Positives - today was better

[1973Blade]

Ok far from perfect, but today was an improvement. More direct rather than hundreds of sideways passes that drive me mad. Finally we see Seriki play, we need him to feature on the right he is our best attacking option there. Peck's best game for a while and yes Cannon had a decent first half and showed us there can be a player there. We've fallen back and Coventry have improved, that's where we are. Bit today was much better.

 

[Bladesman]

Ok far from perfect, but today was an improvement. More direct rather than hundreds of sideways passes that drive me bad. Finally we see Seriki play, we need him to feature on the right he is our best attacking option there. Peck's best game for a while and yes Cannon had a decent first half and showed us there can be a player there. We've fallen back and Coventry have improved, that's where we are. Bit today was much better.

Better but still not good enough. Last season we come away with at least a draw from that.

 

[AdamSufc1997]

We still got fuck all

 

[Younger Dryas Blade]

What was said at H/T? We came out slow, deep and scared to death. Why didn't we just believe in what we were doing first half and carry that on? And why the fuck does Tanganga keep challenging his own players in the box?

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

80% of a very good performance.

Hopefully we've seen how much better we look with a proper RB, X2 upfront and a physical CDM...

 

[SwitchBLADE Smiles]

We’ve improved from being apoplectically shit… to just plain shit. We need a Chris Wilder circa 2017 level transfer window now to hopefully not get relegated.

Mental.

 

[1973Blade]

Better but still not good enough. Last season we come away with at least a draw from that.

True, but we're clearly a worse team than we were last season. Compared with what we've seen this season that was better. We're in a relegation battle, if we play like we did in the first half we will stay up.

 

[Lane Ender]

Ok far from perfect, but today was an improvement. More direct rather than hundreds of sideways passes that drive me bad. Finally we see Seriki play, we need him to feature on the right he is our best attacking option there. Peck's best game for a while and yes Cannon had a decent first half and showed us there can be a player there. We've fallen back and Coventry have improved, that's where we are. Bit today was much better.

Still look as weak as piss in the last third

 

[Willglynning]

Has it actually come to this?

Genuinely outrageous.

 

[Bladesman]

True, but we're clearly a worse team than we were last season. Compared with what we've seen this season that was better. We're in a relegation battle, if we play like we did in the first half we will stay up.

I agree but Wilder isn't doing anything to stop these goals leaking. Our xG is in the top 5 of the division but our defending and mistake making is awful.

 

[steve26272]

Is long balls into the channels for Campbell and cannon to ‘chase’ better than tippy tappy bollox any better?

We don’t play through the thirds, just lump it up as no one has the balls to play football

Not sure how we go from 92 points to this shite, board players and wilder need to accept it’s not good enough

 

[coolasanidiot]

Played really well- took it to them (for once), that loss was on A Davies - all 3 goals Coventry got, Cooper doesn't concede.

This isn't on Wilder at all, he's got a lot of absolute dross to work with.

 

[Chimpan-A]

What was said at H/T? We came out slow, deep and scared to death. Why didn't we just believe in what we were doing first half and carry that on? And why the fuck does Tanganga keep challenging his own players in the box?

The comms were spunking over Coventry’s early pressure, but it was because we parked ourselves on our area and kept booting it out for throws they could hurl in. It’s like we deliberately gave them their first two goals, it was so obviously going to happen.
Less said about the third the better.

 

[Lowen]

Percentage football, all of our good moments were off the back of Mee’s channel balls. Coventry just another side who didn’t need to play well to beat us.

 

[Trigger]

Played really well- took it to them (for once), that loss was on A Davies - all 3 goals Coventry got, Cooper doesn't concede.

This isn't on Wilder at all, he's got a lot of absolute dross to work with.

Not having a pop, but seriously ‘played really well’???
Watching a different game to me mate.
Dogshit except for 0’Hare.

 

[blades_95]

I agree in the context that we were away at top of the league - we weren’t suddenly going to fix everything 3 days after getting beat 3-0 at home. I don’t think tonight is the night to dig them out too much. Some positives & signs of improvement for me that we need to stick with:

• Finally playing two up top - Campbell was much more involved (albeit wasteful) & Cannon made some decent runs first half. Play them together for a few games and let them try and form a partnership.
• Seriki back involved - we need his thrust down that right side.
• McCallum - decent both ways tonight against a top winger.
• O’Hare - not quite at the same level but still better. Peck was a bit better higher up too.
• We did battle back a little and put them under pressure for an equaliser.

