My take ...

[pommpey]

I disagree he played some great passes to Baldock yesterday and he failed to exploit the space in front of him

He can't pass it through for McBurnie because 1. He can't control the thing 2. he doesn't run for the ball and 3. he's always tightly marked by the centre back

If Norwood has no options what is he supposed to do, hes trying his best to create thing rather than playing it back to the centre backs like Berge

Surely you can see that ....

Norwood is the anchor - the regista - the pivot. For that to work, he's got to be a bit more than a long-ball showpony. If Norwood couldn't clip a lofted pass out to Enda or George ... tell me what else he can do? He's got no pace, he is not good with the ball at his feet running and he hasn't the brains to position himself as a one-two-wall to put people in on goal. He can't find heads from corners either and can't fucking shoot. So, refresh me again ... what does Oliver Norwood bring to our side apart from 'the ping' which this season has led to nil goals as far as I remember?

The sooner we clear out WIlder from this team, the better. People still have a bit of blood in the old feller (they're 'Mull of Kintyre') about the good old days which are being eclipsed now by the likes of yesterday and 70% of our squad out there were Wilder's players playing Wilder's game. We need to move the fuck on. Promotion this season is a ridiculous dreamscape and we need to face the reality that a lot of players need moving on in May and we need to rebuild - Hecky or Dyche or whoever.

pommpey

 

[Blade59]

Agree with the match summary. Most I have sworn through a game out of sheer frustration for a long time.

The problem with Norwood is not so much the Hollywood balls. Some of them are very good, the trouble is the recipients on the end do not possess the ability anymore to make something of them. Unfortunately this appears now to be the only ball he has in his locker. Having said that we always look a poorer side when he doesn't play.

The team selection was all wrong yesterday. It was set up for an away game against a top half side not a home game against a bottom half side.

 

[Drunk blade]

Norwood is the anchor - the regista - the pivot. For that to work, he's got to be a bit more than a long-ball showpony. If Norwood couldn't clip a lofted pass out to Enda or George ... tell me what else he can do? He's got no pace, he is not good with the ball at his feet running and he hasn't the brains to position himself as a one-two-wall to put people in on goal. He can't find heads from corners either and can't fucking shoot. So, refresh me again ... what does Oliver Norwood bring to our side apart from 'the ping' which this season has led to nil goals as far as I remember?

The sooner we clear out WIlder from this team, the better. People still have a bit of blood in the old feller (they're 'Mull of Kintyre') about the good old days which are being eclipsed now by the likes of yesterday and 70% of our squad out there were Wilder's players playing Wilder's game. We need to move the fuck on. Promotion this season is a ridiculous dreamscape and we need to face the reality that a lot of players need moving on in May and we need to rebuild - Hecky or Dyche or whoever.

pommpey

Like it or not we are a lot better team with him in the side, going back to Pirlo, he had no pace and wasn't good running with the ball at his feet, what would he do in this team .... he would be exactly same as Norwood because there is simply no movement up front and nobody to pass to

You don't notice it as much watching on TV but if you're actually in the ground watching the games is clear to see there are no options for our midfield when they are on the ball, the only player who was getting into space was Baldock and Norwood was finding him brilliantly with some superb passes, he just didn't do anything with it

 

[pommpey]

Agree with the match summary. Most I have sworn through a game out of sheer frustration for a long time.

The problem with Norwood is not so much the Hollywood balls. Some of them are very good, the trouble is the recipients on the end do not possess the ability anymore to make something of them. Unfortunately this appears now to be the only ball he has in his locker. Having said that we always look a poorer side when he doesn't play.

The team selection was all wrong yesterday. It was set up for an away game against a top half side not a home game against a bottom half side.

Thing is with Norwood, he is so predictable. As soon as he gets the ball, opposition players know what he is going to do with it. It's going across the pitch to the opposite wing. Its what he likes doing and he sees it as progressive. But opposition players are already moving across there so as it is in mid air, Enda and George are already scoping defenders closing them down before it is even near them - one going to the player, one sat flank side to stop any advance down the touchline. His pings go nowhere but backwards.

So why do them? This is about getting forward, scoring goals, winning games. It's not the fucking Harlem Globetrotters. I don't give a fat fuck if every goal is a scuffer, an OG or goes in off the arse of the last man. Showpony stuff can wait for testimonials and pre season.

pommpey

 

[Grappler]

What a waste of a warm, sunny afternoon that was. Shocking performance and I am not sure how we carry on after that.

Robinson - goes from being a bomb scare to being man-of-the-match and we suddenly stop playing him?

