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Beans said:
Yep that's kind of what I was thinking (minus the JOC wishcasting!). An absolute block in the middle of the pitch with Hamer in front of it. Although Wilder has been very resistant to play Hamer there.
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My “wishcasting” would include the mighty Harry Souttar…And hope the wide men would switch it round occasionally
 
themaninblack said:
Freudian slip there Selly but great to see JOC back on the sheet.
I think we might see Campbell instead of JRS.
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Beans said:
Yep that's kind of what I was thinking (minus the JOC wishcasting!). An absolute block in the middle of the pitch with Hamer in front of it. Although Wilder has been very resistant to play Hamer there.
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Whoooooops.

Of course I meant JLT. Three letter acronyms are the bane of my life...

I should say I'd far rather we had a new CB next to Anel.
 
Listened to the latest pod yesterday on my journey to Toytown. I do hope we're all wrong about Cannon and Wilder has seen something the rest of us haven't.
I can't decide whether I'm surprised or reassured by how much my own opinions on the Blades mirror both Beans and Roygbiv
I'm hoping that means I'm more of a level headed fan, but who knows.

Brillaint listen. Keep up the good work.
 
secretchief said:
I think I remember Roy saying when we first signed Brewster 'he might not score for three or four games' and I have my sphincter tightly clenched in anticipation of Cannon teeing off.

As you both say, Wilder has really rolled the dice on him and Choudhary. Hope it works.
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The player Cannon most resembles for me stats wise is Swansea era Brewster, save that Cannon can take penalties. This is a concern.
 
In a future pod, any chance of an update on what superstitions Roygbiv still has, which he’s abandoned etc? Bound to be humerous

In particular, I want to know whether the Columbia shirt has seen light of day recently, and did it let you down?

Enjoy the away day lads
 
Cappy said:
In a future pod, any chance of an update on what superstitions Roygbiv still has, which he’s abandoned etc? Bound to be humerous

In particular, I want to know whether the Columbia shirt has seen light of day recently, and did it let you down?

Enjoy the away day lads
Click to expand...
It appeared on a Tweet fairly recently…
 
Sheffield United have completed the signing of Nigerian winger Christian Nwachukwu.

Very much looking forward to Roygbiv 's take on this fella 😉
 
Beans said:
Afternoon all,

New pod with Roygbiv out, with tons to talk about - Derby, Portsmouth, Rob Holding, deadline day "drama", Harry Clarke, Wilder's new contract and plenty more. Really enjoyed this one, thanks for listening if you do!

Click to expand...


Quality again, gents.

I added a bit of info on Hamer's card record to the 'card watch' thread. I like Andrew's pondering about whether a move to the 10 might remove the triggers that cause Gus' emotion-fuelled yellow cards (whilst also, IMO, being his most impactful position). Link 👇

Cappy

Statistics Post in thread 'Card watch - play nice or you're suspended son'

As Gus is now available to play again, and concerns being voiced over his record, here's some brain dumping info from me...

27 league matches played in
2082 league minutes played
10 yellow cards received
3 games banned due to yellow cards

He has received 1 yellow per 208.2 minutes played (2.3 games). There are ~90 mins x 16 matches remaining in regular season = 1440 minutes. That projects to him receiving 6.9 yellows in that period.

Two ways to look at this.

1. That's bad. Stop getting yellows!!! This does however mean he needs to change, and does a behavioural change also...
  • Like
  • Love
 
Just a quick correction of Che Adams being under the radar.. he actually wasnt, he broke the record for most scouts viewing 1 player with over 45+ scouts attending one of his games for Ilkeston
 
Also on a side note Beans you mentioned Hamer having to avoid picking up 5 more yellow cards till end of season, and potentially missing playoffs... it's only up to game 38 for 15 yellow cards 🙂
 

jono_t2000 said:
Oops you're correct! 🙂

I'm still pretty sure they don't roll over to the playoffs tho.
Click to expand...
I added some clarity the other day in the card watch thread:

