My take ...

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CaptainMorgans said:
To be honest, I'd be starting to think now of going with 1 up front. It's a waste of a shirt having two up there. Let's pack the midfield and see if we can start getting some control in matches again.

I would pick Norwood & Berge in the middle & let Osborn (Fleck when fit) & Bogle / Lundstram attack the flanks.
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You are right, I've been banging on about "false nine" with a midfield five, lone strikers are a waste of time unless they big, mobile, and you have Warnock or Basset as manager, having said that the five in midfield have to have an attacking mindset and shoot on sight attitude, something we don't currently have, down to poor recruitment.
 
Grappler said:
Oh and the first goal yesterday, much as I love him, Bash has to hold his hand up. Watch it again in slow motion, the ball is heading for his head, and I know that the natural inclination is to shut your eyes as something approaches your face, but he also lowers his head, which is probably the first time Ramsdale can actually see the ball, and it's too late at that point. The fact that we didn't have anyone stood in front of Abraham is terrible as well, of all the players to leave unmarked.

Even with his eyes shut, if Bash doesn't lower his head, the ball hits him, and gives us a chance to clear.

Second goal, terrible defending. Third goal, terrible defending.
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Apparently Ramsdale is at fault for every goal scored against us, didn't you know ?
I actually think Ramsdale is a very good goalkeeper with a poor defence in front of him,
He is a great signing.
 
Espania blade said:
You are right, I've been banging on about "false nine" with a midfield five, lone strikers are a waste of time unless they big, mobile, and you have Warnock or Basset as manager, having said that the five in midfield have to have an attacking mindset and shoot on sight attitude, something we don't currently have, down to poor recruitment.
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Yep, we need that. We just don't test or worry the opposition keepers.
 
Espania blade said:
Apparently Ramsdale is at fault for every goal scored against us, didn't you know ?
I actually think Ramsdale is a very good goalkeeper with a poor defence in front of him,
He is a great signing.
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Really? He was fired upon, and past last season and kept Bournemouth's goal difference from being worse than it was, but he was still relegated with them.

For £18m, and two minutes into our new season, I would expect him to be on his toes enough to get at least a hand to Jiminez's strike and also get to Saiss's header, three minutes later. They weren't booted hard from ten yards or right in the zone where no keeper would get to it. In the next game Konza's header was soft and looping and Ramsdale seemed to have trouble moving his feet fast enough to get some sort of spring to get to the ball. Again, not a fast, hard shot that beats you, all ends up (I'll just say, I have played in goal a lot in my younger years). Fast forward to Bamford's looping header - not quite John Egan's bullet against Wolves at the end of last season. Arsenals two goals, the first one a far post header with stoppy George AND Ramsdale positioned where you'd think one would get something on it, yet is flies past them. Then Pepe's goal which is on an angular run into the box where Ramsdale has every chance to position himself and narrow the shooting angle. Pepe shoots and he's late down and its past him. The Fulham goal I don't really think he had anything on, but Liverpool's equaliser was typical Ramsdale, and summat he has been doing a lot. For £18m, I don't expect him to simly palm the ball into the path of Firmino. He either catches it, or gets it into dead space in the penalty area (or round the post for a corner) Liverpool's winner too, although Stevens is massively culpable for allowing Jota to het a head to it, it's still travelling across space and Ramsdale didn't to me make enough of an effort to be considered 'he had no chance' about it. A week later and he's caught out by a well hit - but saveable 28 metre strike where if you watch Walker's stance and the ball across to him, Ramsdale has two whole seconds to anticipate the shot and ground his feet and focus. Sure, he dived, but from that range, and considering he is more or less on his six yard line, the angle he has closed means that the target areas to beat him and hugely diminished, yet the ball flies past him and he - at 6'2" - is at full stretch.

The four that went past him yesterday - maybe two of them can be attributed to 'other causes', but he still flaps, palms it away and fails to control shots put at hi like his predecessor. And that is one of the reasons we are bottom of the league. I say with confidence we'd be at least five points better off with Henderson in the net, right now. Yet you think he's a great signing.

I get the old 'fuck me ... John Hope' feeling about Ramsdale. Too many errors and too much flapping for too little world class stops or safe pair of hands moments. Verrips and Fotheringham must be feeling confident of an outing pretty soon.

pommpey
 
Latters said:
You won’t get any criticism from me for it. Currently he is a tidy footballer and one of very few we have who can carry the ball past a player, but he needs to work on his end product; be that goals, assists or genuine chance creation.

My gripe isn’t with him as a player, and we have bigger issues to look at, but, with a few exceptions granted, the team’s performances on the whole do seem to have deteriorated since his signing, regardless of how well or otherwise he is performing individually.
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he hardly influences games at all. There’s usually one good dribble, sometimes a good cross or two, he’ll glide past someone...but it’s just flashes. He doesn’t do it consistently like, say, an on form Fleck can.

I still do not understand why he was signed. What need did we have that he fulfilled? We needed more goals and more creativity and he does not provide that.
 
pommpey said:
Went for a run, late afternoon. 5.4km (this on 7.5km yesterday). Decent tea. Stella on, big fuckin' telly, 5.1 surround, expected a fucking pasting.

So it came to pass.

Now, bear with me. I still have a lot of faith in Wilder, but his comments recently about Playstation managers seem a bit hollow given tonight's pretty pathetic showing. If you play FIFA, as any fule no, if you go from season to season playing the same old shit expecting to beat Liverpool with 50% of the team you won the league two levels down with, unless you seriously make all your settings at 100% you'll get held face down and bummed mercilessly, especially if you make the wrong signings and play with eight defenders. So much for us dumb fucks who come on here and kae suggestions. Do we expect him to take any notice? Nope. Again, as I have said, if he is referencing S24SU messageboard for his strategy and not working this out with his team captain and staff, then we are definitely in trouble. What do we know?

I'll tell you what we do though. We watch games like tonight's end to end. We see Sheffield United come out of the traps and play 'passable' Premier League football for 22 minutes (I marked it) until Chelsea took it off us and didn't give it us back for the rest of the match. We'd already taken a shock lead by then - just like Liverpool - but almost seemed embarrassed and shocked to have done so, right the way up until normal service was restored and Chelsea gained possession and inevitably cancelled out our lead. From then on in, it was just a case of how much we would lose by, and it was in the end by a margin unmatched for what ... three seasons? Middlesbrough 3- 0 Blades? Basically it looked from that 22 minute mark like Wilder had called off all of our players and told the Chelsea development side to get the kit on for a kick about. We were out thought, out-tacticked, outclassed in every part of the pitch. And really, Chelsea aren't THAT great a side, though the three points we meekly gave them tonight makes them look so.

My previous comments stand about changing things. If tonight hasn't told Wilder what he already knows and we already know then if he stays with the same thing next week Sheffield United - and Chris Wilder - are in deep shit. We are a Premiership side, and given our last flaccid flirtation with this majestic position, we can't afford to let Bladey-Bladeness sentimentality stand in the way of us staying up, especially as pre lockdown, this very side was actually, audaciously thinking about a place in the European competitions. We all secretly feared what lay in wait for us when we went up, and today is that. INstead, last season seems now like some charitable, sympathetic gesture to little Sheffield United, with their little players, little fans and little stadium. G'wan. Let 'em beat Everton away. G'wan. Let 'em give a three goal shock lead away against Man U at home and scrape a draw from inevitable failure. The chickens certainly came home to roost after the COVID restart and save for some chin-strokingly baffling victories, we've been fucking glistening, slippery, chunky bobbar since.

Unless Wilder starts thinking about how he is to address this - and that means 'change' - he is sacked by Christmas. Another Bladey Blade victim who failed to propel us into the trophy cabinet. It's sad, because he is a fucking outstanding bloke. But his strategy and buying policy now is patently Championship. Anyone who denies this needs to account for tonight, where once again, we played a messy five at the back, three in front (as in two metres in front) and the front two might as well have had fucking COVID themselves and socially isolated. When we did deign to break out, our passing was disgracefully shit, we don't move into space to receive and any 'plans' we seem to either have worked out on the training ground or ad hoc on the pitch end up in two places - at an opposition player's feet on the attack or in the arms of a flailing Aaron Ramsdale.

We are all scratching our heads to find reasoning for all of this. Is it the crowds (or lack of them)? Well no. All 22 players are playing in the sterile environment where all they can hear is the manager or each other. Is it 'we have been found out'? Well, they had thirty odd matches last season to do that with a myriad of technology to analyze and strategize against what we had, yet we finished way up the table. So what has gone wrong?

For me - Wilder has lost the team. Since we went up we have made some breathtakingly stupid acquisitions (we're good at this) despite spunking about a hundred million bucks. yeah - I know comparing like for like that is chicken feed. But tonight we still don't field players who are - genuinely - English Premier League standard. Your Ramsdales, your Stavenses, Your Norwoods, your Lunstrams, your Lowes, and god-dammit, even Didsy. They are nowhere near the footballing quality required to compete at this level. Were we not saying that thirteen years ago when suddenly our marque striker bust his leg at tonight's stadium and committed our remaining players to score just six goals in the remaining nine games should show you how this story has been told before. Sure, we ahve spent a fuck load more than we did back then. But to me very nearly every signing has been misplaced, wrong and a simple waste of money

Tonight from back to front we were again, fucking rubbish. Our goal was a work of unintended genius, but you just knew that all that had done was put on arm in the cage and slapped the lion on the nose. You just knew that soon, the lion would tear off your arm and eat it in front of you.

