My take ...

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Jon Bon II said:
Absolutely agree with everything quoted above. Bang on, especially the first paragraph. Most on here think we're 1970 Brazil and can't see the wood for the trees.
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We aren’t, and don’t need to be Brazil. We also don’t need to play like Arsenal or Man City (even if we had the players to do so) This is the Championship which is a hard and difficult league to get out of. Stamina, speed, close control, taking your chances and an absolute desire to get into the opposition, for 90 minutes, to stop them playing is how you get promoted. Last night we showed that in spades and it was no coincidence that BDTBL was noisier than it has been for a while. We also picked up 6 yellows - all midfielders bar McBurnie, because we were battling every ball.
I’d even go so far as to say that Arsenal and Man City would find it tough playing in the Championship. Would they win games? Of course, but most of their players would be saying “ Fuck this, agent?, get me out of here!”
The more measured, fluid passing will come when, and if, we get promoted and can lift the quality of the playing staff through purchases and tactical development. For now, I’m perfectly happy picking up wins the grafters way.
 

Good read as usual pommps. I agree with Maurice2 above, Wes doesn’t seem as confident in his box as pre-world cup and his distribution is mainly poor. Sander was a lot more involved in the game and was at least trying to make things happen. Illiman had a very average game for his high standards, he still charged around and is always a handful for the opposition but not a lot came off for him. We take the 1-0 win and March on to secure one of those top two places.

UTB !
 
Sean Thornton said:
Norwood 6.5 for me. Never got a hold on the game 6.00- 6.5 for Berge. However. Still disappointing from him.
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Probably about right. What was blatantly obvious tonight is that Hull are a very well coached team and Rosenier adjusted very quickly to Norwood"s freedom and had someone man mark him.

Probably overly harsh as I have a bee in my bonnet about him, but was disappointed Berge didn't step in to the space and utilise it. His big strength when he first arrived was doing this and linking up with McGoldrick. Need him to grow his partnership with Ndiaye in a similar way...
 
Even I think that you're harsh on Berge who merited at least a six. The times in the game where he's nothing more than a spectator were still there, but fewer. He did some good things with the ball when he had it. One thing I can't understand is how, when in possession, he can shrug off a tackler with ease. But when he tries to rob an opponent they do exactly the same to him.

Hull were pretty crisp with the ball and I find it hard to believe that some people think we could have won by three, as although they troubled Foderingham only once they always looked capable of getting through us. They were the best side we've played since the season re-started.
 
Like a few others, I think Berge merited a slightly higher mark. Great ball through to Jebbo, who should have scored. I've noticed he's having to help out Bogle defend as Bogle often finds himself further upfield. Nowt wrong with that I might add. Bogle is great going forward and in him, Illi and McAtee, we've got 3 players who like to run at the opposition, however I don't think Baldock's race is run and still think he is the better defender. Egan was my MOTM, he was faultless last night and Estupian didn't really have a sniff. He also played some decent balls to the flanks.
 
Bogle - good first half, have it away a hell of a lot second half. 7/10

Berge - much improved if not sparkling. 7/10

Thought it was Ndiaye's quietest game for a long while. Still good but not in it as much as usual. 7/10

In fact, a lot of 7/10's all over truth be told. Just very steady. Never in danger. Never in doubt.
 
Another valuable 3 points, which is brilliant.

Don't think we played particularly well again though. Think Pommpey has it about right, after 20 mins Hull looked much more accomplished than us. And I don't buy all the people saying 'Hull are a good team etc' by way of excusing our obvious deficiencies. They're 16th! Luckily for us they had no cutting edge. But we shouldn't be getting out passed by Hull at home. They were far better in possession through the thirds.

Three points are three points ultimately, and we're seemingly cruising towards promotion. I honestly think we would need to buy about 20 players if we wanted to stay in the PL though.
 
