Dropped points against the top 4

[CG Blade]

Beginning to think. but hope not. that dropped points against other teams in the top 4 may come back to haunt us.
Firstly did not expect us to be where we are this season, but credit to DW and the team we are in the mix. I also think the top 4 as they are now will finish as the top 4, but in what order I don't know. What concerns me, that the points we have dropped at home, against Charlton, Huddersfield and the unmentionables, now losing at Charlton, means we only have 1 point against others in the top 4. The 2 away games coming up against Hudds and them, to me means if we are going to finish in the top two, are must win games, other wise play offs beckon, and my heart could not take the strain.
Now our hopes have been built up, lets hope we can finish the job, it would be a huge bonus to get straight out of this division

 

[broomhillblade]

Or we have to hope that the other top teams have a few slip-ups against some of the lower sides - which is always possible.
The dreaded 'banana skins'.

 

[Jehovah]

Its a tricky one. I feel like we have been unlucky in most of those games. We should have beat the pigs bar a refereeing howler. And twice now we have been harshly doen by Charlton. Id couldnt make the Hudds game at home so wont comment. We did beat MK at home though.

 

[davidpinder]

Beginning to think. but hope not. that dropped points against other teams in the top 4 may come back to haunt us.
Firstly did not expect us to be where we are this season, but credit to DW and the team we are in the mix. I also think the top 4 as they are now will finish as the top 4, but in what order I don't know. What concerns me, that the points we have dropped at home, against Charlton, Huddersfield and the unmentionables, now losing at Charlton, means we only have 1 point against others in the top 4. The 2 away games coming up against Hudds and them, to me means if we are going to finish in the top two, are must win games, other wise play offs beckon, and my heart could not take the strain.
Now our hopes have been built up, lets hope we can finish the job, it would be a huge bonus to get straight out of this division

Take a bit of time out to look at the dropped points against the top 6 in the 1989/90 season panic over back to praising the boys

http://www.statto.com/football/teams/sheffield-united/1989-1990

 

[super_pig]

in the huddersfield game we battered them somehow contrived to lose.. huddersfield are an ice hockey team.. hopefully they will lose rhodes .. there is a mini league in this league, with four or five teams obviously better than the others.. thats charlton, huddersfield, mk dons and the pigs (apart from us).. we are a bit 'flat track bully' ish but as long as we keep bullying them then we can do it

 

[SwissBlade]

No matter how well we play, we always struggle to get the results against the teams around us.

One thing I will say is that I think despite not getting the points against sidesin the top 6, we are consistently picking up good results against the rest of the division.

In many cases we're getting good wins by 2,3 or even 4 clear goals which helps us. Hudders are performing similar, but have had some bigger wins

Pigs and MK Dons are less consistent than us, we're now in a position where we need to carry the run forward. Draws away at Udders and Pigs and the rest should fall into place... Hopefully

 

[stannyblade]

1 point but still in touching distance.
Hudders have to play the us, Charlton and the pigs at home yet so thats 3 games that 2 teams cant both get 3 points from the same game.

I still believe that Charlton will dip and that we will catch them. Even if we lose to the pigs and Hudders as long as we win the majority of the rest then we will be promoted.

 

[judge]

the worrying thing is that hudds and charlton seem to be getting some refereeing decisions their way ,crucial ones and that could be enough to take them both up

i dont mind either team ( i quite like them actually ) but i think they will both go straight up and we will be in the play offs

see you all at the new wembley lads ,things have got to go our way this time havent they ?

 

[Jehovah]

the worrying thing is that hudds and charlton seem to be getting some refereeing decisions their way ,crucial ones and that could be enough to take them both up

i dont mind either team ( i quite like them actually ) but i think they will both go straight up and we will be in the play offs

see you all at the new wembley lads ,things have got to go our way this time havent they ?

Shit..................

 

[Selly]

see you all at the new wembley lads ,things have got to go our way this time havent they ?

Yeah, 'cos it works like that doesn`t it...

 

[judge]

i dont know thats why i put a question mark at the end of my sentence

 

[IOM Blade]

see you all at the new wembley lads ,things have got to go our way this time havent they ?

