Our 3 big signings this season

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Christ. At least he doesn’t speak in 3rd person eh. Some home truths needed I think:

Berge - Okay Sander Berge is a 22 year old footballer, at the very minimum performing to Europa League standards as a CDM before he came here.

He’s come into united playing a completely alien system which doesn’t accentuate any of his good attributes and highlights his deficiencies. He’s still shown willing and put a lot of effort into all the behind the scenes work that a lot of players don’t. Getting on with the dressing room, doing 1 on 1 training, watching endless videos from the last 18 months to learn what’s expected of him. Remember too he’s made a huge step to move over to a new country, alone, and found himself in the midst of a global pandemic. He’s living and sleeping and eating alone in a hotel room in Sheffield. Got to play a factor mentally.

His lifespan as a footballer playing at least this level is around 12-14 years. What is the lifespan of our overlapping 352 system? 12-14 months at best probably. Give him time. Yes, he rejected us last summer because we were a newly promoted, cannon fodder team. He changed his mind and after watching all our games, joined us, despite having the pick of anyone in Europe by all accounts. He’s a proper football nut and realised something special was happening at United that he wanted a part of. He has invested in us due to the amazing connection with the club and fans. Those fans are now coming on message boards to slag him off.

He is a millennial. He will read all this shit you’re writing about him. He will be across all social media and probably these message boards. How do you think that would make him feel to read that his loyal fans that made that song about him are now calling him a fraud because of about 250 minutes out of position where he played poorly. We’re no better than pigs. Rimming him when it suits and using him as a scapegoat a week later. Pathetic. Look at yourselves.

In balance, I would prefer he was a little tougher, and would recommend to excel in this league you could be more tough and resilient and at his size he could become a brick wall shielding the defence. He already has the ball control and passing range which would make him a truly world class talent. In order to become that though, you need faith and patience and support from the fan base. Without that, he’s going to become a self fulfilling prophecy and flop, because that’s what you’re all telling him he is.

Mcburnie - I like Mcburnie. He does go missing in games but I think that’s down to the complete lack of service. I think he looks brilliant when we are playing a team where we are looking to dominate possession. If we’re playing on the break his shirt could be used on something else.

One thing I am surprised about though is that whenever we played against him, he was more a Mcgoldrick, dripping into the half spaces and creating stuff for others. He doesnt seem to have that about him at the moment.

Wilder - it’s unreal. The thread titles on the front page of this forum after 20mins ater final whistle were depressing. I’m starting to think we don’t deserve him as a boss. He’s done an unbelievable job.

The interesting thing is that wilder has never managed at this level. We’re all so proud to say he’s one of our own. We’re all so proud to tell everyone that will listen where he’s come from, how little experience he has at this level and how he’s never had 2 quid to rub together, yet the minute that he makes a mistake, before he’s even had a chance to learn from it, everyone is flogging him and almost suggesting he hasn’t done well enough this year and has made errors you wouldn’t have made yourself.

He’s inexperienced. He’s a quick learner but the only way to learn is from making mistakes. He’s one of our own and we should be proud to give him time to experiet to learn lessons for the future. Don’t ducking scare him off like you are with Berge. If you sing ‘he’s one of our own’ at games, don’t fucking come onto this forum and slag him off behind the keyboard you fickle bastards.

My two penneth anyway.

If you honestly think that Berge had the pick of anyone in Europe, and yet altruistically joined us, then fair play. I suspect his Agent did his job. We wanted him in the summer, the Agent let it be known and expected better to approach him in the JTW. I suspect only us wanted him the JTW, that’s why he’s here. Paying him more than he was on previously and offering him a temporary platform to enable his next move.

If Sevilla or Lazio or Dortmund or Lyon would’ve seriously wanted him, he’d be there, banking £2m a year, steeping himself in their rich history. There’s a big difference between liking the look of someone & spending £20m on them.

Unless we intend to change our formation, he doesn’t appear to possess the required skill sets that we are currently crying out for.

