“Nothing to do with systems”

[Bladethebrian]

We had a very tight defence last year and losing Angel and JLT has affected us - we could have done with JLT marking Morris yesterday!

 

[Carlton Blade]

Wilder isn't the main character this time around. He'll set up the team cautiously and won't want to commit too many players forward. He'll want them to avoid long shots or hopeful/early crosses and try to 'work' the ball to create high probability chances. He's a competent EFL manager, he'll set a reasonable standard but he won'tcreate a team that's beyond the sum of it's parts. The overly emotive reactions, both positive and negative aren't going to change that.

The players capable of being good Championship players, or better are the ones the season and which division United will be in, will be defined by Cooper, Tanganga, O'Hare, Hamer and Campbell. The rest of the squad need to fill in the holes around them as best they can.

 

[1889]

I think we were could play the Par 5 at Brough in the time it takes this lot to get forward and that's with knackered middle aged knees!

I think we could possibly play the back nine pal

 

[YES Blade]

View attachment 224829

This is the single biggest reason why we’re so shit. We’ve recruited so unbelievable badly, we’re left with a squad who couldn’t perform at the required level if Klopp were in charge.

13 summer signings and the only 1 who has made any kind of positive difference is worse than the player who he replaced (Soumare & Vini).

I can’t bring myself to blame Wilder for this mess, but he needs to work an actual miracle in January to salvage anything from this season.

No one can defend that recruitment, so far only Tanganga, Mee and Soumare look like decent signings. But it’s not the single biggest reason we’re shit, Wilder is equally to blame. If it’s solely due to poor players then that would suggest Selles wasn’t at fault.

Derby were a poor team, we should be able to beat them with the players Wilder has available because he has a fairly decent starting eleven available.

This isn’t the Premier League relegation season all over again, our squad isn’t light years behind. We have a solid midtable starting eleven but lack squad depth and options from the bench. Wilder should be getting more out of this team, half of them were being managed by him last season after all.

 

[Blade56]

Challenge him to be better and improve

There’s the problem. Wilder stated it’s not the systems, he’s known for being stubourne and reluctant to change. It’s not Wilder it’s his tactical ability and reluctance to change that concerns me.

It seems to me that a lot on here are just waiting for us to lose so they can stick it to Wilder.

And the Wilder fans blaming anything but him.

He should have stayed away and stayed a legend.

I doubt Wilder will ever make this club great again (would love if he could). When he came in first time fan base was split, he reunited us then took us to heights not seen since Ken Furphy (ask yer grandad).

However, we’ve been landed with bad owners and will go the way of clubs like Luton, Huddersfield et al (not S6, Forest, cause they’ll be no spendagedon).

The best route is the S6 route under the current PL/EFL corrupt system. Villa, Leicester, Forest et al are re running the original Leeds overspend and be dammed way of running a club. We don’t have the money, the quality has left the team bit by bit and been replaced with projects and L1 players in the hope Wilder can perform another miracle.

He can’t so he should have stayed away. As for the blaming the fans, give it a rest. We can’t change things. It’s the and they’ve gone missing. I predict L1 looms and the club being sold and slowly rebuilt over the next decade to an average Championship side.

 

[ATL Recs]

Based on a lot of the comments on here in the last 24 hours, i can honestly say the phrase 'you get the team the fans deserve' is so true.

The irony of a bunch of bed wetters frothing at the keyboard blaming Wilder for everything from not buying a RB to lack of pashun to tactical systems, whilst claiming a lack of commitment and effort isn't lost on me.

This modern day fad of blaming someone whether it be Peck, Wilder, small boats is laughable.

Is Wilder doing a good job? Probably not but the knee jerk reaction and wanting his head on a spike from most around this forum is frankly embarrassing.

Gerrim sacked? Give me a break. Challenge him to be better and improve - definitely! Wanting blood sacrifices is frankly ridiculous.

