My take ...

[Wards]

Strong whiff of a Berés sandwich around here

 

[lakedistblade]

Read OP again and it's a painfully hard hitting but somehow cathartic rant. Agree with all it and yr comments about Ramsdale being fucking rubbish made me laugh bitterly. 4 minutes into this season I was whatsapping Hendo would have saved that and Rammers hasn't convinced me yet. You are being a bit kind to Brewster who looks so far off it it's embarrassing. . We are not man united and can't spend that kind of money on someone for the future when our present needs are so glaring. Actually think wilder would agree with most of it but he's made his transfers bed and got to lie in it. At least the left side debacle has a new option with Fleck. Can't help looking forward to next weekend - your Sheffield black humour helps.

 

[jezw2014]

Strong whiff of a Berés sandwich around here

No piggy here pal! Seems a lotta blades have got rose tinted glasses on where Berge is concerned and how good he is!!

 

[jezw2014]

Strong whiff of a Berés sandwich around here

Strong whiff o bull shit anall about how good Berge is!!

 

[A Storm of Blades]

Strong whiff o bull shit anall about how good Berge is!!

Did he shag your bird or something? Seems like an odd thing to obsess about

 

[Charlieblade]

Question for Pompey. It must be hard to report so negatively, on a team that you support. Does it take a lot out of you mentally?
Can’t criticize your reporting too much, because most of it is pretty accurate.
It’s just that, when I watch blades play, I’m looking at/for positives. Maybe that makes me a clapper, or blady blade, whatever that is.
Anyway, thanks for the trouble and the depth of your reports

A few points if I may? For fairly obvious reasons, we don’t have the luxury of a full squad in terms of suitable replacements for key players. I suspect that both Bogle and Lowe from Derby were bought as longer term replacements for Baldock and Stevens. That’s pretty decent long term planning, giving both players the opportunity to learn and grow in stature before they are exposed to the big step up to the PL.
Various injuries to JOC and Fleck have made that impossible for obvious reasons. The reasoning behind Lundstrams selection also falls into the same category.

Berge has stirred mixed responses to his contribution. His rather languid, unhurried style can be deceptive. People sometimes forget how young he is, and the skill set he already developed at a higher level, (international and CL level). Must be quite tough for a young man thrown into the maelstrom of the EPL in difficult circumstances. Added to which, he is being told to play out of position due to the aforementioned lack of squad depth.

The current squad is not good enough for this league, and I do not envy some of the decisions that CWAk have to make. Through no fault of management, the team is currently subject to sticking plaster solutions for every game, and Wider is taking the brunt of stick for those decisions, and the inevitable results.

Right now, every fan wants changes to the system and the starting line up. I would like to see more of Burke, and better use of Ampadu. He like Berge is a young, classy player with tons of potential, but is probably gaining more experience than he can handle, due to his utility value.
There’s probably stuff going on that we are not privy to. That happens in every job/business and we, and Wider, are not immune to it.
Unlike Pompey, I find it hard to be so direct with criticism of the team, individual, and management, just because things aren’t going in the direction we would prefer.
Credit to you Pompey for your honest appraisal of the team performance. Not sure I could do that.
Can we reasonably aim a critique of Wilder right now? The answer is probably less, but to do so would hurt this blade too much.

 

[pommpey]

Question for Pompey. It must be hard to report so negatively, on a team that you support. Does it take a lot out of you mentally?

Not at all. I am however dismayed at our steady drop in output, when this time last year we were burning a surprising hole in the top flight. Mentally, I am okay. It doesn't take much to offer a dispassionate critique when there is so much to comment on

Can’t criticize your reporting too much, because most of it is pretty accurate.

Many thanks

It’s just that, when I watch blades play, I’m looking at/for positives. Maybe that makes me a clapper, or blady blade, whatever that is.

So am I. But the only upside of the game against Chelsea was the first ten or fifteen minutes. We lost possession soon after that and Chelsea basically just took control not just of the game, but of Sheffield United too.

