pommpey
THE FUTURE ... AS IT USED TO BE
- Banned
- #1
Well, that was a great evening, wasn't it?
All those fans, in BDTBL, and the loudest rendition of GCB I have ever heard, and still we are seriously sub optimal, with several tens of millions of pounds of players on the teamsheet. If anything it was confirmation of my previous posts that if we play as we have, we'll get what we get. We consistently failed to get chances on goal, we faffed endlessly realigning across the back with the ball, we gave the ball to Norwood to pump it diagonal into 'nothing' and we failed to get a single effective shot the keeper had to save. Tell me, my detractors. What has changed since last season? Oh yes, we ditched our errant midfield turd and we obtained a new manager, who must be in the dressing room as I speak glowering menacingly at certain players who simply didn't fucking deliver tonight. I don't really want to hear 'it's early days' and 'we shoulda had penalties'. They are excuses, not reasons a developing, pretty average Birmingham City beat us tonight. What they did do is watch last seasons videos and plan accordingly. Be patient, allow us possession and close down options. It's not fucking rocket science to beat Sheffield United now, today, as we speak. Just press the player in possession, make them track back, push them to a game of pissing about across the pitch and the game is won. The only outlet for us is, and was tonight, the hollywood diagonal for runner or the rare speculative Baldock break through. All distanced shots were piss poor, no one gambled on the ball across the box. We were there to be beaten tonight. Once we had the fist chin shot, we were staggering about the ring swinging at fresh air.
Okay, small flashes of capability show. Berge and McGoldrick vie for a begrudging man of the match for us but that doesn't cover for the rest of the team who look disorganised and clueless. There's no meaningful movement, balls forward are predictably speculative and when we look like advancing and threatening, the end result is laughably shit. To have a fairly full BDTBL silenced and out sung by the BLLT is shameful, but I can't blame Unitedites for any of that. The team played fucking crap tonight - almost Adkins-level crap - and the fans pouring out at the end was understandable.
We are on zero points now, joint bottom with many other teams. On paper, we should have beaten Birmingham tonight but on grass we were really found wanting. Slav needs to get his scalpel out and cut the malignancy out of the team, get some quality in to get our momentum going. Leaving Basham out was a critical mistake, and having a limited pre-season is a shit excuse.
Ramsdale 5/10: He didn't have much to do, however his positioning for Colin's header and his feet and dive was characteristically shit
Baldock 5/10: Looks like he's struggling a bit and Chong was giving him a reyt run out.
Egan 5/10: Again, doing the centrebacking all on his own. However he doesn't look sharp. Good block early doors
Robinson: 3/10: I have no idea why Slav is playing him, apart from he has a left foot he can apparently use. He looked decidedly vulnerable tonight against Hogan and Jutkewitz
Osborn 4/10: Not a great match for him. Yep, he thrashes about and gets stuck in., but the outcome is mostly poor. Good cross at the end which everyone fucking missed, sadly but that was it really. Like Baldock, loads of goes forward, drags it back horseshit. Can't shoot at goal for toffee. What the fuck he was doing for their goal was anyone's guess
Berge 6/10: There are vast holes in that ninety minutes where you possibly think Berge has fucked off for a shit, and is sat looking at TikTok in trap four in the changing room. Then he's finished, pulls up his shorts, comes back on and gets on the ball and because no one is available he drops a shoulder and ghosts past two opposition players and is moving forward purposefully eventually into a brick wall or has to haul it back and give it to ...
Norwood 2/10: Look. You know what I am going to say. I have said it enough times but what I will say is this: Sheffield United won't progress with this dickhead in the side. He gets his two, and only just two, for his speculative kick at goal and a couple of long balls which went near our players a couple of times.
Fleck 3/10: I did hope John was playing tonight and certainly he made that great tackle in the first half. But the second half he was anonymous. When we signed him from Coventry we were all 'Oh, who the fuck is this? Even some of their supporters say he's shit!' Well, he's going back there, PDQ. Please tell me we don't have to look hard for the glimmers of what we once saw two long seasons ago.
Burke 3/10: Cor, can he run! Shit, can he not play football. He gets his three for the post hit, which if anything was possibly a miskick.
McGoldrick 6/10: Again, the only player who seems to get 'football' out there and try his best to create, harass and do something positive to appear like we might have a plan
Mousset 1/10: Injured again. As the commentators say, has never finished 90 minutes in his time in the UK and didn't disappoint. Anyone who said 'he's up for it' needs to gargle Fairy Liquid
Brewster 4/10: and early foray forward which got me out of my seat and then ... business as usual. Static, in the wrong place and for a striker, incredibly unclinical
Sharp unmarked. No chance to have an effect
McBurnie unmarked, but for fuck's sake man, get and stay in the box. Mixing it up outside just lets the players you should be terrorising off the hook
Birmingham had a fairly bruise-free encounter tonight and yes, their chants of 'Premier League, you're having a laugh' should ring in our players ears, We were playing PL football a short time ago and they are still on big paying contracts. It is inexcusable for anyone to defend tonight's match with bullshit smelling like 'no preseason', 'early days for Slav' and 'the ref was a cunt'. We played predictable, beatable football again under a new manager. The players who can't play any other way should be shipped out and we need Slav to shape a side who first of all has something different that doesn't involve Norwood's limited talents and secondly has the strikers punishing defences and executing their chances.