  • Up to and including 46 games
    • If a player receives 15 yellow cards in the 46-game regular season, they will be suspended for 3 games
    • If a player receives 20 yellow cards in the 46-game regular season, a regulatory commission will determine their punishment
  • In the EFL Championship Playoffs
    • Any suspensions received in the 46-game regular season will carry over into the playoffs, including the final. So if a player receives their 15th yellow in game 45, they would miss game 46 and both playoff semis
    • No yellows received in the playoffs contribute to a suspension. So if a player receives their 15th yellow in the first playoff semi, they would not be suspended because of it
    • Red cards received in the playoffs still result in a suspension
 
Enjoyed the latest pod on the way back from work in Toytown. An excellent listen as ever.

My answer to the question : why do we still love David McGoldrick (as I certainly do), is that Blades fans appreciate quality footballers and he certainly was. He may have missed a few chances, but the rest of his game was pure class. I would pay for a season ticket just to watch Didzy take a mid-air ball down under pressure, control it beautifully and then turn out of trouble with an exquisite subtle drop of the shoulder. He is one of those players that seems to have all the time in the world with the ball at his feet. I can only think of someone like Gordon Cowans that played for us, that had that quality.

I've said it a few times, but I distinctly remember seeing him play for Ipswich against us around October 2017 (1-0 Blades, Basham header) and he was playing alongside Waghorn who we'd tried to sign and I remember thinking, we should sign McGoldrick instead as he was clearly a far better footballer. Not fast (which is why he can still cut it) but just a brilliant footballer. I was absolutely delighted when he signed for us and told mates, he's going to be great for us, if he can stay fit.

That first season in the Premier League when loads of fans were moaning about the chances he missed, clearly failed to see his overall contribution. I don't think he was in the team at first but that spell around October/November and December when we won a lot of points and were playing really well against some top teams, he was at the centre of everything. His understanding with Mousset, I think, was the best forward pairing we had all season. He played behind Mousset, often picking the ball up in midfield positions and linked the play between the midfield and forwards, often meaning that Fleck and Lundstram particularly could make forward runs from midfield. If you watch the goals from that season, he may not have scored, he may not have directly assisted, but he was involved in so much of our good play that lead to goals. His awareness and ability to find space and the fact he dropped into midfield made him difficult to mark.

I could eulogise about him endlessly and I feel priveleged to have seen him play for us. A top bloke too.

Maybe you should devote a whole podcast to 'The Didzy Years'.
 
coaxingstar71 said:
Enjoyed the latest pod on the way back from work in Toytown. An excellent listen as ever.

My answer to the question : why do we still love David McGoldrick (as I certainly do), is that Blades fans appreciate quality footballers and he certainly was. He may have missed a few chances, but the rest of his game was pure class. I would pay for a season ticket just to watch Didzy take a mid-air ball down under pressure, control it beautifully and then turn out of trouble with an exquisite subtle drop of the shoulder. He is one of those players that seems to have all the time in the world with the ball at his feet. I can only think of someone like Gordon Cowans that played for us, that had that quality.

I've said it a few times, but I distinctly remember seeing him play for Ipswich against us around October 2017 (1-0 Blades, Basham header) and he was playing alongside Waghorn who we'd tried to sign and I remember thinking, we should sign McGoldrick instead as he was clearly a far better footballer. Not fast (which is why he can still cut it) but just a brilliant footballer. I was absolutely delighted when he signed for us and told mates, he's going to be great for us, if he can stay fit.

That first season in the Premier League when loads of fans were moaning about the chances he missed, clearly failed to see his overall contribution. I don't think he was in the team at first but that spell around October/November and December when we won a lot of points and were playing really well against some top teams, he was at the centre of everything. His understanding with Mousset, I think, was the best forward pairing we had all season. He played behind Mousset, often picking the ball up in midfield positions and linked the play between the midfield and forwards, often meaning that Fleck and Lundstram particularly could make forward runs from midfield. If you watch the goals from that season, he may not have scored, he may not have directly assisted, but he was involved in so much of our good play that lead to goals. His awareness and ability to find space and the fact he dropped into midfield made him difficult to mark.