Happy to take a beating from those of you frothing if it helps you to cathartically externalise the angst and be more level headed....

It’s called human emotion and an entitlement to let it out in a public forum
Yep I’m now a “bed wetter” never wanted him back after the first time which ended ugly but before that gave us joy like never before
The fact that we’ve now employed him 3 times is pretty tin pot
No progress in 10 years just regress team wise and infrastructure wise we are still stuck in the past
And now we’ve made him almost impossible to move
He’s passed his best no one else at this level will go near him and has made us become a laughing stock

 

[Iffy Onuora's Shiny Head]

It’s called human emotion and an entitlement to let it out in a public forum
Yep I’m now a “bed wetter” never wanted him back after the first time which ended ugly but before that gave us joy like never before
The fact that we’ve now employed him 3 times is pretty tin pot
No progress in 10 years just regress team wise and infrastructure wise we are still stuck in the past
And now we’ve made him almost impossible to move
He’s passed his best no one else at this level will go near him and has made us become a laughing stock

We are tin pot from top to bottom.

The way the club is ran.
Only accepting managers who "get us".
Fans jeering RND off the pitch in the first game of the season.

In some way the club deserves what it gets.

 

[Servigliano]

I'll try again.
No, I'm not Wilder's biggest fan and criticised him on here at the time for persisting with Robinson over Holding and then buying a CF when apparently we were looking at Tanganga.
While nobody will ever know what goes on behind the scenes I wouldn't have sacked him though - unless there was a better manager available - but we end up with Selles who save Tanganga has left us with no proven Championship players, no RB at all and no big CF. That's criminal.

People say play 3/5 at the back. Doesn't work and it's disastrous playing our best CH at RB. So, try 4 at the back - but we've no RB.
People say play two up front. Easy to say but we do not have a big target man who Campbell or even Cannon/Ings can play off.
Drop Peck. I think he needs a rest for sure - but who replaces him?
My point is that if Wilder hadn't been sacked there's no way we'd be in this mess. If, as seems likely, Moore wanted to go he'd have had a replacement lined up and ditto a RB if he couldn't have got Choudhary to stay.
We're in a real dogfight and unless we achieve even mid table by January we've little chance of properly filling the glaring holes of no RB or big CF and those holes are glaringly apparent to all opposition managers.

But we are where we are, up s+++ creek. Every club in our position needs support more than ever but sadly we're handicapped by our pro/anti Wilder factions and it'll tear us apart if we're not careful.

"We're all Blades aren't we". Lol.
Interestingly who on here accurately forecast "tits up" in answer to the pre season forecast poll? Even I didn't think it'd be this bad though.

 

[Iffy Onuora's Shiny Head]

I'll try again.
No, I'm not Wilder's biggest fan and criticised him on here at the time for persisting with Robinson over Holding and then buying a CF when apparently we were looking at Tanganga.
While nobody will ever know what goes on behind the scenes I wouldn't have sacked him though - unless there was a better manager available - but we end up with Selles who save Tanganga has left us with no proven Championship players, no RB at all and no big CF. That's criminal.

People say play 3/5 at the back. Doesn't work and it's disastrous playing our best CH at RB. So, try 4 at the back - but we've no RB.
People say play two up front. Easy to say but we do not have a big target man who Campbell or even Cannon/Ings can play off.
Drop Peck. I think he needs a rest for sure - but who replaces him?
My point is that if Wilder hadn't been sacked there's no way we'd be in this mess. If, as seems likely, Moore wanted to go he'd have had a replacement lined up and ditto a RB if he couldn't have got Choudhary to stay.
We're in a real dogfight and unless we achieve even mid table by January we've little chance of properly filling the glaring holes of no RB or big CF and those holes are glaringly apparent to all opposition managers.

But we are where we are, up s+++ creek. Every club in our position needs support more than ever but sadly we're handicapped by our pro/anti Wilder factions and it'll tear us apart if we're not careful.