CornwallBlade said:
We aren’t, and don’t need to be Brazil. We also don’t need to play like Arsenal or Man City (even if we had the players to do so) This is the Championship which is a hard and difficult league to get out of. Stamina, speed, close control, taking your chances and an absolute desire to get into the opposition, for 90 minutes, to stop them playing is how you get promoted. Last night we showed that in spades and it was no coincidence that BDTBL was noisier than it has been for a while. We also picked up 6 yellows - all midfielders bar McBurnie, because we were battling every ball.
I’d even go so far as to say that Arsenal and Man City would find it tough playing in the Championship. Would they win games? Of course, but most of their players would be saying “ Fuck this, agent?, get me out of here!”
The more measured, fluid passing will come when, and if, we get promoted and can lift the quality of the playing staff through purchases and tactical development. For now, I’m perfectly happy picking up wins the grafters way.
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Take a like

Good post

Our team work like fk - we played some super stuff first half , energy , skill , fluidity - against a decent side who came to have a go and were set up well .

We could have been 3-0/1up at HT

Second half we ground out a result but pommpey is right - there is a trend forming where we do not kill off teams thereby making it much more comfortable. This is a concern but not enough to stop us going up where your assessment above comes in and will play it’s part .

The manager has a superb record and a lot of us would do things differently but we aren’t professionals who are with the players day in day out . He can carry on making the decisions he makes until the cows come home whilst we are in the position we are in .

Fwi worth

Wes - 6
Bogle - 6.5
Lowe - 6
Egan - 8
JLT - 8
Anal - 6.5
Doyle - 7
Norwood - 7.5
Berge - 5.5
IN - 6.5
Jebbo - 7.5

MOM
JLT closely followed by Egan (tin hat on)

But what do I know ?

UTB
 
Sirius said:
Why so? Do tell. Give us your take
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He won't, 'because he hasn't got the time and has work in the morning.'

Got the time to be snarky though. I'm not sure what he wants -

1. Post opinions which align with his own
2. Stop posting 'My take ...'

General consensus this morning is that I have undermarked Berge. And many have suggested why, which is the spirit of debate about football. It's what this forum is about. As much as people say that DBs, Fallowfield's, Roygbiv's and my regular posts are 'attention seeking' as soon as you turn your spiteful responses against the poster it becomes exactly that. If you disagree with me, great. Give yourself the credibility however and tell everyone why.

I welcome anyone's counter argument about anything which happened during the match last night. It's refreshing to read other people's opinions and in many cases it has me questioning my own because they are very well structured and have very valid points.

pommpey
 
BiggerBladeThanThou said:
I’d love to do a PHD into football fans opinions and viewpoints on the same game.

It’s so interesting seeing how any two people can view a game so differently.
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But that's the absolute beauty of football from a spectator's point of view.

Go ask twenty people around you in the seats at BDTBL. You won't get the same view from them.

pommpey
 
First time for a while I disagree with some of the marks.

Berge was ok, 5/10.

Thought Bogle and Lowe were both 6/10, ok but not massively effective going forward, Bogle was trying to do too much at times,

Also thought the 3 subs of Sharp, Bash and Osborn worked well, we needed to sure it up, Osborn and Sharp did that and Bash just sat in when he came on, making it hard for the number 7 who they brought on to change things.

McBurnie was a good sub, he won some headers and was a nuisance and good shithousing as well.
 

GrayBlade said:
Berge was my man of the match in what I thought was a very good committed team performance. Guess it's all about opinions?
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Seriousy? He's good when he gets the ball but his work rate is always poor, doesn't look for space or try and win the ball, he's a 6ft 5 player who's 5ft 5 when the ball is up for a header. I'd say 4/5 out of 10 performance at best. Your man of the match? mate did you not watch Ndiye or Bogle?
 
