Is McBurnie playing pissed?

[Sportbilly /Detroit Blade]

Genuine question..... most of us have been there, dragged out of bed on a Sunday morning after a heavy night to attempt to play football and it was quite common among the ex pros Tony Adams, Paul merson,gazza etc.

We know McBurnie likes a drink and he's showing all the signs of a player turning up to the games the games half cut, looking fucked after 15 minutes, unable to control the ball, agitated at the slightest things.

As plenty have pointed out he looked a player at Swansea and Barnsley but he's so far off that level for us that it makes you wonder if there is something else behind the scenes......

if he's not pissed perhaps he could try that as an improvement!

 

[Sheffsteel]

We had 2 strikers out of form, McBurnie and Brewster.
I'll give both credit that they both have/ had a great attitude of, at least trying and making an effort.

The issue for me that in Brewster recent games (before injury) he was regularly getting into good positions and missing chances or their keeper makes a great save. Regards Brewster, you sensed, once he scores, he could go on a goal scoring spree.

Where as the issue with McBurnie he's doesn't even miss chances because he's never in position.
It is a mystery how he looks so short on quality, even compared to Championship players.

Note: I'll support any Blade with a good attitude, who cares and gives 100%.....so believe it or not....McBurnie still gets my support
but sometimes I almost cringe when he so regularly falls down and looks out of his depth in the 2nd tier.

 

[ancientblade]

mcburnie is absolutely no threat whatsoever and is never going to do it in a red and white shirt we will be lucky to get 3m for him and hes only getting game time because weve absolutely no fit strikers left cannot for the life of me understand why hecky didnt bring a free agent striker in on a short term contract

 

[originaltrueblade]

It’s much easier to explain

HE IS USELESS!

 

[United Aren't Back.]

At best, he's a bang average Championship striker whose confidence is shot to shit. We should never have signed him, not for £2 million and, it goes without saying, certainly not for £20 million.

His 24 goal season came when Swansea were just relegated from the Premier League, and like most relegated clubs, were tipped to go straight back up and they often dominated games. They had a good midfield and defence, but had sold/loaned out all their forwards (they'd just got rid of Borja Bastón, André Ayew, Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Bony), and so McBurnie got his big chance. After a good start to the season for him personally, over the course of the season, they looked more and more to McBurnie as the central focus of their attacks.

This version of Swansea, with Graham Potter as manager, Rondon, Naughton, Dyer, Routledge, Fer, Daniel James, and so on, and PEAK 24 goals-in-a-season McBurnie could only finish 10th in the Championship. It was a personal triumph for McBurnie ("play in McBurnie", being pretty much the only remaining choice they had!), but pretty shitty output from the club/tactic as a whole.

We signed him on potential. IF he can score 24 goals for Swansea in a season, maybe he can push on and score 20+ in the Premier League? Of course, as we now all know (and the professionals at the club should have really realised this from all his other statistics... )... he's not even close to being Premier League quality. At his absolute best (and the signs are that he's already peaked!) he was a decent mid-table Championship striker.

McBurnie has two problems at this level for us. The first is that his confidence is clearly shot to shit. Football is a confidence game. We had a disastrous season last year, and (rightly or wrongly) McBurnie caught a lot of flack for that. A league goal seems utterly illusive at the moment, and even if he did get a goal, it doesn't feel like he's anywhere close to scoring double figures across as season, let alone 20+ goals again.

The other problem that McBurie has, is that even at the age of 36, Billy Sharp is twice the player that McBurnie is at this level, and if you're going to "throw a ball in the general direction of a striker" in the hope they get something on it that generates a goal, and you had a choice of Billy Sharp or Ollie McBurnie, well.. that's no choice at all, is it?

With the right manager, the right club and the right team mates, he could maybe push on again and perhaps even become a competent Championship striker. But for Sheffield United, McBurnie is a busted flush. It's never going to work for him here. He's a square peg in a round hole, his confidence has gone, and the stench of the £20 million price tag (not his fault of course) clouds everything he does/doesn't do. He needs to move on, for his own good as much as ours.

He has categorically never been a decent Championship striker. It's like the old refrain about Adkins, 'but he got Southampton up.'
A decade ago. Two moderate fucking goalscoring feats with two wank Championship clubs does not make this cretin even a footballer.

