Clarke and Sharp - I think I may be changing my mind!

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Dkc said:
I bet Wilder's tempted to put Brooks in the starting 11 v Brentford
Click to expand...
I don't. I think he'll give Sharp and Clarke a chance and bring Brooks on (for Duffy) at first because they play a similar free role.
 



For once I have no criticism of CB for raising it as a topic. What are we supposed to do, have an embargo on opinion during pre-season because its........pre-season? This argument/discussion has been raised before and it's not as though its a startling revelation that a failure to score or take a shot on goal against a team two divisions below is going to cause comment.

Sharpe has form with us for blowing hot and cold as a striker. It comes with the territory and on "history" you have to bet on him coming good as long as he is played with the right partner(s). Whether that is the previously maligned partnership with Clarke is still (I am sorry I have an opinion) up for debate. Similarly many slagged Clarke only to see him slot some class finishes at the end of the last season.

I'm more of a Lavery causing chaos for Sharpe to take advantage of type of guy, (upgrade on Done) or Hanson knocking x bells of shit and opening up gaps type of guy rather than the thoughtful after you Claude, no after you Bertram style of the Clarke/Sharp partnership. BUT CB has a right to raise it and if it proves to be the case that we are struggling to score expect a very quick review of the position which (IMHO) will involve Sharpe and one other than Clarke.
 
LJBlade said:
Where's the queue? The OP is the first I've seen in a good long while that's had anything remotely negative to say about Sharp
Click to expand...

I'm just saying what I saw. If a player, be it Sharp or anyone else, doesn't play well I don't have a problem in saying so. Some of you on here react like a Muslim reacts if someone dares to speak against the prophet!

Sorry but I support Sheffield United Football Club and I want the best for that club. I don't fall in love with any individual players or adore them or worship them and afford them hero status or the privilege of not commenting honestly on what I see.

Sharp is my first choice striker for this coming season. That's a no brainer. But he has to contribute fully for me and that's about more than goals, because I think he'll find them harder to come by this season. Same applies equally to Clarke and all the others.
 
Snowman said:
For once I have no criticism of CB for raising it as a topic. What are we supposed to do, have an embargo on opinion during pre-season because its........pre-season? This argument/discussion has been raised before and it's not as though its a startling revelation that a failure to score or take a shot on goal against a team two divisions below is going to cause comment.

Sharpe has form with us for blowing hot and cold as a striker. It comes with the territory and on "history" you have to bet on him coming good as long as he is played with the right partner(s). Whether that is the previously maligned partnership with Clarke is still (I am sorry I have an opinion) up for debate. Similarly many slagged Clarke only to see him slot some class finishes at the end of the last season.

I'm more of a Lavery causing chaos for Sharpe to take advantage of type of guy, (upgrade on Done) or Hanson knocking x bells of shit and opening up gaps type of guy rather than the thoughtful after you Claude, no after you Bertram style of the Clarke/Sharp partnership. BUT CB has a right to raise it and if it proves to be the case that we are struggling to score expect a very quick review of the position which (IMHO) will involve Sharpe and one other than Clarke.
Click to expand...

Michael Tonge
Matthew Kilgallon
Febian Brandy
Jay McEveley
Billy Sharp
 
Lavery and sharp is the way to go in my opinion as lavery can run at the defence and leave gaps for billy and he can be more of a poacher as he won't have the pace to create too many opportunities for himself in the championship. Billy is a natural finisher and great at making the right run at the right time so if lavery pulls wide more to feed Billy (similarly to what done did at the start of last season) it could work very well. Ched and Leon off the bench and Hanson sent back to Bradford cos I'm sorry but he can't actually control the ball.
 
Here we go again the moaning brigade are back it was a friendly game and we still won it, everyone has bad games so why should they be dropped because of 1 game
 
I should coco said:
If you are going to slag the bloke who kept us up in 15/16 and played a major part in last season's promotion, you could at least pay him the respect of spelling his name correctly.
Click to expand...
Keepe checking it but keepe forgetting. In what way am I slagging him? He is like most strikers, blows hot and cold.Very rare to get one who is constantly a scorer, hence some of the panic at the start of last season until Done did the headless chicken dance.
 