I could eulogise about him endlessly and I feel priveleged to have seen him play for us. A top bloke too.

Maybe you should devote a whole podcast to 'The Didzy Years'.
Click to expand...
Aye just to piggyback on this, the first 60 minutes against Man U in the 3-3 home draw was possibly the best single performance for us I’ve ever seen in the flesh.
 
coaxingstar71 said:
Enjoyed the latest pod on the way back from work in Toytown. An excellent listen as ever.

My answer to the question : why do we still love David McGoldrick (as I certainly do), is that Blades fans appreciate quality footballers and he certainly was. He may have missed a few chances, but the rest of his game was pure class. I would pay for a season ticket just to watch Didzy take a mid-air ball down under pressure, control it beautifully and then turn out of trouble with an exquisite subtle drop of the shoulder. He is one of those players that seems to have all the time in the world with the ball at his feet. I can only think of someone like Gordon Cowans that played for us, that had that quality.

I've said it a few times, but I distinctly remember seeing him play for Ipswich against us around October 2017 (1-0 Blades, Basham header) and he was playing alongside Waghorn who we'd tried to sign and I remember thinking, we should sign McGoldrick instead as he was clearly a far better footballer. Not fast (which is why he can still cut it) but just a brilliant footballer. I was absolutely delighted when he signed for us and told mates, he's going to be great for us, if he can stay fit.

That first season in the Premier League when loads of fans were moaning about the chances he missed, clearly failed to see his overall contribution. I don't think he was in the team at first but that spell around October/November and December when we won a lot of points and were playing really well against some top teams, he was at the centre of everything. His understanding with Mousset, I think, was the best forward pairing we had all season. He played behind Mousset, often picking the ball up in midfield positions and linked the play between the midfield and forwards, often meaning that Fleck and Lundstram particularly could make forward runs from midfield. If you watch the goals from that season, he may not have scored, he may not have directly assisted, but he was involved in so much of our good play that lead to goals. His awareness and ability to find space and the fact he dropped into midfield made him difficult to mark.

I could eulogise about him endlessly and I feel priveleged to have seen him play for us. A top bloke too.

Maybe you should devote a whole podcast to 'The Didzy Years'.
Click to expand...

Whilst I am a big admirer of Didzy and always pleased to see him do well I could not disagree more about his contribution in 2019-20. It was the Emperor's New Clothes.

I'm copying something I wrote at the time, but I went back and looked at every goal we scored in 2019-20 prior to McGoldrick breaking his duck against Chelsea to determine how involved McGoldrick was in the move that lead to the goal, reasoning that if he was indeed vital to the way we play, you'd see evidence of that further back from the goal and assist itself. I didn't keep the analysis I wrote down, but from memory the results were, to say the least, underwhelming. He was not involved in goals we scored very often. Indeed, between his assist for Fleck vs Villa and his first goal v Chelsea he did not touch the ball during a move we scored from and (though I would have to double check this) I think I am correct in saying that he did not touch the ball at all in any of the moves that ended with a goal by McBurnie.

At the time I posed the question as to who was more valuable to his team:

McGoldrick in 2019-20 (2 goals from 46 shots - 20 on target - with 8xg, 2 assists)
Andy Gray in 2004-5 (15 goals, scored in 8 single goal victories, but generally acknowledged to have done little else)

Some people said McGoldrick. I could not believe this. Goals are underrated.

I have no quibble with McGoldrick's excellent contributions in the promotion season and in the relegation season (when he scored 8 out of 20 goals of course), but that year his performance was beguiling to say the least.
 
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Beans said:
Afternoon all,

New pod with Roygbiv out, with tons to talk about - Derby, Portsmouth, Rob Holding, deadline day "drama", Harry Clarke, Wilder's new contract and plenty more. Really enjoyed this one, thanks for listening if you do!

