BladesPod: 2020/21 Player Ratings & Farewell to Simon Moore and Jags (& JL7)

[Beans]

Morning all,

For anyone who's interested, Roygbiv and I go through the entire squad and give our player ratings for the season just gone, including a farewell to the departing Simon Moore, Phil Jagielka and John Lundstram.

It's a bit of a mammoth pod as we packed a LOT of detail into it - but we did also try to go fast, with a firm 3-minute time limit for each player, with the option to use 1 of 3 "timeouts" for someone who we thought needed more in-depth discussion.

If you listen, I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to tell me how wildly you disagree with any of our ratings.



And here on Apple and Spotify.

 

[Balham]

Preemptive 'like' for you there guys, purely because you're going to get me through this afternoon's work.

 

[Scarebus]

Can't disagree with any of the ratings and many of my sentiments echoed.

As for the podcast, a 7/10 for this season. The Ben Osborn of Blades podcasts. Solid, reliable and always gives 100% but didn't make it to the game a few times. Finished strongly and good enough for another season.

 

[Ron_Justice]

Good listen this one Ben, particular like the 'Out of Time' siren very considerate.

Agree, on the whole with the ratings, obviously, beyond Didz and Rammers, no one covered themselves in glory this season and like you I'll be gutted if we don't get to see more of Berge in a Blades shirt.

 

[Revolution]

I am about 20 mins from the end of this - thank you for doing it.

Highly recommended: the best thing you've done this season IMHO.

 

[Swannyblade]

It's bad enough that ATN use my morning alarm tone, but now the dreaded sound has cropped up in Bladespod as well.

Great assessment and hard to argue with your scores and reasoning. I'm impressed that you guys can recall individual moments from individual games because this season has become one blurred grey mush in my memory bank.

There's two positives I'll take from this bleakest of bleak seasons:

- Didzy has cemented his place as my all time favourite Blades player - both for his performances on the pitch and the way he carries himself off it.

- In Ramsdale we might have found a long term no.1 to take us forward - his second half of season performances and England call up are remarkable given there were genuinely times during the early stages of the season when I thought he might be incapable of catching a ball.

 

[Beans]

It's bad enough that ATN use my morning alarm tone, but now the dreaded sound has cropped up in Bladespod as well.

You have that as your morning alarm!? Do you like waking in a panic or something?

 

[Swannyblade]

You have that as your morning alarm!? Do you like waking in a panic or something?

Yup - I'm a heavy sleeper, so I need the ship's going down panic to startle me awake (my girlfriend loves it)

 

[bakeblade]

Morning all,

For anyone who's interested, Roygbiv and I go through the entire squad and give our player ratings for the season just gone, including a farewell to the departing Simon Moore, Phil Jagielka and John Lundstram.

It's a bit of a mammoth pod as we packed a LOT of detail into it - but we did also try to go fast, with a firm 3-minute time limit for each player, with the option to use 1 of 3 "timeouts" for someone who we thought needed more in-depth discussion.

If you listen, I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to tell me how wildly you disagree with any of our ratings.



And here on Apple and Spotify.

I'm interested! And look forward to listening over the next few days

 

[Long Time Lurker]

Excellent listen, thanks guys. Always a really measured assessment from both of you. Enjoy your close season and I look forward to hearing more positive news (hopefully!) on the Mighty Blades in 2021/22.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Thanks for this, just listened and not a lot to disagree with.

Kean Bryan is maybe marked slightly high but I understand the reasoning.

Good work this season and I look forward to seeing you fronting SUTV Live next season

 

[Frank the tank]

Great listen

 

[Stannington Blade]

Great listen as always, even if parts of it were painful. The 3 min alarm kept it feeling like ripping the plaster off quickly as opposed to dragging it out - much appreciated.

Can we give Ramsdale 3 separate marks?

Pre xmas: 6/10 - about par with some wobbles not helped by a team with no defensive confidence

Post xmas: 8.5/10 - fantastic performances again in a team with no defensive confidence

Mentality: 16/10 (never liked maths with it's pesky rules) - While getting the stick that he was, he turned it around to end the season as arguably the in-form English keeper. Takes some going.

 

[Balham]

Post-listening review - excellent. You are very lenient on Oli Burke though and I'm glad Didzy got his 9s.

Thanks for doing these throughout the season and for giving me a small warm feeling whenever you mentioned something I'd posted on here

UTB

 

[Harry's Game]

Give you my ratings..

Rammers 8
Amapadu 4
Baldock 6
Stevens 2
Basham 6
Egan 5
Bryan 4
Robinson 4
Lowe 2
Bogle 5

Norwood 3
Fleck 3
Lundstrum 1
Osbourn 6
Berge 4

Mcgoldrick 8
Sharp 5
McBurnie 3
Brewster 1
Burke 2 (1 extra point for the laughs he gave us)
Mousett 1
Jebbsion 6

 

[Deadbat]

Great pod and fantastic work all season.

 

[Balham]

Give you my ratings..