Some areas of concern (some of them repeat issues):

• We look so fragile when teams put us under sustained pressure. To concede to a long throw and a corner away at top of the league is so frustrating. Mee / McGuinness / Tanganga should deal with that stuff comfortably but we’re getting bullied.
• The experienced / safe players are not good enough. Mee / McGuinness / Ings / Riedewald / Ogbene are all poor and their supposed influence is not helping us through tough moments.
• Davies.

Hopefully tonight Wilder has learned a few things that we need to stick with. Stick with the two up top, and get Seriki back in with some consistent game time. I’d also like to see One & Brooks given more consistent chances to grow rather than Ings (completely past it sadly) and Ogbene (getting worse every week). At least we’d be prioritising our own young players who can develop / grow and may be a bit more fearless.

I expect to be back to the same formation / approach on Saturday but let’s see - next 2 games are huge.

 

[Bladesman]

I agree in the context that we were away at top of the league - we weren’t suddenly going to fix everything 3 days after getting beat 3-0 at home. I don’t think tonight is the night to dig them out too much. Some positives & signs of improvement for me that we need to stick with:

• Finally playing two up top - Campbell was much more involved (albeit wasteful) & Cannon made some decent runs first half. Play them together for a few games and let them try and form a partnership.
• Seriki back involved - we need his thrust down that right side.
• McCallum - decent both ways tonight against a top winger.
• O’Hare - not quite at the same level but still better. Peck was a bit better higher up too.
• We did battle back a little and put them under pressure for an equaliser.

Some areas of concern (some of them repeat issues):

• We look so fragile when teams put us under sustained pressure. To concede to a long throw and a corner away at top of the league is so frustrating. Mee / McGuinness / Tanganga should deal with that stuff comfortably but we’re getting bullied.
• The experienced / safe players are not good enough. Mee / McGuinness / Ings / Riedewald / Ogbene are all poor and their supposed influence is not helping us through tough moments.
• Davies.

Hopefully tonight Wilder has learned a few things that we need to stick with. Stick with the two up top, and get Seriki back in with some consistent game time. I’d also like to see One & Brooks given more consistent chances to grow rather than Ings (completely past it sadly) and Ogbene (getting worse every week). At least we’d be prioritising our own young players who can develop / grow and may be a bit more fearless.

I expect to be back to the same formation / approach on Saturday but let’s see - next 2 games are huge.

I thought Jairo was fine and its losing him in midfield that makes us worse. Maybe he can't really do a full 90 mins but I feel better with him alongside Peck at the moment.

 

[Guesty]

Conceded three for the third game in a row and people are tripping over themselves to say it was better, actually, if you think about it, in some ways.

That spells doomed to me.

 

[AWetFlannel]

What was said at H/T? We came out slow, deep and scared to death. Why didn't we just believe in what we were doing first half and carry that on?

They came out different. You can't always see everything from only our perspective because there's two teams on the pitch. They were fired up, aggressive and are a team full of confidence and goals, at home with the crowd behind them.

 

[Younger Dryas Blade]

They came out different. You can't always see everything from only our perspective because there's two teams on the pitch. They were fired up, aggressive and are a team full of confidence and goals, at home with the crowd behind them.

So why not just say, let them come? Keep our shape as we did first half and if they over-commit we have more opportunities going forward? If the score, so what. Stick to your guns.

 

[AWetFlannel]

So why not just say, let them come? Keep our shape as we did first half and if they over-commit we have more opportunities going forward? If the score, so what. Stick to your guns.

You react to what they are doing, you can't just ignore it. Mason Clark comes on at HT and he's your man (Tanganga), but he's holding the width much more than Asante was. You can't just leave him and say "fuck that, let him have it".