I expected a win tonight, and so did everyone else. Continue with this shite and we are in trouble. Next kick off I expect to see a lot of changes, both in system and style and also the players. Leaving Basham out for example - our only player who doesn't stop and go backwards when an opposition player fronts up and can beat a player with pace and skill like Berge can (when he's arsed) is a fucking crime.
pommpey
All those fans, in BDTBL, and the loudest rendition of GCB I have ever heard, and still we are seriously sub optimal, with several tens of millions of pounds of players on the teamsheet. If anything it was confirmation of my previous posts that if we play as we have, we'll get what we get. We consistently failed to get chances on goal, we faffed endlessly realigning across the back with the ball, we gave the ball to Norwood to pump it diagonal into 'nothing' and we failed to get a single effective shot the keeper had to save. Tell me, my detractors. What has changed since last season? Oh yes, we ditched our errant midfield turd and we obtained a new manager, who must be in the dressing room as I speak glowering menacingly at certain players who simply didn't fucking deliver tonight. I don't really want to hear 'it's early days' and 'we shoulda had penalties'. They are excuses, not reasons a developing, pretty average Birmingham City beat us tonight. What they did do is watch last seasons videos and plan accordingly. Be patient, allow us possession and close down options. It's not fucking rocket science to beat Sheffield United now, today, as we speak. Just press the player in possession, make them track back, push them to a game of pissing about across the pitch and the game is won. The only outlet for us is, and was tonight, the hollywood diagonal for runner or the rare speculative Baldock break through. All distanced shots were piss poor, no one gambled on the ball across the box. We were there to be beaten tonight. Once we had the fist chin shot, we were staggering about the ring swinging at fresh air.
Okay, small flashes of capability show. Berge and McGoldrick vie for a begrudging man of the match for us but that doesn't cover for the rest of the team who look disorganised and clueless. There's no meaningful movement, balls forward are predictably speculative and when we look like advancing and threatening, the end result is laughably shit. To have a fairly full BDTBL silenced and out sung by the BLLT is shameful, but I can't blame Unitedites for any of that. The team played fucking crap tonight - almost Adkins-level crap - and the fans pouring out at the end was understandable.
We are on zero points now, joint bottom with many other teams. On paper, we should have beaten Birmingham tonight but on grass we were really found wanting. Slav needs to get his scalpel out and cut the malignancy out of the team, get some quality in to get our momentum going. Leaving Basham out was a critical mistake, and having a limited pre-season is a shit excuse.
Ramsdale 5/10: He didn't have much to do, however his positioning for Colin's header and his feet and dive was characteristically shit
Baldock 5/10: Looks like he's struggling a bit and Chong was giving him a reyt run out.
Egan 5/10: Again, doing the centrebacking all on his own. However he doesn't look sharp. Good block early doors
Robinson: 3/10: I have no idea why Slav is playing him, apart from he has a left foot he can apparently use. He looked decidedly vulnerable tonight against Hogan and Jutkewitz
Osborn 4/10: Not a great match for him. Yep, he thrashes about and gets stuck in., but the outcome is mostly poor. Good cross at the end which everyone fucking missed, sadly but that was it really. Like Baldock, loads of goes forward, drags it back horseshit. Can't shoot at goal for toffee. What the fuck he was doing for their goal was anyone's guess
Berge 6/10: There are vast holes in that ninety minutes where you possibly think Berge has fucked off for a shit, and is sat looking at TikTok in trap four in the changing room. Then he's finished, pulls up his shorts, comes back on and gets on the ball and because no one is available he drops a shoulder and ghosts past two opposition players and is moving forward purposefully eventually into a brick wall or has to haul it back and give it to ...
Norwood 2/10: Look. You know what I am going to say. I have said it enough times but what I will say is this: Sheffield United won't progress with this dickhead in the side. He gets his two, and only just two, for his speculative kick at goal and a couple of long balls which went near our players a couple of times.
Fleck 3/10: I did hope John was playing tonight and certainly he made that great tackle in the first half. But the second half he was anonymous. When we signed him from Coventry we were all 'Oh, who the fuck is this? Even some of their supporters say he's shit!' Well, he's going back there, PDQ. Please tell me we don't have to look hard for the glimmers of what we once saw two long seasons ago.
Burke 3/10: Cor, can he run! Shit, can he not play football. He gets his three for the post hit, which if anything was possibly a miskick.
McGoldrick 6/10: Again, the only player who seems to get 'football' out there and try his best to create, harass and do something positive to appear like we might have a plan
Mousset 1/10: Injured again. As the commentators say, has never finished 90 minutes in his time in the UK and didn't disappoint. Anyone who said 'he's up for it' needs to gargle Fairy Liquid
Brewster 4/10: and early foray forward which got me out of my seat and then ... business as usual. Static, in the wrong place and for a striker, incredibly unclinical
Sharp unmarked. No chance to have an effect
McBurnie unmarked, but for fuck's sake man, get and stay in the box. Mixing it up outside just lets the players you should be terrorising off the hook
Birmingham had a fairly bruise-free encounter tonight and yes, their chants of 'Premier League, you're having a laugh' should ring in our players ears, We were playing PL football a short time ago and they are still on big paying contracts. It is inexcusable for anyone to defend tonight's match with bullshit smelling like 'no preseason', 'early days for Slav' and 'the ref was a cunt'. We played predictable, beatable football again under a new manager. The players who can't play any other way should be shipped out and we need Slav to shape a side who first of all has something different that doesn't involve Norwood's limited talents and secondly has the strikers punishing defences and executing their chances.
I expected a win tonight, and so did everyone else. Continue with this shite and we are in trouble. Next kick off I expect to see a lot of changes, both in system and style and also the players. Leaving Basham out for example - our only player who doesn't stop and go backwards when an opposition player fronts up and can beat a player with pace and skill like Berge can (when he's arsed) is a fucking crime.
pommpey
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