Click to expand...

As well as Portsmouth's wretched away form this season, they arrive on Saturday with an even worse record at Bramall Lane. they last won at the Lane in November 1955. Since then they have gone winless in 23 league games and 2 cup games.

This is the longest current run of futility by an away team at the Lane by miles. When we last played Portsmouth at the Lane in 2012-13 there were 6 other teams that had played over 10 league games at the Lane since last winning: Bury, Preston, Swansea, Bristol City, Swindon and Crewe. All except Swindon have beaten us in the League at the Lane since. Swindon are up to 16 winless league games but have of course beaten us at the Lane in the playoffs.
 
Revolution said:
Whilst I am a big admirer of Didzy and always pleased to see him do well I could not disagree more about his contribution in 2019-20. It was the Emperor's New Clothes.

I'm copying something I wrote at the time, but I went back and looked at every goal we scored in 2019-20 prior to McGoldrick breaking his duck against Chelsea to determine how involved McGoldrick was in the move that lead to the goal, reasoning that if he was indeed vital to the way we play, you'd see evidence of that further back from the goal and assist itself. I didn't keep the analysis I wrote down, but from memory the results were, to say the least, underwhelming. He was not involved in goals we scored very often. Indeed, between his assist for Fleck vs Villa and his first goal v Chelsea he did not touch the ball during a move we scored from and (though I would have to double check this) I think I am correct in saying that he did not touch the ball at all in any of the moves that ended with a goal by McBurnie.

At the time I posed the question as to who was more valuable to his team:

McGoldrick in 2019-20 (2 goals from 46 shots - 20 on target - with 8xg, 2 assists)
Andy Gray in 2004-5 (15 goals, scored in 8 single goal victories, but generally acknowledged to have done little else)

Some people said McGoldrick. I could not believe this. Goals are underrated.

I have no quibble with McGoldrick's excellent contributions in the promotion season and in the relegation season (when he scored 8 out of 20 goals of course), but that year his performance was beguiling to say the least.
Click to expand...
While I don't doubt the accuracy of your facts between that Villa game and the Chelsea game, he was more involved prior to the Villa game. I've been checking my rose tinted recollections of Didzy and he was involved (quite crucially) in the build up to Baldock's goal at Spurs and both Lundstram's goals at home to Burnley. There are possibly more examples.

Regardless of the facts and stats, my opinion is that we played better as a team, with him in it, than without him.
 
Beans said:
Afternoon all, new pod is out with Roygbiv and I talking about a really quite fortunate win over Portsmouth. Yikes. Also discuss Boro at home:



Cheers for listening!
Click to expand...


CaptainMorgans said:
We all love Wilder (me included), but have to say... not overly impressed with this press conference.

There was a thread after the Portsmouth game titled 'Wilder rattled,' and that's how he seems.

In his post-match interview he was very keen to exonerate himself from responsibility for the poor performance, "nothing tactical" and threw a few individuals under the bus "the centre halves got bullied" etc.
After a thorough review of that game, the conclusion seems to be that it wasn't that bad - referencing Liverpool and City's showing against weaker opposition on the weekend.
He said that we "turned up the heat" in the 2nd half and felt "we were destined to win" and that "both teams had plenty of chances." To me, none of that rings true (XG Blades 1-3 Portsmouth)...
... you could accept the "bad day at the office" line if the performance was out of the ordinary but that isn't the case.

In our last 4 games, against poor league opposition (16th, 20th, 21st, 22nd), we've created less opportunities (XG) in 3 of them.
We were very lucky not to lose against Swansea and Portsmouth, we did lose to Hull and if Derby had got a draw nobody could have complained.

In general, he seems to be quite prickly around the subject of performances and feels they're mutually exclusive from results.
He said a couple of times that he's a "winning manager" not someone that favours "things looking good..." but the law of averages would say that if the performance levels stay as they are then the results won't continue.