"We're all Blades aren't we". Lol.
Interestingly who on here accurately forecast "tits up" in answer to the pre season forecast poll? Even I didn't think it'd be this bad though.

So we do have a RB but apparently Wilder has fallen out with him...

We didn't have a big target man when it was Didsy and Sharp. Though all 3 of our current strikers are so far off those two in ability and effort.

And the Peck one is interesting - for me he looks like a youth player in an adults team at the moment. Based on that we could put in another youth player and get exactly the same output.
Soumare is one of the only players attempting a forward pass at the moment so he gets the shirt. Matos is at least a "rutter" so he will contribute defensively which is more than Peck is doing - until Davies is back to pick.

 

[nopigfansintown]

So we do have a RB but apparently Wilder has fallen out with him...

We didn't have a big target man when it was Didsy and Sharp. Though all 3 of our current strikers are so far off those two in ability and effort.

And the Peck one is interesting - for me he looks like a youth player in an adults team at the moment. Based on that we could put in another youth player and get exactly the same output.
Soumare is one of the only players attempting a forward pass at the moment so he gets the shirt. Matos is at least a "rutter" so he will contribute defensively which is more than Peck is doing - until Davies is back to pick.

Davies, unfortunately, is a crock. Seriki is a walking muscle injury and has shown no signs thus far of being a regular RB/RWB cure. His body doesn't seem up to it. We don't have a semi reliable RB/RWB on the books. A competent team should have two.

You're bang on with Soumare. The trade off is that he's a headless chicken that completely vacates his defensive, screening position. On balance he gets in my team over the other options.

 

[SwitchBLADE Smiles]

No one can defend that recruitment, so far only Tanganga, Mee and Soumare look like decent signings. But it’s not the single biggest reason we’re shit, Wilder is equally to blame. If it’s solely due to poor players then that would suggest Selles wasn’t at fault.

Derby were a poor team, we should be able to beat them with the players Wilder has available because he has a fairly decent starting eleven available.

This isn’t the Premier League relegation season all over again, our squad isn’t light years behind. We have a solid midtable starting eleven but lack squad depth and options from the bench. Wilder should be getting more out of this team, half of them were being managed by him last season after all.

Respectfully disagree on this point. IMO the only championship level footballers in the squad are Cooper, Burrows, Tanganga, Hamer, Davies, O’Hare & Campbell. Soumare looks promising & Mee really should be doing better than he currently is. There’s something not right with Cooper and he’s currently below standard. We all know the score with Davies. The rest are either kids or league 1 footballers at best.

At present, we need ALL of our ‘better’ players to be on their game to have a chance at beating the likes of Derby.

The state of this season is entirely on the summer recruitment. We’ve ditched a load of experienced championship players and replaced them with no-marks or soon to be retirees. Whether you place the blame on Selles, scouting or the AI approach is upto you. IMO we can’t expect Wilder to take a squad that is so clearly not upto scratch and lost every single one of their competitive games before he took charge again and suddenly turn them around.

 

[Balham]

A few things to note, Tanganga originally played RB for Spurs so he's not being played completely out of position, he's just better at CB than RB.

Tanganga played RB in the same way that Jags did. Young player filling in. He was a CB throughout his academy years. He’s also the best CB on our books and playing him at RB weakens two positions.

[/quote]It's sort of the opposite to Gilchrist last season or Jimmy Dunne (CB/RB's), the latter of whom would have been signed (heavily rumoured at the time) had Wilder not been sacked.[/quote]
Dunne is competent at RB. Gilchrist was not, he has zero attacking instinct.

Yes, we do have a squad of 29 players, but there are a few of them who are not up to the level of the championship yet, like Oné, Ukaki, Marsh and Faxon, as well as 2 complete unknowns in Zätterström and Nwachukwu.