Ramsdale is fucking rubbish. He made some saves, but given the result, he might as well have let the fuckers in for all they are worth right now. I have watched him in a number of games - Wolves, Villa, Liverpool, even Man City ... and he makes elaborate, demonstrative and simply crap flailings to get to the ball (and misses) or simply palms the effort, when he should - at this level - be making clear efforts to control the ball and smother the energy. Fuck, if I can learn that in my Level 2 Coaching course, why the fuck is he not doing this? He keeps saying 'I am not Dean Henderson' and fuck me don't we know it. Henderson not only would have saved a lot he hasn't, but in my opinion was a big percentage of our success last season, giving us possibly twelve points with his stops and quite outstanding athleticism. We should have bought him. There, I have said it. £18m and £23m spent on Ramsdale and Brewster is £41m, and that would have been a big temptation for OGS to offload him. And by my reckoning with him in the net, we'd be at least five points better off this season. Disagree?

The central three need a revamp. We need a JOC replacement, and fast. Enda is now stage 4 terminal (to us and unpleasant term, apologies if anyone is offended) and is a weak point in any opposition attacking strategy. Tonight, and in past games like Arsenal, he's just not sharp enough or has the DNA to be a central defender. He's left footed. Cool. But he can't do the centre back stuff and fails to watch, move, mark, intercept and track effectively. In the Championship, tonning it up and down that left touchline and making mischief with Fleck and O'Connell he was mint. But now he is - as I have said before - way out of his depth. Egan seems lost without his wingman too. We all know what a fucking sound centreback he is. but we have Egan second guessing Stevens and also have Lowe having to come narrow and drop to cover for a clearly unhappy Stevens too. It's a fucking mess.

In front of that we have the hapless, ailing Lundstram, who is seemingly leading a charmed existence of being un-droppable. Given there are two factors in that - firstly he is playing dreadfully and secondly he doesn't want to be at Sheffield United and has his dummy cocked and loaded, I am wondering what the flying fuck Wilder is doing having him in the starting eleven, if he has no position to fight for. It must piss the rest of the player who can play in that position off, big-style. Tonight he was fucking wank. All three out on that flank were playing like they have never kicked a ball to each other in training, and it makes me wonder what the fuck Wilder and Knill do with these lot at Shirecliffe. We see some moderately impressive footage of them doing grid sprints and lifting weights. I'd like to know what the fuck they do to make these three - Stevens, Lowe and Lundstram - pass and move and shift up the wing, because at the moment, they are wank.

Over the other side, the three B's seems to have something. Basham as ever gives it his best 'Ahm ernly doin' me fukkan job, pet' act which again is pleasing, because he seems to be the only one in red and white who gets it. But there used to be a song back in the day:

"At number one, there's Jamie Ward ... at number two, is jamie Ward ... " et al until we reached eleven and finished it off with "We all play for a team of Jamie Wards, a team of Jamie Wards .. " etc.

Bash fits that description. I even think he'd be better in the sticks than Ramsdale. At least he'd give it a go and convince us he was doing his level best anyway. But tonight, he, the mercurial and fucking frustrated Berge and goold old stroppy George made a decent shift of traying at least to find each other and string more than one pass and another pass ... oh shit, we've lost it again. Berge picking up a yellow for shirting Kante was the summit of his pissed-offness. He picked the ball up in the central defending midfield role and looked up ... no one but Lundstram some twenty metres away seemed interested in receiving it. The clear signal from him was 'C'mon Lunny. Come to me closer, close the gap so I don't have to telegraph this pass.' Lunny just stayed. Berge passed it. It was cut out and Chelsea went on the attack.

We started with my mate Olive in midfield defence too. I hope tonight shows everyone how he is completely unsuitable for this side or the Premier League, in fact. four corners in the first half, two of the fuckers hit the first man on the near post. When his replacement came on and took them, Osborn sent in curving, lofted but well-placed crosses which had Chelsea actually defending. Well, two of them anyway. The next one was taken short and ended up back in Ramsdale's shakey hands. But Norwood has one role, run across the park and point behind him. When he tackles, it is Montgomeryesque. On the opposite side tonight was N'Golo Kante, a diminutive little battle warrior who mixes it up, cuts out passing lanes, dispossesses, anticipates and shows his Premier League capability. If you want passing too, they had the fucking mercurial Ziyech, finding people with passes, like Timo Werner and playing in the runners. Still think Norwood is PL class?

And now up front. Wilder tonight chose to play a freebie veteran, who'd struggled to hit the net last season and a rookie acquisition, who just happens to be our record signing yet hasn't played much Premier League football. Didsy is a smashing feller, but he's way under the standard needed to put the opposition under pressure, despite his fortuitous goal. He was just bustled off the ball tonight or spent much of the time running across the pitch trying to intercept passing lanes that three players would find hard to do so. Poor fucker. Next to him is Brewster who must be fucking kicking himself now he allowed Klopp to finally convince him 'dis vould be a grit career moof for jou". he had five (count em) touches in the fist half, which really is the story of his evening. As much as people bellyache, he's possibly got capability, if some bastard would take a chance, look up and put him through. Tonight, nothing, as ever. Nothing also for his substitute either but let's face it, buying players from Swansea area who appear to have summat about them seems to be a failing these for us. McBurnie needs also to stop the fucking Herdings Park Sheffield and Hallamshire Sunday League Division Three stuff now. It doesn't impress anyone 'leaving your foot in/mark on a player' and when you are also not scoring at all, makes you look even more of a cunt. When he came on I thought, 'watch this. He'll get a free header in front on their goal, and simply fifty-pee it wide or into the keeper's arms' Thankfully he never made it into their box, I don't think but made a desperate effort to reach Thiago once he'd bumped his marker (Stevens) off for his predictable goal. In fact, he was more active in defence than in attack. Maybe a JOC replacement? At the moment, I'll take owt.

The subs, as said, were ineffective. Where the fuck is Burke, a player who has pace, vision and raw direction? Where is Bogle? Would Freeman, bought back, make any difference? I dunno.

Anyway, marks out of ten

Ramsdale 4/10: He had a great season stopping Bournemouth shipping more goals in their desperate attempt to stay up. If we get relegated this season however, I can't seem another PL club looking to take Ramsdale off us given he was the goalkeeper to two sides, consecutively relegated. He needs to consider this. So do we. Tonight, he was piss poor.
Lowe 3/10: Rabbit in the headlights. I think it has finally hit him tonight the gulf in class between Lampard's old club and his new one. He was also shit with their second goal.
Stevens 2/10: I don't want to comment further
Egan 5/10; A passable showing, but as the man bossing te box these days, those arcing crosses need a shout and co-ordination. Tonight we were all over the fucking place, and he was on his heels for Werner's goal.
Basham 6/10: Best player for us. He is seemingly fearless, but was let down by some shit decisions around him.
Baldock 5/10: Stroppy George was largely pinned back (as usual these days) although the goal we managed to shock the world with was due to his one deft run and ball to Berge
Lundstram 3/10: An evening of effectively playing on his own. I thought he was a waste of a shirt tonight and did nothing to bring anything to the game. If he is shop windowing himself, then he looks ever more like the Oxford United player he once was, and still is
Norwood 4/10: Said all I need to
Berge 7/10: What? Seven out of ten? Are you fucking kidding pommpey? He was fucking SHIT! Comparitively, Berge was a giant amongst footballing pygmies tonight. If Lundstram was playing one game on his own, Berge was trying to play the rest of the midfield's game. He's still trying to impose but fuck me the frustration he must feel.
McGoldrick 4/10: Great, deft goal, but for the rest of the game, no service. Tried his best, but he's past it. With him we have no danger.
Brewster 3/10: Nuffsaid.

Wilder 2/10: You are seriously running out of time, games and options. Sheffield United is a Premier League club, has a large public profile, our stock is up, investments made both on and off the pitch and we have an owner who is less interested in coralling his wagons around a Bigger Blade Than Me campfire more so making us a money making, highly regarded Premier League asset, rather than a relegation liability. He's proved that my giving you cash to fulfill your vision. But that vision is failing. You need to rethink, re-energise and rebuild and get us the fuck off our knees and up that table, even if it is seventeenth. If we go on as we are, losing game after game after game, you'll be sacked by Christmas. And you know it.

We expect more. Start fucking winning.

pommpey
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Good assessment IMO. Not sure that saying that Mr Wilder will be gone by Christmas , if things don't improve , will help matters. I've said before sacking managers is "easy" getting a better one is difficult.
I didn't think any player refusing to sign an improved contract would be considered so Lundstram's inclusion yesterday was baffling. The recruitment in the last transfer window was encouraging due to the age of the new players but as it's obvious that some of them are finding it difficult to settle in. I think dropping them back to the bench will not detract from the pretty dire performances to date . Brewster in particular will require some time out of the limelight & possibly even Ramsdale.
There is experience in the squad so panic loans or even buys are premature. Many experienced professionals are complaining about the "unrelenting" pressure of playing 2 or 3 matches in 7 - 8 days & this will only get worse with the onset of the FA Cup So the younger players must feel the strain even though many will be reluctant to admit it. The management should be able to recognise this & take the relevant decisions. Used properly experienced players I.e Jagielka & McGoldrick ( in a more midfield role - never a striker IMO) can arrest this.
Keep the Faith UTB
 
pommpey said:
Really? He was fired upon, and past last season and kept Bournemouth's goal difference from being worse than it was, but he was still relegated with them.

