My take ...

[BlairBlade]

Basham was not great today.
Fleck did seem to show slightly more of a passing interest in today's game, but only just.
Norwood was about a lot, particularly in the first half but some of his distribution was dreadful.

 

[Houston_Blade]

I think people are being harsh on fleck and Norwood, objectively Basham was a lot worse than both today but he's the blue eyed boy

Bash at least runs around a lot and created one of the only chances we had in the game by getting into their box.

Norwood was shit, his passes in midfield to their players were nothing short of pub league. He setup at least 2 of their attacks with a shit pass.

Fleck was completely ineffective and trotted about with zero end product. His first touch is terrible.

 

[Nagima]

Basham wasn't good enough as a midfielder in League 1. RCD is his spot. But at the moment it looks like panic stations with injuries Covid and trying to find a line up that works. It's car crash stuff. Midfield is Fucked and no matter who we play there the don't seem up to the task

 

[puppet]

Can't disagree with much of this stuff.
I've loved 3-5-2 since Spackman showed us football we'd not seen since the Woodward and Currie days and Wilder/Knill's take on it with the total football overlapping was truly a joy to watch. Anybody recruited from last Summer onwards should've been bought to play that system as effectively as the immense five did so effortlessly up to the first lockdown. Fleck and Norwood looked like different players and my own personally disliked player, Lundstrum, went from a 'why the fuck did we buy this dodo' occasional sub to some kind of David Batty figure. Didzy pulled up more trees than SCC and warranted his place despite failing to score until the arse end of the season, and whilst McBurnie and Mousset never looked like SUFCs answer to Shearer and Sutton, they chipped in with a handful of goals each. Goals came from all over the pitch, admittedly in small numbers for a side challenging for European places but a confident, exhuberant 11 could pull out strongly contested 1-0 wins and put on never say die performances against some of the PL giants.
Today, I was just getting in the car out in Birchover at about 2.40, saw the team in our family whatsapp group and my heart sank. Fortunately, the teamsheet was slightly skewed from Google but the 11 was just phenomenally soul crushing. Same system, baffling 11. Bogle instead of Baldock for one. Bogle impressed in the League Cup against Burnley before he became the Blades version of Lord Lucan, chipped in with a goal on his PL debut then dropped only to come in at RWB today. At least twice, he failed to link up with the defence splitting trickery we occasionally perform in the opponents box. Not his fault and he was one of the better players today, admittedly not difficult but he should have been on the inside of midfield to link up with Baldock, not replacing him. With a threadbare squad, the middle five should have been Stevens/Osborn/Norwood/Bogle/Baldock if we were going to try and keep the system going. Ampadu, if we really had to play him, should've been given the poisoned chalice of LCB if everyone else was potentially unfit/ill. Egan and Basham largely because Basham was moved about so was either not there to support Egan or couldn't settle when he was. Didzy again, deserves his place, especially as top scorer but also because he tries to make up for the ones who are off form or just shit (Norwood/Ampadu) in midfield, so he's backwards and forwards all game. Not one of the expensive strikers we've signed in the last 18 months look like touching the ball, let alone scoring. Rare balls in to the box are mopped up or pinged away by defenders as no one reacts to them. Every one of those signings - and I think we've seen plenty of all of them look like a horrendous waste of money. A striker with any kind of sense of themselves, however young they are, would be desperate to find the net but they all look clueless. They don't even seem to be trying to have an eye on next season and proving themselves as premier league goalscorers worthy of signing when we go down. No effort whatsoever. That young Hackford had more attempts on goal than Brewster and Mousset, should make them feel ashamed tonight. Ultimately though, the blame lies squarely with Wilder. If we had to play the same system today, what the hell was he thinking picking that team? Much as I love what he's done for us, Wilder seems lost this season. If I thought he could turn it around next season, I'd back him to stay but I think we've reached the end of the line with this squad and system. We're probably five games too late to sack him and another manager turn it around for this season. I'm totally bereft of solutions, fed up of lockdowns and totally gutted by our season. Anyone have the answer?