 

[ancientblade]

should have kept madine even though ive always hated him mind cant fault his contribution while he was with us mcburnie is just a waste of a shirt

 

[Chingo]

He has categorically never been a decent Championship striker. It's like the old refrain about Adkins, 'but he got Southampton up.'
A decade ago. Two moderate fucking goalscoring feats with two wank Championship clubs does not make this cretin even a footballer.

“Cretin” ?

 

[Yarrayering]

Create another thread on McBurnie. What about Baldock? He’s been awful for months. Stevens? Davies? Osborn? Hourihane? Probably all average 1 x 7/10 performance in 10 games.

Ur probably rite mate re players uve mentioned defenders/midfielders.. all I'd say is at the end of the day Mcburnie was signed as a striker to score goals.. Not be good at defending corners... I watched the Sheff Utd review of game wi Carl Asaba and omg for a striker like him in our team.. what wud he be worth these days... Anyway onwards and hopefully upwards.. UTB.

 

[Bert]

Ur probably rite mate re players uve mentioned defenders/midfielders.. all I'd say is at the end of the day Mcburnie was signed as a striker to score goals.. Not be good at defending corners... I watched the Sheff Utd review of game wi Carl Asaba and omg for a striker like him in our team.. what wud he be worth these days... Anyway onwards and hopefully upwards.. UTB.

Text speak.

No.

 

[corner_flag]

I hate watching McBurnie on the pitch.

True, he is an experienced professional and has defensive capabilities so in cagey games where you need to stifle the opposition, I'd pick him over a youngster like Jebbo or Osula. But if you want to turn a game round and pinch a goal, you'll get nothing from him

He always seems to be in the wrong place. He has no movement off the ball, he misses so many opportunities to nip into space, its frustrating.

And then there's all the falling over and whining. Ffs, just be a man and stand up.

Then there are his soft as shit headers which would be an easy catch for the ladies team goalie.

Don't understand why the coaching team are not sorting this out

 

[Blade56]

I’ve long maintained he’s either got a drink or earring disorder. No way does he look like an athlete with high levels of nutrition and fitness

He always seems to be in the wrong place. He has no movement off the ball, he misses so many opportunities to nip into space, its frustrating.

I’ve watched him closely, never seen a player that stares at the ball with his head down and ‘laser eyes’ wherever it is in relation to him.
I look like that when I’ve had too many sherbets (2 sherry’s usually does it) and I’m trying to prove to Mrs Jelly I can manage the stairs

 

[Drunk blade]

I wonder if after contracting Covid, he might have lost some weight which is why is struggling to out muscle defenders and/or he could also be suffering from long covid symptoms. I personally don't favour him even with us both living in North Yorkshire but there is something lacking.

Might be something in this, he looks so off the pace when he's playing which could be some sort of long covid complication, I remember seeing him play against us for Barnsley and he looked real handful but he's a shadow of that player

I'd love to see the lad bang a load of goals in the remaining games and get us a place in the top 6 but he's just so off it I'd rather us play without a striker or give jebbo a chance

 

[Booker4]

I see all sides on here in regards to McBurnie. When we signed him I didn't think £20m was too much given he'd scored 24 goals for a team that didn't finish in the top 6 and he was just 22. I thought his first season he looked good and was a handful for opposition defenders and he was joint top scorer, albeit with 6. Since that first season he looks to be playing with little confidence, not surprisingly, and he doesn't seem to fit the target man role but where does that leave him if he's not going to assert himself in the role because he's not exactly fast or likely to take a man one, although at Barnsley and Swansea he did do that at times.

He's had a lot of injuries too, but I think he's on last chance saloon. He's out of contract at the end of next season, assuming we don't go up I think he'll play out next season with us then leave unless he gets back to Swansea form in which case he may still leave if he gets a better offer. But I do think there's still a player in there, he needs better service but also needs some luck at times in fairness. Sometimes he'll run hard for the ball aacoss the face and it goes looping over him, the next time he'll hang back for the cut back and it then goes across the face etc! Often he does head it from a standing position and doesn't get the power on the header, maybe he needs to time runs better but too often the ball in is not accurate. This has been the case for too long as we all know!

 

[robbiez666]

I see all sides on here in regards to McBurnie. When we signed him I didn't think £20m was too much given he'd scored 24 goals for a team that didn't finish in the top 6 and he was just 22. I thought his first season he looked good and was a handful for opposition defenders and he was joint top scorer, albeit with 6. Since that first season he looks to be playing with little confidence, not surprisingly, and he doesn't seem to fit the target man role but where does that leave him if he's not going to assert himself in the role because he's not exactly fast or likely to take a man one, although at Barnsley and Swansea he did do that at times.

