My Take ...

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My fucking god. What a fucking embarrassment our team is right now.

Firstly, we now know Ramsdale is gone. He was in front of my nephew tonight on the golf course. Good luck Arsenal. Twenty-cough-million and whatever we pay Bournemouth should give us some revenue to buy at least one player who would play at the requisite level required in this new environment we find ourselves dumped. As for the rest, I despair ...

So we're back to 3-5-2 again with the pedestrian midfield, the suspect back three, the try-hards-but-fails out wide and the barren pair up front. I mean, it's not as though we spent the whole of last season playing that shit and were seriously sexually assaulted up the turd pipe every week, is it? Looking at the defence, from the first long throw in the first few minutes and their disallowed goal they certainly had us in range, and they knew C3PO was having trouble with his jumping. Mind you, all they had to do was draw all three centre backs into a heading scrummage and we were fucking toast. As it stood, the protocol droid did them all a fucking favour and even bounced the ball off his bonce with a clang and it was in our net. R2D2 (Fleck) was somewhere on the edge of the box screaming and bleeping and doing 360s, on fire with electricity and smoke and shit.

But lo, once punched we look to counter punch and Billy lays in Didsy - last seasons top scorer with a blistering nine goals. I mean, aside from the fact that that pass is the first one forward onto a runner in space on goal since ... fucking help me here now ... 'Basham arriving' maybe and he fucking spoons it wide. Old Didsy is back.

But the whole of that first half had that familiar feel about it, didn't it? Tell me I'm wrong - did anyone think, 'we're not gonna score here'. There was nothing ... times nothing squared ... in our gameplay which suggested we were threatening WBA and they simply pressed us back, stopping us before the halfway line and forcing us to turn and pass back. Watching it, Sheffield United looked like a well-drilled team playing 'Attack and Defence' (anyone remember playing that?) where ostensibly we were not allowed by the rules of the game to advance because its played in one goal. We simply get control and pass it backwards and play keep ball, or give up possession.

And in the second half, we simply collapsed like an Afghan regiment.

When it came to anything progressive, such as set pieces, Mr Pointy can be relied upon to fuck the entire venture up with either a weak, lofted cross, or in the last few minutes hit the front man's knees. What does this guy have to do to get dropped and sold? He's been working his fucking ticket now for two solid years. No goals, precious few assists, plenty of fuck ups and stacks of pointing. Is anyone still that deluded to think he is going to be this season's key to our resurgence?

We were fucking drubbed tonight. West Brom were 'OK' but hardly stellar but they simply did the job we used to do some seasons ago ... shamefully with much of this tired, boring and predictable side.

Out of ten, and fuck you if you disagree.

Verrips 1/10: As a debut, it was appalling. He looks more agile than Ramsdale, but technically he's crap.
Baldock 2/10: Frustratingly muzzled and backward looking
Basham 3/10: A few bits and a typical mazy run into a dead end
Egan 3/10: All over the shop at times
Robinson 0/10: Not a Championship level defender
Osborn 3/10: Plenty of hustle and bustle as usual, but fucking nowt much to show for it.
Berge 1/10: Utterly rubbish. Gets one point for a few fleeting runs. Deservedly subbed
Norwood 1/10: Pointy and pointless
Fleck ... was he playing? Okay ... to paraphrase ... 'Mister Blutarsky ... zero ... point ... zero'. Utterly ineffective. Fleck has had it with us now and can go join Lundstram
Sharp 2/10: Got nowt excpt a tackled half chance but did put ...
McGoldrick 2/10: Worst I have seen him play

McBurnie 1/10: Shithousery and pubby aggression
Burke 1/10: Aimless. pointless and talentless
Freeman 4/10: Seemed to want to get involved

SJ: 1/10: I hope this shows you what you've inherited and how fucking wrong the Wilder evangelists now are. Your job now is to stoop, pick up the wreckage, throw away the shit and build a credible footballing side from the remainder

And if any of the players are reading this, there's only Basham and Sharp in that side who know what a dissatisfied Bramall Lane sounds like. Ask them what it will be like if Huddersfield turn us over like that.