Anyway, thanks for the trouble and the depth of your reports

No problem

For fairly obvious reasons, we don’t have the luxury of a full squad in terms of suitable replacements for key players. I suspect that both Bogle and Lowe from Derby were bought as longer term replacements for Baldock and Stevens. That’s pretty decent long term planning, giving both players the opportunity to learn and grow in stature before they are exposed to the big step up to the PL.
Various injuries to JOC and Fleck have made that impossible for obvious reasons. The reasoning behind Lundstrams selection also falls into the same category.

I agree about Bogle and Lowe, but once again, we are pitch and tossing decent cash on lower league hopefuls (like L Freeman and Robinson, for example) who either don't make the grade and hardly/never play, or end up loaned out or sold on again. What gives? With Fleck, since the start of this year his output and contribution been variable to declining and he is simply not the same player we had and could rely on. Again, this time last year he was looking more like the new Michael Brown. Recently he's been looking like Michael Twiss, such has his involvement in the engine room of United's midfield. It almost looks like his mind is no longer on the game. Just hope he comes back willing to change that, and this 'injury' isn't something more malevolent like Brooks's 'flu. Jack is a kingpin and petty much irreplaceable in our back three not just in defending, but in moving up that flank. We are now back in that situation six seasons ago when we were relying on a patched up backline with the likes of Collins, Brayford, McEveley, Uncle Tom Cobley and all being slotted into a backline and expect some sort of cohesion to drop out of the sky. As I have said, I can't envisage jack ever pulling on a United shit again if we are as good as relegated by the time he us (fully) fit and able to play again. He wants that England shirt and is disadvantaged first by wearing the Cutlasses of Denial, but also could be in the Championship if we don't sort our shit out.

Berge has stirred mixed responses to his contribution. His rather languid, unhurried style can be deceptive. People sometimes forget how young he is, and the skill set he already developed at a higher level, (international and CL level). Must be quite tough for a young man thrown into the maelstrom of the EPL in difficult circumstances. Added to which, he is being told to play out of position due to the aforementioned lack of squad depth.

Berge seems to be the tall poppy at the moment. To be honest, although he has ability, comparing like for like, he's nowhere near the top ten teams at the moment but stands out in our midfield because it is so poorly constructed and doesn't seem to have leadership and cohesion. The only thing is it good at is 'keeping it's shape' but that's not hard to do with three in a line. As far as getting stuck in, connecting effectively, passing and moving and finding the two front men they are fucking bereft of ideas and are quickly dispossessed or bypassed. Berge himself seems to be the only person able to keep the ball and brush of challenges and actually go past oppositions which is deceptively counter to his aforementioned laguid gate. I've drawn parallels with Tony Currie, who was similarly attired with an almost laid back approach, until suddenly he'd light the afterburner and not with any massive pace, but just by guile and his ability to wrongfoot opposition players, find space behind and literally terrify the fuck out of the defence. Currie was also very difficult to get the ball off. But Currie was surrounded by tough, effective tacklers (Hemsley, Badger, Colquhoun, Flynn, Hockey) agile, accurate wingers (Reece, Woodward) another fast, dangerous and intelligent midfielder (Salmons) and a centre forward who knew where the net was (Dearden) Just do an A/B comparison and drop Currie into our current squad and you'd find him in the same, frustrating position as Berge is today.

The current squad is not good enough for this league, and I do not envy some of the decisions that CWAk have to make. Through no fault of management, the team is currently subject to sticking plaster solutions for every game, and Wider is taking the brunt of stick for those decisions, and the inevitable results.