*Billy Sharp scores a hatful - "It's about more than goals"

*Billy Sharp has a lean spell - "He needs to be dropped, he's not scoring goals, legs have gone, past his best"

The standard transparent horseshit fayre from the Slag Billy Brigade. I have a feeling I'll be seeing a fair bit of this crap in the coming months.
 
Sharp & Clarke are nailed on to start for me.... not necessarily my choice but what I think Wilder will go with...in fact, I can confidently predict the starting 11 against Brentford now....

Moore
Freeman
Lafferty
JOC
Bash
Stearman
Coutts
Fleck
Carruthers
Sharp
Clarke

Check back on this at 2pm on 5th August, bet I'm right!
 
I completely agree, how can they think they can get away with a couple of poor friendly performances?! What do they think they are, Champions??
 
Let's keep it all into perspective eh? Yes, both, in particular Clarke were poor on Tuesday night. It's was just ONE pre-season friendly though. You don't even think of dropping your main strike force just because on this one occasion it didn't happen for them.
 



Tyler Durden said:
*Billy Sharp scores a hatful - "It's about more than goals"

*Billy Sharp has a lean spell - "He needs to be dropped, he's not scoring goals, legs have gone, past his best"

The standard transparent horseshit fayre from the Slag Billy Brigade. I have a feeling I'll be seeing a fair bit of this crap in the coming months.
Click to expand...

It's not quite as simple as that.

Sharp is the main striker, he'll sometimes have a poor game, gets knocked off the ball and look sluggish.
But he is superb at converting his chances, although he's very reliant on the players around him setting him up.

Other strikers might not score and they get far more stick than Sharp
but if they are second (support) strikers, then their job isn't so scoring driven.

I think much of the problem is today's culture many are prone to exagerration to get a point across, so a player is either "great" or "terrible", there seems to be no in between, where someone had an average half decent game.

All our strikers have strengths and weaknesses and we should appreciate their strengths and what they bring to the team. Scoring goals is one of the hardest tasks so any player capable of that deserves full support.
 
I'm not quite sure I follow the criticism Sharp gets. Its as if people are just waiting for him to play poorly so they can wheel out the old lines about him and make themselves look clever and as tactically astute as Gary Neville.

Personally, I think he'll play most/every game he is fit and available for next season. Wilder will rotate Clarke, Hanson, Lavery, Brooks depending on the opposition/tactics and who's in form. I've been a big Lavery fan since seeing his speed and quick feet, so I can see him being the default partner for Billy quite soon in. However, I can also foresee a set-up where Billy plays as a lone striker and we have Brooks and Carruthers/Duffy playing behind him. Especially away from home against the 'better' teams.

The X Factor is young Chedwyn as I see him as understudy to Billy in that Number 9/Fox in the Box role.
 
IdLiketoRogerMoore said:
I'm not quite sure I follow the criticism Sharp gets. Its as if people are just waiting for him to play poorly so they can wheel out the old lines about him and make themselves look clever and as tactically astute as Gary Neville.

Personally, I think he'll play most/every game he is fit and available for next season. Wilder will rotate Clarke, Hanson, Lavery, Brooks depending on the opposition/tactics and who's in form. I've been a big Lavery fan since seeing his speed and quick feet, so I can see him being the default partner for Billy quite soon in. However, I can also foresee a set-up where Billy plays as a lone striker and we have Brooks and Carruthers/Duffy playing behind him. Especially away from home against the 'better' teams.

The X Factor is young Chedwyn as I see him as understudy to Billy in that Number 9/Fox in the Box role.
Click to expand...
I reckon the reasons Billy get criticised are:
He misses quite a few.
He's from Sheffield; we like our kids to do well until we see them in flash motors etc and then get a bit jealous. Nothing makes you more aware of your own limitations than seeing someone from your own background being successful.
Plenty of people said bringing him back was a stupid idea, his legs had gone, blah blah blah and it grates a bit being proven wrong.
 
Sharp has scored over 50 goals in 2 seasons.

Clarke had a 6 game purple patch in a side storming to the league, and 100 points, destroying all before it.

The "experts" will tell you Clarke is better than Sharp, is a better finisher, and is stronger / better as a target man.

They will also tell you there is no good reason why the two should not form an effective partnership up top.

Even our management team appear, as it stands, to have faith in this regard.