You have been warned

pommpey
Overly generous with your marks for Egan and Didzy but otherwise spot on. It was disgraceful and embarrassing.

Slav could get rid of the lot of that first 11 for me.
 
thanks gave me a much needed chuckle reading that Pommps.

without Jack and with Enda losing form we have been getting more and more vulnerable to high balls into the box for 12 months and Baggies ruthelessly exploited this as Verrips confidence evaporated. No height or strength there and surely such beasts to be competent at champ level can be found. Sell a couple of useless strikers for a start. midfield might as well not have been there for all they contributed. Whatever SJ is trying to it’s not working and we were far better under Heckingbottom. needs sorting with significant fresh blood quickly. His record show he can do it but maybe not with these burnt out husks of players.
 
Can't disagree with that pommpey.
Shameful performance right down there with the very worst I have seen in four decades of supporting the blades.

Would only add that my disappointment with Slav is profound. He can of course be forgiven for selecting a team from the squad he has inherited. But none of them showed any fight or steel. They didn't compete. And they didn't seem to care. That's on him. Just contrast with that maniac in charge of West Brom, who was personally super-charged and imbued his team with the same ethic from back to front.

p.s. loved 'Pointy and pointless'
 
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Can't argue with that, we are absolutely shite and need a huge clearout if we are to do anything at all this season.

I'm trying to convince myself that Slav is just getting bedded in and he'll work out what needs to be done, however I think we're beyond that and that we're in a for a dogfight.

If another team comes and plays longball we'll concede, the problem then is that we can't score so we're fucked either way really.

The players that 2 seasons ago I really liked (Fleck and Norwood) are shit and need to be replaced asap. Berge is fucking terrible and the most half hearted player I've seen since Billy Casper, we should have accepted £10m from whichever Italian club offered it. Basham can't play in a 4 (we definitely played 4 at the back). Egan's gone to shit, Robinson is league 1. Verrips has got poppadum hands. McGoldrick needs 5 chances to score and we don't create more than 1 in a game so that's no good.

Baldock isn't suited to a 4, Osborn is a little runaround headless chicken with little to no ability.

I'd scrap the lot and get 11 in, it's not going to happen though so we've got a long season in prospect.
 
I have to say I didn’t watch last night but having read reports and views on here it sounds very much like the 4-0 defeat at Gillingham where we got mullered by long throws and set pieces (and everything else too)

Christ, what a sad state of affairs and what a mess we find ourselves in. The squad seems incredibly unbalanced still and 1 signing so far in almost 2 transfer windows in almost unheard of in these times and leaves us still with major surgery needed.

Thank you for the report pommpey
 
Wilder is our Mourinho. He delivered good times way beyond our expectations and many - maybe all of us - thought it would last forever. But with Mournho it always came at a price; the third season meltdown when the intensity had evaporated in a series of recriminations and the players are hollowed out. Then there's the blaming of the players and the board. Football carnage ensues and some poor sap has to try and put some soul back into the club whether it's Inter, Madrid, Chelsea, Man Utd...

With WAK we got a bit extra, the 4th season was even the high watermark, but the end result has been the same. For all the "one of own" bollocks which I've always disliked, we now seem to be in a worse position than we were post-Adkins (disclaimer: this may be post-match overreaction).

One thing I'm not going to accept is all this criticism of Robinson. I feel sorry for Robinson and I have done since the beginning. He's a L1 defender who was required to play in the Premier League, which should be marvellous for his memories, but will probably end up with him requiring extensive therapy for PTSD.

He's now a L1 defender required to play in the Championship which is pretty much the same thing only with added physical embarrassment. He does his best considering his own limitations. He's not good enough, everybody surely knows that, and it's not his fault.