Rammers 8
Amapadu 4
Baldock 6
Stevens 2
Basham 6
Egan 5
Bryan 4
Robinson 4
Lowe 2
Bogle 5

Norwood 3
Fleck 3
Lundstrum 1
Osbourn 6
Berge 4

Mcgoldrick 8
Sharp 5
McBurnie 3
Brewster 1
Burke 2 (1 extra point for the laughs he gave us)
Mousett 1
Jebbsion 6

You missed Jagielka

Can't really disagree with the marks. It's a sad indictment of our season when the midfield consists of 5 players in total with a highest mark of 6/10, presumably given for commitment more than natural ability. That midfield, by the way, scored 2 goal (Berge's penalty at Liverpool, Osborn's goal at Leeds) and provided 5 assists (Lundstram 2, Fleck 2, Berge 1). 7 goal involvements for an entire midfield for an entire season. It's embarrassing.

Mine, FWIW. I've marked every player who started a game or made 2+ sub appearances. They're subjective marks in some cases - eg Jebbison who gets a higher mark than perhaps his performances deserve purely for the impact of that debut goal

GK
Ramsdale 8 (6 until Christmas, 9 thereafter; rounded up due to the fact that he clearly cares)

CB
Basham 6
Egan 6
Jagielka 6
Robinson 5
Bryan 5
Ampadu 4
O'Connell 5

RWB
Baldock 4
Bogle 5

LWB
Stevens 3
Lowe 3 (poor kid #1)

MF
Norwood 3
Fleck 4
Berge 5
Lundstram 2
Osborn 5

FW
McGoldrick 8
McBurnie 3
Sharp 5
Brewster 1 (poor kid #2)
Jebbison 8

Burke n/a
Mousset n/a

I can't give the latter two a mark because I don't think they did anything to directly impact a game other than Burke's scuffed-then-deflected shot at Old Trafford. I can't see any way either of them will have a positive impact for us in the future: Burke because he's incapable of making anything even approaching the correct decisions on the pitch and Mousset for the same reason off the pitch.

 

[Webding]

Good call on the buzzer. We probably need one of those for every time a certain someone starts talking.

Think you overrated most (or maybe I’ve hung around with Deadbat too long), but can’t fault most of the rationale or the rough ordering of everyone. Good stuff.

 

[Harry's Game]

You missed Jagielka

well spotted..

Jags 5.

 

[Roygbiv]

Good call on the buzzer. We probably need one of those for every time a certain someone starts talking.

Think you overrated most (or maybe I’ve hung around with Deadbat too long), but can’t fault most of the rationale or the rough ordering of everyone. Good stuff.

It's bad that we only gave 4 players above a 6 and yet you're probably right that we overated them

 

[Harry's Game]

It's bad that we only gave 4 players above a 6 and yet you're probably right that we overated them

Burke especially, marking him anything above a 2 is I think a bit like when the BGT judges puts through one of those nutter acts so they can have someone the public can laugh at on the live shows.

 

[Roygbiv]

Burke especially, marking him anything above a 2 is I think a bit like when the BGT judges puts through one of those nutter acts so they can have someone the public can laugh at on the live shows.

I think in the early games he actually offered us an outlet unlike anything we had seen since Moose had his 2 month golden spell. He was never great but it's only since around February that he became a full on joke.

 

[Webding]

If you say that 5/10 is a good D to bad C in DB’s ridiculous school grades, then not many actually made it above half marks for us. And I even think we were kind on a few. I wanted to expel a few.

 

[highgreeninjapan]

Thanks for this fellas. Bumper episodes get me to work and back (long commute!), so always happy to see.

My only comment is about something Ben mentioned in the previous pod, that Weezer hasn’t made a decent album in more than 15 years. I’m not totally against that premise; I play in a weezer tribute band here in Japan called “Tweezer” (Tokyo Weezer) and we play exclusively songs from the first two albums. However, “everything will be alright in the end” from 2014 is really worth a listen. The white album is very decent, too. That’s my tuppence!

 

[Webding]

Thanks for this fellas. Bumper episodes get me to work and back (long commute!), so always happy to see.

My only comment is about something Ben mentioned in the previous pod, that Weezer hasn’t made a decent album in more than 15 years. I’m not totally against that premise; I play in a weezer tribute band here in Japan called “Tweezer” (Tokyo Weezer) and we play exclusively songs from the first two albums. However, “everything will be alright in the end” from 2014 is really worth a listen. The white album is very decent, too. That’s my tuppence!

The only half-decent one since the Red Album (which itself was only a bit better than half-decent) is Hurley. In my option, even though I stated it like a fact.

 

[Bennyand the Blades]

We've just had two seasons in the Premiership, and had a great chance of staying there and moving the club forward, We've spent what for us is a load of cash, so why am I left with the feeling we've gone backwards. ?
Mr Wilder knows the lower leagues like the back of his hand and used that knowledge well, but looking at his signings since promotion I'm left with the feeling the big boys in the Premiership have had his pants down, big time..