For £18m, and two minutes into our new season, I would expect him to be on his toes enough to get at least a hand to Jiminez's strike and also get to Saiss's header, three minutes later. They weren't booted hard from ten yards or right in the zone where no keeper would get to it. In the next game Konza's header was soft and looping and Ramsdale seemed to have trouble moving his feet fast enough to get some sort of spring to get to the ball. Again, not a fast, hard shot that beats you, all ends up (I'll just say, I have played in goal a lot in my younger years). Fast forward to Bamford's looping header - not quite John Egan's bullet against Wolves at the end of last season. Arsenals two goals, the first one a far post header with stoppy George AND Ramsdale positioned where you'd think one would get something on it, yet is flies past them. Then Pepe's goal which is on an angular run into the box where Ramsdale has every chance to position himself and narrow the shooting angle. Pepe shoots and he's late down and its past him. The Fulham goal I don't really think he had anything on, but Liverpool's equaliser was typical Ramsdale, and summat he has been doing a lot. For £18m, I don't expect him to simly palm the ball into the path of Firmino. He either catches it, or gets it into dead space in the penalty area (or round the post for a corner) Liverpool's winner too, although Stevens is massively culpable for allowing Jota to het a head to it, it's still travelling across space and Ramsdale didn't to me make enough of an effort to be considered 'he had no chance' about it. A week later and he's caught out by a well hit - but saveable 28 metre strike where if you watch Walker's stance and the ball across to him, Ramsdale has two whole seconds to anticipate the shot and ground his feet and focus. Sure, he dived, but from that range, and considering he is more or less on his six yard line, the angle he has closed means that the target areas to beat him and hugely diminished, yet the ball flies past him and he - at 6'2" - is at full stretch.

The four that went past him yesterday - maybe two of them can be attributed to 'other causes', but he still flaps, palms it away and fails to control shots put at hi like his predecessor. And that is one of the reasons we are bottom of the league. I say with confidence we'd be at least five points better off with Henderson in the net, right now. Yet you think he's a great signing.

I get the old 'fuck me ... John Hope' feeling about Ramsdale. Too many errors and too much flapping for too little world class stops or safe pair of hands moments. Verrips and Fotheringham must be feeling confident of an outing pretty soon.

pommpey
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John Hope 😂😂😂 you must be a grumpy old - same as me 🤣🤣
 
pommpey said:
Went for a run, late afternoon. 5.4km (this on 7.5km yesterday). Decent tea. Stella on, big fuckin' telly, 5.1 surround, expected a fucking pasting.

So it came to pass.

Now, bear with me. I still have a lot of faith in Wilder, but his comments recently about Playstation managers seem a bit hollow given tonight's pretty pathetic showing. If you play FIFA, as any fule no, if you go from season to season playing the same old shit expecting to beat Liverpool with 50% of the team you won the league two levels down with, unless you seriously make all your settings at 100% you'll get held face down and bummed mercilessly, especially if you make the wrong signings and play with eight defenders. So much for us dumb fucks who come on here and kae suggestions. Do we expect him to take any notice? Nope. Again, as I have said, if he is referencing S24SU messageboard for his strategy and not working this out with his team captain and staff, then we are definitely in trouble. What do we know?

I'll tell you what we do though. We watch games like tonight's end to end. We see Sheffield United come out of the traps and play 'passable' Premier League football for 22 minutes (I marked it) until Chelsea took it off us and didn't give it us back for the rest of the match. We'd already taken a shock lead by then - just like Liverpool - but almost seemed embarrassed and shocked to have done so, right the way up until normal service was restored and Chelsea gained possession and inevitably cancelled out our lead. From then on in, it was just a case of how much we would lose by, and it was in the end by a margin unmatched for what ... three seasons? Middlesbrough 3- 0 Blades? Basically it looked from that 22 minute mark like Wilder had called off all of our players and told the Chelsea development side to get the kit on for a kick about. We were out thought, out-tacticked, outclassed in every part of the pitch. And really, Chelsea aren't THAT great a side, though the three points we meekly gave them tonight makes them look so.

My previous comments stand about changing things. If tonight hasn't told Wilder what he already knows and we already know then if he stays with the same thing next week Sheffield United - and Chris Wilder - are in deep shit. We are a Premiership side, and given our last flaccid flirtation with this majestic position, we can't afford to let Bladey-Bladeness sentimentality stand in the way of us staying up, especially as pre lockdown, this very side was actually, audaciously thinking about a place in the European competitions. We all secretly feared what lay in wait for us when we went up, and today is that. INstead, last season seems now like some charitable, sympathetic gesture to little Sheffield United, with their little players, little fans and little stadium. G'wan. Let 'em beat Everton away. G'wan. Let 'em give a three goal shock lead away against Man U at home and scrape a draw from inevitable failure. The chickens certainly came home to roost after the COVID restart and save for some chin-strokingly baffling victories, we've been fucking glistening, slippery, chunky bobbar since.

Unless Wilder starts thinking about how he is to address this - and that means 'change' - he is sacked by Christmas. Another Bladey Blade victim who failed to propel us into the trophy cabinet. It's sad, because he is a fucking outstanding bloke. But his strategy and buying policy now is patently Championship. Anyone who denies this needs to account for tonight, where once again, we played a messy five at the back, three in front (as in two metres in front) and the front two might as well have had fucking COVID themselves and socially isolated. When we did deign to break out, our passing was disgracefully shit, we don't move into space to receive and any 'plans' we seem to either have worked out on the training ground or ad hoc on the pitch end up in two places - at an opposition player's feet on the attack or in the arms of a flailing Aaron Ramsdale.

We are all scratching our heads to find reasoning for all of this. Is it the crowds (or lack of them)? Well no. All 22 players are playing in the sterile environment where all they can hear is the manager or each other. Is it 'we have been found out'? Well, they had thirty odd matches last season to do that with a myriad of technology to analyze and strategize against what we had, yet we finished way up the table. So what has gone wrong?

For me - Wilder has lost the team. Since we went up we have made some breathtakingly stupid acquisitions (we're good at this) despite spunking about a hundred million bucks. yeah - I know comparing like for like that is chicken feed. But tonight we still don't field players who are - genuinely - English Premier League standard. Your Ramsdales, your Stavenses, Your Norwoods, your Lunstrams, your Lowes, and god-dammit, even Didsy. They are nowhere near the footballing quality required to compete at this level. Were we not saying that thirteen years ago when suddenly our marque striker bust his leg at tonight's stadium and committed our remaining players to score just six goals in the remaining nine games should show you how this story has been told before. Sure, we ahve spent a fuck load more than we did back then. But to me very nearly every signing has been misplaced, wrong and a simple waste of money

Tonight from back to front we were again, fucking rubbish. Our goal was a work of unintended genius, but you just knew that all that had done was put on arm in the cage and slapped the lion on the nose. You just knew that soon, the lion would tear off your arm and eat it in front of you.

Ramsdale is fucking rubbish. He made some saves, but given the result, he might as well have let the fuckers in for all they are worth right now. I have watched him in a number of games - Wolves, Villa, Liverpool, even Man City ... and he makes elaborate, demonstrative and simply crap flailings to get to the ball (and misses) or simply palms the effort, when he should - at this level - be making clear efforts to control the ball and smother the energy. Fuck, if I can learn that in my Level 2 Coaching course, why the fuck is he not doing this? He keeps saying 'I am not Dean Henderson' and fuck me don't we know it. Henderson not only would have saved a lot he hasn't, but in my opinion was a big percentage of our success last season, giving us possibly twelve points with his stops and quite outstanding athleticism. We should have bought him. There, I have said it. £18m and £23m spent on Ramsdale and Brewster is £41m, and that would have been a big temptation for OGS to offload him. And by my reckoning with him in the net, we'd be at least five points better off this season. Disagree?

The central three need a revamp. We need a JOC replacement, and fast. Enda is now stage 4 terminal (to us and unpleasant term, apologies if anyone is offended) and is a weak point in any opposition attacking strategy. Tonight, and in past games like Arsenal, he's just not sharp enough or has the DNA to be a central defender. He's left footed. Cool. But he can't do the centre back stuff and fails to watch, move, mark, intercept and track effectively. In the Championship, tonning it up and down that left touchline and making mischief with Fleck and O'Connell he was mint. But now he is - as I have said before - way out of his depth. Egan seems lost without his wingman too. We all know what a fucking sound centreback he is. but we have Egan second guessing Stevens and also have Lowe having to come narrow and drop to cover for a clearly unhappy Stevens too. It's a fucking mess.

In front of that we have the hapless, ailing Lundstram, who is seemingly leading a charmed existence of being un-droppable. Given there are two factors in that - firstly he is playing dreadfully and secondly he doesn't want to be at Sheffield United and has his dummy cocked and loaded, I am wondering what the flying fuck Wilder is doing having him in the starting eleven, if he has no position to fight for. It must piss the rest of the player who can play in that position off, big-style. Tonight he was fucking wank. All three out on that flank were playing like they have never kicked a ball to each other in training, and it makes me wonder what the fuck Wilder and Knill do with these lot at Shirecliffe. We see some moderately impressive footage of them doing grid sprints and lifting weights. I'd like to know what the fuck they do to make these three - Stevens, Lowe and Lundstram - pass and move and shift up the wing, because at the moment, they are wank.