 

[Booker4]

It's getting comfortably predictable now that we'll field eleven against oppositions and give them three easy points for fuck all. Today was no different. As much as opposition managers and studio pundits can be charitable and kind saying 'we should never take this game for granted', if you don't take it for granted, you're fucking stupid. I don't really care what people say now - we are easily beatable. We don't play with any challenge as such. The last time we could say we 'dominated' any part of a game (let alone a whole game) was versus West Brom. All other games have been pushovers, with at least seven out of eleven of our side showing Division One capability. We fail to defend at PL standard, our midfield is an incompetent mess and our attack might as well not be there. And now, it's time to admit it is mostly Chris Wilder's fault. He has the call on who to play, what system and what our tactics are ... regardless of who is out there. I tire now of lambasting him from this dark, quiet corner of the internet for fielding 5-3-2, because in a nutshell if you do what you have always done, you'll get what you always got. And we got beat, again. Quite what the fuck he is doing putting the likes of Oliver Norwood, Enda Stevens, John Fleck and Ethan Ampadu in any starting lineup is beyond me but if he does and if he has, I don't think it's a fucking clever idea to have them play in a formation where we have serially been served our fucking arses - fifteen times this season and three at the end of last. We have been iffy since the lifting of lockdown and frankly shit since the beginning of this season. And yet he still populates the team with flagging players, in a system which is so fucking easy to shit all over. Palace today did what every team has done so far this season and simply corralled our advances into a manageable, predictable package high in their half, deny us any outlets, dispossess us and fuck off back up the pitch because they knew, and everyone knows, getting the ball back off them or asking our midfield to do the spadework is an impossible endeavour. Watching Eze skip round Norwood, slowly accelerate away from him, sell Ampadu into the basement and plant a fucking peach into the bottom corner says everything about our side. Firstly, why haven't we got a player like him (ha, where to start?) secondly, how fucking easy did his run up the centre of the pitch and execution look, and finally, why the ... okay ... I'll not use biblical references, because some are sensitive ... fucking fuckbastarding fuck can't we do that? Who, actually is our ball carrier? Who is our Michael Brown? Who is our Eze?

The first goal was as predictable as it was actually avoidable, if rendered unfortunate that the skim off the sole of Egan's boot away from Ramsdale. But the second one was pure fucking uselessness and indicative of many we've all seen at BDTBL over the years which comes out of either nowhere or that gnawing feeling that results in you leaning over to your mate and saying, 'bet they fuckin' score nar!' Ball breaks, our supporters fear the worst and suddenly their players are wheeling away celebrating whilst the Bramall Lane lower is bouncing and everyone is either thinking 'we deserved that' or 'remind me why I support these cunts, once again'. Eze must have started on his journey thinking 'oh, this is easy' and suddenly found himself on the edge of the box with the far corner opening up like Katie Price's vast fanny and that in-form shotstopper Aran Ramsdale covering all angles. To be honest, as soon as he knew he had Norwood running with him (see Haller's goal for WHU against us at BDTBL, and Norwood escorting Siggurdsson into our box v Everton for comparison) I knew he'd score.

We did have a short spell of looking like we'd string some passes together, and even a shot on target, but the ball never reaches the feet of either McGoldrick or Mousset. Didsy had to go and do the heavy lifting our midfield couldn't and Mousset was just someone their back four could beat to a hopeful punt or beat for pace or dispossess. It was a desperate, pathetic performance across the park to be honest and if anything, worse than the abject whupping by Southampton.

Not exactly sure what formation we went from, to and back again. Thought at one point we were at 4-3-1-2, then it was 3-4-3, then 5-3-2.

But anyway - for 3-5-2 (for what it's fucking worth):

Ramsdale 4/10: Some catches you'd expect him to make, one dropped catch and flat footed for the Eze goal. When Egan is presenting Exe with the outside face, that is where Egan's tackle would come from. It's therefore good to think that if Eze is not taking Egan on and shaping to shoot, he'll us his instep to far corner it. Ramsdale didn't even get a hand to it. It was just like Walker's long range effort v Citeh.
Stevens 2/10: It's distressing how shit Enda Stevens has become. Today I think he was LCB at times but found himself up on the wing a lot, and other times sent some gobsmackingly crap passes straight to blue and red shirts
Egan 6.5/10: Did his best with a difficult front line coming at him from all sides and put in some crucial blocks and tackles
Ampadu 1/10: He doesn't want to play for us. End his nightmare and cut your losses Wilder. Send the fucker back. Piss weak, useless and effectively working his ticket.
Osborn 4/10: Puts in a shift, but basically can't compete. I am struggling why we wasted cash on him and not Joe Lolly, to be honest.
Fleck 2/10: His usual inept, underconfident, not-sure-what-to-fucking-do outing smattered with errors, misplaced passes, flagging the pace and yellow-could-be-red fouls
Norwood 2/10: Somewhere in the first half, he started with a few 'pings' which found Bogle over on the far flank but as much as they look ace for Norwood, because people know EXACTLY how this ends, they just box the recipient in and it goes back or ends up in a frantic 'hot-potato-ball' game where it either goes out of play or is given up. Then there's the easiness he is bypassed and can't tackle or defend and continues to boot the ball to the far wing, 'because he can' and it just gets mopped up. He did take two decent corners this time and avoided the near post, but they were five metres short of where our tall players were and still found an opposition head.
Basham (watch this!) 4/10: His poorest performance in a Blades shirt for ages, and ages. I just hope all this failure by the team isn't getting to him
McGoldrick 6/10: He tries. He really does.
Mousset. 1/10: Partially not his fault, but in the second half it was thirteen minutes until he touched the ball, and even then, he gave possession away. He really is crap, and Bournemough have had eleven million pounds off us for a player who still ... 18 months on ... hasn't completed 90 minutes for us.