Soccerbase has 35 players listed with squad numbers. That includes the six you mention and Polendakov, Curtis and Sasnauskas. Take them out and you have 26 senior professionals. Why pick the same 9 week in, week out? The quote misattributed to Einstein about results and madness springs to mind.

Plus there's a few longer term injuries in there as well (longer than 2 weeks) in Hamer, Chong and Arblaster.

That’s why you have backups and an academy.

All of this reduces the number of players for CW to work with that are up to the level, as well as leaving us light in some areas, like RB, CB and RW.

RB is a weakness but a bigger weakness is leaving the best natural option out of the squad.
RW we have inverted option in Brooks, a senior international in Ogbene and our best individual player in Hamer (when not injured - I was about to say when fit but that’s different)
We have 5 senior CBs, although one is inexplicably being played at RB. How many do you want?

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

We are tin pot from top to bottom.

The way the club is ran.
Only accepting managers who "get us".
Fans jeering RND off the pitch in the first game of the season.

In some way the club deserves what it gets.

Was about to respond to ATL Recs but you summed it up much better than i could.

We're a tin pot club with a fan base who can't seem to have nice things.

 

[YES Blade]

Respectfully disagree on this point. IMO the only championship level footballers in the squad are Cooper, Burrows, Tanganga, Hamer, Davies, O’Hare & Campbell. Soumare looks promising & Mee really should be doing better than he currently is. There’s something not right with Cooper and he’s currently below standard. We all know the score with Davies. The rest are either kids or league 1 footballers at best.

At present, we need ALL of our ‘better’ players to be on their game to have a chance at beating the likes of Derby.

The state of this season is entirely on the summer recruitment. We’ve ditched a load of experienced championship players and replaced them with no-marks or soon to be retirees. Whether you place the blame on Selles, scouting or the AI approach is upto you. IMO we can’t expect Wilder to take a squad that is so clearly not upto scratch and lost every single one of their competitive games before he took charge again and suddenly turn them around.

We’re fucked then if we need all our top players to be performing at their best to beat a team like Derby that will at best be lower midtable.

I’m sorry, but you’re just making excuses for Wilder, Derby are a shite team. We have enough in the squad to be beating them.

It’s funny how it was all Selles fault until Wilder returned and it’s now all on the players.

 

[Bladesince59]

Sorry but Wildersaurus is a has been.

 

[Lower Drop Blade]

Wilder’s post-match interview for Radio Sheff just now was vintage stuff. Asked in the opening question for his assessment of the loss, his immediate answer was “it was nothing to do with systems” (trans: “not my fault, guv”).

Ok, dreadful defensive errors by players in all three goals, and a questionable pen. But, I’m afraid that playing sterile U-shaped walking football with one up top for 70-odd minutes is ENTIRELY about systems, and, quite aside from defensive errors, was a major contributory factor to why we could not win, or draw, that game. Yet again.

Fine, throw the players under the bus. They deserve it today (Callum OH, and maybe SamMcCallum, apart). But fuck me, have the self-awareness and humility to accept a share of the blame.

But all his mates say he's brilliant so who's right?

 

[Kevincarterversion2.0]

I am a Wilder fan but I am not blinkered enough to deny that he is partly culpable for the shambles of this season. Yes, he couldn't influence the summer window and was harshly / unfairly dispensed of by our stupid owners. But the problems with Wilder have been building since Souttar and Blaster got injured last year and continue to manifest. For example, CW is

• Persisting with a system that isn't working - a mistake he made in the second season of the PL after JOC got injured. CW admits he hasn't got the players to play how he wants - but he hasn't changed the system to suit the players he's got (two up front, wing backs).
• Picking his favourites who aren't doing it (Peck this season, Robinson last season).
• Blaming the players who aren't his mates and not taking any responsibility himself
• Having no plan B and on 65 minutes seems to resort to changing people, rather than tactics, in the hope something will stick.

I think some Blades see it, some don't want to see it and some don't care because they love Wilder more than the club.