Over the other side, the three B's seems to have something. Basham as ever gives it his best 'Ahm ernly doin' me fukkan job, pet' act which again is pleasing, because he seems to be the only one in red and white who gets it. But there used to be a song back in the day:

"At number one, there's Jamie Ward ... at number two, is jamie Ward ... " et al until we reached eleven and finished it off with "We all play for a team of Jamie Wards, a team of Jamie Wards .. " etc.

Bash fits that description. I even think he'd be better in the sticks than Ramsdale. At least he'd give it a go and convince us he was doing his level best anyway. But tonight, he, the mercurial and fucking frustrated Berge and goold old stroppy George made a decent shift of traying at least to find each other and string more than one pass and another pass ... oh shit, we've lost it again. Berge picking up a yellow for shirting Kante was the summit of his pissed-offness. He picked the ball up in the central defending midfield role and looked up ... no one but Lundstram some twenty metres away seemed interested in receiving it. The clear signal from him was 'C'mon Lunny. Come to me closer, close the gap so I don't have to telegraph this pass.' Lunny just stayed. Berge passed it. It was cut out and Chelsea went on the attack.

We started with my mate Olive in midfield defence too. I hope tonight shows everyone how he is completely unsuitable for this side or the Premier League, in fact. four corners in the first half, two of the fuckers hit the first man on the near post. When his replacement came on and took them, Osborn sent in curving, lofted but well-placed crosses which had Chelsea actually defending. Well, two of them anyway. The next one was taken short and ended up back in Ramsdale's shakey hands. But Norwood has one role, run across the park and point behind him. When he tackles, it is Montgomeryesque. On the opposite side tonight was N'Golo Kante, a diminutive little battle warrior who mixes it up, cuts out passing lanes, dispossesses, anticipates and shows his Premier League capability. If you want passing too, they had the fucking mercurial Ziyech, finding people with passes, like Timo Werner and playing in the runners. Still think Norwood is PL class?

And now up front. Wilder tonight chose to play a freebie veteran, who'd struggled to hit the net last season and a rookie acquisition, who just happens to be our record signing yet hasn't played much Premier League football. Didsy is a smashing feller, but he's way under the standard needed to put the opposition under pressure, despite his fortuitous goal. He was just bustled off the ball tonight or spent much of the time running across the pitch trying to intercept passing lanes that three players would find hard to do so. Poor fucker. Next to him is Brewster who must be fucking kicking himself now he allowed Klopp to finally convince him 'dis vould be a grit career moof for jou". he had five (count em) touches in the fist half, which really is the story of his evening. As much as people bellyache, he's possibly got capability, if some bastard would take a chance, look up and put him through. Tonight, nothing, as ever. Nothing also for his substitute either but let's face it, buying players from Swansea area who appear to have summat about them seems to be a failing these for us. McBurnie needs also to stop the fucking Herdings Park Sheffield and Hallamshire Sunday League Division Three stuff now. It doesn't impress anyone 'leaving your foot in/mark on a player' and when you are also not scoring at all, makes you look even more of a cunt. When he came on I thought, 'watch this. He'll get a free header in front on their goal, and simply fifty-pee it wide or into the keeper's arms' Thankfully he never made it into their box, I don't think but made a desperate effort to reach Thiago once he'd bumped his marker (Stevens) off for his predictable goal. In fact, he was more active in defence than in attack. Maybe a JOC replacement? At the moment, I'll take owt.

The subs, as said, were ineffective. Where the fuck is Burke, a player who has pace, vision and raw direction? Where is Bogle? Would Freeman, bought back, make any difference? I dunno.

Anyway, marks out of ten

Ramsdale 4/10: He had a great season stopping Bournemouth shipping more goals in their desperate attempt to stay up. If we get relegated this season however, I can't seem another PL club looking to take Ramsdale off us given he was the goalkeeper to two sides, consecutively relegated. He needs to consider this. So do we. Tonight, he was piss poor.
Lowe 3/10: Rabbit in the headlights. I think it has finally hit him tonight the gulf in class between Lampard's old club and his new one. He was also shit with their second goal.
Stevens 2/10: I don't want to comment further
Egan 5/10; A passable showing, but as the man bossing te box these days, those arcing crosses need a shout and co-ordination. Tonight we were all over the fucking place, and he was on his heels for Werner's goal.
Basham 6/10: Best player for us. He is seemingly fearless, but was let down by some shit decisions around him.
Baldock 5/10: Stroppy George was largely pinned back (as usual these days) although the goal we managed to shock the world with was due to his one deft run and ball to Berge
Lundstram 3/10: An evening of effectively playing on his own. I thought he was a waste of a shirt tonight and did nothing to bring anything to the game. If he is shop windowing himself, then he looks ever more like the Oxford United player he once was, and still is
Norwood 4/10: Said all I need to
Berge 7/10: What? Seven out of ten? Are you fucking kidding pommpey? He was fucking SHIT! Comparitively, Berge was a giant amongst footballing pygmies tonight. If Lundstram was playing one game on his own, Berge was trying to play the rest of the midfield's game. He's still trying to impose but fuck me the frustration he must feel.
McGoldrick 4/10: Great, deft goal, but for the rest of the game, no service. Tried his best, but he's past it. With him we have no danger.
Brewster 3/10: Nuffsaid.

Wilder 2/10: You are seriously running out of time, games and options. Sheffield United is a Premier League club, has a large public profile, our stock is up, investments made both on and off the pitch and we have an owner who is less interested in coralling his wagons around a Bigger Blade Than Me campfire more so making us a money making, highly regarded Premier League asset, rather than a relegation liability. He's proved that my giving you cash to fulfill your vision. But that vision is failing. You need to rethink, re-energise and rebuild and get us the fuck off our knees and up that table, even if it is seventeenth. If we go on as we are, losing game after game after game, you'll be sacked by Christmas. And you know it.

We expect more. Start fucking winning.

pommpey
Click to expand...
All that running and typing up posts that long, fuck me you must've got so much time on your hands!
 
BigBed said:
All that running and typing up posts that long, fuck me you must've got so much time on your hands!
Click to expand...

I've never spent so much time typing as i have today, it's the depth of emotion i feel for "my football team and Sheffield, being dragged up and beat up in the streets of Pitsmoor was an education in itself.
Talking of emotion, it's 11/11 also, we have a lot to be grateful for.
Add to that it's a beautiful day here in Spain , i should be outside 😅
 
Ramsdale.......3 did make a few good stops but can he catch a ball? Criminally bottled out for their 2nd goal.
Baldock...........6 Average
Basham...........6 Average
Egan.................6 missing JOC at his side
Stevens...........3 never been a CB and has been poor anyway for a good while constantly beaten in the air and not tracking runners
Lowe................1 what a nightmare this lad had not helped by a poor Stevens and a strolling Lundstram he got worse as the game went on until giving a gift goal away for their 4th he had a hand in 3 Chelsea goals and you have to ask is he really Premier League potential? quality he is not.
Lundstram.....3 one point for having a shot on target but if he wants to stroll around until he leaves fuck him off now he is no use to us let him go train with Tranmere Rovers, I don't ever want to see that wage thief near our team again.
Norwood.......4 looked ok for 10 mins pinging the ball about then Chelsea shut him down mainly
Berge...............4 undoubtedly got talent but showed next to nothing a poor game he has to impose himself more looked lost on the ball but so little movement from his team mates he can never play it forwards.
Osborn............2 another Montyesque performance, if you were an opposition fan you would have pissed yourself laughing at how easy a turn can leave him 6 yards away from the ball. A Jack Russel terrier would have got closer to that round thing than he did.
Brewster.........2 clearly not ready to be starting games, criminal to have the likes of Burke and Sharp sat on the bench to give this kid game time, Wilder is doing him no favours.
McGoldrick...6 took his one chance but an average game for him may as well been up front on his own.
McBurnie........4 did he have a touch in the short time he was on.

Wilder............. 2 seems to spend his time convincing the team they have lost before they start. Poor recruitment so playing players out of position, poor team selections, poor substitutions and he looks a beaten man in post match interviews. He really needs to step up and change things rather that being stubborn and doing the same over and over when it isn't working. He says over and over we will go out the front door well sorry but we are not even going out of the back door we are crawling out through the cellar grate.
I do wonder if the pink shirts have made us as soft as wet dog shit.
 
Grappler said:
Oh and the first goal yesterday, much as I love him, Bash has to hold his hand up. Watch it again in slow motion, the ball is heading for his head, and I know that the natural inclination is to shut your eyes as something approaches your face, but he also lowers his head, which is probably the first time Ramsdale can actually see the ball, and it's too late at that point. The fact that we didn't have anyone stood in front of Abraham is terrible as well, of all the players to leave unmarked.

Even with his eyes shut, if Bash doesn't lower his head, the ball hits him, and gives us a chance to clear.

Second goal, terrible defending. Third goal, terrible defending.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I said to the wife when I saw the replay.
 
Revolution said:
he hardly influences games at all. There’s usually one good dribble, sometimes a good cross or two, he’ll glide past someone...but it’s just flashes. He doesn’t do it consistently like, say, an on form Fleck can.