Thanks as always, bang on the money for most of it.
The first subs completely baffled me, I even posted so immediately on match thread. Where is the logic???? They bring on two "big" powerful guys, we sub Jebbo, who was great and still had legs for the remarkable but small and ageing Billy, and short arse Ozzy, who hasn't played for weeks for possibly mom Doyle? At a critical time in the game. Totally flabbergasted.
I think they suddenly realised their error by banging on two of our big powerful lads. The first two subs were wasteful and ill-conceived.
Thankfully we do seem to have gained massively in resilience and I did feel confident we would grind this out in the end. For all their huff and puff, plus some style, Ull lacked penetration in the last third. The most important area, according to the missus anyway 😉.
Berge showed some grit at last, but never grabs it by the balls as he should. Thought the back 5 in general were at their best, Norwood great industry and leadership, I have been a critic in the past. Illi, still fabulous but had more of a matched battle than usual. Good experience for him. Would have been nice for him to regain the combination with Oli for the last 20 that was so successful before injury - but no, the well thought out substitutions 🤔 left us with Oli and Billy, a combination that never worked well.
I really hope we keep this up and more, I really want us to wipe the smile off smug Sky and Belgiumloanley faces at Turf Moor. Though they keep beating the teams closest to us which is useful.
Cheers!
 
El Volví said:
Bob on again dude.
It's just like seeing it through my eyes!

Thought Berge was much better and that must be 3 games now that Robinson has been error free!
Lowe wasn't really allowed in the game as Hull had a game plan to snuff out our wingbacks, which on the whole worked!
Chuffed for Jebbo.
Agree about the subs too 🤔
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A fair reply but you say "Berge was much better" ...but bare in mind we payed like £20m for this guy, he's well short of that. He's good on the ball but does nothing to win it and get stuck in, you can count the headers he's won since he joined us on one had
 
Charlieblade said:
You probably need to give Hull a bit more credit for their contribution to a hard fought game. They are clearly a much improved side.
This is something we will come up against in our remaining fixtures. Most notably against Boro and W Brom. The rest are either fighting relegation, or in a situation where a couple of wins could shoot them up the table.
The blades are proving very resilient to this though, and also deserve some credit collectively as a squad.
Apologies if this post wanders away from your usual insight on individuals. Just thought it worth mentioning. :)
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We were saying exactly the same on the Kop at the end of the match. We all said in general play, Hull are one of the better teams we'll meet, their problem was they had no goal threat and never looked like scoring but to be fair much of that is down to our excellent defence.

We are becoming masters at parking the bus and locking teams out.

It's not visually great to see but it's very effective. This is probably the most important season in our history, we stand at the crosswords.
Failure to gain promotion this year and next season we will seriously downsize as a club selling all our best player.

So we desperately need promotion this season, hence the style and entertainment is irrelevant this season.
Hecky might also argue he's using the "park the bus" then counter tactic as practice for next season in the Premier League.
 
pommpey said:
Another dirty win, another three points. Hull to their credit didn't come to be beaten at all and come the second half up to them going down to ten looked likely to rob us of two points. There are patterns forming here, in some ways worrying but thankfully unresolved. We start like a fucking house on fire, take an early lead with some decently landed punches then on twenty we switch off and allow the opposition far too much bandwidth and capability to hold us, then press us back in our half so we eventually finish the game camped round our box. Blackpool at home, Norwich at home and even recently Stoke all looked like they could bounce back and shock us. Although we are grateful for riding high at the summit and still in with a challenge on Burnley who look resilient and unbeatable. We don't. We taper off from 20 to 90, giving seventy minutes of gathering peril and worry. Even with ten men on the pitch against us tonight we still never made use of the hole it left and Rosenior even stuck on more attacking options. We spent a great deal of that second half playing the game up at the Bramall Lane end and not sealing the win. Sure, we attacked, but we failed to get it sufficiently together to find Jebbison or Ndaiye to get a shot in on goal. We also spent a lot of the game backtracking after telegraphing balls when on the advance

Hull as said have their share of decent players. Connolly is a good catch and yeah, he's always been a shithouser. But the failings in our team are small but significant and don't permit United to win without penalty. It gives cynics like me the time when we eventually lose to say 'told you so' instead of 'well, it was bound to happen'. I'd rather Hacky startegised the game to control it better if we are ahead. His subs tonight suggested he was far from doing that and it was more desperate punts rather than measured options. Where was Coulibally and McAtee? Why bring on Osborn for Doyle? Sharp for Jebbo? It fells like he's grasping at straws instead of trying to manage the game.