I'M TELLING YOU HERE AND NOW, AS WAS THE CASE 11 MONTHS AGO, THIS WILL NOT AND CAN NOT WORK.

Something will have to give.

IMHO.

UTB

PS Ched has not been brought in to be understudy to anyone. Not even the top scorer in the country ;)
 
IdLiketoRogerMoore said:
I'm not quite sure I follow the criticism Sharp gets. Its as if people are just waiting for him to play poorly so they can wheel out the old lines about him and make themselves look clever and as tactically astute as Gary Neville..
Click to expand...

The thing with Sharp though is that he can be playing poorly and he'll still pop up with a goal.
He has some similarities to Keith Edwards, several times last season I've thought Sharp has been quite poor.
I'm thinking to myself, maybe he's needs to be subbed off, then he'll pop up with a goal a few minutes later.
And I'm thinking "what do I know" ha ha and everyone around me is saying how brilliant Sharp is when a few minutes earlier everyone around me was saying how crap Sharp has played.

I think we should be respectful and appreciate that all players (including Sharp) have weaknesses but we should appreciate their strengths and what they bring to the team.
 
Sheffsteel said:
The thing with Sharp though is that he can be playing poorly and he'll still pop up with a goal.
He has some similarities to Keith Edwards, several times last season I've thought Sharp has been quite poor.
I'm thinking to myself, maybe he's needs to be subbed off, then he'll pop up with a goal a few minutes later.
And I'm thinking "what do I know" ha ha and everyone around me is saying how brilliant Sharp is when a few minutes earlier everyone around me was saying how crap Sharp has played.

I think we should be respectful and appreciate that all players (including Sharp) have weaknesses but we should appreciate their strengths and what they bring to the team.
Click to expand...
I'm the same with Duffy. I keep thinking 'he's not on it today, sub him' and then he creates a goal out of nothing with some kind of perfect ball and I think 'that's why CW is a manager and I'm not'.
 
Torrix1889 said:
Sharp & Clarke are nailed on to start for me.... not necessarily my choice but what I think Wilder will go with...in fact, I can confidently predict the starting 11 against Brentford now....

Moore
Freeman
Lafferty
JOC
Bash
Stearman
Coutts
Fleck
Carruthers
Sharp
Clarke

Check back on this at 2pm on 5th August, bet I'm right!
Click to expand...

Ahem....and the starting line up v Rotherham tonight is......
 
To be honest our squad is wafer thin, we dont have a great deal of options.

Hanson/Done clearly arent fancied
Thomas seems to be trying to work his way in
We rotate the full backs

The rest picks its self as we don't have competition in midfield or really in defence apart from Wright.
 
Shall we wait until:

A) The actual real footy starts
B) The transfer window shuts

Before running for the hills screaming.
 



Sheffsteel said:
The thing with Sharp though is that he can be playing poorly and he'll still pop up with a goal.
He has some similarities to Keith Edwards, several times last season I've thought Sharp has been quite poor.
I'm thinking to myself, maybe he's needs to be subbed off, then he'll pop up with a goal a few minutes later.
And I'm thinking "what do I know" ha ha and everyone around me is saying how brilliant Sharp is when a few minutes earlier everyone around me was saying how crap Sharp has played.

I think we should be respectful and appreciate that all players (including Sharp) have weaknesses but we should appreciate their strengths and what they bring to the team.
Click to expand...
And I agree with that mostly. But the comparison with Edwards doesn't sit too comfortably with me. Edwards could be lazy but my God he was lethal given half a chance.

But when he was ineffective he got dropped. Billy seems to have a different privilege. I'm not ok with that. I think Billy is the most instinctive goal scorer at the club, but for his benefit, if he's not doing it then he should be treated the same as any other player and made to earn his place.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Deadbat
United 3 Ipswich 1 - report/ratings
2
Replies
55
Views
4K
TJ blade
T
Coolblade
A few observations from the stats: Hamer, O’Hare & Brooks
Replies
0
Views
236
Coolblade
Coolblade
Nedski
The 2021-22 season
Replies
3
Views
616
Rufus Smalls
Rufus Smalls
CurseofOnuora
Enjoyment of season
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
Tony Currie
Tony Currie
ThatJa
Home truths
2 3
Replies
70
Views
4K
VictoryBlade
VictoryBlade

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom