A few observations from the stats (Wendies)

[Coolblade]

A few observations from the stats:

- hardly shocking, but Coops scored his highest positive stats contribution so far this season, and was a worthy MOTM. A steal at £2 or £3m. It’s not just his shot stopping, but his calmness and authority, giving confidence to those in front of him, and his decision making (eg when to punch rather than catch). But most of all his positioning, which makes hard saves looks easy. It’s imperative we go up, as otherwise I can’t see how we can keep him when so many Prem teams have far poorer keepers. And he is still relatively young, so his potential is off the chart.

- almost to demonstrate that stats need context and analysis to be fairly evaluated, Seriki had most overall positive contributions, with twice as many successful dribbles as anyone else, most successful tackles, and 85% pass completion including a key pass (and a shot). But defensively he gave me a heart attack on multiple occasions and he seems to be more of a wing back to me.

- again not surprising given the team selections, with Wendies putting two large lumps up front, but we badly lost the aerial battle. Indeed Smith won 10 aerial duels (our highest was 3) as well as making three key passes (our highest was 1). He was a constant threat. Holding coming on earlier may have been helpful in this regard. Choud clearly played deeper than usual to protect the defence, but in the main the defence had consistent positive stats, with all four having 7 or 8 positive contributions.

- offensively was not great, with only one accurate cross (by BBD). Campbell and Brewster both had ok stats, and combined fantastically for the goal, but the lower than usual stats for Hamer ( no shots, no key passes), perhaps suggests he missed his old mate, O’Hare (who came on as he went off!). I think it’s probably unfair to judge Cannon on brief substitute appearances whilst we are hanging on, but in over 20 mins, he attempted just two passes, and neither he nor O’Hare made much of an impact.

But who cares! We’ve done the Sheffield double, and gone joint top! Enjoy the moment…..

 

[Geordie Blade]

Always good to see these (and, as you say, best not to over interpret them).

Another observation is that stats only tend to record completed passes. Hamer put in one lovely through ball to Campbell, which is class as a ‘key pass’, but was just a few inches too heavy. Likewise, we had three decent shots across the far post that could easily have had a nick - those don’t show up as close efforts. Wednesday fans say our goal was lucky, but we had a few of those similar cross shots and it was inevitable that one would eventually cause something.

 

[ThirdGenBlade]

A few observations from the stats:

- hardly shocking, but Coops scored his highest positive stats contribution so far this season, and was a worthy MOTM. A steal at £2 or £3m. It’s not just his shot stopping, but his calmness and authority, giving confidence to those in front of him, and his decision making (eg when to punch rather than catch). But most of all his positioning, which makes hard saves looks easy. It’s imperative we go up, as otherwise I can’t see how we can keep him when so many Prem teams have far poorer keepers. And he is still relatively young, so his potential is off the chart.

- almost to demonstrate that stats need context and analysis to be fairly evaluated, Seriki had most overall positive contributions, with twice as many successful dribbles as anyone else, most successful tackles, and 85% pass completion including a key pass (and a shot). But defensively he gave me a heart attack on multiple occasions and he seems to be more of a wing back to me.

- again not surprising given the team selections, with Wendies putting two large lumps up front, but we badly lost the aerial battle. Indeed Smith won 10 aerial duels (our highest was 3) as well as making three key passes (our highest was 1). He was a constant threat. Holding coming on earlier may have been helpful in this regard. Choud clearly played deeper than usual to protect the defence, but in the main the defence had consistent positive stats, with all four having 7 or 8 positive contributions.

- offensively was not great, with only one accurate cross (by BBD). Campbell and Brewster both had ok stats, and combined fantastically for the goal, but the lower than usual stats for Hamer ( no shots, no key passes), perhaps suggests he missed his old mate, O’Hare (who came on as he went off!). I think it’s probably unfair to judge Cannon on brief substitute appearances whilst we are hanging on, but in over 20 mins, he attempted just two passes, and neither he nor O’Hare made much of an impact.

But who cares! We’ve done the Sheffield double, and gone joint top! Enjoy the moment…..

Love your stuff Coolblade and GraphMan’s (ucandomagic ) overviews.

No mention of Sydie, and that fantastic 360 before a perfectly-weighted pass to Ty to set up the goal?

Surely that 2 seconds of magic picks up some big stats?

Femi & Sydie became men today - and we will see an enormous benefit. The change in Femi after about 15 minutes was visible

UTB & FTP

 

[Houston_Blade]

I enjoy these posts, but there’s only thing to reply with today and it’s:

 

[Coolblade]

Love your stuff Coolblade and GraphMan’s (ucandomagic ) overviews.

No mention of Sydie, and that fantastic 360 before a perfectly-weighted pass to Ty to set up the goal?

Surely that 2 seconds of magic picks up some big stats?

Femi & Sydie became men today - and we will see an enormous benefit. The change in Femi after about 15 minutes was visible

UTB & FTP

Seeing as you ask, unless you enter a very detailed level of statistical analysis, the pass before the assist is rarely acknowledged. So Hamer’s fantastic work at BDTBL to open up the Wendies for Campbell’s goal, and Sydie’s similar impactful pass yesterday, don’t get the credit they deserve.

But even then Peck’s stats show joint third most tackles, second most aerial duels won (surprisingly but showing a general team, weakness?) , second most touches with a good pass completion rate over 80%, ranking him our second highest player (by Opta) and fourth best player (by Footmob and Whoscored). These stats are made even better (IMHO) as Choud played deeper slightly isolating Sydie at times.

On Wilder’s point, only one stat matters! Goals scored vs goals conceded. And although the xG was generally shown to be 1.3 for each team, suggesting an even game, Brewster’s goal from a very high 0.92 xG - set against Coops saving both the “big chances” created in the match, gave us a hugely important win.

UTB!

 

[Melbourne Blade]

Thanks mate

I was shitting it towards the end as they were winning more aerial duals. Wondered if Holding on earlier and maybe Moore to provide further height at set pieces would have helped my nerves? Had we conceded maybe a fair argument.

 

[SwissBlade]

A few observations from the stats:

- hardly shocking, but Coops scored his highest positive stats contribution so far this season, and was a worthy MOTM. A steal at £2 or £3m. It’s not just his shot stopping, but his calmness and authority, giving confidence to those in front of him, and his decision making (eg when to punch rather than catch). But most of all his positioning, which makes hard saves looks easy. It’s imperative we go up, as otherwise I can’t see how we can keep him when so many Prem teams have far poorer keepers. And he is still relatively young, so his potential is off the chart.

- almost to demonstrate that stats need context and analysis to be fairly evaluated, Seriki had most overall positive contributions, with twice as many successful dribbles as anyone else, most successful tackles, and 85% pass completion including a key pass (and a shot). But defensively he gave me a heart attack on multiple occasions and he seems to be more of a wing back to me.

- again not surprising given the team selections, with Wendies putting two large lumps up front, but we badly lost the aerial battle. Indeed Smith won 10 aerial duels (our highest was 3) as well as making three key passes (our highest was 1). He was a constant threat. Holding coming on earlier may have been helpful in this regard. Choud clearly played deeper than usual to protect the defence, but in the main the defence had consistent positive stats, with all four having 7 or 8 positive contributions.

- offensively was not great, with only one accurate cross (by BBD). Campbell and Brewster both had ok stats, and combined fantastically for the goal, but the lower than usual stats for Hamer ( no shots, no key passes), perhaps suggests he missed his old mate, O’Hare (who came on as he went off!). I think it’s probably unfair to judge Cannon on brief substitute appearances whilst we are hanging on, but in over 20 mins, he attempted just two passes, and neither he nor O’Hare made much of an impact.

But who cares! We’ve done the Sheffield double, and gone joint top! Enjoy the moment…..

Seeing as you ask, unless you enter a very detailed level of statistical analysis, the pass before the assist is rarely acknowledged. So Hamer’s fantastic work at BDTBL to open up the Wendies for Campbell’s goal, and Sydie’s similar impactful pass yesterday, don’t get the credit they deserve.

But even then Peck’s stats show joint third most tackles, second most aerial duels won (surprisingly but showing a general team, weakness?) , second most touches with a good pass completion rate over 80%, ranking him our second highest player (by Opta) and fourth best player (by Footmob and Whoscored). These stats are made even better (IMHO) as Choud played deeper slightly isolating Sydie at times.

On Wilder’s point, only one stat matters! Goals scored vs goals conceded. And although the xG was generally shown to be 1.3 for each team, suggesting an even game, Brewster’s goal from a very high 0.92 xG - set against Coops saving both the “big chances” created in the match, gave us a hugely important win.

UTB!

Cheers for this, good work as always and as you allude to, the stats often need some context and then also the context needs some context. So a few observations on your observations...

- Seriki - got a knock making a block in the first few minutes, but regardless of that, I also don't think it was a coincidence that Wednesday put Patterson against Seriki and gave him a very physical battle in the first 20 mins and first half as a whole. Second half they switched Patterson to Burrows on our left to try and rough him up as well. From their perspective, it did work, even if their plan had no substance beyond being physical in these areas. So the context to the context is that Seriki was up against it in the first half especially, but he did manage to break forward a few times, perhaps not at his most effective and also making a few inexperienced decisions, however, i thought he grew into all aspects of the game and the threat was changed from our right to our left in the second half.

- Aerial duels - You say not surprising because Wednesday went with lumps, however, i heard before the game on RS comms that we were the taller side on the day and you'd normally expect us to win the ball more in the air. However, this doesn't take into account the aggression. Wednesday epitomised the historical Sheffield United approach, the Bassett and Warnock approaches. They went very 1990's on us. Again, Patterson was very busy in this area. In the second half i wondered if we might change Burrows for McCallum given his Aerial ability rather than his defensive. They wanted to allow Charles and Bannan the space to play their game, but they didn't really have much beyond them to play the ball to. Wednesday's chances were mostly in the air, but again the balls in were mostly agricultural.

- Peck - With no Souza and Davies, the energy to support Peck wasn't quite there. Even without O'Hare, we lose some energy to protect. Souza is an obvious enforcer, Choudhury isn't that player, he sits deeper and plays a little more like Norwood, very deep and breaks up play in front of the centre halves. The physicality of yesterday was perhaps a challenge for him which Souza would've handled better. If Davies were fit, he'd have sat in the Peck role and Peck would've been deeper, but we had what we had, they pairing of Peck and Choudhury grew into the game and once we got and retained more possession, I thought Peck improved all round as the game went on, as did Choudhury, who's proving to be a shrewd signing.

- Key Pass - I know i asked about this before and it seemed that the key pass is pretty much an assist, but really "Key Pass" really defines that pass to Campbell yesterday, the ball in behind. As you say, the Hamer pass at the lane was similar. Its the pass out of nothing which starts the move. If anything, the ball from Peck yesterday was the ball of the match. Yes there was still work to do, but carving them open with that ball from a seemingly nothing position to take 3 Wednesday players out of the action and allow us space in the box to break at speed to support Campbell. It was lovely.

- Width - Theres probably a heat map which shows the (lack of) width, but we set up to play a narrower formation packing the midfield, this allowed for Seriki and Burrows to roam, when they could. Not playing Brooks / JRS gave us a more defensive minded side - Hamer, Brewster and BBD all work back well and Campbell is better suited to the lone role than either Cannon or Moore since he has power and pace, i also think that without Moore (similar to McBurnie) we are more likely to find the channels rather than look for the Strikers head.

