Pros and Cons - Derby at home

[Maurice Maurice]

It's great being a Blades fan, it really is Fuck me, I was up at 3:30am for that and after 30 minutes, if it hadn't been for the fact that the wife was still in bed I'd have got the power drill and drilled my fucking eyes out...so onto the pros and cons. Last week there were hardly any cons as we easily beat a dog shit Bristol City, onto today and on paper we were playing an even worse Derby County.

CONS
The starting line up. Blaster had a decent game last week, good enough to play him in front of Sydie? Not a chance, he's still struggling to look owt like fit and today he was terrible. Being the father of Wilders grandchild obviously helps because if it's a football decision he's on the bench.
Brereton Diaz, another aimless, pointless game for a poor player but one who's obviously seen as better than Donovan because our leader keeps picking him ahead of him. Maybe Wilder likes his beard, I honestly don't know.
Our strikers, Bamford falls down all the time and despite bundling the equaliser in today, had he been more combative who knows, he might have created a lot more. Cannon, I got criticised for praising his pressing game a week or two back, today he didn't press, he did fuck all but with no real service, I get it's not easy.
Wilder lied to us this week, he said that you have to play your way into the team and be good enough to keep your place. BBD never has a better game than Donovan, Blaster never offers more than Sydie. Pick your best team for fucks sake!
Points deduction, not for the financial stuff but if we keep turning out performances like we did before Donovan came on we could be looking at a big hit for crimes against football. That first hour was absolute fucking dross.

PROS
Nice to see Seriki back, looked a bit rusty but he offers more going forward and Hamza needs a break from getting done playing out of position every week.
Coops made a couple of very important saves and we could easily have been 2 or 3 down before their goalies heroics.
Phillips again, looks assured, wants the ball but must wonder what the hell he's watching sometimes from the rest of our hapless heroes.
Donovan, you all saw that performance, no need for more words from me, I just hope our leader has the bollocks to act on it.

 

[Chezzy Blades]

It's great being a Blades fan, it really is Fuck me, I was up at 3:30am for that and after 30 minutes, if it hadn't been for the fact that the wife was still in bed I'd have got the power drill and drilled my fucking eyes out...so onto the pros and cons. Last week there were hardly any cons as we easily beat a dog shit Bristol City, onto today and on paper we were playing an even worse Derby County.

CONS
The starting line up. Blaster had a decent game last week, good enough to play him in front of Sydie? Not a chance, he's still struggling to look owt like fit and today he was terrible. Being the father of Wilders grandchild obviously helps because if it's a football decision he's on the bench.
Brereton Diaz, another aimless, pointless game for a poor player but one who's obviously seen as better than Donovan because our leader keeps picking him ahead of him. Maybe Wilder likes his beard, I honestly don't know.
Our strikers, Bamford falls down all the time and despite bundling the equaliser in today, had he been more combative who knows, he might have created a lot more. Cannon, I got criticised for praising his pressing game a week or two back, today he didn't press, he did fuck all but with no real service, I get it's not easy.
Wilder lied to us this week, he said that you have to play your way into the team and be good enough to keep your place. BBD never has a better game than Donovan, Blaster never offers more than Sydie. Pick your best team for fucks sake!
Points deduction, not for the financial stuff but if we keep turning out performances like we did before Donovan came on we could be looking at a big hit for crimes against football. That first hour was absolute fucking dross.

PROS
Nice to see Seriki back, looked a bit rusty but he offers more going forward and Hamza needs a break from getting done playing out of position every week.
Coops made a couple of very important saves and we could easily have been 2 or 3 down before their goalies heroics.
Phillips again, looks assured, wants the ball but must wonder what the hell he's watching sometimes from the rest of our hapless heroes.
Donovan, you all saw that performance, no need for more words from me, I just hope our leader has the bollocks to act on it.

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I'd add one more pro (I could add several more cons too but you've covered plenty!) - Campbell. Played well with it into feet, backing in almost like Sharp used to. Unlucky not to score with that right foot strike and could have had an assist too if Chong had got on the end of that cross from the left.

 

[Bell4]

I'd add one more pro (I could add several more cons too but you've covered plenty!) - Campbell. Played well with it into feet, backing in almost like Sharp used to. Unlucky not to score with that right foot strike and could have had an assist too if Chong had got on the end of that cross from the left.

Pros

I got home quite quickly

Log burner lit

Beer loaded

Curry brewing

Cons

We’re disjointed rubbish

 

[dc_blade]

In defence of Arblaster: I thought he used the ball ok the few times he had it at his feet. But if you're going to play long ball and need a midfielder to get amongst them and scrap for second balls, he's probably not it.

 

[Maurice Maurice]

I'd add one more pro (I could add several more cons too but you've covered plenty!) - Campbell. Played well with it into feet, backing in almost like Sharp used to. Unlucky not to score with that right foot strike and could have had an assist too if Chong had got on the end of that cross from the left.

I agree, after that God awful first hour, Chong looked a different player with Seriki in tow and with wingers getting it into the box we looked dangerous every time we went forward.

 

[BazWainwright]

I'm lost as to why Wilder starts BBD, Chong, Cannon and Choudrey.

