Coincidence - McGoldrick?

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

We can't play the "Sheff Utd way" without him. He knits everything together, he gets us up the pitch, he slows play down in the opposition half, he allows our players to get up the pitch and create our overloads on the flanks. He's pivotal to everything we do. Even when he plays badly, we at least try to play our football.

When he's not on the pitch, we tend to go direct, hitting McBurnie, or playing the balls into channels. Isolated, our front players get swamped, the ball doesn't stick & it comes right back to us. Our back 3 turns into a back 5 and we look disjointed from front to back.
We can still be effective playing like this, but it's less easy on the eye & more challenging to grind out results with far less possession.

He's a fantastic player & (in my opinion) has been Wilder's best signing. We need competition (& an eventual successor) for this role.
Or, we take things in a different direction & find midfielders with the ability to carry the ball up the pitch and play between the lines like he does. I have a feeling this is the way we're going to go with out recruitment.

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Knew someone smarter than me would come along and explain!

 

[GymClassHero]

Now I have no stats or data to back up this assertion, but based on nothing more than anecdotal evidence it seems to me - in the past couple of years, every time we've had a fit and healthy David McGoldrick in the startin XI we've had our swagger back!

Others get the limelight, but it can't be a coincidence that when he's in the team, everyone around him seems to suddenly become better players.

Those with a sharper eye and more football nous can probably explain, but surely it can't be a coincidence?

It's essential when the time comes that we get a like for like replacement or even upgrade. Ohh David McGoldrick!

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

Up there with the very best of them that have worn the No 10 shirt. Does he qualify as 2nd after TC? I would say "Yes".

 

[SB_90]

same as you, its just a feeling but we have always been a better side through his whole spell with him in the team. we looked more attacking v aston Villa when he came on. looked great 1st 15 mins v man utd & then the last 2 games when we been back to our best he's playing.

like pundits said a few months into the season. its his link up play that gets him into the team. because no other striker that hasnt scored a premier league goal would be a regular in starting 11

 

[Brian Blessed]

Scored twice as many goals and looked more dangerous on the break after he'd gone off though!

 

[Working Class Hero]

It was exactly the same when Duffy didn't play on the way up. Without that link up player, the Sheff Utd way doesn't happen. It needs someone to hold on to the ball in the opposition half for the rest of the system to work.

 

[Balham]

I think McBurnie showed yesterday how good he can actually be when you get players round him and feed it into his feet rather than pinging it off his bonce and isolating him for 90 minutes. He's got a touch of the Didsy's about him, for me

McBurnie really needs to work on his left foot. He did really well to get away from Lo Celso(?) and spray the ball out to Stevens in the build up to the second goal but that first section when he was trying to turn away using just his right foot looked properly ungainly.

We still pinged the ball up to McBurnie but the difference for me was that he was dominating Dier in the air. Quite why Alderwiereld was left on the bench is beyond me. José Mourinho = Nigel Clough.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Schmeichel scored for Villa in 2002, he's got one more Premier League goal than Didzy.

No way Didzy scores that!!

 

[Badger Blade]

Class player but like already mentioned, if he could put the ball in the net more often and avoided injury throughout his career, he wouldn't have been playing Championship football for us and would be playing for England, not masquerading as an Irishman as many of them do.

We're lucky to have such as selfless player and to think that we took him on trial from Ipswich and to see the influence he's had on us going up vs the direction they went in shows (usually) what good judges of footballers Wilder and Knill are

 

[Russ]

I loved the fake cheer when the guy who operates the crowd noises thought he’d scored.

Then a few seconds later.. oooooooooo!!