- Wilder - I loved his interview yesterday, he talks about you can stick the stats where you want, but he gives himself too little credit in statements like that, the key yesterday was homework. We knew what to expect, we weathered a lot, for a very innovative manager, Roehl is certainly predictable. I've seen stats that they have scored more goals and come from behind after making substitutions as much as Leeds. Yesterday, however, they had nothing from the bench to replace Patterson and Charles. They'd already played their cards up top, so if plan A wasn't working, Plan B wasn't planned for. I love the simplicity of Wilder's "over, round and through", apply that to Wednesday and they only had Over. Once Over was over, they didn't have round and through to choose from. We had additional options from the bench for all scenarios. Second half though, again, probably without a stat to explain it, after Wednesday had shot their bolt, we set about coaxing them forwards, this was so that we could get in behind them, as it was, by going round the back.

 

[Rufus Smalls]

Love your stuff Coolblade and GraphMan’s (ucandomagic ) overviews.

No mention of Sydie, and that fantastic 360 before a perfectly-weighted pass to Ty to set up the goal?

Surely that 2 seconds of magic picks up some big stats?

Femi & Sydie became men today - and we will see an enormous benefit. The change in Femi after about 15 minutes was visible

UTB & FTP

Same with Chouds, he was all over the shop first 15 minutes then grew into the game. We weathered Wednesday’s first 15 minute’s pressure then gelled, especially in midfield.

 

[SwissBlade]

Same with Chouds, he was all over the shop first 15 minutes then grew into the game. We weathered Wednesday’s first 15 minute’s pressure then gelled, especially in midfield.

I think what is often hard to see (and impossible from the stats) is the intensity of the opposition. Credit to Wednesday, they came out so physical, hard and fast putting us under a lot of pressure in front of their Kop. As i'd said elsewhere, the atmosphere (on the RS commentary that was on the SkySports+ game) came across as very loud so that will also have contributed. We'll have fully expected them to come at us, but we had to weather it before we could settle. In that first 15 we were having to clear our lines by lumping it as they were pressing us and of course it just came straight back. So Choudhury, Peck, Seriki and Burrows were feeling it. It was a good test if you want to take a positive from that

 

[Rochdaleblade]

I'd be interested to see how many of these aerial duels went to Wednesday players. It seemed to me that quite a few times, we let Smith win the ball unchallenged and just picked up the pieces.

 

[LBA_Blade]

Seeing as you ask, unless you enter a very detailed level of statistical analysis, the pass before the assist is rarely acknowledged. So Hamer’s fantastic work at BDTBL to open up the Wendies for Campbell’s goal, and Sydie’s similar impactful pass yesterday, don’t get the credit they deserve.

But even then Peck’s stats show joint third most tackles, second most aerial duels won (surprisingly but showing a general team, weakness?) , second most touches with a good pass completion rate over 80%, ranking him our second highest player (by Opta) and fourth best player (by Footmob and Whoscored). These stats are made even better (IMHO) as Choud played deeper slightly isolating Sydie at times.

On Wilder’s point, only one stat matters! Goals scored vs goals conceded. And although the xG was generally shown to be 1.3 for each team, suggesting an even game, Brewster’s goal from a very high 0.92 xG - set against Coops saving both the “big chances” created in the match, gave us a hugely important win.

UTB!

I mentioned this on another post but genuinely if that build up play was by Liverpool or Man City, the commentators and pundits would be over analysing it for days as to how good it was. It wouldnt have been described as “lucky”because of the deflection and Brewster would have been acknowledged to have the foresight of seeing that happening and being there at the back post. I am probably going to watch the goal another 10 times or so again today but every time for me it gets better !