Foderingham 6.5/10: Decent enough game save for daft 'pass it out from the back' choices and the odd punch-where-he-should-have-caught.
Bogle 8.5./10: Drops a half point for an unnecessary yellow card, but again, showed that our right side is mostly complete and ready for the next level, especially with him in the team and not Baldock who is vey much yesterday's defender now
Anel 6.5/10: Involved in the goal and on the advance but in other areas he was somewhat fragile and lacking in vision especially dealing with threats on the ground. Shit pass to Bogle late on
Egan 7.5/10: Got himself right in the fight at the back. Some key headers and interventions. A better game from him.
Robinson 7/10: Some typically robust and committed tackles from him especially in his battle with Connolly. Daft yellow card really. Elsewhere he was okay save for that daft 'play out from the back' which he is never good at.
Lowe 6/10: Quiet game from him and some errors which was disappointing
Norwood 7.5/10: He was really up in the business end in the first half. Because Hull played a narrow back four they gave Lowe and Bogle acres of room out wide and this is where Norwood's Hollywood passes paid out in silver dollars. Second half he was a bit less prominent and pulled deeper to defend and break up Hull's midfield ambitions
Doyle 7/10: Thought he had a great game. He was tenacious, chasing up and down the pitch and out on his side, and stuck to his task. Then he gets subbed. For fucking Osborn. Baffling.
Berge 4.5/10: A slightly better game for Berge, but not by much. Made some headers and ball at feet forays and got into key areas but when we are struggling late on, we need him to carry the ball up the park to relieve the pressure. Get us back on the attack. Play in their half. Instead ... where the fuck is he? No one fears him. Not many pass to him either. He's just not that fucking good, is he?
NDaiye 8/10: Great game. He's just determined to make oppositions fear him being near them, or advancing on goal with purpose. His unsuccessful dance through their defence late on was just shy of that bit of luck to sneak the ball to a waiting
Jebbison 7.5/10: Less effective later on, mainly because we didn't attack like we did in the first half. But fuck me he took his goal well and mixed it up with real purpose with their midfield and defence. I like this kid. He's everything Brewster isn't and then some more and works well with people on either side, creating options and outlets. Next year and some decent game time and he could be a world beater.

Osborn 5/10: Puzzling substitution. He ran about a bit and got into wide areas but his delivery and decision making out there was typically '18 months ago' and somewhat frustrating
Basham 5/10: Didn't see much of him in Berge's position save for a more reassured figure and possibly someone willing to get the ball up the pitch
Sharp 5/10: Did what he had to but bringing him on for Jebbo who still had legs on him was silly. What was he bringing to the game?
McBurnie 5/10: Got himself on the ball straight away and looks eager to prove a point that coming back from injury doesn't involve lengthy first team rehabilitation. Typical dust up from him for their red card

HJ&SMcC: 6/10: A win is another win and thanks guys. But what puzzles me is the lack of drive in the team to control the opposition when we are ahead. This doesn't happen so much when we are away from home. We seem able to cope better when not listening to 29k of Bramall Lane, which is odd. The stadium sounded in fine voice tonight but down there on the green stuff the longer the evening dragged on, the more sandbags we had to put up. Sure, we'll go up at this rate. But I feel that I'd be a lot more confident if tonight's result was 2-0 and we played much of the second half kicking toward the kop and down at that end. It seemed that the red card was the only thing that popped their balloon and it's a shame. We are better than that. We have far more capability built into a pretty slender team. Where was Coullibally? Why wasn't McAtee shoved on to get at their tiring defence?

FA Cup next, like anyone gives a fuck. I'd like us not to get beaten by Wrexham and draw a big club to Bramall Lane, but it exposes us to more risk of injury, especially NdAiye, Bogle and Jebbison who are now the spine of the team.

pommpey
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I think the substitutions were all about fresh legs to honest. We'd conceded a lot of space and possession by that point and Bash and Ossie can certainly get about and put a foot in. Why no McAtee? Hecky is hang on to win guy rather than a "take the game away from them, type of manager I guess.