I still do not understand why he was signed. What need did we have that he fulfilled? We needed more goals and more creativity and he does not provide that.
Click to expand...
Take him out of our side and my 4 year old has more technical ability trying to pop bubbles, and you’ll find more creativity from my mum ad-libbing at karaoke.
 

pommpey said:
Went for a run, late afternoon. 5.4km (this on 7.5km yesterday). Decent tea. Stella on, big fuckin' telly, 5.1 surround, expected a fucking pasting.

So it came to pass.

Now, bear with me. I still have a lot of faith in Wilder, but his comments recently about Playstation managers seem a bit hollow given tonight's pretty pathetic showing. If you play FIFA, as any fule no, if you go from season to season playing the same old shit expecting to beat Liverpool with 50% of the team you won the league two levels down with, unless you seriously make all your settings at 100% you'll get held face down and bummed mercilessly, especially if you make the wrong signings and play with eight defenders. So much for us dumb fucks who come on here and kae suggestions. Do we expect him to take any notice? Nope. Again, as I have said, if he is referencing S24SU messageboard for his strategy and not working this out with his team captain and staff, then we are definitely in trouble. What do we know?

I'll tell you what we do though. We watch games like tonight's end to end. We see Sheffield United come out of the traps and play 'passable' Premier League football for 22 minutes (I marked it) until Chelsea took it off us and didn't give it us back for the rest of the match. We'd already taken a shock lead by then - just like Liverpool - but almost seemed embarrassed and shocked to have done so, right the way up until normal service was restored and Chelsea gained possession and inevitably cancelled out our lead. From then on in, it was just a case of how much we would lose by, and it was in the end by a margin unmatched for what ... three seasons? Middlesbrough 3- 0 Blades? Basically it looked from that 22 minute mark like Wilder had called off all of our players and told the Chelsea development side to get the kit on for a kick about. We were out thought, out-tacticked, outclassed in every part of the pitch. And really, Chelsea aren't THAT great a side, though the three points we meekly gave them tonight makes them look so.

My previous comments stand about changing things. If tonight hasn't told Wilder what he already knows and we already know then if he stays with the same thing next week Sheffield United - and Chris Wilder - are in deep shit. We are a Premiership side, and given our last flaccid flirtation with this majestic position, we can't afford to let Bladey-Bladeness sentimentality stand in the way of us staying up, especially as pre lockdown, this very side was actually, audaciously thinking about a place in the European competitions. We all secretly feared what lay in wait for us when we went up, and today is that. INstead, last season seems now like some charitable, sympathetic gesture to little Sheffield United, with their little players, little fans and little stadium. G'wan. Let 'em beat Everton away. G'wan. Let 'em give a three goal shock lead away against Man U at home and scrape a draw from inevitable failure. The chickens certainly came home to roost after the COVID restart and save for some chin-strokingly baffling victories, we've been fucking glistening, slippery, chunky bobbar since.

Unless Wilder starts thinking about how he is to address this - and that means 'change' - he is sacked by Christmas. Another Bladey Blade victim who failed to propel us into the trophy cabinet. It's sad, because he is a fucking outstanding bloke. But his strategy and buying policy now is patently Championship. Anyone who denies this needs to account for tonight, where once again, we played a messy five at the back, three in front (as in two metres in front) and the front two might as well have had fucking COVID themselves and socially isolated. When we did deign to break out, our passing was disgracefully shit, we don't move into space to receive and any 'plans' we seem to either have worked out on the training ground or ad hoc on the pitch end up in two places - at an opposition player's feet on the attack or in the arms of a flailing Aaron Ramsdale.

We are all scratching our heads to find reasoning for all of this. Is it the crowds (or lack of them)? Well no. All 22 players are playing in the sterile environment where all they can hear is the manager or each other. Is it 'we have been found out'? Well, they had thirty odd matches last season to do that with a myriad of technology to analyze and strategize against what we had, yet we finished way up the table. So what has gone wrong?

For me - Wilder has lost the team. Since we went up we have made some breathtakingly stupid acquisitions (we're good at this) despite spunking about a hundred million bucks. yeah - I know comparing like for like that is chicken feed. But tonight we still don't field players who are - genuinely - English Premier League standard. Your Ramsdales, your Stavenses, Your Norwoods, your Lunstrams, your Lowes, and god-dammit, even Didsy. They are nowhere near the footballing quality required to compete at this level. Were we not saying that thirteen years ago when suddenly our marque striker bust his leg at tonight's stadium and committed our remaining players to score just six goals in the remaining nine games should show you how this story has been told before. Sure, we ahve spent a fuck load more than we did back then. But to me very nearly every signing has been misplaced, wrong and a simple waste of money

Tonight from back to front we were again, fucking rubbish. Our goal was a work of unintended genius, but you just knew that all that had done was put on arm in the cage and slapped the lion on the nose. You just knew that soon, the lion would tear off your arm and eat it in front of you.

Ramsdale is fucking rubbish. He made some saves, but given the result, he might as well have let the fuckers in for all they are worth right now. I have watched him in a number of games - Wolves, Villa, Liverpool, even Man City ... and he makes elaborate, demonstrative and simply crap flailings to get to the ball (and misses) or simply palms the effort, when he should - at this level - be making clear efforts to control the ball and smother the energy. Fuck, if I can learn that in my Level 2 Coaching course, why the fuck is he not doing this? He keeps saying 'I am not Dean Henderson' and fuck me don't we know it. Henderson not only would have saved a lot he hasn't, but in my opinion was a big percentage of our success last season, giving us possibly twelve points with his stops and quite outstanding athleticism. We should have bought him. There, I have said it. £18m and £23m spent on Ramsdale and Brewster is £41m, and that would have been a big temptation for OGS to offload him. And by my reckoning with him in the net, we'd be at least five points better off this season. Disagree?

The central three need a revamp. We need a JOC replacement, and fast. Enda is now stage 4 terminal (to us and unpleasant term, apologies if anyone is offended) and is a weak point in any opposition attacking strategy. Tonight, and in past games like Arsenal, he's just not sharp enough or has the DNA to be a central defender. He's left footed. Cool. But he can't do the centre back stuff and fails to watch, move, mark, intercept and track effectively. In the Championship, tonning it up and down that left touchline and making mischief with Fleck and O'Connell he was mint. But now he is - as I have said before - way out of his depth. Egan seems lost without his wingman too. We all know what a fucking sound centreback he is. but we have Egan second guessing Stevens and also have Lowe having to come narrow and drop to cover for a clearly unhappy Stevens too. It's a fucking mess.

In front of that we have the hapless, ailing Lundstram, who is seemingly leading a charmed existence of being un-droppable. Given there are two factors in that - firstly he is playing dreadfully and secondly he doesn't want to be at Sheffield United and has his dummy cocked and loaded, I am wondering what the flying fuck Wilder is doing having him in the starting eleven, if he has no position to fight for. It must piss the rest of the player who can play in that position off, big-style. Tonight he was fucking wank. All three out on that flank were playing like they have never kicked a ball to each other in training, and it makes me wonder what the fuck Wilder and Knill do with these lot at Shirecliffe. We see some moderately impressive footage of them doing grid sprints and lifting weights. I'd like to know what the fuck they do to make these three - Stevens, Lowe and Lundstram - pass and move and shift up the wing, because at the moment, they are wank.

Over the other side, the three B's seems to have something. Basham as ever gives it his best 'Ahm ernly doin' me fukkan job, pet' act which again is pleasing, because he seems to be the only one in red and white who gets it. But there used to be a song back in the day:

"At number one, there's Jamie Ward ... at number two, is jamie Ward ... " et al until we reached eleven and finished it off with "We all play for a team of Jamie Wards, a team of Jamie Wards .. " etc.

Bash fits that description. I even think he'd be better in the sticks than Ramsdale. At least he'd give it a go and convince us he was doing his level best anyway. But tonight, he, the mercurial and fucking frustrated Berge and goold old stroppy George made a decent shift of traying at least to find each other and string more than one pass and another pass ... oh shit, we've lost it again. Berge picking up a yellow for shirting Kante was the summit of his pissed-offness. He picked the ball up in the central defending midfield role and looked up ... no one but Lundstram some twenty metres away seemed interested in receiving it. The clear signal from him was 'C'mon Lunny. Come to me closer, close the gap so I don't have to telegraph this pass.' Lunny just stayed. Berge passed it. It was cut out and Chelsea went on the attack.

We started with my mate Olive in midfield defence too. I hope tonight shows everyone how he is completely unsuitable for this side or the Premier League, in fact. four corners in the first half, two of the fuckers hit the first man on the near post. When his replacement came on and took them, Osborn sent in curving, lofted but well-placed crosses which had Chelsea actually defending. Well, two of them anyway. The next one was taken short and ended up back in Ramsdale's shakey hands. But Norwood has one role, run across the park and point behind him. When he tackles, it is Montgomeryesque. On the opposite side tonight was N'Golo Kante, a diminutive little battle warrior who mixes it up, cuts out passing lanes, dispossesses, anticipates and shows his Premier League capability. If you want passing too, they had the fucking mercurial Ziyech, finding people with passes, like Timo Werner and playing in the runners. Still think Norwood is PL class?