Brewster 3/10: Poor kid
Hackford 2/10: Poor kid

Wilder 1/10: Not sure if Wilder is giving a message out, but defeat after defeat is hardly subliminal. His interviews are arse-covering, incoherent rambles which sound like masked excuses for the collapse in capability and the heartache and embarrassment his players cause him under his lineups and tactics. He has to get a grip on this because the effect on all the playing staff's self belief of all this disaster might not just limit itself to this season - none of them want Championship football next season but regardless of any clauses in contracts, given the dismally shit showing every week, I don't think there will be many PL managers - even those in teams going up - who are going to want to employ this shower of fuck ups and failure we have in red, white, pink and green at the moment. The way it stands, the only corn they'll earn next season will be away from the world stage and the cameras next August and that is gonna put a real dent in anyone's ambitions, especially if HRH has a rush of shit to the brain and pays underperformers like Norwood, Fleck and Stevens off and we look elsewhere. They won't ever play above D1 then and that won't half hurt. Wilder himself is showing stupid stubbornness and intransigence playing the same lineup every week. It is baffling and annoying in equal parts, especially as he has what we thought was the master tactician and technical guru Alan Knill beside him. On 80 minutes today Wilder looked up at the stadium clock and seemed to curse the amount of time left. Frankly, Playstation Manager as I am I'd have gone shit or bust and thrown the fucking kitchen sink at Palace, even if to get one goal and unsettle them like we did Arsenal. But the last minute we are passing it from Basham to Egan and to Norwood, who again is looking for the long ball to the flanks. What the fuck are you telling them, Wilder?

Bristol Rovers will be smelling blood, believe me. If we get beat by the gasheads, Wilder does need to pack his fucking bags. As much as I like him, we have shipps a lot of humiliation this season. Exiting the FA Cup in the third round to a lower league club will mean the writing is on the wall.

pommpey

It's hard to argue with most of that. But this season is like having a car that's served you really well and you've spent money to get the car up to standard and it's running really well. But then the breaks fail and the car crashes into a wall and the car's a right off. You've spent all your money on the car and you've only got enough money left to buy a new wing mirror. What do yo do? Friends say why did you spend all that money doing the car up and the improvements you made weren't that good anyway, but it was running fine before and now the car's let you down and you're screwed.

That's where we are in my view, and by saying that Wilder's 3-5-2 is part of the problem, and if it's not working then change it, I don't believe he has any options that will change things around quite honestly. He's swapped the players around, we've gone more direct at times, then played more football at times, whatever we do it's not good enough.

Essentially we don't have an Eze or a Zaha or Townsend. Eze probably the most realistic from that list. Don't know what he's on, I've said this before and maybe people don't agree but I very much doubt that Eze would join us over Palace, or Benrahma etc with wages and location both an issue. So we are what we are and it certainly worked well last season. I don't believe we can change it by anything in house, we need a new midfield essentially! Looking back on last season we did win so many games 1 - 0, we were able to get our noses in front, ride with the momentum and it was all new and exciting.

It's crap right now - obviously - we all feel this pain, I've never experienced a season quite like this, even 1990-91 seemed better, but that's probably because it all worked out well in the end. I still think sacking Wilder would be suicide, I think we're down whatever. He proved how good he is previously, we need time to re-build and develop the likes of Bogle and Brewster and add a sprinkling of talent that we don't currently have and go from there. I see no reason why we can't bounce straight back up.

 

[varkanoid]

I thought first goal was Norwood's fault as on the edge of the box he toe pokes it towards the Palace player in a poor attempt at defending. If he had not done that it would not have gone to the Palace player ?

 

[cc1]

Whilst I have a small amount of sympathy for Ampadu given the confidence and lack of cohesion around the pitch, he is so lightweight it's untrue. He reminds me of being picked for the 3rd team when I was 12 - I was chuffed to bits at being selected over the other kids, but in reality I wasn't big enough, strong enough or experienced enough to make any significant contribution.

 

[metalblade]

Hey pommpey lad thas going soft on em I was expecting a much more colourful description of events.