You are right that they are dirty wins at the moment but overall most weeks we deserve it on balance. The big question is, can we step up if we go behind and we've only really seen that tested at QPR for months and months now.

Surely we give Illy a week off next week - send him somewhere warm and put out a basically 2nd team
 
Good points re Jebbison’s progression further reducing the need for Brewster, even when he’s fit. I’m not sure Brewster will even make our bench when he’s back and I think we’ve got to seriously consider whether we should try and move him on in the Summer.

Ironically, some of that may depend on how long we think we can keep Jebbo.
 
pommpey said:
Another dirty win, another three points. Hull to their credit didn't come to be beaten at all and come the second half up to them going down to ten looked likely to rob us of two points. There are patterns forming here, in some ways worrying but thankfully unresolved. We start like a fucking house on fire, take an early lead with some decently landed punches then on twenty we switch off and allow the opposition far too much bandwidth and capability to hold us, then press us back in our half so we eventually finish the game camped round our box. Blackpool at home, Norwich at home and even recently Stoke all looked like they could bounce back and shock us. Although we are grateful for riding high at the summit and still in with a challenge on Burnley who look resilient and unbeatable. We don't. We taper off from 20 to 90, giving seventy minutes of gathering peril and worry. Even with ten men on the pitch against us tonight we still never made use of the hole it left and Rosenior even stuck on more attacking options. We spent a great deal of that second half playing the game up at the Bramall Lane end and not sealing the win. Sure, we attacked, but we failed to get it sufficiently together to find Jebbison or Ndaiye to get a shot in on goal. We also spent a lot of the game backtracking after telegraphing balls when on the advance

Hull as said have their share of decent players. Connolly is a good catch and yeah, he's always been a shithouser. But the failings in our team are small but significant and don't permit United to win without penalty. It gives cynics like me the time when we eventually lose to say 'told you so' instead of 'well, it was bound to happen'. I'd rather Hacky startegised the game to control it better if we are ahead. His subs tonight suggested he was far from doing that and it was more desperate punts rather than measured options. Where was Coulibally and McAtee? Why bring on Osborn for Doyle? Sharp for Jebbo? It fells like he's grasping at straws instead of trying to manage the game.

Foderingham 6.5/10: Decent enough game save for daft 'pass it out from the back' choices and the odd punch-where-he-should-have-caught.
Bogle 8.5./10: Drops a half point for an unnecessary yellow card, but again, showed that our right side is mostly complete and ready for the next level, especially with him in the team and not Baldock who is vey much yesterday's defender now
Anel 6.5/10: Involved in the goal and on the advance but in other areas he was somewhat fragile and lacking in vision especially dealing with threats on the ground. Shit pass to Bogle late on
Egan 7.5/10: Got himself right in the fight at the back. Some key headers and interventions. A better game from him.
Robinson 7/10: Some typically robust and committed tackles from him especially in his battle with Connolly. Daft yellow card really. Elsewhere he was okay save for that daft 'play out from the back' which he is never good at.
Lowe 6/10: Quiet game from him and some errors which was disappointing
Norwood 7.5/10: He was really up in the business end in the first half. Because Hull played a narrow back four they gave Lowe and Bogle acres of room out wide and this is where Norwood's Hollywood passes paid out in silver dollars. Second half he was a bit less prominent and pulled deeper to defend and break up Hull's midfield ambitions
Doyle 7/10: Thought he had a great game. He was tenacious, chasing up and down the pitch and out on his side, and stuck to his task. Then he gets subbed. For fucking Osborn. Baffling.
Berge 4.5/10: A slightly better game for Berge, but not by much. Made some headers and ball at feet forays and got into key areas but when we are struggling late on, we need him to carry the ball up the park to relieve the pressure. Get us back on the attack. Play in their half. Instead ... where the fuck is he? No one fears him. Not many pass to him either. He's just not that fucking good, is he?
NDaiye 8/10: Great game. He's just determined to make oppositions fear him being near them, or advancing on goal with purpose. His unsuccessful dance through their defence late on was just shy of that bit of luck to sneak the ball to a waiting
Jebbison 7.5/10: Less effective later on, mainly because we didn't attack like we did in the first half. But fuck me he took his goal well and mixed it up with real purpose with their midfield and defence. I like this kid. He's everything Brewster isn't and then some more and works well with people on either side, creating options and outlets. Next year and some decent game time and he could be a world beater.