I agree with the first statement, however I do think CWAK are culpable. The output on the pitch is their doing. They are the management team and it's them who recruit, develop, train and select the squad, it's formation and it's strategy and tactics. If we are thin in areas due to injuries and the replacement strategy is unsuitable again, it is their problem, not the board, not the team, not the fans, not us in S24SU. My gripe is that whilst we have spunked fifty million on a pretty much ineffective front line, we lose one central defender and the whole team collapses. We've been here before - when we sold one Harry Maguire and were left with the backline mentioned above. Basham and Egan have proven to be at the required standard for PL, Robinson and Stevens in that position are definitely not and I'd rather have Ampadu slotting in the Norwood role which I say many times, needs a more cultured, suitable and intelligent player in there. I am smacking my forehead also every time I see Lundstram on the starting eleven selection. I can't think that Wilder has that much of a struggle to replace this underperforming refusenik, even if he changes the formation (which is desperately needed) to get him benched or dropped.

Right now, every fan wants changes to the system and the starting line up. I would like to see more of Burke, and better use of Ampadu. He like Berge is a young, classy player with tons of potential, but is probably gaining more experience than he can handle, due to his utility value.

The team is screaming out for more of Burke. Arsenal were shit scared of him. Wilder replaced him with McBurnie. A real WTF moment because Arsenal just put the kettle on after that.

There’s probably stuff going on that we are not privy to. That happens in every job/business and we, and Wider, are not immune to it.

I don't doubt. But anyone who thinks Wilder, of anyone in the club, reads this board - especially my words - and finds any influence from it is a bit sad and a bit naive. I'm certainly not that conceited, and I freely admit, my knowledge of Sheffield United, what happens backstage and everything about the squad and it's existence is but an atom compared with what CWAK know. I am insignificant. They are not. All I am offering is my opinion. And you know the adage about opinions and arseholes? That.

Unlike Pompey, I find it hard to be so direct with criticism of the team, individual, and management, just because things aren’t going in the direction we would prefer.

Why not? Do you not think we are playing pretty shit at the moment? Our league position suggests we are. Do you not think the team is largely underperforming and very much so in many areas? Again, our league position suggests we are. You're not religiously dutybound not to criticise, you know. You aren't blaspheming by stating the obvious when it comes to what is happening. You watch the same games I do, and unless you see something different - us dominating the game and running outright as winners and totally in control (Spurs and Chelsea at BDTBL last year) then what gives? What happens for you, for example, on your drive home after a match we have lost? Do you moan to your fellow passengers? What happens when we win? Let me put it this way: had the score last week been Chelsea 0 : 2 SUFC what do you think 'My take' would look like?

Credit to you Pompey for your honest appraisal of the team performance. Not sure I could do that.

You can. It doesn't make you any less of a Blade.

Can we reasonably aim a critique of Wilder right now? The answer is probably less, but to do so would hurt this blade too much.

If you mean Wilder by 'this Blade' then I think you underestimate him. If you mean yourself as 'this Blade' then maybe you need more time at the foot of the league to understand how dire the problems are.

pommpey

 

[Charlieblade]

I still can’t find it in myself to have a major dig at Wilder on the issues of losing JOC and Fleck, at such a crucial time.
Lack of funds for an O’Connell replacement, and the short time frame available to fill that gap, were not entirely his fault.
Maybe Wilder should stand up and be more proactive in tactics and team selection. Without insider knowledge, it’s difficult to judge.
When the fans were crying out for a striker, he paid big bucks for Brewster, in a part of the market we could buy in. No,pleasing some folk. Now JOC and Fleck are out, the left hand side is dire.
The only fix we can see is with hindsight or bigger sticking plasters.
The only reason to pick Lunny is to get him in the shop window, and drag a fee out of his asset value before it’s too late.
It’s hurting the side at the moment either way. What does Wilder know that we don’t?
I still think we can drag ourselves out of this, with a good run, and no more headaches on player availability, and some positive inputs from Wilder.
Thanks for giving me permission to have a go. I just think there are enough negatives flying about already.

 

[pommpey]

I still can’t find it in myself to have a major dig at Wilder on the issues of losing JOC and Fleck, at such a crucial time.

I don't think anyone is really having a go at Wilder per se. Let's face it, we've had poorer managers and a board in the recent past to have a right fucking go at all of them at some stage be it for putting in shit performances or selling key players. Wilder however is facing a crisis and needs to institute change to make it right, because clearly things are just not working properly right now.