I did say when the line up flashed up on my phone at 2.00pm that it looked a very weak team. I must admit my heart sank a bit looking at Ampadu, Norwood & Fleck as our midfield 3. I'm not sure how Basham ended up in midfield and Ampadu in the back three I suspect they aren't sure either still it only took 3mins for the ball to break loose from a tackle straight to Norwood who played in the attacker perfectly to score shame it was a Palace attacker. Three minutes in and you know the game is over as a contest.
You think the first goal was poor then watch the highlights for the second Eze picks the ball up skips past Norwood and easily runs forward as Norwood jogs behind pointing for someone to get a tackle in, Ampadu decides to dangle a foot out as an apology for being caught flat footed leaving Eze with time to look up pick his spot and curl it around Egan and Ramsdale into the bottom corner. It reminded me of Mousset's goal against Man U when Maguire followed the run of Didzy before realising he should have followed Mousset (we don't do this any more). As Pomps says it opened up like Katie Price's naughty bits, if it had been a gang bang Norwood and Ampadu would be the two spare pricks tugging themselves off while watching the action.

I could go on but I have about as much enthusiasm as that wanker from Chelsea the sooner he fucks off back to London the better.
Ramsdale 6
Bogle 6 he did get in both boxes and managed our only shot 1st half
Basham 4 not a good day for him
Egan 6 did actually make a few tackles but had to cover for the two incumbents alongside him.
Stevens 3 he isn't a CB and not much better in his normal spot at the moment.
Ampadu 1 I said last week he will end up at QPR well that might be too much for him. Slow, weak, can't tackle, can't pass he is fucking hopeless send him back.
Norwood 1 Plays like a 35+ year old a couple of decent pings and corners but another one who can't tackle and keep up with play astounding how Eze left him for dead for the 2nd goal.
Fleck 2 At least we know what we will get with him a defender passes the ball to him and he passes it straight back where it comes from. Doesn't get forward any more shirks any form of responsibility for making anything happen does he want to be at the club or what? Living up to the wank descriptions from Coventry fans when he left them for us.
Osborn 3 Runs about a lot but sadly not good enough all he offers is effort
Didzy 6 tried but on his own up top really.
Mousset 1 the least number of touches of any player 1st half and no better in the 2nd before being hooked another one who you wonder if his heart is in it never fit always injured, a shame really if he put the effort in he would be a player.
I'm not marking Brewster or Hackford they are kids against men i will say though the academy kid did just as good as the £23m kid if not better.
Wilder 1

 

[Half Bond Jls]

Spot on summing up again. I like to read these even with how bad we are the truth hurts. I've defended them in the past but im past it now. Hackford could have had a bit higher score though but the rest band on. Fucking can't believe how clueless we've become.

 

[Drunk blade]

I thought first goal was Norwood's fault as on the edge of the box he toe pokes it towards the Palace player in a poor attempt at defending. If he had not done that it would not have gone to the Palace player ?

If Bogle tracks his runner they don't score

 

[dazzlingblade]

Why can't you just have one "my take" thread, and post them all in there, just wondering

 

[pommpey]

Why can't you just have one "my take" thread, and post them all in there, just wondering

What difference would it make?

My other 'takes' are way, way down the board now.

pommpey

 

[gordoncharles]

I thank pommpey for the report as I couldn't be bothered to watch today and I'm glad I didn't.

Even Wilder must have heard about Einstein's definition of insanity, which Einsten never said, but it's true nevertheless. But he continues with this formation despite having the worst midfield in Europe. The midfield that we turn out is to a large degree responsible as well for the abysmal performance of our defence and attack as they offer no protection to the former and provide few opportunities to the latter.

As Einstein also didn't say, this isn't fecking rocket science.

 

[Lane Ender]