McBurnie - not sure where to start, needs to go, unfortunately, a "number 9" who doesn't score, incredible.

MGW - basically a one man team, trying to do it all on his own, and no wonder.

Enda and George - fuckin hell, please put RND back into the starting line up, at least.

We have known for a few years that we needed pace in the team, and never really addressed it. That was just slow, turgid shite, yesterday.

Not lost at home since last October and we give up that record to Reading?, fucking Reading! A league one style team, big, fast, clumsy, and we couldn't cope with them.

For all the lads on here, who have said "give Jebbo a chance", hope you have seen enough to stop saying that. If we need to rely on youngsters, it has to be Osula, big, strong, fast, knows where goal is.

We were shown up yesterday, slow, lightweight, clueless, and (again) not to Fulham or Forest, but fuckin Reading.

 

[gordoncharles]

Where in the rule book does it say I can’t mention the attendance Mr Censor ? Or are you the moron that the song was about ?

Calm down, dear

 

[pommpey]

Like it or not we are a lot better team with him in the side, going back to Pirlo, he had no pace and wasn't good running with the ball at his feet, what would he do in this team .... he would be exactly same as Norwood because there is simply no movement up front and nobody to pass to

You don't notice it as much watching on TV but if you're actually in the ground watching the games is clear to see there are no options for our midfield when they are on the ball, the only player who was getting into space was Baldock and Norwood was finding him brilliantly with some superb passes, he just didn't do anything with it

I notice it on TV, believe me. If Norwood stopped sitting deep alongside the CBs and moved his midfield up the pitch ... utilised the space in front of him and had some confidence in his short pass work we'd be a better side.

Norwood needs to start acting like a midfielder. Mind you, I've said that so many times before. Old dog new tricks syndrome.

pommpey

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

What a fucking atrocious, appalling game. No way of sweetening the pill, we have the capability to come to Bramall Lane on a bank holiday in front of a decent crowd, with an expectation to win and stay up with the running pack and put in such a watery, negative performance that a struggling club like Reading can come and take three points off us. Compared with other defeats at the Lane where at least we could debate and reflect that maybe we were robbed or we deserved at least a point, none of those chimps in red and white deserved anything today. It was that bad. It wasn't as if we were dicked. Had we been outplayed and outperformed I could take it.

Reading - yeah okay ... they have Paul Ince and all that but they weren't Forest or Fulham or anything of the teams which could cause us problems. But that's just it, isn't it? They fucking well did cause us problems. I have no real idea what the fucking gameplan is these days. Back a couple of seasons you could see what we were all about. Marauding wingbacks and overlapping centrebacks, Norwood spraying balls wide, cleaver one twos up the flanks and someone, anyone, who could fucking cross and it was Leon or Billy (or Fleck or Duffy) who was johnny on the spot. Then that formation started to collapse, we lost key players, lost the marauding, people forgot which way was forward and oppositions just shepherded us into the kill zone out wide and the forwards were starved of opportunities. Wilder insisted on still playing that shit though because firstly the players knew nothing else and also because he himself had no fucking plan b. Slav tried to change it, the players rebelled and now we have Hecky allowing his players to go back to that shit when the components are nowhere near what they were back then.

It's the fault of certain legacy players and yes, today I am going back to Norwood but we played right into his lap today by endlessly faffing about passing the ball across the back three where he was lurking with intent as an extra centre back. I suppose now he's actually scored a fucking goal and had a few passable games he thinks it's time to revert back to type and launch daft balls across the pitch to people who can't just take it down and move forward into danger areas. Again he's pumping these passes to George and Enda who have real fucking difficulty getting them down and facing their goal. It does get taken down yeah, but it then - AGAIN - goes fucking backwards. It's almost as if all the players have been briefed that the only player allowed to make the ball go forward is actually Norwood. And when he does, there is zero-point-zero net worth in the pass, because it ends up at Norwood's feet again (or in the opposition's possession)

But let's face it - the midfield today was paltry, first division horseshit. Hourihane and Osborn were ineffective and when Hecky tweaked it in the second half and brought our saviour on it just looked like shit in a breadcake rather than batter. The midfield is the engine room of the football team. They are the creatives, the stoppers, the linkmen and the ones who dig the tunnel to goals. Our first half three today looked completely devoid of any ideas or capability to link either with themselves, or with wingbacks and front men. Their only route was backwards and Reading ran fucking riot.

Behind them we are looking shockingly poor without Basham. I cannot believe he sat the second half out today with George occupying his billet. Baldock is not a centreback. In fact recently I'm not sure what he is but a truculent, arsey, middling footballer.