I often feel that Wilder's overly concerned with convincing people that he's doing a good job in trying circumstances.
But now he's been backed, the squad is in good health, the pressure is on for him to deliver... and I think he's feeling it.
Click to expand...

I wrote the above post moments before listening to your pod and feel slightly validated that your thoughts mostly chime with mine.

I thought about starting a thread to the effect of 'What will be our Tommy Doyle moment' in reference to the turnaround in the Heckingbottom promotion season, which you got onto at the end of the discussion..

There's a lot of parallels to be drawn with that season...
We weren't the easiest on the eye, despite having some superb footballers in McAtee, Berge, Ndiaye and even McBurnie.
We were pretty solid and efficient in getting results.

I'll credit Heckingbottom here, as I thought that team had far more of an identity - in and out of possession - than this one.

Without the ball, we had a very effective high-press that led to a lot of goals.
With the ball, I always felt Berge, despite the criticism, helped us retain the ball in dangerous areas.
I felt the four aforementioned players linked better than any of our current ones, even without it being champagne football.

There was a period in that season (probably not far off where we are now) where I felt worried that Middlesbrough would catch us.
Our form (certainly performances wise) had dipped... and they battered us at Bramall Lane.

As you guys rightly say, McAtee suddenly came into his own, but more importantly Tommy Doyle took the shirt off Norwood and we suddenly looked so much more mobile and positive.

I feel like we might hit that crossroads again this month, where our results take an inevitable dip through poor performances.

The hope for me is that we find the winning formula within the abundance of options Wilder now has at his disposal.
For that to happen, Wilder will need to undertake some introspection on what's gone wrong - partly, why I was also quite disappointed with his take on the Portsmouth shambles.
He'll also need to abandon some of his stubborn principles, in particular the need to play all the new signings immediately - Cannon in particular.
The balance looks awful.
 
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CaptainMorgans said:
I wrote the above post moments before listening to your pod and feel slightly validated that your thoughts mostly chime with mine.

I thought about starting a thread to the effect of 'What will be our Tommy Doyle moment' in reference to the turnaround in the Heckingbottom promotion season, which you got onto at the end of the discussion..

There's a lot of parallels to be drawn with that season...
We weren't the easiest on the eye, despite having some superb footballers in McAtee, Berge, Ndiaye and even McBurnie.
We were pretty solid and efficient in getting results.

I'll credit Heckingbottom here, as I thought that team had far more of an identity - in and out of possession - than this one.

Without the ball, we had a very effective high-press that led to a lot of goals.
With the ball, I always felt Berge, despite the criticism, really helped us retain the ball in the final third, which led to a lot more possession in dangerous areas.
I felt the four aforementioned players linked better than any of our current ones, even without it being champagne football.

There was a period in that season (probably not fat off where we are no) where I felt worried that Middlesbrough would catch us.
Our form (certainly performances wise) had dipped... and they battered us at Bramall Lane.

As you guys rightly say, McAtee suddenly came into his own, but more importantly Tommy Doyle took the shirt off Norwood and we suddenly looked so much more mobile and positive.

I feel like we might hit that crossroads again this month, where we have a dip in results. It feels inevitable...
The hope for me is that we find the winning formula within the abundance of options Wilder now has at his disposal. But that will require some introspection on what's gone wrong (haven't seen yet) and an abandoning of stubborn principles (the need to play all the new signings immediately - Cannon in particular).
Click to expand...

I think it will take a few defeats before we get to the crossroads but I'm not sure how we avoid them unless something clicks very soon. We have a fairly tough run coming up and you sense it will all come to a head soon. Obviously I hope we can keep getting results while playing poorly but I just don't see how it doesn't catch up with us. Unless performances improve quickly then bad results will inevitably come. I'm certainly not saying things can't fall into place very soon but, like you, I was slightly concerned by Wilders press conference today
 
Roygbiv said:
I think it will take a few defeats before we get to the crossroads but I'm not sure how we avoid them unless something clicks very soon. We have a fairly tough run coming up and you sense it will all come to a head soon. Obviously I hope we can keep getting results while playing poorly but I just don't see how it doesn't catch up with us. Unless performances improve quickly then bad results will inevitably come. I'm certainly not saying things can't fall into place very soon but, like you, I was slightly concerned by Wilders press conference today
Click to expand...