Osborn 5/10: Puzzling substitution. He ran about a bit and got into wide areas but his delivery and decision making out there was typically '18 months ago' and somewhat frustrating
Basham 5/10: Didn't see much of him in Berge's position save for a more reassured figure and possibly someone willing to get the ball up the pitch
Sharp 5/10: Did what he had to but bringing him on for Jebbo who still had legs on him was silly. What was he bringing to the game?
McBurnie 5/10: Got himself on the ball straight away and looks eager to prove a point that coming back from injury doesn't involve lengthy first team rehabilitation. Typical dust up from him for their red card

HJ&SMcC: 6/10: A win is another win and thanks guys. But what puzzles me is the lack of drive in the team to control the opposition when we are ahead. This doesn't happen so much when we are away from home. We seem able to cope better when not listening to 29k of Bramall Lane, which is odd. The stadium sounded in fine voice tonight but down there on the green stuff the longer the evening dragged on, the more sandbags we had to put up. Sure, we'll go up at this rate. But I feel that I'd be a lot more confident if tonight's result was 2-0 and we played much of the second half kicking toward the kop and down at that end. It seemed that the red card was the only thing that popped their balloon and it's a shame. We are better than that. We have far more capability built into a pretty slender team. Where was Coullibally? Why wasn't McAtee shoved on to get at their tiring defence?

FA Cup next, like anyone gives a fuck. I'd like us not to get beaten by Wrexham and draw a big club to Bramall Lane, but it exposes us to more risk of injury, especially NdAiye, Bogle and Jebbison who are now the spine of the team.

pommpey
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Again I differ on your view of Berge. I thought he played well last night as did some of the local and national press.
Yes, he is frustrating because some of his abilities are above the rest of the squad, but he doesn’t use them enough.
Sometimes we form views of players that we find difficult to change. I recall thinking Bob Booker was a waste of a shirt, but had to change my mind. Perhaps you would reflect on your view of a Berge.
Otherwise I think your resume was spot on : why do I see us win again and feel disappointed ?
 
I thought Berge played well,looked to have more energy than recent games, and was decent without the ball, helping out Bogle and even did a decent defensive header.
Ndaiye got swarmed all over everytime he got the ball, but still produces that great bit of play to slide in Jebbo to apply a great 2 touch finish.
Hull played some nice stuff, but we limited them to one real chance, we are defending really well as a team and on another day could have put one or two more chances away and won comfortably.
 
pommpey said:
There are patterns forming here, in some ways worrying but thankfully unresolved. We start like a fucking house on fire, take an early lead with some decently landed punches then on twenty we switch off and allow the opposition far too much bandwidth and capability to hold us, then press us back in our half so we eventually finish the game camped round our box.
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pommpey said:
I'd rather Hacky startegised the game to control it better if we are ahead.

pommpey
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Think these comments are the "elephant in the room".

This week I've heard comments on the Radio Sheffield phone-in about how we're winning ugly or winning without playing well
but if we break down the performances, as you say, we actually play very well in the early spell and dominate the opposition deservedly gaining a lead.
The match become almost too easy, then we take our foot off the pedal and allow the opposition to come back into the game.
When the win is in sight we then put big number backs in defence and effetely "park the bus"

Everyone is rightfully praising Hecky BUT you imagine if Backpool, Wigan, Stoke or Hull had have scored a late equalizer
then Hecky would be receiving some right stick for being Southgatesque, a negative manager who makes late negative substitutions.
Just because we win...think it's too simplistic to dish out praise and conversely when we lose...it's not alway because we are crap.