It's getting comfortably predictable now that we'll field eleven against oppositions and give them three easy points for fuck all. Today was no different. As much as opposition managers and studio pundits can be charitable and kind saying 'we should never take this game for granted', if you don't take it for granted, you're fucking stupid. I don't really care what people say now - we are easily beatable. We don't play with any challenge as such. The last time we could say we 'dominated' any part of a game (let alone a whole game) was versus West Brom. All other games have been pushovers, with at least seven out of eleven of our side showing Division One capability. We fail to defend at PL standard, our midfield is an incompetent mess and our attack might as well not be there. And now, it's time to admit it is mostly Chris Wilder's fault. He has the call on who to play, what system and what our tactics are ... regardless of who is out there. I tire now of lambasting him from this dark, quiet corner of the internet for fielding 5-3-2, because in a nutshell if you do what you have always done, you'll get what you always got. And we got beat, again. Quite what the fuck he is doing putting the likes of Oliver Norwood, Enda Stevens, John Fleck and Ethan Ampadu in any starting lineup is beyond me but if he does and if he has, I don't think it's a fucking clever idea to have them play in a formation where we have serially been served our fucking arses - fifteen times this season and three at the end of last. We have been iffy since the lifting of lockdown and frankly shit since the beginning of this season. And yet he still populates the team with flagging players, in a system which is so fucking easy to shit all over. Palace today did what every team has done so far this season and simply corralled our advances into a manageable, predictable package high in their half, deny us any outlets, dispossess us and fuck off back up the pitch because they knew, and everyone knows, getting the ball back off them or asking our midfield to do the spadework is an impossible endeavour. Watching Eze skip round Norwood, slowly accelerate away from him, sell Ampadu into the basement and plant a fucking peach into the bottom corner says everything about our side. Firstly, why haven't we got a player like him (ha, where to start?) secondly, how fucking easy did his run up the centre of the pitch and execution look, and finally, why the ... okay ... I'll not use biblical references, because some are sensitive ... fucking fuckbastarding fuck can't we do that? Who, actually is our ball carrier? Who is our Michael Brown? Who is our Eze?

The first goal was as predictable as it was actually avoidable, if rendered unfortunate that the skim off the sole of Egan's boot away from Ramsdale. But the second one was pure fucking uselessness and indicative of many we've all seen at BDTBL over the years which comes out of either nowhere or that gnawing feeling that results in you leaning over to your mate and saying, 'bet they fuckin' score nar!' Ball breaks, our supporters fear the worst and suddenly their players are wheeling away celebrating whilst the Bramall Lane lower is bouncing and everyone is either thinking 'we deserved that' or 'remind me why I support these cunts, once again'. Eze must have started on his journey thinking 'oh, this is easy' and suddenly found himself on the edge of the box with the far corner opening up like Katie Price's vast fanny and that in-form shotstopper Aran Ramsdale covering all angles. To be honest, as soon as he knew he had Norwood running with him (see Haller's goal for WHU against us at BDTBL, and Norwood escorting Siggurdsson into our box v Everton for comparison) I knew he'd score.

We did have a short spell of looking like we'd string some passes together, and even a shot on target, but the ball never reaches the feet of either McGoldrick or Mousset. Didsy had to go and do the heavy lifting our midfield couldn't and Mousset was just someone their back four could beat to a hopeful punt or beat for pace or dispossess. It was a desperate, pathetic performance across the park to be honest and if anything, worse than the abject whupping by Southampton.

Not exactly sure what formation we went from, to and back again. Thought at one point we were at 4-3-1-2, then it was 3-4-3, then 5-3-2.

But anyway - for 3-5-2 (for what it's fucking worth):

Ramsdale 4/10: Some catches you'd expect him to make, one dropped catch and flat footed for the Eze goal. When Egan is presenting Exe with the outside face, that is where Egan's tackle would come from. It's therefore good to think that if Eze is not taking Egan on and shaping to shoot, he'll us his instep to far corner it. Ramsdale didn't even get a hand to it. It was just like Walker's long range effort v Citeh.
Stevens 2/10: It's distressing how shit Enda Stevens has become. Today I think he was LCB at times but found himself up on the wing a lot, and other times sent some gobsmackingly crap passes straight to blue and red shirts
Egan 6.5/10: Did his best with a difficult front line coming at him from all sides and put in some crucial blocks and tackles
Ampadu 1/10: He doesn't want to play for us. End his nightmare and cut your losses Wilder. Send the fucker back. Piss weak, useless and effectively working his ticket.
Osborn 4/10: Puts in a shift, but basically can't compete. I am struggling why we wasted cash on him and not Joe Lolly, to be honest.
Fleck 2/10: His usual inept, underconfident, not-sure-what-to-fucking-do outing smattered with errors, misplaced passes, flagging the pace and yellow-could-be-red fouls
Norwood 2/10: Somewhere in the first half, he started with a few 'pings' which found Bogle over on the far flank but as much as they look ace for Norwood, because people know EXACTLY how this ends, they just box the recipient in and it goes back or ends up in a frantic 'hot-potato-ball' game where it either goes out of play or is given up. Then there's the easiness he is bypassed and can't tackle or defend and continues to boot the ball to the far wing, 'because he can' and it just gets mopped up. He did take two decent corners this time and avoided the near post, but they were five metres short of where our tall players were and still found an opposition head.
Basham (watch this!) 4/10: His poorest performance in a Blades shirt for ages, and ages. I just hope all this failure by the team isn't getting to him
McGoldrick 6/10: He tries. He really does.
Mousset. 1/10: Partially not his fault, but in the second half it was thirteen minutes until he touched the ball, and even then, he gave possession away. He really is crap, and Bournemough have had eleven million pounds off us for a player who still ... 18 months on ... hasn't completed 90 minutes for us.