McBurnie was bought to be our lead forward & score goals, and that is what he will be judged upon until someone else is bought for £20m to score goals, and McBurnie then drops into a role of creating goals & that of support striker.

Our collection of forward’s have scored the grand total of 13 goals between them this season, a figure that really needs to be doubled next season or we’ll be fighting relegation.

Who and how we score those goals is now of primary concern to me, and needs addressing ASAP.

If either Berge or McB were lads we’d brought in from Barnsley for small money and were currently playing the way there are there would be hell to pay.
 
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You've obviously put a lot of thought and effort into that which , to some extent , is commendable .

However , your statement that " Berge has joined a team based on agricultural effort and work rate rather than silky foreign skills " is quite ridiculous and an insult to both the players and management of our club .

As you may have gathered , I go back a long way in following our team and can tell you that some of our performances this year , particularly in the Autumn/ early Winter period , were up there with some of the best I've ever seen from us .

These performances were by no stretch of the imagination based on the methods you so disparingly suggest , but rather on an ethos and style of play coupled with technical ability , which left some of the best teams in the land struggling to cope with us for large parts of the game .

As to Mr. Berge's "silky foreign skills ", I can only assume that you are referring to his ability to provide a decent short to medium sideways or backward pass . Or perhaps you can provide other evidence of his outstanding attributes which I have overlooked .
Thanks for your reply.
First of all we are of a similar vintage. Secondly, my apologies for decribing our style as agricultural, but my point was more about a hard working TEAM making up for star player deficiencies. That team work and support play has improved the less skillful players and their contributionto the system, but they are still predominantly journeymen who have benefitted from a team mutual support ethos.
Very few could take that level of game into any other side and play anywhere near as well. It’s the style and the system that makes them better players.
Berge is class from a very different world. He will eschew star status in order to fit in.
As I said, his earliest games he tried hard to take up attacking positions, only to be ignored when he was the best option for a killer pass.
He has subverted his natural style to fit the system and it will take longer to adapt.
Claims that he is ponderous are amusing. His pace is deceptive because of his size. He can cover ground quickly because one of his strides is twice the distance of any other player. Deceptively quick, he looks like slow motion but he’s gone.
He does not have the benefit of growing up in the English game, and that makes his game different. People often become scared or worried when faced with difference, or change. The automatic reaction is to fight it, or dismiss it, as many fans on here have done.
Berge is one for the future, hopefully with us.
 
Add in Luke Freeman & Callum Robinson & you have approximately £65 million on 5 players. This works out at about £1 million per 90 minutes. Value for money I don't think.
 
He is a millennial. He will read all this shit you’re writing about him. He will be across all social media and probably these message boards. How do you think that would make him feel to read that his loyal fans that made that song about him are now calling him a fraud because of about 250 minutes out of position where he played poorly. We’re no better than pigs. Rimming him when it suits and using him as a scapegoat a week later. Pathetic. Look at yourselves.
This sums it up for me.
We like to make out we're so much classier and better in every way than the pigs but we really aren't.

People wanna fucking grow up.
 
Just consider this.........

It has taken Liverpool 30 years to win the Premier league with the following stats...

£1.47bn spent, 239 players, nine permanent managers - Liverpool's 30-year wait in numbers

So lets not get ahead of ourselves & expect that after 1 season & a couple of £20 million pound buys we are going to be realistically competing for the CL. But we are competing with them, playing in the same league & dining at the top table with them & the others with mega bucks owners.


Of those 239 players dozens of them have failed to make an impact, nameless players who were moved on, but many of them making a good career elsewhere, & good luck to them.
This is our first experience of the PL in 12 years so lets be happy to be here, & recognise there will be some signings that don't work out, but hopefully there will be those that make us stronger. And remember nearly £1.5 billion & 239 players over 30 years!

MTLBWY

UTB
 
And to cheer us up even more....Looking at the Liverpool signings

Inevitably, there has been the good, the bad and the ugly.

For every Luis Suarez or Virgil van Dijk, there is a Torben Piechnik, a Bruno Cheyrou and a Sean Dundee.