And up front we look completely dead without Billy Sharp. Oliver McBurnie is not a Sheffield United player any more for me. We can't bring him into the game or play to any strengths we imagine he has and he looks like a Conference clogger. I actually texted my mate who couldn't watch the game and said 'If McBurnie scores, I will eat my pubes'. So confident was I, I actually wagered chowing down on the hair around my unmentionables against that poppo scoring. What the fuck were fans doing applauding him as he walked round the pitch having been subbed early in the second? He hasn't scored for fucking years! Injuries-sminjuries. Billy has been injured. So have other players. But they've fucking scored. His and other attempts at injecting some spark into the attack were so damned misplaced also. Is anyone THAT confident we will make the playoffs, let alone get through and win at Wembley?

Anyway:

Foderingham 5/10: Had some shots at him. Not much to save. Mebbe he could have done better with their winner. Who fucking cares?
Baldock 4/10: Usual overly-aggressive shithousery and was left wanting too many times. Maybe his love affair with SUFC is at the bendy-lob-on-stage now
Uremovic 4/10: Underperformed and laid their goal on with a telegraphed pass. Not sure what the fuck Hecky was doing him replacing him with Baldock
Egan 5/10: Barely that. Now looking more like he is on his beam ends with being at BDTBL and the constant shitness. Strange how our goal came from Norwood feeding him in from the middle of the park.
Davies 3/10: Really substandard and not as good as C3PO. Imagine saying that back in October? Missed yet another free header on the six yard line.
Stevens 5/10: Pretty anonymous really. And still shite at crossing
Norwood 4/10: Back to Hollywood. Fuck me this bloke can't cross at all and on minute one, the ball ends up in the BLUT. Shit passing too.
Hourihane 3.10: One word - underwhelming. And he wants an extension of his loan or a permanent transfer next season folks. Anyone who says it should happen shouts at traffic and lives in a skip
Osborn 4.5/10: Dismal. Simply 'running about' doesn't win football games.
MGW 4/10: Piss poor today. Greedy and clumsy.
McBurnie 2/10: Really, really dreadful. In May, he should be allowed to go and find himself again at Matlock Town or summat.

Berge 4/10: Another one who can gladly leave for me. Thinks he has more time on the ball than he actually does. Putting in one decent performance in five matches doesn't make you a Lane hero
Jebbison 2/10: We were all eager to have him back but we were wrong. He's still raw and not at Championship level. Today he was shite with pumpgas croutons
Ndaiye 3/10: Can't think he did anything but kick the ball in the net to give us fleeting hope this shower of bellends gave a fuck. A minute later we knew the truth.

HJ&SM: Hang your heads in shame, chaps. Your staring lineup was set up to fuck up and your team didn't deserve to win. You'd best fucking sort this out, get Basham back in and get this team refocussed otherwise the resurgence of hope you brought with be just a piss in the bath.

Crowd - them 'is there a fire drill'? I think we deserved that.

pommpey

You`ve nailed it there Pommps.

I also fail to see why McBurnie was getting applause. The ball bounced off him so many times and he is incapable of sprinting. A carthorse trying to canter springs to mind.

Davies with the ball winds me up the way he takes a touch, advances a couple of yards, takes another touch, advances another couple of yards etc. until the forward spaces have shrunk and the opposition defence is set, and the chance to exploit a potential attacking situation has vanished.

Midfielders ( especially Norwood ) I would fine a week`s wages, if over the course of a game, they played more backward passes than forward ones.
I like to see a midfield player assess forward options first. After all, the idea of the game is to deposit the ball in the opposition`s onion bag.

I noticed that the ballboy in the Bramall Lane/John Street corner was two footed when returning the ball. One up on Baldock then !

 

[Champagneblade]

We were awful and got exactly what we deserved. Terrible starting line up that set us up to fail, Didn't really attempt to change it until Ndayie came on (70 muinutes) which was bizarre.

Egan showed for the goal that he's a better centre forward than Mcburnie and I think your score for him is harsh, given he's at fault for neither goal. Also a bit harsh on Norwood. Nothing moving in front of him and having to drop deeper and deeper to find the ball as he was man marked from minute one. For me the big question mark is why no-one else in midfield then shows for the ball, leaving Centre halfs then having to be the play makers. Otherwise scores are pretty fair.

Jebbison coming back made sense as a 5th choice, get involved in the match day squad, get a few minutes here and there sort of way. Unfortunately, for him and us he's our 2nd choice forward at the minute.