Brewster 3/10: Poor kid
Hackford 2/10: Poor kid

Wilder 1/10: Not sure if Wilder is giving a message out, but defeat after defeat is hardly subliminal. His interviews are arse-covering, incoherent rambles which sound like masked excuses for the collapse in capability and the heartache and embarrassment his players cause him under his lineups and tactics. He has to get a grip on this because the effect on all the playing staff's self belief of all this disaster might not just limit itself to this season - none of them want Championship football next season but regardless of any clauses in contracts, given the dismally shit showing every week, I don't think there will be many PL managers - even those in teams going up - who are going to want to employ this shower of fuck ups and failure we have in red, white, pink and green at the moment. The way it stands, the only corn they'll earn next season will be away from the world stage and the cameras next August and that is gonna put a real dent in anyone's ambitions, especially if HRH has a rush of shit to the brain and pays underperformers like Norwood, Fleck and Stevens off and we look elsewhere. They won't ever play above D1 then and that won't half hurt. Wilder himself is showing stupid stubbornness and intransigence playing the same lineup every week. It is baffling and annoying in equal parts, especially as he has what we thought was the master tactician and technical guru Alan Knill beside him. On 80 minutes today Wilder looked up at the stadium clock and seemed to curse the amount of time left. Frankly, Playstation Manager as I am I'd have gone shit or bust and thrown the fucking kitchen sink at Palace, even if to get one goal and unsettle them like we did Arsenal. But the last minute we are passing it from Basham to Egan and to Norwood, who again is looking for the long ball to the flanks. What the fuck are you telling them, Wilder?

Bristol Rovers will be smelling blood, believe me. If we get beat by the gasheads, Wilder does need to pack his fucking bags. As much as I like him, we have shipps a lot of humiliation this season. Exiting the FA Cup in the third round to a lower league club will mean the writing is on the wall.

pommpey

Say it as it is pal cause you are spot on

 

[dublin 10 blade]

I’m going to pick up for Ramsdale and Bogle
Ramsdale isn’t the greatest keeper in the premier league he may not even be the best keeper at our club but I won’t fault him for either goal today , a deflection for the first and a non tackle from Ampadu left to much for him to do for the 2nd
At least Bogle tested their keeper first half put in a tackle to get booked and if he’d done a grealish or Zaha could have got the latter sent off
Glad you correctly marked Basham who fucked at least 2 chances in there box by chesting ? One and lettering another run out
Must say it took me back to some of his div3 displays he was fucking gash today and follows on from his poor header v Everton which lead to there goal
Stevens -Norwood -Fleck unfortunately need to be let go with our thanks for there service over the years
Ampadu who I thought would be a terrific signing has turned into a quivering jelly with equal strength
I feel for Brewster -Diddzie - Burke - and the young un he put on
deprived of any service anything to play onto , anything resembling service must be so frustrating I know it is for me watching
I think Baldock-Egan- JOC-and Sander will be gone over the summer maybe there’s a bid in for Baldock already and that’s why he didn’t play today ?
today was a hard watch but seeing Norwoods pings from Dublin going from 1 side to the other I’m sure it was even easier to see from Sarf London to cut out every pass
I’m shocked at the lack of any sign of fight or just get into em and give em a game but maybe the relegation is already in the players heads
I can’t see the point of getting rid of wilder , were going down so
Might as well give him and his backroom team a crack of the whip next season and if by Christmas it’s not going as I think it will then it’s thanks for the memories good luck in the future because you can’t have sentimental in football
the time to let Sir Chris go was before / after wba
as always UTB

 

[Crafty Blade]

An entertaining read, on an albeit depressing subject. All points are fair and when I can't really disagree.

One 'positive' in terms of Brewster and the future is that if Mousset is also getting isolated and has no service/touches, its not just Brewster. The problem is deeper, which is in itself more concerning, but im still confident that Brewster can develop into a top player with service.

 

[Wincobank S9 Blade]

Agree with a lot of that big praise to didzy as well I think he tries to make something happen and is positive in his play

 

[1889]

What frustrates me is the total transformation in our style of play and apparent inability to change it?

Second half, we were losing 2-0 and we’re passing it about amongst the back four and midfield for about five minutes, until McGoldrick dropped deep and passed it back to Ramsdale who hoofed then it up field. I’m not advocating that style of play, but we could have done that five minutes earlier? Inexplicably, we’re losing but play like we’re 2-0 up and running the clock down?

Most Premier League teams all set up in a rigid shape, but whereas last season we had players bombing forward and pulling players out of their positions, making them uncomfortable, whilst creating space for us to exploit. This season we’re just passing it about, slowly, safely, eventually getting forward to be thwarted by a defence that has been in position and waiting to repel our attack for the previous five minutes.

We need to be more dynamic, play with pace and take risks. Nobody runs with the ball, or beats a player or two. PL players don't like to be pulled out of their designated shape, our style of play and overlapping centre backs, hasn’t been rumbled, we’ve just stopped using it, in favour of the same predictable style adopted by 90% of the PL. Wilder regularly says we cant go toe to toe with teams with top players and huge resources etc etc, but to me, that’s exactly what he’s Doing by abandoning our high tempo, unpredictable, never say die, style of play thats served us so well for the last four seasons?

 

[Bladesince59]

It's getting comfortably predictable now that we'll field eleven against oppositions and give them three easy points for fuck all. Today was no different. As much as opposition managers and studio pundits can be charitable and kind saying 'we should never take this game for granted', if you don't take it for granted, you're fucking stupid. I don't really care what people say now - we are easily beatable. We don't play with any challenge as such. The last time we could say we 'dominated' any part of a game (let alone a whole game) was versus West Brom. All other games have been pushovers, with at least seven out of eleven of our side showing Division One capability. We fail to defend at PL standard, our midfield is an incompetent mess and our attack might as well not be there. And now, it's time to admit it is mostly Chris Wilder's fault. He has the call on who to play, what system and what our tactics are ... regardless of who is out there. I tire now of lambasting him from this dark, quiet corner of the internet for fielding 5-3-2, because in a nutshell if you do what you have always done, you'll get what you always got. And we got beat, again. Quite what the fuck he is doing putting the likes of Oliver Norwood, Enda Stevens, John Fleck and Ethan Ampadu in any starting lineup is beyond me but if he does and if he has, I don't think it's a fucking clever idea to have them play in a formation where we have serially been served our fucking arses - fifteen times this season and three at the end of last. We have been iffy since the lifting of lockdown and frankly shit since the beginning of this season. And yet he still populates the team with flagging players, in a system which is so fucking easy to shit all over. Palace today did what every team has done so far this season and simply corralled our advances into a manageable, predictable package high in their half, deny us any outlets, dispossess us and fuck off back up the pitch because they knew, and everyone knows, getting the ball back off them or asking our midfield to do the spadework is an impossible endeavour. Watching Eze skip round Norwood, slowly accelerate away from him, sell Ampadu into the basement and plant a fucking peach into the bottom corner says everything about our side. Firstly, why haven't we got a player like him (ha, where to start?) secondly, how fucking easy did his run up the centre of the pitch and execution look, and finally, why the ... okay ... I'll not use biblical references, because some are sensitive ... fucking fuckbastarding fuck can't we do that? Who, actually is our ball carrier? Who is our Michael Brown? Who is our Eze?

The first goal was as predictable as it was actually avoidable, if rendered unfortunate that the skim off the sole of Egan's boot away from Ramsdale. But the second one was pure fucking uselessness and indicative of many we've all seen at BDTBL over the years which comes out of either nowhere or that gnawing feeling that results in you leaning over to your mate and saying, 'bet they fuckin' score nar!' Ball breaks, our supporters fear the worst and suddenly their players are wheeling away celebrating whilst the Bramall Lane lower is bouncing and everyone is either thinking 'we deserved that' or 'remind me why I support these cunts, once again'. Eze must have started on his journey thinking 'oh, this is easy' and suddenly found himself on the edge of the box with the far corner opening up like Katie Price's vast fanny and that in-form shotstopper Aran Ramsdale covering all angles. To be honest, as soon as he knew he had Norwood running with him (see Haller's goal for WHU against us at BDTBL, and Norwood escorting Siggurdsson into our box v Everton for comparison) I knew he'd score.

We did have a short spell of looking like we'd string some passes together, and even a shot on target, but the ball never reaches the feet of either McGoldrick or Mousset. Didsy had to go and do the heavy lifting our midfield couldn't and Mousset was just someone their back four could beat to a hopeful punt or beat for pace or dispossess. It was a desperate, pathetic performance across the park to be honest and if anything, worse than the abject whupping by Southampton.

Not exactly sure what formation we went from, to and back again. Thought at one point we were at 4-3-1-2, then it was 3-4-3, then 5-3-2.