Robinson is a Dacia Duster that's turned up in a luxury car showroom and he doesn't deserve the stick he is getting. I can't say the same for most of the others, including (and especially) the Rolls Royce.
 
Just got back and I think you have been far to kind, that is the worst I have seen us play away ever, they should have had 6 or 7. Only one worse result away and that was 42 years ago.

On the plus side, away tickets will be easy to get and glad I have retired from the kop, as if we are that bad on Saturday there will be carnage on there. I would not take any young uns. It was that fucking bad.
Think the £10 per match SUTV offering is going to kill away travel (and the expense therein) for the foreseeable future if not change the way we watch away games forever.

Yesterday was bad, but at least I had a quiet space to go to pull my ear and suck my thumb whilst contemplating what I had just witnessed and dint have to get out the ground, find the car dodge the bother, concentrate on the drive home with that debacle on my mind etc.
 

Iceberg right ahead. This needs fucking gripping now.

What's worse is those fuckers across town get a couple of flat track bully wins and they're crowing, so would I be to be fair.

The side that came down should be comfortably good enough to to well enough to get us back up. But without wanting to sound knee jerky, they demonstrably are not.

I'm choosing to believe that the real Verrips got a late injury, and we had to get someone out of the crowd at the last minute to stand in. After all these years, Lee Baxter risks losing his crown.

The players who played a key part in our rise, Basham, Sharp, Didzy, Fleck, are they done? They're certainly playing like it. It's like watching Ali's last couple of fights, a once great sportsman becoming nothing more than a shambolic Aunt Sally.

We had a huge chance to lord it over our neighbours for a generation, maybe more, and we're blowing it. In fact more than that, this is comparable to the Weir era, and look how long that damage took to put right.

Well Prince, is that the legacy you want to leave?
 
Well I can't remember the last time I saw such a piss poor performance from a United team maybe you have to go back to pre Clough days I dunno, even the Adkins clowns had more about them than this shower of shit. When I heard the line up pre match I predicted Wilderball and I wasn't wrong, seems to me like Slav hasn't got a clue how to get this set of misfits playing football so decided to play Wilders old 3-5-2 line up and style to see if that would show an improvement. It was a 3-5-2 wasn't it not a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2? I know it was hard to tell as from the 1st minute we were all over the shop in every department and you knew it was going to be a long night when Robinson scuffed the ball in only for it to be ruled offside. What came after that I'm struggling for words to describe what I saw so may as well give my ratings.
Verrips 1 Now I can see why he hasn't had more than a few cup outings at 6"5' he should be collecting any long throw into the six yard box but he got near nothing last night it was like someone's little brother who you stick in the goal so he can have a game with the bigger boys on the park.
Baldock 2 didn't do much and looks a frustrated figure shot of any confidence.
Basham 2 another one who looks lost and was far too easily bullied
Egan 2 see above
Robinson 0 this cunt would be more use sat inside the label of a jam jar (the older posters will know what I mean) never been a championship defender, for the first time in a while he gets his head on the ball but directs it into the corner of his own net fucking marvellous.
Osborn 2 can't fault the lads effort he just isn't very good at least unlike Baldock he does try to move in the general direction of forwards now and then.
Berge 0 Time to cash in me thinks before his worth drops any more, yes he has bags of talent but is as soft as the next shit after a gallon of Wards and a dodgy Vindaloo. Maybe he should have chosen to play basketball like his brother no contact in basketball is there.
Norwood 1 Says it all when this bloke is our best midfielder, he get one for making a tackle
Fleck 0 nothing to say other than get rid. Not sure if the guy has a drink problem but he certainly plays like he is pissed up WTF happened to him? This seasons Lundstram, maybe he sees it as a way to join Rangers.
Sharp 2 set up our best chance but fielding high balls out of defence against centre back a foot taller is not his game, it wasn't when he was young, at 35 he has no chance.
McGoldrick 0 our one shining light last season but it is beginning to look like like that was his Indian summer and time is catching up with him, criminal miss after Sharp put him in.