Given how non existent McBurnie is as a goal threat, he could do worse on Monday than shove Egan up front, Uremovic to centre back and Basham in at right centre back. What's the worst that can happen?

 

[Drunk blade]

I notice it on TV, believe me. If Norwood stopped sitting deep alongside the CBs and moved his midfield up the pitch ... utilised the space in front of him and had some confidence in his short pass work we'd be a better side.

Norwood needs to start acting like a midfielder. Mind you, I've said that so many times before. Old dog new tricks syndrome.

pommpey

We will agree to disagree on Norwood, to be honest I like your reports they are more or less spot on and always amusing, I just think you perhaps don't notice how difficult playing midfield is in this team... like trying to pass to wheelie bins

 

[PaulHalfway]

It was like an end of season match, nothing to play for and no one was too bothered if we won, drew or lost, abject and massively disappointing for a great crowd turnout

 

[pommpey]

It was like an end of season match, nothing to play for and no one was too bothered if we won, drew or lost, abject and massively disappointing for a great crowd turnout

Seemed like that didn't it?

To be honest I was nodding off at times because we seemed stuck at the back three and unable to get it to the front men to have a crack on goal.

Does anyone have possession heatmaps available?

pommpey

 

[Numpty's Dusty Ruts.]

I was being ironic. But thanks for the effort. Hope you feel better today.

Cheers mate, I thought you were, but I felt better writing it down! Much better today, spot of gardening, beer later! Have a good Easter!

 

[cahill]

Calm down, dear

Oo get you Gordon

 

[Deadbat]

Fair summing up but your marks are way too high. Not sure Baldock, Stevens, Davies, Osborn or Hourihane did anything right all game.

I used to love GB and ES but they are done here. As much as Norwood can frustrate he still offers something and has still been one of our better players. Those two are getting worse and they need to move on. I don't rate RND particularly but he is still better than Stevens.

I don't think these players are genuinely arsed if they go up or not. Most would be bombed out if we somehow fluked promotion.

Sadly we have another year of Stevens, Baldock, Norwood, McBurnie and even longer I think of Fleck, Egan.

It comes to something that we are 6th and the only players I'd be irked if they moved on are Bash and Billy.

In an ideal world we'd have a complete clear out. Should have happened last summer. Should happen this summer. It won't though.

We know what will happen. Sell Berge. MGW move on. More youngsters and cheap replacements. Finish bottom half. Then probably go down in a few years. Prince will flog whatever he can to get money back and then sod off. We will be in financial dire straits and probably have even longer out of Champ than last time.

Maybe a pessimistic view but with the money we need to save, our useless recruitment and a manager that is a nice guy but at best is average and now probably showing why other clubs got rid fairly quickly, can anyone offer how/why it nay go differently to above. We've seen this script so often in our cyclical history.

It's like a car crash that we are about to watch jn slow motion for the next 3-5 seasons.

 

[Grappler]

Given how non existent McBurnie is as a goal threat, he could do worse on Monday than shove Egan up front, Uremovic to centre back and Basham in at right centre back. What's the worst that can happen?

Should have left Uremovic on yesterday, he was one of the last I would have changed.

 

[1961blade]

What a fucking atrocious, appalling game. No way of sweetening the pill, we have the capability to come to Bramall Lane on a bank holiday in front of a decent crowd, with an expectation to win and stay up with the running pack and put in such a watery, negative performance that a struggling club like Reading can come and take three points off us. Compared with other defeats at the Lane where at least we could debate and reflect that maybe we were robbed or we deserved at least a point, none of those chimps in red and white deserved anything today. It was that bad. It wasn't as if we were dicked. Had we been outplayed and outperformed I could take it.

Reading - yeah okay ... they have Paul Ince and all that but they weren't Forest or Fulham or anything of the teams which could cause us problems. But that's just it, isn't it? They fucking well did cause us problems. I have no real idea what the fucking gameplan is these days. Back a couple of seasons you could see what we were all about. Marauding wingbacks and overlapping centrebacks, Norwood spraying balls wide, cleaver one twos up the flanks and someone, anyone, who could fucking cross and it was Leon or Billy (or Fleck or Duffy) who was johnny on the spot. Then that formation started to collapse, we lost key players, lost the marauding, people forgot which way was forward and oppositions just shepherded us into the kill zone out wide and the forwards were starved of opportunities. Wilder insisted on still playing that shit though because firstly the players knew nothing else and also because he himself had no fucking plan b. Slav tried to change it, the players rebelled and now we have Hecky allowing his players to go back to that shit when the components are nowhere near what they were back then.