But anyway - for 3-5-2 (for what it's fucking worth):

Ramsdale 4/10: Some catches you'd expect him to make, one dropped catch and flat footed for the Eze goal. When Egan is presenting Exe with the outside face, that is where Egan's tackle would come from. It's therefore good to think that if Eze is not taking Egan on and shaping to shoot, he'll us his instep to far corner it. Ramsdale didn't even get a hand to it. It was just like Walker's long range effort v Citeh.
Stevens 2/10: It's distressing how shit Enda Stevens has become. Today I think he was LCB at times but found himself up on the wing a lot, and other times sent some gobsmackingly crap passes straight to blue and red shirts
Egan 6.5/10: Did his best with a difficult front line coming at him from all sides and put in some crucial blocks and tackles
Ampadu 1/10: He doesn't want to play for us. End his nightmare and cut your losses Wilder. Send the fucker back. Piss weak, useless and effectively working his ticket.
Osborn 4/10: Puts in a shift, but basically can't compete. I am struggling why we wasted cash on him and not Joe Lolly, to be honest.
Fleck 2/10: His usual inept, underconfident, not-sure-what-to-fucking-do outing smattered with errors, misplaced passes, flagging the pace and yellow-could-be-red fouls
Norwood 2/10: Somewhere in the first half, he started with a few 'pings' which found Bogle over on the far flank but as much as they look ace for Norwood, because people know EXACTLY how this ends, they just box the recipient in and it goes back or ends up in a frantic 'hot-potato-ball' game where it either goes out of play or is given up. Then there's the easiness he is bypassed and can't tackle or defend and continues to boot the ball to the far wing, 'because he can' and it just gets mopped up. He did take two decent corners this time and avoided the near post, but they were five metres short of where our tall players were and still found an opposition head.
Basham (watch this!) 4/10: His poorest performance in a Blades shirt for ages, and ages. I just hope all this failure by the team isn't getting to him
McGoldrick 6/10: He tries. He really does.
Mousset. 1/10: Partially not his fault, but in the second half it was thirteen minutes until he touched the ball, and even then, he gave possession away. He really is crap, and Bournemough have had eleven million pounds off us for a player who still ... 18 months on ... hasn't completed 90 minutes for us.

Brewster 3/10: Poor kid
Hackford 2/10: Poor kid

Wilder 1/10: Not sure if Wilder is giving a message out, but defeat after defeat is hardly subliminal. His interviews are arse-covering, incoherent rambles which sound like masked excuses for the collapse in capability and the heartache and embarrassment his players cause him under his lineups and tactics. He has to get a grip on this because the effect on all the playing staff's self belief of all this disaster might not just limit itself to this season - none of them want Championship football next season but regardless of any clauses in contracts, given the dismally shit showing every week, I don't think there will be many PL managers - even those in teams going up - who are going to want to employ this shower of fuck ups and failure we have in red, white, pink and green at the moment. The way it stands, the only corn they'll earn next season will be away from the world stage and the cameras next August and that is gonna put a real dent in anyone's ambitions, especially if HRH has a rush of shit to the brain and pays underperformers like Norwood, Fleck and Stevens off and we look elsewhere. They won't ever play above D1 then and that won't half hurt. Wilder himself is showing stupid stubbornness and intransigence playing the same lineup every week. It is baffling and annoying in equal parts, especially as he has what we thought was the master tactician and technical guru Alan Knill beside him. On 80 minutes today Wilder looked up at the stadium clock and seemed to curse the amount of time left. Frankly, Playstation Manager as I am I'd have gone shit or bust and thrown the fucking kitchen sink at Palace, even if to get one goal and unsettle them like we did Arsenal. But the last minute we are passing it from Basham to Egan and to Norwood, who again is looking for the long ball to the flanks. What the fuck are you telling them, Wilder?

Bristol Rovers will be smelling blood, believe me. If we get beat by the gasheads, Wilder does need to pack his fucking bags. As much as I like him, we have shipps a lot of humiliation this season. Exiting the FA Cup in the third round to a lower league club will mean the writing is on the wall.

pommpey

I think we are on our own about Ramsdale and the second goal. It was obvious where Eze was going to side-foot the ball and Ramsdale was slow so slow in getting down - he never even got a glove on it. I reckin that's the 4th he's conceded from that range. 1-0 we are in with a (smallish) shout; 2-0 we are fucked. Let's ee what Verrips can do. Couldn't choose between Stevens, Ampadu and Mousset - all crap but Mousset just edges it, the lazy unfit waste of a shirt.

 

[1889]

I totally agree about the second goal, where the fuck did he think he was going to put it? Ezes running at pace across the goal from the keepers right to left, apart from his momentum the defenders also blocking the right side of our goal. Therefore the ‘only’ possible target for Eze is to the keepers left so he should take a big step to his left in anticipation and then he saves it.
Stays at 1-0 and we’re still in the game. Sorry but that was amateurish from Ramsdale in my opinion