Lack of funds for an O’Connell replacement, and the short time frame available to fill that gap, were not entirely his fault.

Agreed, but Jack was out injured as we were bidding for Brewster. We are one brick thick in PL quality players across that defence. We've had Bryan on our books for what ... thee seasons now and he's played nil games. Why is he still here, eating up cash? See also, Phil Jagielka? What the fuck are we doing with regard placing four playable central defenders who are at PL standard into our matchday squad? Basham, Egan and JOC are exactly that. The rest?

Maybe Wilder should stand up and be more proactive in tactics and team selection. Without insider knowledge, it’s difficult to judge.

Agreed

When the fans were crying out for a striker, he paid big bucks for Brewster, in a part of the market we could buy in. No,pleasing some folk. Now JOC and Fleck are out, the left hand side is dire.

We've spunked thirty million on Mousett and McBurnie, for the sum total of twelve goals and a fuckload of misses. Twenty three million on Brewster. To be honest, we could have not signed them and signed a fifty million thity goal La Liga striker and we'd still be fucking nowhere, given the shitness of service from both out wide and also in the attacking third.

The only fix we can see is with hindsight or bigger sticking plasters.

Brewster is on hellluva sticking plaster

The only reason to pick Lunny is to get him in the shop window, and drag a fee out of his asset value before it’s too late.

Well, if that is the case, then Wider does need some stick. We're not here to sell Lundstram. We're here to get off the foot of the table and remain in the big boys league. Lundstram isn't shop windowing himself at all anyway. He'll be lucky to attract offers given his woeful recent performances.

It’s hurting the side at the moment either way. What does Wilder know that we don’t?

A lot more than you or I. I just hope he's got a solution.

I still think we can drag ourselves out of this, with a good run, and no more headaches on player availability, and some positive inputs from Wilder.

Hope you're right.


pommpey

 

[jezw2014]

Did he shag your bird or something? Seems like an odd thing to obsess about

Watch Berge closely today pal! You can’t miss him, he’s the one who saunters about, only passes back and no work rate!!

 

[Balham]

Watch Berge closely today pal! You can’t miss him, he’s the one who saunters about, only passes back and no work rate!!

I'll agree with you that Berge won't do much today.

 

[borg elite]

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!!

Yep. Watched him closely and so have most others, which is why he's the highest rated player on here in the fan ratings section.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

Watch Berge closely today pal! You can’t miss him, he’s the one who saunters about, only passes back and no work rate!!

Today? Hmmm

 

[Norville Rogers]

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

I finally signed up for an account after years (mainly to dodge the ads to be fair) and then you posted this and beat me to it. Great post.
I can't understand why we are playing a flat four against teams in the bottom half who we have previously beaten in the championship playing the old style. The reason that Baldock keeps getting stuck down the right (our left are non existent at the moment) is that teams are pushing out a centre back and stopping the overload. Ancellotti was the first to realise this (quelle surprise!) and everyone has copied him since. This leaves a tasty hole in the middle that a 'number ten' could exploit. Someone who isn't easily pushed off the ball, can beat a player, play a cute pass or shoot. I'm looking at you Sander.

 

[jezw2014]

Today? Hmmm

Well yer usually a day late replying anyway pal might have got my days mixed up but my assessment of Berges capacities were spot on kidda!! Another RIVETTING performance!Not!!

 

[jezw2014]

Yep. Watched him closely and so have most others, which is why he's the highest rated player on here in the fan ratings section.

Stevie Wonder kidda!!

 

[jezw2014]

Yep. Watched him closely and so have most others, which is why he's the highest rated player on here in the fan ratings section.

Today? Hmmm

Might as well have been that’s how effective he was

 

[borg elite]

Stevie Wonder kidda!!

No, just you in the dark specs. Fortunately most can see his qualities, hence the match day votes on here putting him top of the player ratings.