It's the fault of certain legacy players and yes, today I am going back to Norwood but we played right into his lap today by endlessly faffing about passing the ball across the back three where he was lurking with intent as an extra centre back. I suppose now he's actually scored a fucking goal and had a few passable games he thinks it's time to revert back to type and launch daft balls across the pitch to people who can't just take it down and move forward into danger areas. Again he's pumping these passes to George and Enda who have real fucking difficulty getting them down and facing their goal. It does get taken down yeah, but it then - AGAIN - goes fucking backwards. It's almost as if all the players have been briefed that the only player allowed to make the ball go forward is actually Norwood. And when he does, there is zero-point-zero net worth in the pass, because it ends up at Norwood's feet again (or in the opposition's possession)

But let's face it - the midfield today was paltry, first division horseshit. Hourihane and Osborn were ineffective and when Hecky tweaked it in the second half and brought our saviour on it just looked like shit in a breadcake rather than batter. The midfield is the engine room of the football team. They are the creatives, the stoppers, the linkmen and the ones who dig the tunnel to goals. Our first half three today looked completely devoid of any ideas or capability to link either with themselves, or with wingbacks and front men. Their only route was backwards and Reading ran fucking riot.

Behind them we are looking shockingly poor without Basham. I cannot believe he sat the second half out today with George occupying his billet. Baldock is not a centreback. In fact recently I'm not sure what he is but a truculent, arsey, middling footballer.

And up front we look completely dead without Billy Sharp. Oliver McBurnie is not a Sheffield United player any more for me. We can't bring him into the game or play to any strengths we imagine he has and he looks like a Conference clogger. I actually texted my mate who couldn't watch the game and said 'If McBurnie scores, I will eat my pubes'. So confident was I, I actually wagered chowing down on the hair around my unmentionables against that poppo scoring. What the fuck were fans doing applauding him as he walked round the pitch having been subbed early in the second? He hasn't scored for fucking years! Injuries-sminjuries. Billy has been injured. So have other players. But they've fucking scored. His and other attempts at injecting some spark into the attack were so damned misplaced also. Is anyone THAT confident we will make the playoffs, let alone get through and win at Wembley?

Anyway:

Foderingham 5/10: Had some shots at him. Not much to save. Mebbe he could have done better with their winner. Who fucking cares?
Baldock 4/10: Usual overly-aggressive shithousery and was left wanting too many times. Maybe his love affair with SUFC is at the bendy-lob-on-stage now
Uremovic 4/10: Underperformed and laid their goal on with a telegraphed pass. Not sure what the fuck Hecky was doing him replacing him with Baldock
Egan 5/10: Barely that. Now looking more like he is on his beam ends with being at BDTBL and the constant shitness. Strange how our goal came from Norwood feeding him in from the middle of the park.
Davies 3/10: Really substandard and not as good as C3PO. Imagine saying that back in October? Missed yet another free header on the six yard line.
Stevens 5/10: Pretty anonymous really. And still shite at crossing
Norwood 4/10: Back to Hollywood. Fuck me this bloke can't cross at all and on minute one, the ball ends up in the BLUT. Shit passing too.
Hourihane 3.10: One word - underwhelming. And he wants an extension of his loan or a permanent transfer next season folks. Anyone who says it should happen shouts at traffic and lives in a skip
Osborn 4.5/10: Dismal. Simply 'running about' doesn't win football games.
MGW 4/10: Piss poor today. Greedy and clumsy.
McBurnie 2/10: Really, really dreadful. In May, he should be allowed to go and find himself again at Matlock Town or summat.

Berge 4/10: Another one who can gladly leave for me. Thinks he has more time on the ball than he actually does. Putting in one decent performance in five matches doesn't make you a Lane hero
Jebbison 2/10: We were all eager to have him back but we were wrong. He's still raw and not at Championship level. Today he was shite with pumpgas croutons
Ndaiye 3/10: Can't think he did anything but kick the ball in the net to give us fleeting hope this shower of bellends gave a fuck. A minute later we knew the truth.

HJ&SM: Hang your heads in shame, chaps. Your staring lineup was set up to fuck up and your team didn't deserve to win. You'd best fucking sort this out, get Basham back in and get this team refocussed otherwise the resurgence of hope you brought with be just a piss in the bath.

Crowd - them 'is there a fire drill'? I think we deserved that.

pommpey

Fantastic post, premier league no thank you, mid table championship side if that.

 

[Bladesince59]

Dreadful performance. Played like we want to stay in Champ. Hecky seems to be losing it with crazy team selections and substitutions. Would prefer a decent proven boss.