Another point that been creeping in to the this thread is......I don't think we've given enough credit to Hull City.
No wonder their fans were feeling confident, ignore their league position, at the moment they are easily a top 10 side.
Yet again our defence was superb resulting in our goalie having little to do.
 
Sheffsteel said:
Think these comments are the "elephant in the room".

This week I've heard comments on the Radio Sheffield phone-in about how we're winning ugly or winning without playing well
but if we break down the performances, as you say, we actually play very well in the early spell and dominate the opposition deservedly gaining a lead.
The match become almost too easy, then we take our foot off the pedal and allow the opposition to come back into the game.
When the win is in sight we then put big number backs in defence and effetely "park the bus"

Everyone is rightfully praising Hecky BUT you imagine if Backpool, Wigan, Stoke or Hull had have scored a late equalizer
then Hecky would be receiving some right stick for being Southgatesque, a negative manager who makes late negative substitutions.
Just because we win...think it's too simplistic to dish out praise and conversely when we lose...it's not alway because we are crap.

Another point that been creeping in to the this thread is......I don't think we've given enough credit to Hull City.
No wonder their fans were feeling confident, ignore their league position, at the moment they are easily a top 10 side.
Yet again our defence was superb resulting in our goalie having little to do.
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Good assessment imo
 
pommpey said:
Another dirty win, another three points. Hull to their credit didn't come to be beaten at all and come the second half up to them going down to ten looked likely to rob us of two points. There are patterns forming here, in some ways worrying but thankfully unresolved. We start like a fucking house on fire, take an early lead with some decently landed punches then on twenty we switch off and allow the opposition far too much bandwidth and capability to hold us, then press us back in our half so we eventually finish the game camped round our box. Blackpool at home, Norwich at home and even recently Stoke all looked like they could bounce back and shock us. Although we are grateful for riding high at the summit and still in with a challenge on Burnley who look resilient and unbeatable. We don't. We taper off from 20 to 90, giving seventy minutes of gathering peril and worry. Even with ten men on the pitch against us tonight we still never made use of the hole it left and Rosenior even stuck on more attacking options. We spent a great deal of that second half playing the game up at the Bramall Lane end and not sealing the win. Sure, we attacked, but we failed to get it sufficiently together to find Jebbison or Ndaiye to get a shot in on goal. We also spent a lot of the game backtracking after telegraphing balls when on the advance

Hull as said have their share of decent players. Connolly is a good catch and yeah, he's always been a shithouser. But the failings in our team are small but significant and don't permit United to win without penalty. It gives cynics like me the time when we eventually lose to say 'told you so' instead of 'well, it was bound to happen'. I'd rather Hacky startegised the game to control it better if we are ahead. His subs tonight suggested he was far from doing that and it was more desperate punts rather than measured options. Where was Coulibally and McAtee? Why bring on Osborn for Doyle? Sharp for Jebbo? It fells like he's grasping at straws instead of trying to manage the game.

Foderingham 6.5/10: Decent enough game save for daft 'pass it out from the back' choices and the odd punch-where-he-should-have-caught.
Bogle 8.5./10: Drops a half point for an unnecessary yellow card, but again, showed that our right side is mostly complete and ready for the next level, especially with him in the team and not Baldock who is vey much yesterday's defender now
Anel 6.5/10: Involved in the goal and on the advance but in other areas he was somewhat fragile and lacking in vision especially dealing with threats on the ground. Shit pass to Bogle late on
Egan 7.5/10: Got himself right in the fight at the back. Some key headers and interventions. A better game from him.
Robinson 7/10: Some typically robust and committed tackles from him especially in his battle with Connolly. Daft yellow card really. Elsewhere he was okay save for that daft 'play out from the back' which he is never good at.
Lowe 6/10: Quiet game from him and some errors which was disappointing
Norwood 7.5/10: He was really up in the business end in the first half. Because Hull played a narrow back four they gave Lowe and Bogle acres of room out wide and this is where Norwood's Hollywood passes paid out in silver dollars. Second half he was a bit less prominent and pulled deeper to defend and break up Hull's midfield ambitions
Doyle 7/10: Thought he had a great game. He was tenacious, chasing up and down the pitch and out on his side, and stuck to his task. Then he gets subbed. For fucking Osborn. Baffling.
Berge 4.5/10: A slightly better game for Berge, but not by much. Made some headers and ball at feet forays and got into key areas but when we are struggling late on, we need him to carry the ball up the park to relieve the pressure. Get us back on the attack. Play in their half. Instead ... where the fuck is he? No one fears him. Not many pass to him either. He's just not that fucking good, is he?
NDaiye 8/10: Great game. He's just determined to make oppositions fear him being near them, or advancing on goal with purpose. His unsuccessful dance through their defence late on was just shy of that bit of luck to sneak the ball to a waiting
Jebbison 7.5/10: Less effective later on, mainly because we didn't attack like we did in the first half. But fuck me he took his goal well and mixed it up with real purpose with their midfield and defence. I like this kid. He's everything Brewster isn't and then some more and works well with people on either side, creating options and outlets. Next year and some decent game time and he could be a world beater.