Stevenage or Carlisle will do us in the semi.

 

[essexblade87]

Think we'll know how things will go in a months time after Hudds, Pigs games. They have dropped points as well against each other

 

[travellingblade]

It's simple, forget the past.

Win all our remaining games and we get automatic promotion.

Simplez!

 

[wardlowwanderer]

we will be in the play offs

see you all at the new wembley lads ,

Hopefully it will be at Old Trafford like last year - a 15 minute stroll for me. I don't think I could do the coach journey back from Wembley again - at least not unless we won.

 

[bartman]

It's at Wembley. Last year was a one off due to the Champions League Final

 

[Fiery Blade]

Unfortunately guys get geared up for the play offs
Why :
v Charlton home L 0-2 away L 0-1
v Huddersfield home L 0-3
These two sides are the favourites to go up and we haven't scored against them - they know how to win when not playing well, yes they get the rub of the green but they are cuter and more resiliant than the Blades
Last Saturday we looked good but apart from the goalkeeper howler that the ref didn't give we never looked like scoring!
My tip is Wendy at Wembley with the usual result - the Blades always let you down when it matters!

 

[Ollessendro]

Bit harsh Fiery. Ched's chance in the second half was massive. He should have buried it. Plus we had the ball in the net twice (both legitimate imo).

However I have to agree about not playing well to top teams. I expect Huddersfield to stuff us at their place. We could pick up points at the Sty, but it will be tough. Unfortunately I think the league will finish something like what it is now (i.e. positions). Huddersfield are possibly the best team in the league and I tipped them for automatic at the start. Since they battered Wycombe they are looking good. Well they are grinding results out. They were drawing too many games, but seem to have cut this out. Plus when they turn it on, they can tear teams apart. If they put more points on the board whilst we play in the cup on Sat-di and then stuff us in West Yorks, then I fear we may never catch them.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

However I have to agree about not playing well to top teams.

I didn't see the Charlton game but we certainly weren't outplayed or soundly beaten in the two home defeats. On the balance of play in all three, we could easily have won them all on a different day. I agree though that despite our possession, we struggled to break them down and you have to worry that over two legs of a play-off semi we would be the underdogs given how solid they are.

I still live in hope that we can make top two but as we keep saying, the all Sheffield play-off final does have an air of inevitability about it.

 

[Tuns]

It's at Wembley. Last year was a one off due to the Champions League Final

Given we've been to the new Wembley already and the general acceptance we always lose big games then I reckon 20,000 tickets should do us and let the pigs have the rest so we make more money out of the defeat.

Alternatively I'd like to see the club ask the FL if we can dip out of the final and award it to the pigs on the proviso they pay us the equivalent of the total match revenue to save us a lot of suffering and expense.

 

[Ollessendro]

I didn't see the Charlton game but we certainly weren't outplayed or soundly beaten in the two home defeats. On the balance of play in all three, we could easily have won them all on a different day. I agree though that despite our possession, we struggled to break them down and you have to worry that over two legs of a play-off semi we would be the underdogs given how solid they are.

I still live in hope that we can make top two but as we keep saying, the all Sheffield play-off final does have an air of inevitability about it.

Agree about Saturday, but losing at home whilst scoring none and conceding FIVE does not sound like we would have won. I am really startin g to question whether our current squad is good enough to go to Hudders and get a result. I realise we've been down on our luck, but there comes a point when we have to say hang on a minute, perhaps we are not doing something quite right (i.e. sticking the ball in the net).

 

[stannyblade]

Agree about Saturday, but losing at home whilst scoring none and conceding FIVE does not sound like we would have won. I am really startin g to question whether our current squad is good enough to go to Hudders and get a result. I realise we've been down on our luck, but there comes a point when we have to say hang on a minute, perhaps we are not doing something quite right (i.e. sticking the ball in the net).

I agree with Jim about the home games against the top 2. IMO we outplayed them both and they just took their chances. If Porter had scored against Hudders when it was 1 -0 then i feel we would have gone on to win the game. When we played Charlton we again could not finish and they scored 2 from about 6 chances

 

[Balham]

Bit harsh Fiery. Ched's chance in the second half was massive. He should have buried it. Plus we had the ball in the net twice (both legitimate imo).