He's had a lot of injuries too, but I think he's on last chance saloon. He's out of contract at the end of next season, assuming we don't go up I think he'll play out next season with us then leave unless he gets back to Swansea form in which case he may still leave if he gets a better offer. But I do think there's still a player in there, he needs better service but also needs some luck at times in fairness. Sometimes he'll run hard for the ball aacoss the face and it goes looping over him, the next time he'll hang back for the cut back and it then goes across the face etc! Often he does head it from a standing position and doesn't get the power on the header, maybe he needs to time runs better but too often the ball in is not accurate. This has been the case for too long as we all know!

He's clearly not as mobile as he was the first season he signed, so I think there's some medical issue there. And then, I remember Wilder had to constantly shout at him to keep him moving. He seems like a lazy player who can put a shift in. He looks a different player when he's busting a gut but even that now looks slow. The movement and positioning is terrible. He's either static or coming toward the ball. Doesn't move into the channels. You can see the frustration when defenders have the ball and no one to pass to. He never seems to play on his toes. Never anticipating where a ball's going to be.

Brewster is much rawer as a player, but you could see how dangerous he was when taught to run into the right positions.

His off field antics do him no favours at all.

I suspect, assuming we don't go up, we might well be tempted to sell him for a few million with big add-ons.

 

[blade too long]

He has categorically never been a decent Championship striker. It's like the old refrain about Adkins, 'but he got Southampton up.'
A decade ago. Two moderate fucking goalscoring feats with two wank Championship clubs does not make this cretin even a footballer.

he needs to convert to a defender hes better at that
what good he does do is in our box

 

[DronnieBlade]

I see all sides on here in regards to McBurnie. When we signed him I didn't think £20m was too much given he'd scored 24 goals for a team that didn't finish in the top 6 and he was just 22. I thought his first season he looked good and was a handful for opposition defenders and he was joint top scorer, albeit with 6. Since that first season he looks to be playing with little confidence, not surprisingly, and he doesn't seem to fit the target man role but where does that leave him if he's not going to assert himself in the role because he's not exactly fast or likely to take a man one, although at Barnsley and Swansea he did do that at times.

He's had a lot of injuries too, but I think he's on last chance saloon. He's out of contract at the end of next season, assuming we don't go up I think he'll play out next season with us then leave unless he gets back to Swansea form in which case he may still leave if he gets a better offer. But I do think there's still a player in there, he needs better service but also needs some luck at times in fairness. Sometimes he'll run hard for the ball aacoss the face and it goes looping over him, the next time he'll hang back for the cut back and it then goes across the face etc! Often he does head it from a standing position and doesn't get the power on the header, maybe he needs to time runs better but too often the ball in is not accurate. This has been the case for too long as we all know!

So basically you thought wrong .

UTB

 

[bladeinlondon]

He suffered badly from Covid because he is a rabid anti vaxxer and so got it bad
As soon as I heard he was playing after vomiting I thought hungover

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Had a weekend in Glasgow.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

I’ve long maintained he’s either got a drink or earring disorder. No way does he look like an athlete with high levels of nutrition and fitness


I’ve watched him closely, never seen a player that stares at the ball with his head down and ‘laser eyes’ wherever it is in relation to him.
I look like that when I’ve had too many sherbets (2 sherry’s usually does it) and I’m trying to prove to Mrs Jelly I can manage the stairs

Begs the question is there any support groups out there for McBurnie and possibly any other Blades with earring disorders? How about anything for those who like to wear tights and high heels to matches? I don't know anyone like that though.

 

[Blade56]

Begs the question is there any support groups out there for McBurnie and possibly any other Blades with earring disorders? How about anything for those who like to wear tights and high heels to matches? I don't know anyone like that though.

You’re talking to one now

 

[PaulHalfway]

He works hard but has a poor touch and no pace or movement to turn quickly, draws in heavy challenges from centre halves and gets clattered continually on the shins and ankles
Strange how his career has declined since he has joined us, looked a real threat at Swansea and prospect

 

[Bladesman]

He suffered badly from Covid because he is a rabid anti vaxxer and so got it bad
As soon as I heard he was playing after vomiting I thought hungover

MGW had the same sickness bug a few days before McBurnie though.