Middlesbrough vs Sheffield United

  • xa_prs_kickoff Match date
  • Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
  • Att: 26,610

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Middlesbrough MIDD 1 - 0
Half Time: 0 - 0
1 - 0
Half Time: 0 - 0
1 - 0
Half Time: 0 - 0
Sheffield United SUFC
Status
Ratings for this match closed
EFL Championship Matchweek 4 - Saturday 30th August 2025 - 12:30 - Riverside Stadium
Please keep all discussion related to the match within this thread.


Player Ratings:
Matchday Stats/Player Ratings - https://www.s24su.com/forum/match-day/match/middlesbrough-vs-sheffield-united.753/

Officials:

Referee: Lewis Smith
Assistants: Alex James and Andrew Dallison
Fourth Official: Oliver Langford

Coverage:

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The Owners have got it wrong, appoint Selles, He has decided to play his way, He has got it wrong,
The players are struggling with how to play the way he wants, strange tactics wrong formation.
He does not answer properly when the commentators ask him questions. At Boro, Bladefan shouted, you're getting sacked in the morning.
He does not get it. He has never played professional football, and it's plain as daylight, he doesn't know what he is doing.
He has to be sacked.
 

What interests me now is who’s holding Selles to account for his football decisions? In the absence of a DoF, is there a committee of board members in charge of football operations? Are they qualified or experienced in any way?

We hired Selles in part to play a different way. But that “way” currently appears astonishingly naive and borderline suicidal. So there has to be a dialogue in which he’s asked about what’s happening and how he sees it developing.
 
Been told to take his man on. On the outside.
Insanity - he has no R foot and can't do it.
Defender has an easy game coz he knows he MUST turn inside.

Watch carefully how absolutely nothing will come from Brooks , even when he has a clear break on down the R wing.

If you're gonna play the "fashionable but useless" inverted wingers , your man's weaker foot must have at least some effectiveness and the occasional ability to go on the outside.

Just to keep the defender guessing.

Brooks , who I really like , is getting misused and destroyed by being inverted.

Even if he finds himself - by some fluke - in a position to cross , the way he has to use his L foot to deliver the cross is painfully hilarious.
 
Nah he looked genuinely concerned after he'd done it. Would be red with VAR tho but a genuine attempt to get the ball I think
Rubbish - it was an out of control studs assault , not a tackle - and now he's rendered useless as our only DM coz he daren't tackle
 
The players aren't bad players, it's the system and the coaching.
Or is it the players making a quiet but concerted effort to get the manager sacked ?
They aren't even running or doing the basics.
The dressing room must be utterly toxic.
Several players who were very good last season are feckin useless this season.
As seasoned pros , if they wanted to win , they could ignore the manager and sort their own shape out.
But they are cynically sticking to the lunatic's instructions.
I think it runs deeper than just the manager failing.
I think the players have recognised he's an idiot and are hoping to demonstrate how incompetent he is
AND SHOW HIM THE DOOR
 
Or is it the players making a quiet but concerted effort to get the manager sacked ?
They aren't even running or doing the basics.
The dressing room must be utterly toxic.
Several players who were very good last season are feckin useless this season.
As seasoned pros , if they wanted to win , they could ignore the manager and sort their own shape out.
But they are cynically sticking to the lunatic's instructions.
I think it runs deeper than just the manager failing.
I think the players have recognised he's an idiot and are hoping to demonstrate how incompetent he is
AND SHOW HIM THE DOOR
I don't think we need organized stupidity to lose games (even if the team would be even capable to do such a thing)
 
Or is it the players making a quiet but concerted effort to get the manager sacked ?
They aren't even running or doing the basics.
The dressing room must be utterly toxic.
Several players who were very good last season are feckin useless this season.
As seasoned pros , if they wanted to win , they could ignore the manager and sort their own shape out.
But they are cynically sticking to the lunatic's instructions.
I think it runs deeper than just the manager failing.
I think the players have recognised he's an idiot and are hoping to demonstrate how incompetent he is
AND SHOW HIM THE DOOR
Lots of rumours circulating that either the coaches or just one of the coaches are disliked by the players. 🤷‍♂️
 
In his defence, we're playing with wide players who do nothing but cut inside and lose the ball...
They are fuckin inverted wingers - it's a shit modern idea invented by top clubs who have two-footed quality players at their disposal.
What on earth gives the managers of teams without two-footed wingers the idea that inverting wingers is going to be effective when their weaker foot is no better than a walking-stick ?

It is painfully hilarious watching Brooks on our R wing - he is so L-footed that he looks idiotic trying to cross the ball with the outside of his L foot.

FFS put him on the LW or somewhere he can use his L foot.
 