Back in the Heckingbottom days, I was concerned we might blow a fairly substantial lead to a resurgent Middlesbrough.
As it was, we found form and theirs dropped off significantly.

This season, we don't have the luxury of a big head-start and weak rivals.
I think most people are starting to see that Leeds will (at least) take one of the top two spots (I've consistently said they'll go up as Champions, comfortably).

I'm not ruling out top two and I wouldn't go as far as to say 90% certain we'll be in the play-offs per Beans (unless I misunderstood him)... but we need our "Tommy Doyle" moment for it to happen.
It's not going to suddenly click between Anel & Robinson, Choudhury & Souza, & Cannon up front.

I'm hoping for a scenario where Holding, T Davies and T Campbell drop into the spine and suddenly it all falls into place..🤞
Or we move to a back 3 and Seriki & Burrows become consistent attacking outlets from wing back, feeding a front two of Moore and another.

There has to be something better than what we're seeing with these players.. surely?
 
CaptainMorgans said:
I wrote the above post moments before listening to your pod and feel slightly validated that your thoughts mostly chime with mine.

I thought about starting a thread to the effect of 'What will be our Tommy Doyle moment' in reference to the turnaround in the Heckingbottom promotion season, which you got onto at the end of the discussion..

There's a lot of parallels to be drawn with that season...
We weren't the easiest on the eye, despite having some superb footballers in McAtee, Berge, Ndiaye and even McBurnie.
We were pretty solid and efficient in getting results.

I'll credit Heckingbottom here, as I thought that team had far more of an identity - in and out of possession - than this one.

Without the ball, we had a very effective high-press that led to a lot of goals.
With the ball, I always felt Berge, despite the criticism, helped us retain the ball in dangerous areas.
I felt the four aforementioned players linked better than any of our current ones, even without it being champagne football.

There was a period in that season (probably not far off where we are now) where I felt worried that Middlesbrough would catch us.
Our form (certainly performances wise) had dipped... and they battered us at Bramall Lane.

As you guys rightly say, McAtee suddenly came into his own, but more importantly Tommy Doyle took the shirt off Norwood and we suddenly looked so much more mobile and positive.

I feel like we might hit that crossroads again this month, where our results take an inevitable dip through poor performances.

The hope for me is that we find the winning formula within the abundance of options Wilder now has at his disposal.
For that to happen, Wilder will need to undertake some introspection on what's gone wrong - partly, why I was also quite disappointed with his take on the Portsmouth shambles.
He'll also need to abandon some of his stubborn principles, in particular the need to play all the new signings immediately - Cannon in particular.
The balance looks awful.
Click to expand...
Middlesbrough didn't batter us at bramall lane we should have been 3-0 up before they scored and went on to deservedly win the game
 
Roygbiv said:
Ndiaye missed a great chance at 2-1 too. They deserved the win but it was a really good game for the most part
Click to expand...
I missed that game due to being on holiday. The previous holiday I had, I missed the 3-3 with Blackpool. The next holiday I had, I missed our only Prem away win, at Luton. The next holiday I book, I will make sure you all know to go to the game as it will be a belter
 

Frank the tank said:
Middlesbrough didn't batter us at bramall lane we should have been 3-0 up before they scored and went on to deservedly win the game
Click to expand...

Once they got their noses in front they controlled the game really well.
I distinctly remember their away end giving it the "Olés" as they comfortably played it around us.
You're right though, fortunate to go 1-3 up as we did have some big chances.


I thought you'd have a lot more to say than hone in on that specific point though.

Respectfully, would be interested to know what your thoughts are on the state of play, as we often differ a bit in outlook.
 
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