BBD has gone well past his sell-by date and will struggle to play for another side above us, ever. I honestly believe he isn't a winger and is far more effective up front, but we don't play attacking football, so what good would that do?

Chong just isn't effective in any position. He thinks he has pace, skill and ability to retain the ball or go past defenders, but the truth is, he has neither. Positionally and cross-wise, he is below bang average.

Cannon remains a shirt-filler. Yeah, I know he has scored some goals but threat-wise he is appalling. Another one who will play at no level better than Sheffield United, wherever we end up.

Choudrey is a baffling re-acquisition. Whenever he plays, oppositions just pile him with pressure and feed the left side, because they know he's either got red cards in him or he can't read the game and defend effectively. Their goal was due to him not going out to the player on the ball. He was doing it against Pompey too.

Elsewhere, as you say, Blaster is done at playing at Championship level. He just isn't in the game enough to make an effect. When Peck came on, who is no Declan Rice, we looked far more purposeful.

I still cannot work out why Wilder doesn't play his best eleven and go for the jugular. We try to play careful, possession-based football which inevitably ends up in the cross sailing into touch or us coughing it up after countless over-played passes and back-pedalling on their counter.

Wrexham will come for a result against us. Those four players cannot be starters for me. Today was, as Maurice says, an hour of frustrating, product-less nonsense and the last twenty realising they'd be in for pelters and booed off if we lost to ten men and a bottom three club.

 

[luffenhamblade]

I agree, after that God awful first hour, Chong looked a different player with Seriki in tow and with wingers getting it into the box we looked dangerous every time we went forward.

You mean when they were down to 10 men…

 

[Maurice Maurice]

You mean when they were down to 10 men…

Yep, we should write to the league and see if we can play against 10 men every week.

 

[Houston_Blade]

In defence of Arblaster: I thought he used the ball ok the few times he had it at his feet. But if you're going to play long ball and need a midfielder to get amongst them and scrap for second balls, he's probably not it.

Also in defence of Arblaster (he was poor though), Kalvin Phillips sat playing as a sweeper all game didn’t help him.

 

[Blade In Flame]

Also in defence of Arblaster (he was poor though), Kalvin Phillips sat playing as a sweeper all game didn’t help him.

LOL, you can't blame Phillips, who was easily United's MOtM, for Blaster having a stinker. You are Martha Wilder and I claim my £10.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Phillips was a glorified sweeper today. I don’t know if he was instructed to play there, but all his effectiveness was negated by his deeper position. Also, it’s surely a dereliction of duty for Wilder to keep Donavon on the bench for so long. The crowd were lifted so much when he came on…He’s the only one in this team who can literally gets people out of their seats.

 

[Houston_Blade]

LOL, you can't blame Phillips, who was easily United's MOtM, for Blaster having a stinker. You are Martha Wilder and I claim my £10.

I knew everyone would gush over Phillips today. He was decent for the first 35 mins, but it was piss poor of him to abandon midfield and just play sweeper for the remainder of the game. Kitching and Tanganga could easily have taken the ball from Cooper and passed it forwards, he should have been making an extra body in the middle.

 

[Maurice Maurice]

OK, just heard this and sorry boss, that's not good enough. He talks about the players taking it too easy first half as if the result was a given, yet he picks a weak team that was probably playing at peak capacity but that just isn't good enough. If he honestly thought Brereton Diaz and Blaster were stronger than Donovan and Peck then we have a problem. As to tactics, he blamed his players for making poor choices, I genuinely don't know what we were trying to do. We hoofed it a bit, passed it sideways and backwards and usually pretty poorly and against a team with one win all season were lucky to get a point against ten men.

He mentioned the bloke having a go at him at half time and yes, after that 45 minutes he's lucky it was only one. As said before, start with your best eleven, try and control the ball instead of looking like you're all scared of it and ffs, change things earlier if you have a fucking clue about what you're looking at.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Ignoring the obvious Rom clammer, which is totally understandable.

The KEY difference today was our tactical approach in the 2 halves.

1st half - hapless hoof - I feckin despair. Did either of our front two win even 1 header or battle ? Do I blame either of them for this given that they were up against 2 giants ?

2nd half - ball on the ground. Night and day different - we controlled the match before and after the red card.

If this isn’t the wake up call that the management and players need to highlight how utterly ineffective we are with the players we have when going direct, nothing ever would.

UTB

 

[ekke287]

Pro - Donovan s a genuine talent.

Con - Everything else. We look a disjointed, aimless, inexperienced mess of a team, with no plan A, no impetus, no desire, no talent and no direction.

I’m getting sick and tired of sitting and watching us aimlessly plod around the pitch, making every team look like prime Barcelona and hearing the same old tired excuses from a tired and clueless management team.

CW is all about passion, fire, do or die, where the fuck has that gone because it’s been absent since he took over again last season.

It’s the same faces playing with the same flaws, and the same logic that didn’t succeed last time with more quality. How are we this far into a season and he STILL doesn’t know his best team?

I’m worried that he’s got no clue and we’re getting closer to really being in trouble. This season has all the hallmarks of a terrible end for us.