 

[Blade56]

I think what is often hard to see (and impossible from the stats) is the intensity of the opposition. Credit to Wednesday, they came out so physical, hard and fast putting us under a lot of pressure in front of their Kop. As i'd said elsewhere, the atmosphere (on the RS commentary that was on the SkySports+ game) came across as very loud so that will also have contributed. We'll have fully expected them to come at us, but we had to weather it before we could settle. In that first 15 we were having to clear our lines by lumping it as they were pressing us and of course it just came straight back. So Choudhury, Peck, Seriki and Burrows were feeling it. It was a good test if you want to take a positive from that

Yep, their obvious tactic for that first 15mins was shock and awe/blitzkrieg in front of their kop and once we contained it, slowed the proceedings down we slowly but clearly took control of the game.
I’ve been a Wilder critic and Rohl admirer when it comes down to tactical set up / decisions / subs but Wilder took Rohl pants down, stood him on the table and gave him a good spanking yesterday. If only we could do that every week.
As for shoving the data I think that was a bit tongue in cheek from Wilder. Fact is he pulled off the first double in style for 19yrs in our era of data driven footy.
It would have been easy to make the wrong decisions yesterday eg if we had brought Moore on and lumped it up to him but no panic. Moore cannot play footy outside the 18Birdies box, he needs crosses and passes to bury. He can’t hold it up or put a through ball in so thankfully he stayed on the bench. That said Cannon offered zero again but had to come on to justify the signing.
However, here we are today in the City that is ours and I 100% praise and thank Wilder for that.

 

[Coolblade]

Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful responses. Two quick follow ups:

- an "aerial duel won" is defined as "Winning a header in a direct contest with an opponent" - so the times when we backed off from challenging for a header, presumably to improve our chances of picking up the second ball, are not included in Smith's (and others) aerial duel stats. So if you added in the times they were unchallenged under a high ball, this actually adds to the number of headers they won, and further demonstrates the aerial problems we faced.

- checking the height stats, both teams were almost identical (we were 1/12 inch taller on average to start, they were 1/6 inch taller once Lowe was replaced). But size (ie height) isn't everything! I rate Anel highly and still think that a confident Anel playing alongside an experienced and strong centre half has a fair chance of performing in the premiership (despite last time!), but although he is 6 foot 5" he isn't a commanding physical unit, and with Robbo only 5 foot 11', the physicality of Patterson alongside Smith did result in a real danger. In the first 15 mins, this looked like a real problem, so huge credit to all our defence for staying strong under such pressure.

 

[McGrath]

I enjoy these posts, but there’s only thing to reply with today and it’s:

View attachment 206447

Yep, as much as I like the stats. They don't really reflect the match.

Ours tactics yesterday were clever. Let them huff and puff, blow themselves out and then just be patient and wait for that moment. We did that, stats will reflect that negatively though.

 

[Balham]

I'd be interested to see how many of these aerial duels went to Wednesday players. It seemed to me that quite a few times, we let Smith win the ball unchallenged and just picked up the pieces.

Exactly what PL sides used to do to us when we were aiming long balls in the approximate direction of Oli McBurnie.

 

[Selly]

I mentioned this on another post but genuinely if that build up play was by Liverpool or Man City, the commentators and pundits would be over analysing it for days as to how good it was. It wouldnt have been described as “lucky”because of the deflection and Brewster would have been acknowledged to have the foresight of seeing that happening and being there at the back post. I am probably going to watch the goal another 10 times or so again today but every time for me it gets better !

I fairness the co-commentator yesterday did give Brewster plaudits for not getting sucked towards the ball and losing his man.

 

[blades_95]

Yep, as much as I like the stats. They don't really reflect the match.

Ours tactics yesterday were clever. Let them huff and puff, blow themselves out and then just be patient and wait for that moment. We did that, stats will reflect that negatively though.

Completely agree & in fairness I think we’ve done that a lot this season against mid / lower table teams. Let them come out knowing they don’t have as much quality as us and we exploit that and score with our 1/2 good chances.

No coincidence we’ve won so many 1-0 - it’s not always been pretty but we’re able to do to most teams in this division what Prem teams did to us. They waste chances, we’re more clinical with the quality we have at this level.