And now up front. Wilder tonight chose to play a freebie veteran, who'd struggled to hit the net last season and a rookie acquisition, who just happens to be our record signing yet hasn't played much Premier League football. Didsy is a smashing feller, but he's way under the standard needed to put the opposition under pressure, despite his fortuitous goal. He was just bustled off the ball tonight or spent much of the time running across the pitch trying to intercept passing lanes that three players would find hard to do so. Poor fucker. Next to him is Brewster who must be fucking kicking himself now he allowed Klopp to finally convince him 'dis vould be a grit career moof for jou". he had five (count em) touches in the fist half, which really is the story of his evening. As much as people bellyache, he's possibly got capability, if some bastard would take a chance, look up and put him through. Tonight, nothing, as ever. Nothing also for his substitute either but let's face it, buying players from Swansea area who appear to have summat about them seems to be a failing these for us. McBurnie needs also to stop the fucking Herdings Park Sheffield and Hallamshire Sunday League Division Three stuff now. It doesn't impress anyone 'leaving your foot in/mark on a player' and when you are also not scoring at all, makes you look even more of a cunt. When he came on I thought, 'watch this. He'll get a free header in front on their goal, and simply fifty-pee it wide or into the keeper's arms' Thankfully he never made it into their box, I don't think but made a desperate effort to reach Thiago once he'd bumped his marker (Stevens) off for his predictable goal. In fact, he was more active in defence than in attack. Maybe a JOC replacement? At the moment, I'll take owt.

The subs, as said, were ineffective. Where the fuck is Burke, a player who has pace, vision and raw direction? Where is Bogle? Would Freeman, bought back, make any difference? I dunno.

Anyway, marks out of ten

Ramsdale 4/10: He had a great season stopping Bournemouth shipping more goals in their desperate attempt to stay up. If we get relegated this season however, I can't seem another PL club looking to take Ramsdale off us given he was the goalkeeper to two sides, consecutively relegated. He needs to consider this. So do we. Tonight, he was piss poor.
Lowe 3/10: Rabbit in the headlights. I think it has finally hit him tonight the gulf in class between Lampard's old club and his new one. He was also shit with their second goal.
Stevens 2/10: I don't want to comment further
Egan 5/10; A passable showing, but as the man bossing te box these days, those arcing crosses need a shout and co-ordination. Tonight we were all over the fucking place, and he was on his heels for Werner's goal.
Basham 6/10: Best player for us. He is seemingly fearless, but was let down by some shit decisions around him.
Baldock 5/10: Stroppy George was largely pinned back (as usual these days) although the goal we managed to shock the world with was due to his one deft run and ball to Berge
Lundstram 3/10: An evening of effectively playing on his own. I thought he was a waste of a shirt tonight and did nothing to bring anything to the game. If he is shop windowing himself, then he looks ever more like the Oxford United player he once was, and still is
Norwood 4/10: Said all I need to
Berge 7/10: What? Seven out of ten? Are you fucking kidding pommpey? He was fucking SHIT! Comparitively, Berge was a giant amongst footballing pygmies tonight. If Lundstram was playing one game on his own, Berge was trying to play the rest of the midfield's game. He's still trying to impose but fuck me the frustration he must feel.
McGoldrick 4/10: Great, deft goal, but for the rest of the game, no service. Tried his best, but he's past it. With him we have no danger.
Brewster 3/10: Nuffsaid.

Wilder 2/10: You are seriously running out of time, games and options. Sheffield United is a Premier League club, has a large public profile, our stock is up, investments made both on and off the pitch and we have an owner who is less interested in coralling his wagons around a Bigger Blade Than Me campfire more so making us a money making, highly regarded Premier League asset, rather than a relegation liability. He's proved that my giving you cash to fulfill your vision. But that vision is failing. You need to rethink, re-energise and rebuild and get us the fuck off our knees and up that table, even if it is seventeenth. If we go on as we are, losing game after game after game, you'll be sacked by Christmas. And you know it.

We expect more. Start fucking winning.

pommpey
Click to expand...
Now you obviously must be a Wednesday fan because when I posted something very similar toward the back end of last season I got dogs abuse , was called , pork , pig , told to get back on my own forum , it's only one that a few others are realising Wilder isn't a god and he's spunked nearly a 100 mil ,
 
wak1889 said:
Now you obviously must be a Wednesday fan because when I posted something very similar toward the back end of last season I got dogs abuse , was called , pork , pig , told to get back on my own forum , it's only one that a few others are realising Wilder isn't a god and he's spunked nearly a 100 mil ,
Click to expand...
*Only now
 
pommpey said:
Went for a run, late afternoon. 5.4km (this on 7.5km yesterday). Decent tea. Stella on, big fuckin' telly, 5.1 surround, expected a fucking pasting.

So it came to pass.

Now, bear with me. I still have a lot of faith in Wilder, but his comments recently about Playstation managers seem a bit hollow given tonight's pretty pathetic showing. If you play FIFA, as any fule no, if you go from season to season playing the same old shit expecting to beat Liverpool with 50% of the team you won the league two levels down with, unless you seriously make all your settings at 100% you'll get held face down and bummed mercilessly, especially if you make the wrong signings and play with eight defenders. So much for us dumb fucks who come on here and kae suggestions. Do we expect him to take any notice? Nope. Again, as I have said, if he is referencing S24SU messageboard for his strategy and not working this out with his team captain and staff, then we are definitely in trouble. What do we know?

I'll tell you what we do though. We watch games like tonight's end to end. We see Sheffield United come out of the traps and play 'passable' Premier League football for 22 minutes (I marked it) until Chelsea took it off us and didn't give it us back for the rest of the match. We'd already taken a shock lead by then - just like Liverpool - but almost seemed embarrassed and shocked to have done so, right the way up until normal service was restored and Chelsea gained possession and inevitably cancelled out our lead. From then on in, it was just a case of how much we would lose by, and it was in the end by a margin unmatched for what ... three seasons? Middlesbrough 3- 0 Blades? Basically it looked from that 22 minute mark like Wilder had called off all of our players and told the Chelsea development side to get the kit on for a kick about. We were out thought, out-tacticked, outclassed in every part of the pitch. And really, Chelsea aren't THAT great a side, though the three points we meekly gave them tonight makes them look so.

My previous comments stand about changing things. If tonight hasn't told Wilder what he already knows and we already know then if he stays with the same thing next week Sheffield United - and Chris Wilder - are in deep shit. We are a Premiership side, and given our last flaccid flirtation with this majestic position, we can't afford to let Bladey-Bladeness sentimentality stand in the way of us staying up, especially as pre lockdown, this very side was actually, audaciously thinking about a place in the European competitions. We all secretly feared what lay in wait for us when we went up, and today is that. INstead, last season seems now like some charitable, sympathetic gesture to little Sheffield United, with their little players, little fans and little stadium. G'wan. Let 'em beat Everton away. G'wan. Let 'em give a three goal shock lead away against Man U at home and scrape a draw from inevitable failure. The chickens certainly came home to roost after the COVID restart and save for some chin-strokingly baffling victories, we've been fucking glistening, slippery, chunky bobbar since.

Unless Wilder starts thinking about how he is to address this - and that means 'change' - he is sacked by Christmas. Another Bladey Blade victim who failed to propel us into the trophy cabinet. It's sad, because he is a fucking outstanding bloke. But his strategy and buying policy now is patently Championship. Anyone who denies this needs to account for tonight, where once again, we played a messy five at the back, three in front (as in two metres in front) and the front two might as well have had fucking COVID themselves and socially isolated. When we did deign to break out, our passing was disgracefully shit, we don't move into space to receive and any 'plans' we seem to either have worked out on the training ground or ad hoc on the pitch end up in two places - at an opposition player's feet on the attack or in the arms of a flailing Aaron Ramsdale.

We are all scratching our heads to find reasoning for all of this. Is it the crowds (or lack of them)? Well no. All 22 players are playing in the sterile environment where all they can hear is the manager or each other. Is it 'we have been found out'? Well, they had thirty odd matches last season to do that with a myriad of technology to analyze and strategize against what we had, yet we finished way up the table. So what has gone wrong?

For me - Wilder has lost the team. Since we went up we have made some breathtakingly stupid acquisitions (we're good at this) despite spunking about a hundred million bucks. yeah - I know comparing like for like that is chicken feed. But tonight we still don't field players who are - genuinely - English Premier League standard. Your Ramsdales, your Stavenses, Your Norwoods, your Lunstrams, your Lowes, and god-dammit, even Didsy. They are nowhere near the footballing quality required to compete at this level. Were we not saying that thirteen years ago when suddenly our marque striker bust his leg at tonight's stadium and committed our remaining players to score just six goals in the remaining nine games should show you how this story has been told before. Sure, we ahve spent a fuck load more than we did back then. But to me very nearly every signing has been misplaced, wrong and a simple waste of money

Tonight from back to front we were again, fucking rubbish. Our goal was a work of unintended genius, but you just knew that all that had done was put on arm in the cage and slapped the lion on the nose. You just knew that soon, the lion would tear off your arm and eat it in front of you.

Ramsdale is fucking rubbish. He made some saves, but given the result, he might as well have let the fuckers in for all they are worth right now. I have watched him in a number of games - Wolves, Villa, Liverpool, even Man City ... and he makes elaborate, demonstrative and simply crap flailings to get to the ball (and misses) or simply palms the effort, when he should - at this level - be making clear efforts to control the ball and smother the energy. Fuck, if I can learn that in my Level 2 Coaching course, why the fuck is he not doing this? He keeps saying 'I am not Dean Henderson' and fuck me don't we know it. Henderson not only would have saved a lot he hasn't, but in my opinion was a big percentage of our success last season, giving us possibly twelve points with his stops and quite outstanding athleticism. We should have bought him. There, I have said it. £18m and £23m spent on Ramsdale and Brewster is £41m, and that would have been a big temptation for OGS to offload him. And by my reckoning with him in the net, we'd be at least five points better off this season. Disagree?