After conceding the second and they slowed down, we played fairly well again imo. It's not as though we didn't stick to our guns, we just got properly tested for 15 minutes by the best team in the league, conceded one and the keeper gave them another.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Things I thought were better :
1. We came out with a game plan and for 45 minutes it generally worked.
2. We got the ball forward quicker, thus putting pressure on them.
3. We put more balls in the box, instead of going sideways and backwards, and we actually had men in there; albeit not necessarily on the end of it.
4. We actually looked a threat from set pieces and of course scored from one.
5. We looked better set up in a 4-4-2

Things that were the same or worse :
1. Individual errors for all 3 goals
2. Adam Davies - as soon as he was coming on I knew we were fucked.
3. Cannon - he did about two things that were ok but he also did a few dreadful things due to his (lack of any semblance of) touch or control. Apart from that he did his usual trick of hiding while making it look like he was running into space and half-heartedly trying to win the ball. Watch him, he moves towards the ball and backs out at the last second. Hopefully he's done now in a Blades shirt because that was another cowardly performance.
4. McGuinness is a poor player. He might be big but he doesn't use his strength to any effect. Hopefully Seriki will come in at RB and Tanganga can move into the middle where he should be at least until we can get a proper RB in.
5. Ogbene was poor, just ran into traffic, fell down or gave it away. Brooks had more effect on the game in the first 5 mins he was on than Ogbene. Realise the problem is that Brooks seems to do better when he comes on than when he starts.

 

[Houston_Blade]

We used to take the piss out of the pig fans and their 0-0 wins, now we’re expected to be happy with a 3-1 loss at Coventry.

That’s Coventry, not Pep’s Barca or Man City, fucking Coventry.

Conceding 3 goals again and only scoring 1 with some awful defensive play and even worse goalkeeping isn’t anything to get excited about.

We’ve also thrown a lead away for the 2nd time in 3 games. It’s dire.

 

[Weasel]

I feel that we can go on a decent unbeaten run now and not get beat now for at least 3 days. Admittedly, i see a problem fixture on Saturday looming, but we should be confident that our players can avoid defeat until at least the weekend arrives. That has to be a positive.

 

[Blacksea]

The comms were spunking over Coventry’s early pressure, but it was because we parked ourselves on our area and kept booting it out for throws they could hurl in. It’s like we deliberately gave them their first two goals, it was so obviously going to happen.
Less said about the third the better.

This is spot on, nobody was willing to take charge of the situation that developed straight from the kickoff in the second half,get hold of the ball and get us up the pitch.
We lost loads of second balls allowing the pressure to continue way past acceptable levels and the second half pattern was set there and then.
Most of these players are powder puff in mind and body,so easy to out muscle and force the mistake.You can excuse limited ability players who leave everything on the pitch,put themselves about and have a will to win mentality,these type can actually get a team out of a hole in games and win a relegation battle,but these losers just don't have a win at all costs bone in their bodies in most cases

 

[AndyWinks]

Percentage football, all of our good moments were off the back of Mee’s channel balls. Coventry just another side who didn’t need to play well to beat us.

That's my observation. It's so easy to score against us.

 

[Jan Age]

Either the exception of Soumare every single loan signing is shit and needs to be cancelled.., that’s next level bad dealings if you ask me.

80% of the perms are also shit panic buys late in the window

None of that is on wilder.

However I believe that 11 is better than where they are and wilder is failing to achieve in that respect….

But for me when a situation gets like this it’s been coming over the years not overnight … you have to look at the ones been around it longest who must now be part of the problem

1) Bettis
2) Wilder

They aren’t part of the solution any more

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Either the exception of Soumare every single loan signing is shit and needs to be cancelled.., that’s next level bad dealings if you ask me.

80% of the perms are also shit panic buys late in the window

None of that is on wilder.

However I believe that 11 is better than where they are and wilder is failing to achieve in that respect….

But for me when a situation gets like this it’s been coming over the years not overnight … you have to look at the ones been around it longest who must now be part of the problem

1) Bettis
2) Wilder

They aren’t part of the solution any more

Since Wilder has come in we have actually won games and even been in ones we lost. You have to be blind to see he hasn't improved us. Even got us scoring goals or creating something that we weren't before.


Do agree with the transfer window. Historically bad window.

 

[S64 Blade]

Since Wilder has come in we have actually won games and even been in ones we lost. You have to be blind to see he hasn't improved us. Even got us scoring goals or creating something that we weren't before.


Do agree with the transfer window. Historically bad window.

That’s lovely, but we are also still in the bottom 3 and continue to concede at an even more alarming rate.

 

[FlamingLip]

True, but we're clearly a worse team than we were last season. Compared with what we've seen this season that was better. We're in a relegation battle, if we play like we did in the first half we will stay up.

If we play like we did first half AND vastly improve second half fitness. And for that we need new players. Else we'll always fade and get worn down.