And then there are the big-money disasters, more often than not failing forwards, like Andy Carroll (£35m, six goals in 44 league games), Christian Benteke (£32.5m, nine in 29) or Mario Balotelli (£16m, one in 16).

And most interesting of all......

Arguably, the best players that came into the side between 1990 and 2020 are the ones they got for nothing; academy graduates Robbie Fowler, Gerrard, Carragher, Michael Owen and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
 
And would you believe it Liverpool have a dedicated 'Throw in' coach'?

A throw in coach!
 
I think for what we paid and the difference he has made this season, 5 goals and 4 assists a number of which he created himself, Moose has been value for money. 9 million and the difference between lower mid table and competing for Europe. The question is, that he does seem the be Premier class, but with the fitness, we may not see much more. McBurnie for now, is in the opposite corner, that is the dilemma. He was signed to be a starting player and therefore we can expect more if an impact, than he has had, he has not been best serviced, but for now as with Berge, they are players we are hoping will develop and trusting in Wilders vision. I don't write them off, we have seen how often players step up in laters season. I cannot understand how people write players off so quickly. But, it is a question how we best sign players who can have a direct impact on the squad.
 
Bert I said something similar on another thread only 2 minutes ago, I pray that you are wrong but it looks like £50 squandered. And what do you mean Moose looks good when fit? He plays 30 minutes & is then off to a nothing challenge & has not scored since November!
Fifty pounds wasted.🥺
 
Moose has done enough to justify his price, 5 Prem goals and most of them got us points.

McBurnie is bang out of form, but had started to show some before the break, but any strikers at the moment are on a hiding to nothing with sod all service.

Berge is starting to worry me now for this season. Played 45 minutes in his natural position today and made more mistakes than positive contributions from what I saw. He doesn't currently look able from a mental or physical standpoint to play for us in this league.

I'll reserve judgement until next season though, I expect we'll fiddle with the formation to fit him in better.
For 20 million quid, starting to show form in March says it all.
 
You know what's most disappointing?
When I've raised concerns about players when things have been going well I've got slated, now we've hit a bit of a lull (and I've already said why I think this is) suddenly these same concerns are valid. I'm not talking about everybody but some people need to have a quiet word with themselves over the difference between playing well and just getting a result.
Moving on, Sheffield United need to adapt because the high energy game in hot and humid conditions is going to destroy our players and they will look incompetent.
 
Far to early imo on any of them, going to need another season at least
 
Deano would likely struggle in our system this season so far so I’m not pinning that on McBurnie, just to be clear I’m not saying Deano wouldn’t be better but he wouldn’t be banging in 15 plus so far either

We aren’t IMO going down next year based on one or 2 signings, we will go down because of the overall squad being unable to reproduce this season plus other things like injuries etc

What we have to do is find that missing link between midfield and strikers and I don’t think Berge was bought for that specific role and I don’t think his price tag dictates that either

Why Wilder isn’t giving Freeman the chance to be that link I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t think he can be that
 
The trouble is, as we have witnessed, £20m buys you very little in the Striker department. Look what Newcastle got for double that price in Joelinton. The figures are eye watering to us, because we have never spent that amount before, but as far a Premium league spending goes its very low. We either need to unearth a diamond from somewhere or spend more to get better. The trouble is spending more (Joelinton) gives you no grantees whatsoever.
 



Get a sense of perspective ffs. We were safe from relegation months ago. We achieved our goal and are still in the top half of the fucking Prem. We don’t have to have enjoyed recent performances but give this team some fucking credit. Absolutely embarrassing.
 
Yes, he rejected us last summer because we were a newly promoted, cannon fodder team. He changed his mind and after watching all our games, joined us, despite having the pick of anyone in Europe by all accounts. He’s a proper football nut and realised something special was happening at United that he wanted a part of. He has invested in us due to the amazing connection with the club and fans. Those fans are now coming on message boards to slag him off.

That's wishful thinking.