The central three need a revamp. We need a JOC replacement, and fast. Enda is now stage 4 terminal (to us and unpleasant term, apologies if anyone is offended) and is a weak point in any opposition attacking strategy. Tonight, and in past games like Arsenal, he's just not sharp enough or has the DNA to be a central defender. He's left footed. Cool. But he can't do the centre back stuff and fails to watch, move, mark, intercept and track effectively. In the Championship, tonning it up and down that left touchline and making mischief with Fleck and O'Connell he was mint. But now he is - as I have said before - way out of his depth. Egan seems lost without his wingman too. We all know what a fucking sound centreback he is. but we have Egan second guessing Stevens and also have Lowe having to come narrow and drop to cover for a clearly unhappy Stevens too. It's a fucking mess.

In front of that we have the hapless, ailing Lundstram, who is seemingly leading a charmed existence of being un-droppable. Given there are two factors in that - firstly he is playing dreadfully and secondly he doesn't want to be at Sheffield United and has his dummy cocked and loaded, I am wondering what the flying fuck Wilder is doing having him in the starting eleven, if he has no position to fight for. It must piss the rest of the player who can play in that position off, big-style. Tonight he was fucking wank. All three out on that flank were playing like they have never kicked a ball to each other in training, and it makes me wonder what the fuck Wilder and Knill do with these lot at Shirecliffe. We see some moderately impressive footage of them doing grid sprints and lifting weights. I'd like to know what the fuck they do to make these three - Stevens, Lowe and Lundstram - pass and move and shift up the wing, because at the moment, they are wank.

Over the other side, the three B's seems to have something. Basham as ever gives it his best 'Ahm ernly doin' me fukkan job, pet' act which again is pleasing, because he seems to be the only one in red and white who gets it. But there used to be a song back in the day:

"At number one, there's Jamie Ward ... at number two, is jamie Ward ... " et al until we reached eleven and finished it off with "We all play for a team of Jamie Wards, a team of Jamie Wards .. " etc.

Bash fits that description. I even think he'd be better in the sticks than Ramsdale. At least he'd give it a go and convince us he was doing his level best anyway. But tonight, he, the mercurial and fucking frustrated Berge and goold old stroppy George made a decent shift of traying at least to find each other and string more than one pass and another pass ... oh shit, we've lost it again. Berge picking up a yellow for shirting Kante was the summit of his pissed-offness. He picked the ball up in the central defending midfield role and looked up ... no one but Lundstram some twenty metres away seemed interested in receiving it. The clear signal from him was 'C'mon Lunny. Come to me closer, close the gap so I don't have to telegraph this pass.' Lunny just stayed. Berge passed it. It was cut out and Chelsea went on the attack.

We started with my mate Olive in midfield defence too. I hope tonight shows everyone how he is completely unsuitable for this side or the Premier League, in fact. four corners in the first half, two of the fuckers hit the first man on the near post. When his replacement came on and took them, Osborn sent in curving, lofted but well-placed crosses which had Chelsea actually defending. Well, two of them anyway. The next one was taken short and ended up back in Ramsdale's shakey hands. But Norwood has one role, run across the park and point behind him. When he tackles, it is Montgomeryesque. On the opposite side tonight was N'Golo Kante, a diminutive little battle warrior who mixes it up, cuts out passing lanes, dispossesses, anticipates and shows his Premier League capability. If you want passing too, they had the fucking mercurial Ziyech, finding people with passes, like Timo Werner and playing in the runners. Still think Norwood is PL class?

And now up front. Wilder tonight chose to play a freebie veteran, who'd struggled to hit the net last season and a rookie acquisition, who just happens to be our record signing yet hasn't played much Premier League football. Didsy is a smashing feller, but he's way under the standard needed to put the opposition under pressure, despite his fortuitous goal. He was just bustled off the ball tonight or spent much of the time running across the pitch trying to intercept passing lanes that three players would find hard to do so. Poor fucker. Next to him is Brewster who must be fucking kicking himself now he allowed Klopp to finally convince him 'dis vould be a grit career moof for jou". he had five (count em) touches in the fist half, which really is the story of his evening. As much as people bellyache, he's possibly got capability, if some bastard would take a chance, look up and put him through. Tonight, nothing, as ever. Nothing also for his substitute either but let's face it, buying players from Swansea area who appear to have summat about them seems to be a failing these for us. McBurnie needs also to stop the fucking Herdings Park Sheffield and Hallamshire Sunday League Division Three stuff now. It doesn't impress anyone 'leaving your foot in/mark on a player' and when you are also not scoring at all, makes you look even more of a cunt. When he came on I thought, 'watch this. He'll get a free header in front on their goal, and simply fifty-pee it wide or into the keeper's arms' Thankfully he never made it into their box, I don't think but made a desperate effort to reach Thiago once he'd bumped his marker (Stevens) off for his predictable goal. In fact, he was more active in defence than in attack. Maybe a JOC replacement? At the moment, I'll take owt.

The subs, as said, were ineffective. Where the fuck is Burke, a player who has pace, vision and raw direction? Where is Bogle? Would Freeman, bought back, make any difference? I dunno.

Anyway, marks out of ten

Ramsdale 4/10: He had a great season stopping Bournemouth shipping more goals in their desperate attempt to stay up. If we get relegated this season however, I can't seem another PL club looking to take Ramsdale off us given he was the goalkeeper to two sides, consecutively relegated. He needs to consider this. So do we. Tonight, he was piss poor.
Lowe 3/10: Rabbit in the headlights. I think it has finally hit him tonight the gulf in class between Lampard's old club and his new one. He was also shit with their second goal.
Stevens 2/10: I don't want to comment further
Egan 5/10; A passable showing, but as the man bossing te box these days, those arcing crosses need a shout and co-ordination. Tonight we were all over the fucking place, and he was on his heels for Werner's goal.
Basham 6/10: Best player for us. He is seemingly fearless, but was let down by some shit decisions around him.
Baldock 5/10: Stroppy George was largely pinned back (as usual these days) although the goal we managed to shock the world with was due to his one deft run and ball to Berge
Lundstram 3/10: An evening of effectively playing on his own. I thought he was a waste of a shirt tonight and did nothing to bring anything to the game. If he is shop windowing himself, then he looks ever more like the Oxford United player he once was, and still is
Norwood 4/10: Said all I need to
Berge 7/10: What? Seven out of ten? Are you fucking kidding pommpey? He was fucking SHIT! Comparitively, Berge was a giant amongst footballing pygmies tonight. If Lundstram was playing one game on his own, Berge was trying to play the rest of the midfield's game. He's still trying to impose but fuck me the frustration he must feel.
McGoldrick 4/10: Great, deft goal, but for the rest of the game, no service. Tried his best, but he's past it. With him we have no danger.
Brewster 3/10: Nuffsaid.

Wilder 2/10: You are seriously running out of time, games and options. Sheffield United is a Premier League club, has a large public profile, our stock is up, investments made both on and off the pitch and we have an owner who is less interested in coralling his wagons around a Bigger Blade Than Me campfire more so making us a money making, highly regarded Premier League asset, rather than a relegation liability. He's proved that my giving you cash to fulfill your vision. But that vision is failing. You need to rethink, re-energise and rebuild and get us the fuck off our knees and up that table, even if it is seventeenth. If we go on as we are, losing game after game after game, you'll be sacked by Christmas. And you know it.

We expect more. Start fucking winning.

pommpey
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For all the posts etc on this Forum recently. This is what i wish I’d posted.
 
pommpey said:
Jesus. Oliver Norwood was unceremoniously binned by two PL promoted sides and has had his chance with us. He is meant to have a sweet set of feet, yet has one goal for us at this level, a penalty. His style of play is predictable, he invariably tries to hit a now-not-advancing wingbacks (and fails) and is easily pressed and dispossessed. This doesn't happen in the Championship, simply because he is playing mainly against players of a lesser standard. Up in the Premiership, they deal with Oliver Norwood accordingly and basically remove him from the game. He was subbed last night and hasn't featured recently for a reason, and that reason is he is simply ineffectual in central defensive midfield and he cannot cross the ball, despite him being trusted with the duty.

I simply don't get this 'he was 'involved' nonsense. It's how effective he is as a player what counts. Every game I have seen him in, he's barely made 6/10.