Wednesday fans will say there wasn’t much between the sides but in patches you could 100% see it. They’re very limited, get the ball out wide and chuck it in. We played through them quite neatly a few times (although they kept fouling us & the ref let them do this).

From around 15mins to half time we controlled it & you could feel that in the crowd, unfortunately we didn’t get a goal while we were on top so they were always going to come out again and huff and puff after HT.

 

[McGrath]

Completely agree & in fairness I think we’ve done that a lot this season against mid / lower table teams. Let them come out knowing they don’t have as much quality as us and we exploit that and score with our 1/2 good chances.

No coincidence we’ve won so many 1-0 - it’s not always been pretty but we’re able to do to most teams in this division what Prem teams did to us. They waste chances, we’re more clinical with the quality we have at this level.

Wednesday fans will say there wasn’t much between the sides but in patches you could 100% see it. They’re very limited, get the ball out wide and chuck it in. We played through them quite neatly a few times (although they kept fouling us & the ref let them do this).

From around 15mins to half time we controlled it & you could feel that in the crowd, unfortunately we didn’t get a goal while we were on top so they were always going to come out again and huff and puff after HT.

Wednesday fans can say that there weren't much between the teams all they like. But there's a major difference between us and them and that is that we can play and win whilst protecting ourselves defensively. They can't, they either have to go for it and get exposed and concede or sit back and don't score.

 

[Badger Blade]

All depends on the stats that are important and you want to look at, context is all important.

You can win as many duels as you like, its where and when you win them. A goal line clearance clearly has a bigger impact than a basic block that goes out for a throw on the halfway line - more has to happen between that and the ball going in the net.

Boring stats mode here but if, for example, you were to do an opta team of the week, there are weightings added to them depending on pitch position and outcome. Michael Smith can win a shit load of duels but they're meaningless over the short term if he heads them straight to one of our players or if he wins them in the centre circle.

Take that stat over a season and you'd argue he'd be a decent asset to a team that wants to play that way but gets it to him in a better position.

 

[BladeByChoice]

Sheffield United have won the same amount of games at the sty in 2025 as the pigs have.
Let that stat sink in

 

[Geordie Blade]

Yesterday, however, they had nothing from the bench to replace Patterson and Charles. They'd already played their cards up top, so if plan A wasn't working, Plan B wasn't planned for. I love the simplicity of Wilder's "over, round and through", apply that to Wednesday and they only had Over. Once Over was over, they didn't have round and through to choose from. We had additional options from the bench for all scenarios. Second half though, again, probably without a stat to explain it, after Wednesday had shot their bolt, we set about coaxing them forwards, this was so that we could get in behind them, as it was, by going round the back.

100% this. My worst fear before the game was Smith coming off the bench for the last twenty minutes. Seeing the starting line up, I felt much more relaxed. Playing the hoof into the box tends to only work for 10-15 minutes at most. I guess that the forwards get tired and/or the defenders just start to get their eye in and adjust. That's exactly how it panned out and, as you say, they had no Plan B at all.

If we'd been 1-0 down, or even 0-0 with fifteen minutes left, I think we would've seen Moore come on, which would have changed the dynamic.

 

[N20 Blade]

Love the analysis Coolblade

Seriki had a frustrating game, some great runs, but too many poor touches did for him. He offers so much threat, though, if he stays fit he must start.

 

[Barmyblade]

Thanks Cool

It’s almost impossible to suggest we should change much given recent form but I tend to agree that there is an argument that we have players which may suit the 5-3-2 or 5-3-1-1 which worked so well first time around.

Putting Holding between Robbo and Anel gives greater aerial presence and prem experience, Burrows and Seriki look natural wing backs (and Anel can push forward as JOC and Bash used to) , with two holding middies (Peck, Vini, Choud or Davies) with Hamer comfortable centrally supporting either Ohare and one striker - or two strikers. With Cannon and Moore probably being more effective as part of a pair?