Berge has been linked with leaving Genk for 2-3 years. He has been on the radar of many many top clubs, that's true. But he didn't 'reject' other sides in Europe, none of them have seen enough of what they wanted to take a punt on him.

The 'something special was happening at United' is not the reason he joined. He saw in January that he would be guaranteed one and a half seasons of Premier League football at least. That gives him plenty of time to play at a higher standard, and convince the top clubs that were unsure about him that he can perform at this level.

Loyalty doesn't exist in football these days, and that's not a criticism of players. Clubs discarding players they don't think good enough is no different to a player discarding a club he thinks isn't good enough for him.

Berge is a very good signing for the club imo.
 
Get a sense of perspective ffs. We were safe from relegation months ago. We achieved our goal and are still in the top half of the fucking Prem. We don’t have to have enjoyed recent performances but give this team some fucking credit. Absolutely embarrassing.
Give this team some credit he says, merely 2 days after slagging a 22 year old lad of ours whos adjusting to the division, playing out of position, in a side in an awful rut. Ok... 😂
 
For years I though Jordan Henderson was crap, but low and behold a new manager comes & moulds him into a player who fits perfectly into Liverpool's system, & they win the league. I did not happen overnight.
 
Why are players who are considered 'not good enough' the target of criticism.

You can criticize a player for a lack of desire/effort, but ability?
That's the responsibility of the person who signed him.
 
Give this team some credit he says, merely 2 days after slagging a 22 year old lad of ours whos adjusting to the division, playing out of position, in a side in an awful rut. Ok... 😂
Knew you’d pipe up despite me agreeing with you on this thread. You’ll find I wasn’t simply “slagging” Berge, I was disagreeing with you about wanting him in the team over Norwood. But yeah infer whatever you want. Sad bloke.
 
Knew you’d pipe up despite me agreeing with you on this thread. You’ll find I wasn’t simply “slagging” Berge, I was disagreeing with you about wanting him in the team over Norwood. But yeah infer whatever you want. Sad bloke.
I'm a sad bloke coming from the chap who slags off a 22 year old lad at every opportunity. Strange.
 
I'm a sad bloke coming from the chap who slags off a 22 year old lad at every opportunity. Strange.
Go on then, provide me the evidence of me slagging him off. I seem to remember asking you what you thought of his performances in a Blades shirt. And after harping on about 1 game he supposedly played well for Genk to other posters you blathered on about him being out of position. Basically trying to avoid saying he’s not been very good so far.
 
Go on then, provide me the evidence of me slagging him off. I seem to remember asking you what you thought of his performances in a Blades shirt. And after harping on about 1 game he supposedly played well for Genk to other posters you blathered on about him being out of position. Basically trying to avoid saying he’s not been very good so far.
Has anyone been very good so far?
I used one game as a yardstick, easily accessible on tinternet and against the Champions of our division (who we were absolutely schooled by), Europe, and the World.
You can search for many games in Europe, also easily accessible, but not against quite the same calibre of opposition.

Simple stuff really aint it?
 
Moose has played in 82 Premier League games in total and scored 8 goals.
1 in 10 and no apparent prospect of improving on that statistic

Most of those games Moose was a sub.
Moose has never had a regular run on games in the PL but he’s still young and from what little we’ve seen is worth the gamble.
 



Has anyone been very good so far?
I used one game as a yardstick, easily accessible on tinternet and against the Champions of our division (who we were absolutely schooled by), Europe, and the World.
You can search for many games in Europe, also easily accessible, but not against quite the same calibre of opposition.

Simple stuff really aint it?
No evidence then? Okay.
Can’t be too simple as you’ve only the one example. You’ve heard of that thing called the burden of proof right? It’s all good telling me to do research but it seems that you haven’t done any either.
Again you’re trying to mask the fact he has done absolutely nothing in a Blades shirt so far. Some of the judgements he receives on here are over the top, and he needs more time obviously. But my issue was some wanting to drop Norwood for him, despite the fact he’s had no positive effect on the team so far, whereas Norwood is arguably our most important player in the current set up.
 

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