Osborn 5/10: Puzzling substitution. He ran about a bit and got into wide areas but his delivery and decision making out there was typically '18 months ago' and somewhat frustrating
Basham 5/10: Didn't see much of him in Berge's position save for a more reassured figure and possibly someone willing to get the ball up the pitch
Sharp 5/10: Did what he had to but bringing him on for Jebbo who still had legs on him was silly. What was he bringing to the game?
McBurnie 5/10: Got himself on the ball straight away and looks eager to prove a point that coming back from injury doesn't involve lengthy first team rehabilitation. Typical dust up from him for their red card

HJ&SMcC: 6/10: A win is another win and thanks guys. But what puzzles me is the lack of drive in the team to control the opposition when we are ahead. This doesn't happen so much when we are away from home. We seem able to cope better when not listening to 29k of Bramall Lane, which is odd. The stadium sounded in fine voice tonight but down there on the green stuff the longer the evening dragged on, the more sandbags we had to put up. Sure, we'll go up at this rate. But I feel that I'd be a lot more confident if tonight's result was 2-0 and we played much of the second half kicking toward the kop and down at that end. It seemed that the red card was the only thing that popped their balloon and it's a shame. We are better than that. We have far more capability built into a pretty slender team. Where was Coullibally? Why wasn't McAtee shoved on to get at their tiring defence?

FA Cup next, like anyone gives a fuck. I'd like us not to get beaten by Wrexham and draw a big club to Bramall Lane, but it exposes us to more risk of injury, especially NdAiye, Bogle and Jebbison who are now the spine of the team.

pommpey
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I thought Doyle was no more than a 5. Most of the time when he received the ball he played it back or sideways. There were a lot of times when he could have looked for the forward pass or taken it forward himself bu5 he didn’t - too much safety first - disappointing.
 
Dnblade said:
I thought Berge played well,looked to have more energy than recent games, and was decent without the ball, helping out Bogle and even did a decent defensive header.
Ndaiye got swarmed all over everytime he got the ball, but still produces that great bit of play to slide in Jebbo to apply a great 2 touch finish.
Hull played some nice stuff, but we limited them to one real chance, we are defending really well as a team and on another day could have put one or two more chances away and won comfortably.
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Around me.....we all noticed that Berge was better too, he seemed more "up for it", more effort and physicality.
Noticed him doing plenty of off the ball running working hard instead of being a passenger.
I'd say his performance was more OK (acceptable) rather than good.

Regards Berge is often more about frustration regards his inconsistency within the same matches, he produced quality then drifts out
and of course, anyone with a higher price tag means there's a bigger expectation.
 

Greystones Blade said:
I thought Doyle was no more than a 5. Most of the time when he received the ball he played it back or sideways. There were a lot of times when he could have looked for the forward pass or taken it forward himself bu5 he didn’t - too much safety first - disappointing.
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Agree - we made exactly same comment but at least he was energetic and put his foot in

He just needs coaching / instruction from Norwood to calm down ,to turn around and play forward . Then we may have a gem (or City do anyway )
 
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