But given we keep winning, why change now! Barmy forever.

 

[ancientblade]

Thanks Cool

It’s almost impossible to suggest we should change much given recent form but I tend to agree that there is an argument that we have players which may suit the 5-3-2 or 5-3-1-1 which worked so well first time around.

Putting Holding between Robbo and Anel gives greater aerial presence and prem experience, Burrows and Seriki look natural wing backs (and Anel can push forward as JOC and Bash used to) , with two holding middies (Peck, Vini, Choud or Davies) with Hamer comfortable centrally supporting either Ohare and one striker - or two strikers. With Cannon and Moore probably being more effective as part of a pair?

But given we keep winning, why change now! Barmy forever.

have to agree i suggested it on another thread but was one who wanted us to go to a back 4 which worked ok when souttar was in teams like wednesday who play percentage high balls and crosses in to our box think its the perfect system as for the game cooper made 2 outstanding saves but i always thought we were playing within ourselves and never really got in to top gear also think the pitch helps their style of football rohl has done a good job there but he didnt know what to do to break us down in any case hes only got another 2 months at the sty

 

[Shawy24]

have to agree i suggested it on another thread but was one who wanted us to go to a back 4 which worked ok when souttar was in teams like wednesday who play percentage high balls and crosses in to our box think its the perfect system as for the game cooper made 2 outstanding saves but i always thought we were playing within ourselves and never really got in to top gear also think the pitch helps their style of football rohl has done a good job there but he didnt know what to do to break us down in any case hes only got another 2 months at the sty

We could have gone 5 at the back with a couple of permutations for the front 5 anytime. We still can and should in my opinion.

 

[Coolblade]

I know Wilder doesn’t like stats, but just to look forward slightly to the Coventry game, they have scored a whopping 18 headed goals this season, miles ahead of the next best at just 9, and we have scored a measly 4. Given our relatively low % of successful aerial duels, this must be a real threat - and I wonder if the time for Holding has arrived - especially if Vini remains unavailable?

 

[Weasel]

100% this. My worst fear before the game was Smith coming off the bench for the last twenty minutes. Seeing the starting line up, I felt much more relaxed. Playing the hoof into the box tends to only work for 10-15 minutes at most. I guess that the forwards get tired and/or the defenders just start to get their eye in and adjust. That's exactly how it panned out and, as you say, they had no Plan B at all.

If we'd been 1-0 down, or even 0-0 with fifteen minutes left, I think we would've seen Moore come on, which would have changed the dynamic.

I was another who saw their starting team and felt like it was a mistake by Sausage. He went all in with what I would consider to be playing their main actors from the start. I felt that if we could weather the first half and go in level, we would have enough to pick them off in the second half and win it, maybe by bringing off a match winner from our bench which they didn't have then. I was delighted when it was nil nil at HT as I genuinely thought we've got em now. So it proved. Gamble by Sausage and it backfired. Still they can't get enough of him for some reason. I just think he's a very ordinary coach, not particularly innovative or anything, but he's young and German so they think he's trendy. Sad cretins. The lad from Sheffield (Stocksbridge?) out manoeuvred him on Sunday.

 

[Barmyblade]

I know Wilder doesn’t like stats, but just to look forward slightly to the Coventry game, they have scored a whopping 18 headed goals this season, miles ahead of the next best at just 9, and we have scored a measly 4. Given our relatively low % of successful aerial duels, this must be a real threat - and I wonder if the time for Holding has arrived - especially if Vini remains unavailable?

Not that I would ever doubt your stats but I was surprised Frank Lampard’s Coventry could have such aerial dominance. So I did some checking and remarkably they have scored more headed goals this season than any team in Europe!!

I hope Vini is back, and it looks like both Moore and Holding may have a role to play - especially if we’re hanging on as usual.