Billy - Unjustified Stick

[Slim Man]

He’s getting a bit of hammer recently. It’s unjustified and frankly unfair. About him being ‘wank’, ‘past it’ and ‘rubbish’ etc.

I personally think right now he should be dropped for Villa as I think either Brooks or Donaldson will be more effective against Samba but that doesn’t mean I’m about to write him off or forget what he’s done over the past 2 and half seasons for us.

Sharp plays a game in which he needs chances creating for him. Our teams inability to create anything of note recently is hindering him more than anyone. He’s still working hard and running the channels, doing a lot of work off the ball. He’s not the best footballer but he gives his all every week.

As much as it is down to Chris and Alan - Billy was every bit as vital to our promotion last year.

If it wasn’t for Billy Sharp we’d still be in League One... possibly even worse to be honest. Let’s have a bit of respect for a club legend shall we?

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Here's a recent photograph...
Can you guess what it is?

 

[Slim Man]

Here's a recent photograph...
Can you guess what it is?

Stick, but that one doesn’t look very unjustified.

 

[CarlingBlade]

Sharp needs service from the midfield, sometimes he gets it, other times the opposition snuff out our midfield which limits the service to Sharp.

Some matches Clarke and Brooks would be a more effective partnership (see the pigs and Wolves matches), other times Sharp and Clarke are the ones.

Wilder has got it right on more occasions than he's got it wrong and going forward i'm sure he'll continue to make tough decisions, Sharp is by no means past it though.

 

[Woodthorpe blade]

Here's a recent photograph...
Can you guess what it is?

Is it Peter Crouch?

 

[Trigger Blade]

Here's a recent photograph...
Can you guess what it is?

The beginnings of a catapult doomed to fail?

 

[Tyler Durden]

He’s getting a bit of hammer recently. It’s unjustified and frankly unfair. About him being ‘wank’, ‘past it’ and ‘rubbish’ etc.

I personally think right now he should be dropped for Villa as I think either Brooks or Donaldson will be more effective against Samba but that doesn’t mean I’m about to write him off or forget what he’s done over the past 2 and half seasons for us.

Sharp plays a game in which he needs chances creating for him. Our teams inability to create anything of note recently is hindering him more than anyone. He’s still working hard and running the channels, doing a lot of work off the ball. He’s not the best footballer but he gives his all every week.

As much as it is down to Chris and Alan - Billy was every bit as vital to our promotion last year.

If it wasn’t for Billy Sharp we’d still be in League One... possibly even worse to be honest. Let’s have a bit of respect for a club legend shall we?

Spot on.

I even think he should be left out for Villa as it happens. Both he and the team might benefit from it.

But needless to say that if he starts and scores on Saturday, there'll be an eerie silence from certain individuals who couldn't wait to give him a kicking straight after the final whistle at Deepdale.

I might start a thread about it and tag them in it.

 

[snootyfenooty]

Billy is playing shit but so are the rest of the team at the moment. I'm unable to give anyone credit for the last few games, maybe Clarke excepted, but he seems to be catching the bug too.

 

[Keen Blade]

As a threat in the box , he's a goalscoring hero. As a leader of the line when our approach play is slow & uninventive , he is not going to dominate many Championship defenders (lacking pace & size) , so he just ends up in a losing physical battle with them or offside.
Unfortunately if our MF is denuded , he can't compensate like a second Leon or a Devante Cole might.
But no question of dropping him out of the matchday squad for this season at least.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Spot on.

I even think he should be left out for Villa as it happens. Both he and the team might benefit from it.

But needless to say that if he starts and scores on Saturday, there'll be an eerie silence from certain individuals who couldn't wait to give him a kicking straight after the final whistle at Deepdale.

I might start a thread about it and tag them in it.

The way we're currently playing (fookin awfully) really doesn't suit his game.

Once we get Duffy, Coutts, Fleck back and start playing the quick one twos releasing runners out wide beyond the defence and then looking for someone to find half a yard in the box - then there aren't (m)any better than Bill in this League.

As the next month we're likely to be hitting long balls and looking for our CF to get in behind the defence, we need pace...

Love him to bits, but the next 4 weeks we need as a leader more than as a CF.

 

[Silent Blade]

Spot on.

I even think he should be left out for Villa as it happens. Both he and the team might benefit from it.

But needless to say that if he starts and scores on Saturday, there'll be an eerie silence from certain individuals who couldn't wait to give him a kicking straight after the final whistle at Deepdale.

I might start a thread about it and tag them in it.

Who were the fans that wanted to give him a kicking after the final whistle. No Blade would do that! Anyone not cheering a goal by Billy is not a Blade!

 

[Woodthorpe blade]

Here's a recent photograph...
Can you guess what it is?

 

[Tyler Durden]

The way we're currently playing (fookin awfully) really doesn't suit his game.