Subs
Freeman 5 did more in his 10mins than Fleck has done all season the only midfielder to beat a man and move forwards.
McBurnie 4 didn't give the ball away won headers and set up a chance for Egan late on the bring the first save out of Johnson all night loses a point for giving away free kicks letting a defender know you are around is really a waste of time in the last 10mins of a game maybe it is a bit of frustration.
Burke 0 got on the ball once and set off running sadly the advertising signs round the edge of the pitch made a great tackle. WTF was Wilder thinking when he swapped this clown for Callum Robinson?

Jokanovic 1 I hope this was a last throw of the dice to see if there is anything of this team worth saving and not the fact that he hasn't a clue how to get this team to function, very worrying just now. I would understand it if he picks the U23's for the next game after that shit show I doubt they could do much worse.

Foot note I have been generous in my markings but only to show some played better than others most of that team deserved to be marked with a zero.
Apart from 1 for Verrips and 4 for McBurnie your scores were very fair. Bothe massively over scored imo
 
Spot on Pommpey. In every regard.
It was a horror show. So bad I couldn't watch after a hour . Switched over and watched Godfather of Harlem.
Much more entertaining.
Surely it can't get any worse. Can it?
Did anyone see the look on Davis s face? It spoke volumes. 'what the fuck have done!'
Slav must now realise this job is far more difficult than he thought
Dreading the Huddersfield match!
 
Can't argue with that, we are absolutely shite and need a huge clearout if we are to do anything at all this season.

I'm trying to convince myself that Slav is just getting bedded in and he'll work out what needs to be done, however I think we're beyond that and that we're in a for a dogfight.

If another team comes and plays longball we'll concede, the problem then is that we can't score so we're fucked either way really.

The players that 2 seasons ago I really liked (Fleck and Norwood) are shit and need to be replaced asap. Berge is fucking terrible and the most half hearted player I've seen since Billy Casper, we should have accepted £10m from whichever Italian club offered it. Basham can't play in a 4 (we definitely played 4 at the back). Egan's gone to shit, Robinson is league 1. Verrips has got poppadum hands. McGoldrick needs 5 chances to score and we don't create more than 1 in a game so that's no good.

Baldock isn't suited to a 4, Osborn is a little runaround headless chicken with little to no ability.

I'd scrap the lot and get 11 in, it's not going to happen though so we've got a long season in prospect.
If we don't get players in before the deadline (6-7) then I'm afraid the trap door bekons again on last night's showing.
 
Problem is we weren’t bullied, we were steam rollered, now WBA might be the most adept and physical team in the league, but going forward lots of others will see Berge as a target 6 foot odd and about as much fight as a ballerina.
Fair play to Freeman would have been very easy to come on and simply disappear into the background, he didn't he made a difference, has to start the next game, as for, Mcgoldrick, Fleck, Norwood, Robinson, thanks but no thanks, get used to sitting on the bench
 
Freeman is the only one who gets any credit.

Feel for Veripps a bit, yes they were basic mistakes, but they are the worst possible opponents for a keeper who has barely played a minute for us.

Slav needs backing with 4 or 5 signings, and bloody quick. The club's pre season was a car crash and the Prince's approach to transfers in this window has been a shambles, cash strapped or not. If he was confident of selling Ramsdale or Berge, he should have funded incomings in advance.

He's been fine as an owner up until now, but he is at risk of losing a lot of support it we continue to limp through the window like this.
 
Don’t think it’s an overreaction to say that’s one of the worst performances I’ve seen in the last 30 years (including cliff richard during a rain break at Wimbledon).

Marks across the board are rightly 1s and 2s.

I’d disagree slightly with McBurnie who offered more than both Sharp and McGoalmiss but even then I’d be pushing for a 3/4 out of 10 so hardly impressive.

We need to thank Norwood, Fleck, Didzy for the memories and then say goodbye.

Robinson, Verrips - just get in the bin.

