Sheff de party
Well-Known Member
Having seen CW come in for some tactical criticism recently, particularly regarding substitutions, I feel it is only fair to point out how he got it right at Reading. I too have joined some of this previous criticism and I completely reject the idea that just because he’s our best manager in recent years, he’s above reproach. He makes mistakes sometimes – he often admits it too.
We started defensively against Reading, contained them (not that it was hard) and tried to dominate the game in our usual fashion. It wasn’t working, but every minute that ticked by we were resting our better, more creative but older players (Sharp and Duffy basically).
Come half time, it was still 0-0 so Duffy came on and totally changed things. Reading had no answer and spent the next 15 minutes on the back foot, before Sharp came on and provided some real threat up top. Reading moved from being on the back foot to on the rack and it was only a matter of time.
Fleck was getting on the ball more, we were moving it quickly through Duffy (who none of them really got near) and yes we left it late, but two goals sealed the game late on.
There was no panic, no desperation and no real frustration. We came down to Reading, worked them all over the pitch and delivered the knock-out blow. Usually with United it’s blood and thunder, four or five goals (and either team could get them) and a game that spends long periods like a basketball game – end to end, where we could easily win lose or draw.
It was kind of nice to just see your team turn up and efficiently get the job done. CW deserves the credit for delivering that through some excellent tactical tweaks and a polished performance.
We started defensively against Reading, contained them (not that it was hard) and tried to dominate the game in our usual fashion. It wasn’t working, but every minute that ticked by we were resting our better, more creative but older players (Sharp and Duffy basically).
Come half time, it was still 0-0 so Duffy came on and totally changed things. Reading had no answer and spent the next 15 minutes on the back foot, before Sharp came on and provided some real threat up top. Reading moved from being on the back foot to on the rack and it was only a matter of time.
Fleck was getting on the ball more, we were moving it quickly through Duffy (who none of them really got near) and yes we left it late, but two goals sealed the game late on.
There was no panic, no desperation and no real frustration. We came down to Reading, worked them all over the pitch and delivered the knock-out blow. Usually with United it’s blood and thunder, four or five goals (and either team could get them) and a game that spends long periods like a basketball game – end to end, where we could easily win lose or draw.
It was kind of nice to just see your team turn up and efficiently get the job done. CW deserves the credit for delivering that through some excellent tactical tweaks and a polished performance.