If we can get Soloman in then yes, sell him for anything reasonable

Spend the rest of the money on a couple of younger assets..... or even better, the bloody training ground
Agree with the first part.
But before we spend on the training ground , let's have a manager who can train the players.
 
They are fuckin inverted wingers - it's a shit modern idea invented by top clubs who have two-footed quality players at their disposal.
What on earth gives the managers of teams without two-footed wingers the idea that inverting wingers is going to be effective when their weaker foot is no better than a walking-stick ?

It is painfully hilarious watching Brooks on our R wing - he is so L-footed that he looks idiotic trying to cross the ball with the outside of his L foot.

FFS put him on the LW or somewhere he can use his L foot.
On that subject, remember in the PL when which ever statue we had at LB did the same to Saka and dared him to round him and use his right foot?

One right footed shot rifled in to the top corner and one pinpoint right footed cross for another goal later, it becomes obvious - to echo your point - the rules are different for the top teams!!
 
Did I just hear some singing for Wilder back?

Whatever the answer is, is isn’t that.

Then again, it isn’t this either
I firmly believed it was time to part ways with Wilder and I don't want him back.

But singing his praises , which are historically well justified , is simply one of the few ways that our loyal fans , including me , can ventilate our sheer incredulity at what's happened and what's not happened this summer.

Having a squad that finishes clear third and having our last year of parachutes - in any other club - would lead to a very serious tilt at winning the league this season.

Instead we have an incompetent manager , a complete fuckup of a window , a squad that looks like it's come out of Aldi's bargain bucket and total silence from our remote owners who are clearly ignorant in this field.

In such circumstances , I do believe that even a stale & fading Chrissy Wilder could not in a million years have done worse , if only because of his love for the club and his intolerance of any player not putting his heart & soul into his performance , whatever his level of quality.
 
I'm starting to see why Brooks didn't get many games under Wilder at the end of last season. He's just so raw and ineffective.
He's not raw - he's ineffective coz he's one-footed and it's his L and he's being played on the R - how can he be anything other than ineffective ?
 
1 at the back ...
Tanga alone at the back facing 2 Boro - with Peck just trotting back as if tomorrow will do - no sign of any other players to help Tanga defend ...
And Tanga still prevents a goal by being no less than superhuman !!
His teammates should be feckin embarrassed
 
Tanga alone at the back facing 2 Boro - with Peck just trotting back as if tomorrow will do - no sign of any other players to help Tanga defend ...
And Tanga still prevents a goal by being no less than superhuman !!
His teammates should be feckin embarrassed
What a difference if we'd bought that cunt in January instead of Tommy Cannon....
 
One team looked like it was organised, well coached and knew their jobs.

The other looked like it was picked by the fans voting on Twitter!!

Yeah, let's play all our attackers in a 4-1-5.... No we're losing let's put 6 subs on and change formation?!?!

What the actual fuck?!?!?!
I'm sorry but any of our fans could do a better job than Sellers.
Even if they said to the players "you're all pros - just sort yourselves out"
 
Just looked at the stats, great news, we did more passes than them
Theirs were quick & incisive and took them from their GK into our box in 4 or 5 seconds.
Ours were all inside our own half , eventually conceding possession so Boro could attack us
 
Entirely predictable defeat.
Four winnable league games all lost by an imbecile manager.
100% effort by all the players generally totally misdirected.
Best chance wasted created by one of the all too few instances of genuine wing play but missed by a typical Wilder journeyman signing rather than finished by Brooks playing in that correct position.
It is pointless discussing the glaring problems Selles is causing.
PRESS the destruct button or get relegated because apart from taking advantage of a wide open defence they looked a poor team that could lose 4-0 at home to Donny
The big worry is who will be leaving this week
And for far too little as per the #sufc shambles with transfer fees.
Hamer Campbell and Brooks have all been linked to moves and all are being wasted by the imbecile.
Got to say these player marks are again ridiculous.
You give the manager the 1 mark he deserves, the minimum and then you do not take account of the ludicrous way they are forced to try and play?
What I will say is I watched a feed as off site commentators have.
Pictures and crowd sounds no commentary and have heard only 15 minutes of RS (none Talksport) commentary so far.
So I watched and was not influenced in my opinions, except by the crowd.
It did not show Cannon coming on as the third sub of three and I never saw him involved on the pitch
I did see the new signing Little T being what he is.
Too small, too slow particularly for a small CB, no discernible skill set, culpable as the senior CB in a shambolic defence throughout and for the goal they actually scored.
He was totally unfit FFS
The people that saw otherwise are presumably those that think the similarly lightweight, too slow, low skilled OHare can play (let alone well) at even this nondescript all time low level of the second division.
And even worse that the imbecile Wilder is a good manager rather than the most destructive in the history of the club.
Sadly we have the most incompetent owners ever (as any sane person would expect of a none football playing country) hence the insanity in all their actions and the destruction of the team by stupid transfers and both managerial appointments.
How can you interview and correctly assess a manager when you have no idea of what is happening on the pitch?
Just judge by the scoreline and presumably swallow the endless BS of the pre programmed robotic none managers
Some might say a bit like MOST of the people watching United either for so called pleasure or (alleged) profession.