We are caught in a perfect maelstrom of sorts - clueless owners, a dreadful squad, a manager who isn't what he once was, but is virtually untouchable despite poor results. A bit like what happened to Forest in the final Cloughie season.

Ps the players and owners also carry some of the blame - it isn't all on Wilder, but let's not pretend he has no responsibly.

 

[Nedski]

Take half an hour to reach the halfway line and then - if you've kept the ball - work it back to the goalie for him to boot up to Campbell - who has never even jumped for a header in his life ?
Jesus Christ.

It's so dull and predictable I have absolutely no motivation to keep watching our games. There's absolutely no logic to our "tactics".

We've got quick and skilful attackers in Hamer, COH, Campbell, Ogbene, Brooks. When Cooper gets the ball he should be doing everything he can to get it up to them as quickly as possible (whether it's a long pass, throw (isn't that one of the things he's supposed to be good at?) or out to the fullbacks so they can move it up quickly). Then our quick skilful attackers can go at the opposition while there's less of them and are likely out of position. Surely that's the basics of attacking?

But no. Cooper holds on to it while the opposition move back, regroup, reorganise. On the off chance they haven't got back, he'll give it to the defence who will pass it back and forth to make sure. We'll eventually get to the other half before finding it impossible to pass through 10 players, then passing backwards a bit more, then once the opposition realise they are in no danger they press us and Cooper ends up shanking the ball out. Rinse and repeat.

This is the system.

 

[bertieblade]

I honestly do not think that we have a system, what happens at the moment is born out of necessity as the players have no idea as no one runs to create space, basically standing still like subbuteo players in the hope that the guy with the ball can create something on his own. Teamwork and creativity does not exist

 

[VonBrysonsExpress]

I honestly do not think that we have a system, what happens at the moment is born out of necessity as the players have no idea as no one runs to create space, basically standing still like subbuteo players in the hope that the guy with the ball can create something on his own. Teamwork and creativity does not exist

Wasn't this the second season of the prem before Wilder went out the back door? My memory is fading, perhaps thankfully, of that season but I seem to recall limited movement,no communication or understanding between players and Norwood punting balls into channels which weren't anticipated or chased.

This is my problem, it's rinse and repeat. Has everyone forgot lundstrums abject behaviour and Wilder blithely selecting him week after week. Cannon will be back starting, maybe even at Coventry because he never learns or doesn't want to.

 

[TJ blade]

Also buggering off with 10 minutes to go is really going to help the team. Really good supporters aren't you.
It seems to me that a lot on here are just waiting for us to lose so they can stick it to Wilder.
We're desperately short of a big CF, say like the one at Wrexham.
No RFB either - and I suppose that's Wlder's fault as well.
People clamour for 2 up front, but You can only play 2 up front if you've got one big man - and we let him walk.
After failing yet again at a PO final (mainly due to a dodgy VAR decision) unsurprisingly we lost Souza , Anel, Moore, Choudhury,. Maybe if Wilder hadn't been sacked one or two may have been kept -who knows, but one thing's for sure Wilder would have had replacements lined up. No way on earth would he have had most of those who Selles recruited. He's now having to play with one hand tied behind his back.
If we can achieve mid table by end of December we might have a reasonable chance of attracting the players Wider needs in the hope of making the play offs

Make the play offs I'll bare my arse in the co-op window, if this dross gets anywhere near them

 

[Sportbilly /Detroit Blade]

Make the play offs I'll bare my arse in the co-op window, if this dross gets anywhere near them

Which branch? Asking for a friend!

 

[Bladesman]

 

[TJ blade]

Which branch? Asking for a friend!

 

[Tezza1889]

Overplaying and the fear of getting hit on the break..

But why fear getting hit on the break when you gift at least 2 chances every game to the opposition due to overplaying and lack of ideas, players dont have a scooby what to do, that doesn't come from them.

Passing back from the kick off ... ffs

How shite is that?