So you say we should build the team round him?

pommpey
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If you think Berge is PL class after nearly 6 months at the Lane then yer deluded mate!! Never been outstanding! Not made an impact in any game he’s played in!! Most of his passes are maximum 10yards and either backward or sideward! Have you seen him open a defence up ever! No cos he can’t! No urgency! No work rate! Definitely not a grafter for the team! You follow him even on MOTD highlights he’s rank mate!! Norwood regardless of been rejected by 2 PL teams, if he has, was the playmaker last season and by far a better passer and team player than Berge will ever be! Get yer rose tinted glasses off mate!!
 
jezw2014 said:
If you think Berge is PL class after nearly 6 months at the Lane then yer deluded mate!! Never been outstanding! Not made an impact in any game he’s played in!! Most of his passes are maximum 10yards and either backward or sideward! Have you seen him open a defence up ever! No cos he can’t! No urgency! No work rate! Definitely not a grafter for the team! You follow him even on MOTD highlights he’s rank mate!! Norwood regardless of been rejected by 2 PL teams, if he has, was the playmaker last season and by far a better passer and team player than Berge will ever be! Get yer rose tinted glasses off mate!!
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I disagree. Norwood is a johnny one chord. He can't carry the ball, is easily disposessed, can't impose and can't tackle. And for a bloke with sweet feet ('see Gylfi Sigurdsson for a comparison) has yet to test any goalkeeper from distance over 94 appearances for us. Two goals, that's it, and a load of crosses and corners that hit the near post/first man. And its you saying I have the RTS's on?

pommpey
 
pommpey said:
I disagree. Norwood is a johnny one chord. He can't carry the ball, is easily disposessed, can't impose and can't tackle. And for a bloke with sweet feet ('see Gylfi Sigurdsson for a comparison) has yet to test any goalkeeper from distance over 94 appearances for us. Two goals, that's it, and a load of crosses and corners that hit the near post/first man. And its you saying I have the RTS's on?

pommpey
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He dint do bad being the mainspring in the success of Uniteds efforts last season! At least he creates chances unlike Berge! Other than injuries that we’ve suffered why was he deposed in preference to an inferior newbie with inferior team displays! You don’t try to mend summat that’s not broke!!
 
CornwallBlade said:
Thoroughly well argued analysis Pomps. Cue, “Wilder knows better than you thanks” replies but any clear sighted fan knows that things are seriously wrong. Wilder is looking out of his depth. He’s spunked enough money to have made a difference but still plays Lundstram instead of giving Bogle a run, Ramsdale is a joke and Stevens is a liability. The squad must be in a right mess. Players who were encouraged to take the fight to the opposition last season are now expected to sit in and hope for the best. There was a passage of play shortly after half time when Chelsea must have made 20-30 passes without us getting near them. Get stuck in! I don’t care if we rack
up yellow cards but at least compete! New arrivals must be wondering what the fuck they’ve walked into. I’m an eternal optimist but we are heading for the drop unless CWAK have the balls to get some of last seasons energy and aggression back. And don’t give me the “we’re not the same without a crowd bollocks” they are professional athletes earning a shitload of money ffs.
Click to expand...

Spot on, you've covered most of everything I was going to say, same as the OP who I think did a reet good job of highlighting the bladey bladeness problem.

If Chris Wilder's name was Micky Adams you'd all be screaming for him to be sacked right now. Same applies if his name was anything else. Point is we can't allow sentimentality to undo all his good work. I know we are all pulling our hair out with the team most of which were doing far better the season before, but a real analysis of our manager is surely needed right now...

Take Brewster for example. Wilder dropped a massive bollok here no question. Because either he's spunked away £24m on a total dud, or he's wasted that money on a player his system refuses to pass the ball towards. Either way, that's on Wilder.

Speaking of systems, why is it this season we have just the one? How can we go two goals behind and CW refuses to change it up? Why are we only using 2 out of 3 subs? Why do we take off one striker who needs balls played to him in the box for another striker who needs balls played to him in the box? How is this supposed to change the game in our favour? Why isn't Burke coming on for something different? "Well the Chelsea back line dropped so deep there was no space in behind"... they had a 50yr old centre half FFS. Sorry Chris but you're just plain wrong. That's lazy manager speak, and on the showings so far this season it's looking like lazy manager syndrome is the real second season syndrome we should be worried about.

I love Chris don't get me wrong, but I love my club more. Heck without starting a conspiracy theory but maybe there's summat up with Chris behind the scenes that we are just not aware of. He hasn't seemed his usual self at all since GW1, stuttering and stammering through every interview more than ever before. He's not even getting as animated on the touch line anymore. Perhaps its covid football that's affecting him, perhaps its the missus... whatever it is I have a niggly feeling there's summat he's not telling us (not that he ought to) but my gut tells me there's summat amiss behind the scenes and maybe it will come out one day.

But for now I'm hoping the Prince is keeping a close eye.
 
We still have 8 players out on INTL duty so I do not accept this notion that we have crap players. The challenge is to fit together the players we have of which 7 are new to the club and without a proper pre-season they have not had the same bedding-in opportunity. I do not like how we have performed in our last game but am a long way from giving up. Wilder is not Mickey Adams and the players are of a far better quality but, yes, a lot of work still to do.
 
jezw2014 said:
He dint do bad being the mainspring in the success of Uniteds efforts last season! At least he creates chances unlike Berge! Other than injuries that we’ve suffered why was he deposed in preference to an inferior newbie with inferior team displays! You don’t try to mend summat that’s not broke!!
Click to expand...
Norwood wasn't any 'mainspring' in our success last season. The engine room of our success was the back three and Henderson. They stopped oppositions scoring whilst we chipped away with a pretty thin 'goals for' tally. If you want to argue further, please explain the actual data from last season, especially the latter period after lockdown. Its only because we made such a great go at stopping the other team getting goals before the lockdown that gave us the finish of ninth. Norwood was petty much flatlining throughout. He put one decent corner in which Egan bagged v Wolves and everything else was very much a long way from 'mainspring'. Much of the time the oppositions knew the ball would end up at his feet from defence and dropped their defenders to stop the ping to Baldock and Stevens, or simply pressed him until he gave it up. This season it's much of the same and he is caught too many times too far up the pitch when possession changes over and struggles to get back. Berge is growing into the midfield role and at least shows capability inmuscling oppositions off the ball and retaining possession. And he doesn't whack the ball across the pitch trying the Hollywood pass. Works great in the Championship. Not in the Prem.

pommpey
 
pommpey said:
Norwood wasn't any 'mainspring' in our success last season. The engine room of our success was the back three and Henderson. They stopped oppositions scoring whilst we chipped away with a pretty thin 'goals for' tally. If you want to argue further, please explain the actual data from last season, especially the latter period after lockdown. Its only because we made such a great go at stopping the other team getting goals before the lockdown that gave us the finish of ninth. Norwood was petty much flatlining throughout. He put one decent corner in which Egan bagged v Wolves and everything else was very much a long way from 'mainspring'. Much of the time the oppositions knew the ball would end up at his feet from defence and dropped their defenders to stop the ping to Baldock and Stevens, or simply pressed him until he gave it up. This season it's much of the same and he is caught too many times too far up the pitch when possession changes over and struggles to get back. Berge is growing into the midfield role and at least shows capability inmuscling oppositions off the ball and retaining possession. And he doesn't whack the ball across the pitch trying the Hollywood pass. Works great in the Championship. Not in the Prem.

pommpey
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You’ll see how good Berge is very soon my friend!! 🛫 back to the big time league in Norway 😂😂👍👍
 
Rufus Smalls said:
As much as it pains me to say it, absolutely spot on pommps.

During the match it was the first time I saw Sander’s head go down. As you stated when he had the ball he had zero options for creating anything going forward. Lunny was static and a total passenger for the whole 90+ minutes basically not wanting to take any responsibility for the team.

Berge should be the player we are building a midfield around but if we aren’t careful he will be gone to a better club that can utilise his strengths.

UTB !
Click to expand...
Not good enough!! He’s nowt to shout about I’m afraid! Very rarely looks to go forward when we attack owd back pass Berge, bless him! Better clubs wouldn’t blink an eye so don’t blame other players for his lack of skill,ability,vision and work rate! In football you make your own luck and you reap what you sow! Watch him closely!!😉😉👍
 
jezw2014 said:
Not good enough!! He’s nowt to shout about I’m afraid! Very rarely looks to go forward when we attack owd back pass Berge, bless him! Better clubs wouldn’t blink an eye so don’t blame other players for his lack of skill,ability,vision and work rate! In football you make your own luck and you reap what you sow! Watch him closely!!😉😉👍
Click to expand...
Oh dear 🤦‍♂️
 
jezw2014 said:
Not good enough!! He’s nowt to shout about I’m afraid! Very rarely looks to go forward when we attack owd back pass Berge, bless him! Better clubs wouldn’t blink an eye so don’t blame other players for his lack of skill,ability,vision and work rate! In football you make your own luck and you reap what you sow! Watch him closely!!😉😉👍
Click to expand...

Be good to get a pig emoji next to the names of posters like this. Worry about yourselves pal.
 
jezw2014 said:
Not good enough!! He’s nowt to shout about I’m afraid! Very rarely looks to go forward when we attack owd back pass Berge, bless him! Better clubs wouldn’t blink an eye so don’t blame other players for his lack of skill,ability,vision and work rate! In football you make your own luck and you reap what you sow! Watch him closely!!😉😉👍
Click to expand...
I watch him closely and see a player desperately trying to make things happen but one whose only viable option is generally backwards because his teammates are hiding or too far away.

Suppose we need someone like Bazzaboi Bannan?
 

jezw2014 said:
Not good enough!! He’s nowt to shout about I’m afraid! Very rarely looks to go forward when we attack owd back pass Berge, bless him! Better clubs wouldn’t blink an eye so don’t blame other players for his lack of skill,ability,vision and work rate! In football you make your own luck and you reap what you sow! Watch him closely!!😉😉👍
Click to expand...
You call him "back pass Berge" and yet you extol the virtues of Ollie Norwood?

I'm shaking my head in disbelief.
 
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