future scenario and losing touch with who and where we are now.

In my view, there’s no off the peg system we can or should adopt. For goodness sake, let’s at least get decent footballers that we can afford through the door first and then grow the system organically from there. Give them a break - they’ve barely learned each other’s first names yet! Cannon, BBD, Hamer, Cooper, Souza, Burrows et al are bloody good footballers who will open up options and flexibility as they gel together as a team. That’s been achieved by, at long bloody last, some serious financial support from our new owners. It’s a team we would never have dreamed of when we released 18 players in the summer. Let’s support what very well could be a dream in the making and see how we go rather than waste time and emotion on nightmare futures that haven’t happened.

UTB

If it was me in charge I would of started my recruitment with a style of play in mind and recruited around that. Now we have started signing players on 3+ year contracts, some of which aren't technically very gifted, it does make it a little harder to get them to conform to a more progressive or technical system later down the line. I think there is always a chance of getting players who are a bit crap regardless of your recruitment approach though, sometimes its unavoidable, any signing is a risk. I do think that the most important thing is having players of quality first and foremost so agree with that point, the style of play is just how you can elevate them to the next level which I hope we start to see before next season.