Early shout tonight as I'm off out with the bale of rags and a gang to watch an 80s tribute band. Makes a change to be in the audience for a change.
Anyway.
Great three points. Great from a standpoint of it opens up the gap even further and more goal difference and other teams are gonna need snookers soon to catch us. But it wasn't a confident win and certain areas of United's approach to beating poor teams (and Stoke, for long periods, were poor) remain questionable. Once again, we made fucking hard work of what should have been an easy task. It was heartening to see us straight at them for twenty minutes however and playing football which, albeit with Stoke looking ragged, looked Premier League level. At the beating heart of this is Ndaiye though and as everyone's fears are now heightened, without him as a focal point we are effectively fucked. A team is gonna come along soon and do the chasing pack a big fucking favour and go straight through him. It could have happened today and eventually he had to go off. We just haven't got that person for whom its hard work to dispossess and who, when you are keeping your eyes on the ball defending against has the quickness of feet to simply make it disappear and then they are past you, and two of your teammates as well. I've played against people like this in the past and the effect on your willpower and morale is devastating. The only remedy is backing off them ... and continuing to do so just gives them space and yards on goal ... or going through them and picking up a card. Elsewhere we look far more capable down the flanks with Bogle and Lowe, both of them well worthy of their meagre transfer fees. However Sander Berge remains an enigma as to how the fuck some of our fanbase stamp such hope on such a limited, clearly unhappy and frankly out of place footballer which precious little to show of worth. Twenty million is a stupid price to pay to remain patient when he turns in performances like today. 'He's just returning from injury' has now run out as a warranty against his poor performance. We simply can't afford to play with ten men whilst he disconnects himself from play and backs out of this challenge. The fans demand more from him given his assumed worth and supposed capability, otherwise bench the fucker and get him on the transfer list before we end up releasing him for jack shit. Its not good enough.
Foderingham 6/10: Not a massive amount to do as Stoke lacked so much in getting the ball into the area until later and anything they did fire at him didn't actually need too much of a dive to stop it.
Bogle 9/10: A tremendous game for him. Two goals, plenty of cutting edge both as a defender and as a winger and even inside in the middle of the park. A true asset to the club and thank god he at least has come back from a long term injury ready to fight and win
Anel 6.5/10: Started the game ready to advance and finished with the rest of the back three baling out the floodwater somewhat. Some decent key interceptions but sometimes he is a bit wrongfooted
Egan 6/10: Mediocre game for him. He works hard but sometimes the marshalling ends up like herding cats and runners end up with free goes on goal. There needs to be a better, more coherent understanding at the back with him.
Robinson 6.5/10: Fairly solid for him today. Again the cohesion of the back three is a joint venture and today all of them were somewhat flakey at times
Lowe 7.5/10: Lovely game for him. Gets up and down that wing and 'does his job' and is surprisingly agile in tracking back, moreso than the ageing Stevens
Berge 2/10: Dreadful game. Seven minutes in, realised he was playing. First real touch on eleven. Neshed challenges, lost individual battles and created a hole in midfield that everyone else had to cover. Then he missed a fucking sitter in the second half after playing his usual invisible man routine. Proof if anything he is on thin ice at Bramall Lane, despite all the opprobrium I have fielded trying to get some to realise that.
Norwood 6.5/10: Bossed the game for the first twenty with his usual graft and aggression. But because we were effectively playing with ten men, he was dragged out to do two jobs at times. His corners today were disappointing and he started to telegraph passes a bit too much late on
McAtee 7/10: Pleasing performance and some 'happy feet' as Asaba coined it. Works great with NDaiye going forward. Would love to see them both as RAM and LAM behind Jebbo or McB
NDaiye 8.5/10: Usual 'never fucking gives up' showing. Chased everyone and made a complete nuisance of himself and got his deserved goal after a mini-drought. Without him we are fucked so here's hoping the management wake the fuck up and sign a loan player like him or he gets better and stays uninjured
Sharp 4/10: Typical, now-failing-in-effectiveness Sharp hustle and bustle. This must be his last season.
Doyle 5/10: Great ball for Bogle's second but asked to do so much in what was effectively a two man midfield once he'd puzzlingly come on for McAtee
Jebbison 5/10: Plenty of effort but up on his own to cause trouble and hold it up
Osborn 6/10: Got about, typical of him. Why the fuck he wasn't on for Berge earlier is anyone's guess because I'd rather have Tasmanian Osborn than My Little Berge any day
HJ&SMcC: 6/10: A low mark because habitually they put us all through the ringer and fail to hook the ineffective and leave it late with the subs. We are where we are however and I am grateful for that, but were we as effective as we could be, We'd be above Burnley now or at least a game shy of them on points.
Hull on Friday. Please ... drop Berge and please, management ... sign some players.
pommpey