ps first impressions can be wrong.
My first impression and statement on OHare in his debut at Harrogate was 'better than Hamer' as he controlled the ball more closely. (And scored)
Little did I know he could not perform either physically or skills wise at this level.
Just against the likes of none league and Chesterfield.

pps The endless almost demented screaming of PRESS by Selles most clearly heard after he was booked and the stupidity of it reminded me of the similar destruction in 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
'Into the VALLEY OF DEATH rode the 600'
Well the front six presumably hence the massive holes everywhere else
Ironically that was the ONE time I can remember it working and Campbell had that great chance blocked.
No doubt he will say that proves it is the right strategy and that the players are not doing it correctly
Whilst the more sane of us will point out the stupid team assembly and question why if that is the main tactic (HIGH PRESS) then why do we P about at the back so much when not chasing the game and you know - GET THE BALL HIGH. (in his terminology, FORWARD in mine. I can see in three dimensions)
 
I firmly believed it was time to part ways with Wilder and I don't want him back.

But singing his praises , which are historically well justified , is simply one of the few ways that our loyal fans , including me , can ventilate our sheer incredulity at what's happened and what's not happened this summer.

Having a squad that finishes clear third and having our last year of parachutes - in any other club - would lead to a very serious tilt at winning the league this season.

Instead we have an incompetent manager , a complete fuckup of a window , a squad that looks like it's come out of Aldi's bargain bucket and total silence from our remote owners who are clearly ignorant in this field.

In such circumstances , I do believe that even a stale & fading Chrissy Wilder could not in a million years have done worse , if only because of his love for the club and his intolerance of any player not putting his heart & soul into his performance , whatever his level of quality.
Agree with most of that, well written.

I’ve consistently said that historically, he’s one of the best if not the best managers for us and I stand by that.

I also stand by my opinion it was time for a change, it seems clear to me that COH wanted a more pliable manager in place.

Furthermore, it was my opinion that despite a lack of experience, I had seen enough of Selles to think that it would have been a good if slightly left field appointment.

I doubt many people would have thought it would have gone this wrong this quickly.

I admire him facing the fans up at Middlesbrough. Wilder was last seen scuttling down the tunnel at the end of the play off final. Sorry but I feel that’s a point worth making.

Having said that, the body language of the players as Selles was facing the fans was pretty damning. So on that basis, very quickly his position has become untenable
 

What interests me now is who’s holding Selles to account for his football decisions? In the absence of a DoF, is there a committee of board members in charge of football operations? Are they qualified or experienced in any way?

We hired Selles in part to play a different way. But that “way” currently appears astonishingly naive and borderline suicidal. So there has to be a dialogue in which he’s asked about what’s happening and how he sees it developing.
Who is holding Selles to account ?
FECKIN NOBODY , That's who

I predicted this shambles when the Yankee owners (with no previous interest in or knowledge of football) sacked a man who ran the entire club and replaced him with an inexperienced coach who'd never won anything
AND
failed to appoint a senior "football man" as Director of Football to be his boss and help him with decades of football experience.
Especially with recruitment and having loads of contacts in the game.

Absolutely ridiculous way to run a club.

The shitshow starts with the owners and their decisions & omissions.

Did they honestly think that by giving the CEO/accountant Bettis a seat on the Board , he would suddenly morph into the kind of 'DoF' that every other club has apart from us ?

The owners are the biggest idiots.

Selles is second to them in idiocy.

Now , with this entirely predictable outcome , they are seriously FUCKED.

Sitting in the USA , 5-8 hours behind us , but a lifetime behind knowing what on earth to do.

Their "presence" in Sheffield is Bettis.

What the fuck do they expect him to do about anything on the "football" side of things ?

We can keep Selles or we can sack him.

It'll make no feckin difference , not unless they get someone of Wilder's stature in to be either an all-encompassing type of club manager or a DoF with a head-coach reporting to him.

NB: this is in no way a criticism of Bettis - when working with Wilder last summer window and during the whole of last season , he was in a partnership that got us 92 points.

But the new owners have catastrophically FAILED to understand what an English football club needs for success.
 
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