S64 Blade
Well-Known Member
For me, this is the cornerstone to our current 'crisis'. We no longer have a clear identity - something we have had throughout the whole of Wilder's time here. I think 'identity' can be quite an all-encompassing header for our woes.
System - This has been discussed to death, but there is a valid point here. Cast your minds back 12 months and we were getting a bit tired of hearing about 'overlapping centre backs' and our unique way of playing. It became a bit of a cliche, but I think it's now apparent how invaluable this was. We now have lost this identity - we rarely overlap and seem to be trying to fit square pegs in to round holes, at the mercy of the system. I watch games and have no idea what our game plan is - we seem to be playing with a handicap of no midfield.
Approach - Wilder's mantra when we came up was being focused on the damage we could cause and not being overawed by the experience. He said we would 'not go out through the backdoor'. We approached pretty much every game in the same way, regardless of the opposition. We now seem to be setting up firstly, to not concede (and obviously failing every time). I don't understand why we suddenly reverted to this negative approach and why Chris has started to say things like we don't have the same budget as the other teams, are here ahead of time etc. - This was not a factor to our approach last season, so why are we regressing in our mindset?
Starting XI - Another biggie IMO. Some of this of course has been beyond our control, due to injuries. But, I genuinely do not think Wilder knows who his best XI is, given who is available. In times gone by, you could pretty much always guess the team we'd put out (perhaps with the exception of the front two). Even when we had injuries, you knew who would come in. There's multiple changes game-on-game now; some enforced, many not.
Fans - I don't think this is a major factor, but definitely one worth mentioning when discussing our identity. The relationship between the teams and fans was the best it's ever been. This undoubtedly rubbed off on performances and the lack of fans, has IMO, made a larger dent to us, than most other PL teams. You could guarantee that when we were at Bramall Lane, the opposition side would not like to play there - particularly when things got a bit 'tasty' (that Derby game on Boxing Day being the prime example of this). Another part of our identity, lost.
System - This has been discussed to death, but there is a valid point here. Cast your minds back 12 months and we were getting a bit tired of hearing about 'overlapping centre backs' and our unique way of playing. It became a bit of a cliche, but I think it's now apparent how invaluable this was. We now have lost this identity - we rarely overlap and seem to be trying to fit square pegs in to round holes, at the mercy of the system. I watch games and have no idea what our game plan is - we seem to be playing with a handicap of no midfield.
Approach - Wilder's mantra when we came up was being focused on the damage we could cause and not being overawed by the experience. He said we would 'not go out through the backdoor'. We approached pretty much every game in the same way, regardless of the opposition. We now seem to be setting up firstly, to not concede (and obviously failing every time). I don't understand why we suddenly reverted to this negative approach and why Chris has started to say things like we don't have the same budget as the other teams, are here ahead of time etc. - This was not a factor to our approach last season, so why are we regressing in our mindset?
Starting XI - Another biggie IMO. Some of this of course has been beyond our control, due to injuries. But, I genuinely do not think Wilder knows who his best XI is, given who is available. In times gone by, you could pretty much always guess the team we'd put out (perhaps with the exception of the front two). Even when we had injuries, you knew who would come in. There's multiple changes game-on-game now; some enforced, many not.
Fans - I don't think this is a major factor, but definitely one worth mentioning when discussing our identity. The relationship between the teams and fans was the best it's ever been. This undoubtedly rubbed off on performances and the lack of fans, has IMO, made a larger dent to us, than most other PL teams. You could guarantee that when we were at Bramall Lane, the opposition side would not like to play there - particularly when things got a bit 'tasty' (that Derby game on Boxing Day being the prime example of this). Another part of our identity, lost.