However I have to agree about not playing well to top teams. I expect Huddersfield to stuff us at their place. We could pick up points at the Sty, but it will be tough. Unfortunately I think the league will finish something like what it is now (i.e. positions). Huddersfield are possibly the best team in the league and I tipped them for automatic at the start. Since they battered Wycombe they are looking good. Well they are grinding results out. They were drawing too many games, but seem to have cut this out. Plus when they turn it on, they can tear teams apart. If they put more points on the board whilst we play in the cup on Sat-di and then stuff us in West Yorks, then I fear we may never catch them.

Going to disagree with you on Huddersfield Olle; they're a good side but they've drawn far too many games to be considered the best side in the league. Take away Jordan Rhodes too and they'd be somewhere in mid-table.

We can go there and win if we try and control the game as we did on Saturday and if the team has been working on crossing and general play in the final third in training this week.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Agree about Saturday, but losing at home whilst scoring none and conceding FIVE does not sound like we would have won. I am really startin g to question whether our current squad is good enough to go to Hudders and get a result. I realise we've been down on our luck, but there comes a point when we have to say hang on a minute, perhaps we are not doing something quite right (i.e. sticking the ball in the net).

I agree with Jim about the home games against the top 2. IMO we outplayed them both and they just took their chances. If Porter had scored against Hudders when it was 1 -0 then i feel we would have gone on to win the game. When we played Charlton we again could not finish and they scored 2 from about 6 chances

On paper it looks bad Olle but as Stanny says, had Porter sidefooted it in at 1-0 the Udders game could have been so different. I and about 19000 others sat there in disbelief after half an hour that we were 3-0 down. There was absolutley nothing between the teams v Charlton in the 1st half and we again had the better chances. At 1-0 it was still anybody's game until the mistake by Collins that gifted them a goal and that was that.

The fact is, after playing 5 of the 8 games against the other 4, we're only out of auto promotion on goal difference and up until the weekend we were the division's highest scorers so we're not doing that badly

 

[stannyblade]

The fact is, after playing 5 of the 8 games against the other 4, we're only out of auto promotion on goal difference and up until the weekend we were the division's highest scorers so we're not doing that badly

Well said that man

 

[Jehovah]

I have decided that HUddersfield are wankers after watching their last game on the TV. I hope we batter tham beyond belief.

 

[Kenilworth]

I am really pleased about the way we play now but it still doesn't cover the reason why we are not picking up more points against the top teams.
It's somewhat baffling since we are the divisions second highest scorers - so why can't we score against the likes of Hudds and Charlton?
I believe we struggle against sides that have a strongly physical and organised defense because we lack the pace to get around the back of them.
With lesser teams we can pass it around, stretch them and sometimes have enough pace to out do their defense.
It's the movement of the ball and not the pace of individuals that makes this happen (contrast to when we had Matt Phillips)
With the top teams we have really struggled to create anything more than half chances.
Against Charlton at home we were very poor up top but this was before Ched found his boots again. Add the ricket from Collins for the second goal and it's a recipe for defeat.

We have scored more than any other team at home but of the top 6 we are the lowest scorers away from home.
This also suggests that we lack pace to counter attack because you generally have to soak up more pressure when you are the away team.
It also suggests that we play it slightly more tightly when away from The Lane so that the midfield is not supporting the front two as far up the pitch as they do when at home.
I understand that we had a lot of the midfield play at Charlton and I believe that Chris Powell would have anticipated this so he planned to play a more counter attacking policy. Getting the opening goal from a set play clearly helped such a plan and he was very confident that they would be able to shut us out if they cut out any width to our play.

I think it is worrying that we have not taken more points of our nearest rivals. It is likely to cost us the chance of automatic at the end of the season because we will be relying on the others dropping points to the teams in mid table and below.

Pace is the key to this - we would pick up more points away from home if we had the ability to counter attack with pace.
As it stands, none of our forwards or wide midfielders are blessed with any of this.

For all those predicting a play off final against the unclean - think on.
Given our record against the others in the top six, who would bet on us reaching the final over two legs?