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[Stannington Blade]

You mentioned Sydie's shooting. I think on some he has been unlucky, however, his xg from 39 shots is 2.1 (fotmob) which is mad.

It does present an opportunity. If he has 2 shots on Monday it takes him to 41 without scoring. Should we then get to Wembley I'm lumping on him scoring in the final so he can finally score on 42 for his shirt number. Not only would I fear for his general cardiac health if this did happen but it would be a phenomenal trivia question in the future.

 

[Beans]

You mentioned Sydie's shooting. I think on some he has been unlucky, however, his xg from 39 shots is 2.1 (fotmob) which is mad.

It does present an opportunity. If he has 2 shots on Monday it takes him to 41 without scoring. Should we then get to Wembley I'm lumping on him scoring in the final so he can finally score on 42 for his shirt number. Not only would I fear for his general cardiac health if this did happen but it would be a phenomenal trivia question in the future.

He also has one of the lowest xG-per-shot marks in the whole champ (there's about 20 players who are equal are worse). So not only is he pretty bad at shooting, he also shoots from poor areas - hence my suggestion of reining it in a bit.

25 yard Wembley winner would be delightful.

 

[Geordie Blade]

You mentioned Sydie's shooting. I think on some he has been unlucky, however, his xg from 39 shots is 2.1 (fotmob) which is mad.

It does present an opportunity. If he has 2 shots on Monday it takes him to 41 without scoring. Should we then get to Wembley I'm lumping on him scoring in the final so he can finally score on 42 for his shirt number. Not only would I fear for his general cardiac health if this did happen but it would be a phenomenal trivia question in the future.

I’ve been saying this since February. It’s surely written in the stars that he somehow finds the top bin at Wembley!

 

[Stannington Blade]

He also has one of the lowest xG-per-shot marks in the whole champ (there's about 20 players who are equal are worse). So not only is he pretty bad at shooting, he also shoots from poor areas - hence my suggestion of reining it in a bit.

25 yard Wembley winner would be delightful.

Agreed. Based on the average shot xg he has about a 5% chance of each shot going in which shows how maybe it's more a decision making thing. I don't know, but seem to remember him scoring a few in the u23s and he has a couple for England U20 so maybe it's a "break the duck" type of pressure before he clicks in and becomes the complete "side-parting Viera".

 

[coaxingstar71]

I was going to post after the Blackburn about how bad we've been at set pieces and you guys also picked up on this, saying that we just seem to be randomly picking a new taker. There was a huge improvement in the game on Thursday and obviously we scored from a corner for the third goal.
What I can't understand is that when Wilder and Knill came in 2016, it was one of our main strengths and we had several well worked corner routines. This season we've failed to beat the first man on far too many occasions. There wasn't anything innovative on Thursday but at least they were in the right areas and we looked a threat from them for a change.

 

[Frank the tank]

I was going to post after the Blackburn about how bad we've been at set pieces and you guys also picked up on this, saying that we just seem to be randomly picking a new taker. There was a huge improvement in the game on Thursday and obviously we scored from a corner for the third goal.
What I can't understand is that when Wilder and Knill came in 2016, it was one of our main strengths and we had several well worked corner routines. This season we've failed to beat the first man on far too many occasions. There wasn't anything innovative on Thursday but at least they were in the right areas and we looked a threat from them for a change.

Mainly because Bristol are a small side and weak in the air
It's something we need to work on

 

[Beans]

I was going to post after the Blackburn about how bad we've been at set pieces and you guys also picked up on this, saying that we just seem to be randomly picking a new taker. There was a huge improvement in the game on Thursday and obviously we scored from a corner for the third goal.
What I can't understand is that when Wilder and Knill came in 2016, it was one of our main strengths and we had several well worked corner routines. This season we've failed to beat the first man on far too many occasions. There wasn't anything innovative on Thursday but at least they were in the right areas and we looked a threat from them for a change.

Kieffer Moore coming back into the team might have helped as well - even if he's not winning the first ball he'll be taking a physical defender away from others.

I'm not sure about Knill apart from to say 2016 was quite a long time ago now, so not unreasonable to assume that the game has moved on quite a lot in how teams prepare for set-pieces in defence as well as attack (look at the rise of specialist set-piece coaches), and maybe he's not moved along with it. We were a good set-piece team in 2022/23, for what it's worth, even though our lineup was hardly packed with giants.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Kieffer Moore coming back into the team might have helped as well - even if he's not winning the first ball he'll be taking a physical defender away from others.

I'm not sure about Knill apart from to say 2016 was quite a long time ago now, so not unreasonable to assume that the game has moved on quite a lot in how teams prepare for set-pieces in defence as well as attack (look at the rise of specialist set-piece coaches), and maybe he's not moved along with it. We were a good set-piece team in 2022/23, for what it's worth, even though our lineup was hardly packed with giants.

Who could forget the 5-2 home win v Burnley when we bombarded them with set-pieces that they just couldn't handle.

 

[Beans]

Eyup S2, new pod is out now with Roygbiv and I savouring a smooth semi-final win for the Blades: the great shape the squad is in, the optimism we're feeling for Wembley, and the farce over the kickoff time delay. Thanks for listening.

 

[ZoneManWilf]

Eyup S2, new pod is out now with Roygbiv and I savouring a smooth semi-final win for the Blades: the great shape the squad is in, the optimism we're feeling for Wembley, and the farce over the kickoff time delay. Thanks for listening.

Presumably the KO time was released just as you finished recording . Thanks for doing that for us!

 

[Beans]

Presumably the KO time was released just as you finished recording . Thanks for doing that for us!

Literally mid-rant. Still finished off.

 

[Jon P]

Your point about us needing to just do our job, and play as we have been calmed my nerves, put things in perspective. I can see sunderland letting us have a lot of the ball which will allow us to control the game early on and settle into a rhythm

 

[Beans]

Nervously excited or excitedly nervous? Roygbiv and I recorded a preview of the final here. Cheers for listening!



See you in London

 

[Gimli]

Nervously excited or excitedly nervous? Roygbiv and I recorded a preview of the final here. Cheers for listening!



See you in London

Been looking forward to this one

If I see you I’ll definitely buy you both a pint

 

[Shadota]

Great pod as always fellas.

As far as the "comfortable" success goes, I'd very much appreciate if we could replicate PNE 2015, 10 years later to the day:

 

[Cappy]

Cheers fellas, good pod as always

Was the 'recent' pen shootout loss v Lincoln in the league cup, Roygbiv ?

UTB

 

[Roygbiv]

Cheers fellas, good pod as always

Was the 'recent' pen shootout loss v Lincoln in the league cup, Roygbiv ?

UTB

No I was on holiday for that. No idea what I was thinking of

 

[Winchester_Blade]

Cheers both, great pod as always.

Always listen with my 9-year old son en route to Bramall Lane! Helps a bit with the 3+ hour drive every home game

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Great pod as always fellas.

As far as the "comfortable" success goes, I'd very much appreciate if we could replicate PNE 2015, 10 years later to the day:

View attachment 211410

Roygbiv when he saw this result.

View attachment h2LLt3TgZrcSwindon(1)~2.mp4

 

[Selly]

Great pod as always fellas.

As far as the "comfortable" success goes, I'd very much appreciate if we could replicate PNE 2015, 10 years later to the day:

View attachment 211410

It's telling that I look at this and can only think of the nervy half hour between goals 2 and 3 and another nervy 30 after the 4th worrying that if they get one back then...

 

[Selly]

Great pod.

On the "new and interesting ways to lose in the playoffs" for me the obvious new way to lose would be to dominate the 90 mins in the final, be 1-0 up after 15 mins. Get sucker punched in the last minute and then either concede another one straight away, or lose to a fluke in extra time a la Luton scoring 2 from 0 shots on goal.

The other obvious new way is something involving the three letters we all fear could stop us from going up. No, not JLT.

V.A.R. (and specifically one of those that takes them 5 mins to resolve and it goes against us)

I wasn't fucking far off with this. FFS....

 

[Frank the tank]

At one point in that game I allowed myself to imagine how it would feel to win at Wembley and all that comes with it for the first time since we lost to. Burnley i allowed myself to dream
but then var intervened and in the most cruelest defeat yet snatched away that hope and infected the worst defeat yet in a game we be never looked like losing until we did

 

[Beans]

Bleh. Roygbiv and I tried to avoid talking about the playoff final and had a general catchup on the state of United heading into the off-season and how we feel about another year in the Championship. Cheers if you listen...

 

[Large Mendonca]

About bloody time…..

 

[Berkshire Blade]

I am purposely not looking when I go to places I can see the arch from locally when beforehand I would always be looking. It's still a tad raw!

Is it more of a "this is where we are' situation?! I don't want it relive it!

 

[Gimli]

Actual photograph taken by Roygbiv of Beans in the garden after the match…

 

[Nesh Blade]

Bleh. Roygbiv and I tried to avoid talking about the playoff final and had a general catchup on the state of United heading into the off-season and how we feel about another year in the Championship. Cheers if you listen...

I come to this for post play off final therapy only to hear Scottish football catching strays again after we lost 3-1 to fucking Iceland last night as well tragic

 

[Antonb]

Thanks for the therapy session. Glad you did talk about the final in the end. It’s good to talk as they say!

 

[JohnDenver]

Bleh. Roygbiv and I tried to avoid talking about the playoff final and had a general catchup on the state of United heading into the off-season and how we feel about another year in the Championship. Cheers if you listen...

Really glad to hear lots of chat about mentality. Whilst everyone deserves huge credit for the turnaround in results, the scars of the prem season are still evident in many key players (and they’re good players).

Anel still loses his head in adversity. Souza is still given to terrible body language after we concede. Hamer tries to do too much (if he’s still on the pitch). And collectively we just don’t look remotely convincing when behind in games. There is no change of gear, we lose focus and individuals don’t stand up.

The Pinch pod focused on the lack of ingrained attacking patterns. But I still don’t see things changing without a turnaround in personnel.

 

[ZoneManWilf]

Bleh. Roygbiv and I tried to avoid talking about the playoff final and had a general catchup on the state of United heading into the off-season and how we feel about another year in the Championship. Cheers if you listen...

About 15 mins in, usually BladesPod is very cathartic for me, this time all it's done is re-opened the 2 week old wounds let's see if the next 20 help!