Berge - I’ve consistently backed this guy, ‘knew he would come good’ and was waiting for him to destroy the championship as our very own cheat code, well - these last 3 games have been so poor and I’m incredibly disappointed with his efforts this season.

Osborn, Sharp and Baldock, tried hard but with little actual end result.

Which leaves Egan and Bash - two of a handful of players who are actually worth keeping. (The subs I thought actually did OK - if 4/10 can be considered ok)

Wow, not sure which is worse, the decline of this once great side, or the speed at which it has happened.
 
Don’t think it’s an overreaction to say that’s one of the worst performances I’ve seen in the last 30 years (including cliff richard during a rain break at Wimbledon).

Marks across the board are rightly 1s and 2s.

I’d disagree slightly with McBurnie who offered more than both Sharp and McGoalmiss but even then I’d be pushing for a 3/4 out of 10 so hardly impressive.

We need to thank Norwood, Fleck, Didzy for the memories and then say goodbye.

Robinson, Verrips - just get in the bin.

Berge - I’ve consistently backed this guy, ‘knew he would come good’ and was waiting for him to destroy the championship as our very own cheat code, well - these last 3 games have been so poor and I’m incredibly disappointed with his efforts this season.

Osborn, Sharp and Baldock, tried hard but with little actual end result.

Which leaves Egan and Bash - two of a handful of players who are actually worth keeping. (The subs I thought actually did OK - if 4/10 can be considered ok)

Wow, not sure which is worse, the decline of this once great side, or the speed at which it has happened.
Couldn't agree more. Only Egan, Bash and (just) Baldock, Freeeman and Osborne are worth the shirts the rest can sod off.
 
Posted earlier in another thread, but more appropriate here, and with complete agreement to Pommpey.

To me it seems we have a complete misfit of manager and players. WAK had a method, a belief. They converted mediocre players into a unit that believed in itself. They fought, they harried, they were fit, they would die for each other. They passed to each other like Barca players. They had a system that worried the opposition, whoever they played. The expression used was that the result was a team that that was much greater than the sum of its individual parts. It is blatantly obvious that Slava has not recognised this. He thinks he inherited a squad of Premier league players and that they can play to a new system. Communication between manager and players has broken down. Result, an abject meltdown. Either Slava realises he cannot use these players in a new system and let's them play as they used to, to gain some confidence and some valuable points, then he can rebuild for the longer term. Or we will sink to the depths of league one with a squad of overpaid, overweight, unfit mediocre players, collecting big wages for little effort. At the moment the future is bleak. WAK's lack of experience in fast, attacking football has left us weak in a number of areas. Wilder was a defender, and excluding a few games, our defence was our strength. His transfer knowledge showed his lack of ability in finding classy attacking options, from midfielders or attackers. £100m spunked on wannabes or maybes. Sorry for the diatribe, just the way I see it. Pashun has left the building. I thank WAK for the good times, I despair at their legacy.
Totally brilliant and spot on post. Best analysis to date. Triple like.
 
I put that away day trip in the special box !! Parking a nightmare …. ☑️…£5 a can of carling in the away end…☑️….team sheet questioning ☑️….totally spineless performance from them all☑️ .

It goes it that special box of blade shitness !

I think the summary is spot on if not a little generous. We need at least 6 new faces in and quickly. The old pals act that we have been for the last 18 months stops now or Slav will be in trouble. Ring the changes now please and can someone find 11 hearts to put in players with red and white on !
Good on you for going, outsinging the West Brom fans at times, the gallows humour, but bet it was a quiet drive home.
 
At least we'll be saving £500,000 on the Davies promotion clause. Do we get £500,000 back if we go down?
 

Good on you for going, outsinging the West Brom fans at times, the gallows humour, but bet it was a quiet drive home.
It certainly was until we hit the roadworks near Mansfield!! A few expletives and back to discussing how we could do better. ! Didn’t stop Luton getting bought today either. ! No point changing now. UTB !
 

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