Once we get Duffy, Coutts, Fleck back and start playing the quick one twos releasing runners out wide beyond the defence and then looking for someone to find half a yard in the box - then there aren't (m)any better than Bill in this League.

As the next month we're likely to be hitting long balls and looking for our CF to get in behind the defence, we need pace...

Love him to bits, but the next 4 weeks we need as a leader more than as a CF.

Again, completely agree.

He needs creative players around him to thrive. Right now we're missing our four most creative players.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Who were the fans that wanted to give him a kicking after the final whistle. No Blade would do that! Anyone not cheering a goal by Billy is not a Blade!

Well there was the one who called me out by name to tell me he was shit. Posted at 16:57 I think.

 

[boo radley]

He is also missing the influence of Freeman.
We all thought we had players to come in to any position and do a job.
It seems we were all wrong?

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Again, completely agree.

He needs creative players around him to thrive. Right now we're missing our four most creative players.

Totally. Never thought I'd utter these words, but Hanson probably needs consideration...

Still don't/won't buy in to the Billy-bashing... Probably be the same morons who start posts about Wilder if we lose the next couple and/or don't spend £20m in January...

 

[BushBlade]

He is also missing the influence of Freeman.
We all thought we had players to come in to any position and do a job.
It seems we were all wrong?

We've got a fairly harsh set of injuries. The two that we don't seem to be able to cover are Coutts (not easy to have anyone even half as good as him who'd be prepared to sit on the bench most weeks) and Duffy.
Saturday was just bad luck that we had Fleck, Duffy and Brooks all out on top of our other injuries.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Totally. Never thought I'd utter these words, but Hanson probably needs consideration...

Still don't/won't buy in to the Billy-bashing... Probably be the same morons who start posts about Wilder if we lose the next couple and/or don't spend £20m in January...

Personally I think Lavery has a bigger part to play than we've seen so far, taking his nasty injury into consideration of course.

 

[Keen Blade]

Billy is playing shit but so are the rest of the team at the moment. I'm unable to give anyone credit for the last few games, maybe Clarke excepted, but he seems to be catching the bug too.

"Billy is playing shit" might come from my mouth in the 90 minutes when my emotions receive unjustified verbal expression.
But a day or two later I reflect that we got him when we were in L1 and therefore he naturally is not going to be "the complete striker".
If he was , he would have remained in the Premiership much longer.
So my "Billy is playing shit" complaint is actually just unhelpful frustration that he can't be more than he's always been - a terrific goal machine if properly fed.
Whether we can push him down to the subs bench by finding a more complete striker in January (or at least one that can operate with less feeding) is one of the huge factors in what CW described as "moving the Club forward".
Another is finding a player to compensate for the loss of Courts. Notice I don't say "replace" Coutts - we haven't enough money for a direct replacement.
But no one yet has compensated for his loss.
On our 5 game winless run , even CW is learning about our lack of depth in quality.
"Moving forward" (which I take to mean becoming a genuine top 6 Championship Club) may have to wait till Coutts returns.
Or a new striker manages to depose Billy. Until then , I wouldn't give you tuppence for Hansen , Lavery , Donaldson or Ched - Billy's inferior challengers.
I daren't mention young David when we're so close to the January sales.

 

[boo radley]

We've got a fairly harsh set of injuries. The two that we don't seem to be able to cover are Coutts (not easy to have anyone even half as good as him who'd be prepared to sit on the bench most weeks) and Duffy.
Saturday was just bad luck that we had Fleck, Duffy and Brooks all out on top of our other injuries.

That is true but it seems many are discounting what influence Freeman had last season. Possibly believing that he will not be able to make the step up.

 

[BushBlade]

That is true but it seems many are discounting what influence Freeman had last season. Possibly believing that he will not be able to make the step up.

Freeman's a good player and I'll be glad when he's back.

 

[cal the blade]

The bloke has scored 51 goals in 2 seasons at league 1 level and has 8 this season. We all know he's a limited player... he's not gonna skin someone and bang one in from 30 yards every week. And even in games were he scores he tends not to "play well" because apart from scoring he has very little else to his game, but thats his job to score goals and over 3 seasons
He's done a damn good job.
(I would drop him for villa though)

 

[bonobo]

Will Billy Sharp finish the season with 15+ goals ? YES...
Injuries permitting Clarke and Sharp will finish with 40 plus goals between them....any team in the division would bite that hand off.....
If not winning games is down to goal scoring...then it is not goals from our strikers that is the problem....knowone else in the team looks like netting

 

[sitwell]

Personally I think Lavery has a bigger part to play than we've seen so far, taking his nasty injury into consideration of course.

Agreed ,most players get much better when they aren't playing ,for some reason this works the other way for Lavery ,he took some right stick on the bus on the way home on Saturday until it was pointed out Lafferty came on not Lavery. He is a good player who gives us something different to the others ,attack is not where we need reinforcements.

 

[sitwell]

The bloke has scored 51 goals in 2 seasons at league 1 level and has 8 this season. We all know he's a limited player... he's not gonna skin someone and bang one in from 30 yards every week. And even in games were he scores he tends not to "play well" because apart from scoring he has very little else to his game, but thats his job to score goals and over 3 seasons
He's done a damn good job.
(I would drop him for villa though)

Good job the internet hadn't been invented when keith Edwards played.

 

[GrayBlade]

He’s getting a bit of hammer recently. It’s unjustified and frankly unfair. About him being ‘wank’, ‘past it’ and ‘rubbish’ etc.

I personally think right now he should be dropped for Villa as I think either Brooks or Donaldson will be more effective against Samba but that doesn’t mean I’m about to write him off or forget what he’s done over the past 2 and half seasons for us.

Sharp plays a game in which he needs chances creating for him. Our teams inability to create anything of note recently is hindering him more than anyone. He’s still working hard and running the channels, doing a lot of work off the ball. He’s not the best footballer but he gives his all every week.

As much as it is down to Chris and Alan - Billy was every bit as vital to our promotion last year.

If it wasn’t for Billy Sharp we’d still be in League One... possibly even worse to be honest. Let’s have a bit of respect for a club legend shall we?

We’ve had similar posts started about him every season, he seems to be the first name on some posters hit list when the team’s fortunes take a dive and they never ever cut him the same amount of slack other player’s get.

I agree that he was very poor on Saturday and should have been hooked, but he did ok against Bristol and was very unlucky not to get on the score sheet. Our problem when we talk about dropping him is that we’ve got nobody like him and that includes Clarke. His knack of just being in the right place like his header against Bristol cant be trained in it’s a gift, but Billy has and always will have goalless runs and the go on a scoring streak like a lot of natural goal-scorers do.

Maybe he’s ready for a rest, he’s also got the extra pressure of the captaincy so maybe we could use him a the impact sub, but we’ve hit to remember he’s hot the type of player who’ll come on and change a game’s direction, he’s a player who’ll come on and take that one chance in a tight game and you’d expect him to score. As for some of the abuse that you mention, they must be fecking idiots, I’d stick back him to get 20 goals if he stays fit.

 

[Bladezz]

He was truly truly awful on Saturday.

 

[snootyfenooty]

What we need to realise is that we are not playing very well at the moment. OK we were missing our three midfielders but the rot started before that when just the one of them went absent. Coutts is important but surely the rest of the team and management tactics should have been able to cover one man.

I don't buy into this "would have bitten your hand off at the start of the season for the position we're in" bollocks. The facts of the matter are we were great at the start of the season and we are fucking rubbish at the moment. Pointing the finger at Billy is just a red herring, there's several more plus the recent tactics which are open to question too.

Let's call it as it is, the present set up with the available players is not working at the moment so lets change the fucking way we play. Einstein's Law of Insanity seems to be the only tactical option at the moment.

My suggestion for starters: Basham must return to the back three or 4-4-2 if CW insists he plays in midfield. The defence is the major problem and has to be beefed up.

 

[SwissBlade]

He’s getting a bit of hammer recently. It’s unjustified and frankly unfair. About him being ‘wank’, ‘past it’ and ‘rubbish’ etc.

I personally think right now he should be dropped for Villa as I think either Brooks or Donaldson will be more effective against Samba but that doesn’t mean I’m about to write him off or forget what he’s done over the past 2 and half seasons for us.

Sharp plays a game in which he needs chances creating for him. Our teams inability to create anything of note recently is hindering him more than anyone. He’s still working hard and running the channels, doing a lot of work off the ball. He’s not the best footballer but he gives his all every week.

As much as it is down to Chris and Alan - Billy was every bit as vital to our promotion last year.

If it wasn’t for Billy Sharp we’d still be in League One... possibly even worse to be honest. Let’s have a bit of respect for a club legend shall we?

I haven’t read any of the above stick, mainly because I don’t read the forum after we’ve lost because of knee jerk reactions like this.

Billy didn’t have a good game on Saturday but he’s not getting quality service, Saturday was a poor performance all round.

My concern against Villa is defensively and in Midfield, get that right and we will create chances. When we do that Billy generally scores goals.

My criticism of Billy last season was that he wasted a lot of chances, despite his exceptional goal tally, he missed a lot. This season he’s looked leaner, sharper and hungry. On Saturday he didn’t have any of those attributes, a week ago against Bristol City he was getting chances and was very close, hitting the woodwork twice (if memory serves correctly).

I’d have no issue starting Billy v Villa, he’ll cause problems and his experience is a huge asset

 

[Pinchy]

I miss all his hard work and channel-running. Probably because I see what is actually happening, rather than what I would like to happen.