Settling for a point

[Eric Cartman]

Anyone hear the commentator at around the 70th minute say he’s spoke to Chris this week and he said if we were level in the last 20 we’d settle for it? Or words of that ilk?

Find that alarming. We know we can’t manage a game (Blackburn apart) so why would we try? We have one way of playing - in that second half we completely abandoned it. Let them cross at will with no urgency to get out, no high pressing, just lacked any urgency at all really.

Very strange half of football, we looked fucking knackered again and most of them have had 2 weeks off. If we’re not winning after 60 minutes I just can’t see us picking up points.

 

[LJBlade]

We settled for a point at half time. After 70 minutes we settled for giving Derby all 3.

 

[Bladesman]

Wilder been getting some tips off Clough? Thats the sort of thing he would do from the start.

 

[Eric Cartman]

We settled for a point at half time. After 70 minutes we settled for giving Derby all 3.

I can sort of understand letting them cross had they been a slow, big and meandering side (ala Bolton) But they’re full of quick nippy players. It was Marriott running past our defence and instinctively flicking it in, terrible goal to concede but we saw it coming.

 

[bromtom]

Yeah. Said it in the match thread.

You could see it. We didn't come out up for it at all. To be honest I think the players would have made a human pyramid in the goal if it was allowed.

Wank.

One of the worst performances I've seen from Chris Wilder's Sheffield United.

I'm not bothered that we lost, you'll always lose games, it's how you lose. We lost in the most pathetic way tonight.

 

[dc_blade]

Anyone hear the commentator at around the 70th minute say he’s spoke to Chris this week and he said if we were level in the last 20 we’d settle for it? Or words of that ilk?

Find that alarming. We know we can’t manage a game (Blackburn apart) so why would we try? We have one way of playing - in that second half we completely abandoned it. Let them cross at will with no urgency to get out, no high pressing, just lacked any urgency at all really.

Very strange half of football, we looked fucking knackered again and most of them have had 2 weeks off. If we’re not winning after 60 minutes I just can’t see us picking up points.

We didn't look knackered at all. We looked liked we'd been told to sit off them. They looked dangerous on the counter in the first half, and I think Wilder thought they might be short of ideas if we made them play in front of us.

We should know by now that we're not good at sitting back, but we tried it once again and got found out.

 

[wizadry]

I’m really pissed off with how we gifted Derby 3 points tonight.

 

[Eric Cartman]

We didn't look knackered at all. We looked liked we'd been told to sit off them. They looked dangerous on the counter in the first half, and I think Wilder thought they might be short of ideas if we made them play in front of us.

We should know by now that we're not good at sitting back, but we tried it once again and got found out.

I disagree, I think we did look lethargic.

I think it was tactical, I agree there, but I also think we looked tired too

 

[wizadry]

We didn't look knackered at all. We looked liked we'd been told to sit off them. They looked dangerous on the counter in the first half, and I think Wilder thought they might be short of ideas if we made them play in front of us.

We should know by now that we're not good at sitting back, but we tried it once again and got found out.

Enda and Freeman especially looked absolutely shattered, our team looked devoid of energy in the second half, this is down to the management.

 

[Rodley]

If we’re not winning after 60 minutes I just can’t see us picking up points.

Hull we won on 70 mins
Millwall we won on 88 mins
Preston we won on 87 mins
Norwich we won on 93 mins
QPR we won on 65 mins

That’s 5 out of our 8 wins.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

We didn't look knackered at all. We looked liked we'd been told to sit off them. They looked dangerous on the counter in the first half, and I think Wilder thought they might be short of ideas if we made them play in front of us.

We should know by now that we're not good at sitting back, but we tried it once again and got found out.

Seriously at one point Freeman had his inhaler out.

 

[dc_blade]

I disagree, I think we did look lethargic.

I think it was tactical, I agree there, but I also think we looked tired too

Loads on here said we were unfit, fat, etc when we lost the first two games of the season. It's a simple explanation but it's not right, for me.

We didn't look as energetic but we'd been told to play that way.

 

[dc_blade]

Enda and Freeman especially looked absolutely shattered, our team looked devoid of energy in the second half, this is down to the management.

I agree it's down to management, but I don't agree that's it about conditioning.

 

[Rodley]

Seriously at one point Freeman had his inhaler out.

He’s look laboured a couple of times in recent late games.

 

[Weasel]

I know Derby might have changed their tactics and pushed us back....but there was no reason for us being so negative in how far we retreated.

Irrespective of opposition tactics, you can control where your players stand on the fkin pitch and their starting positions. Just before their winner i noticed that we had every one of our players back in out final third of the pitch. Every single one. Clarke was the furthest forward and nowhere near the half way line. Every time we cleared it it came straight back at us again as we had no out ball and no one up front who could hold the ball up for us. That's when captains on the pitch and the management should be telling everyone to push up 20 yards up the pitch.

And i have no idea why we seemingly gave their wingers all the time in the world to get their crosses in. Not the first time we have got undone by doing that. Dismal tactics 2nd half. Got what we deserved.

 

[Eric Cartman]

Hull we won on 70 mins
Millwall we won on 88 mins
Preston we won on 87 mins
Norwich we won on 93 mins
QPR we won on 65 mins

That’s 5 out of our 8 wins.

60 was a rough guesstimate, maybe say 70 then. Either way we look leggy late on recently, bar Blackburn.

Preston and Millwall we were very lucky to get 3 points after throwing them away. Hull was a very fortuitous penalty, was it not for that we wouldn’t have scored as they were on top after that.

Norwich I’ll give you we kept plugging away and got our just rewards.

 

[Eric Cartman]

Seriously at one point Freeman had his inhaler out.

He could be fitter.

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Some echoes of last season tonight letting a point/pouts slip , not the end of the world but lessons to learned if we want to be anywhere near the top 6

 

[AdamSufc1997]

he never learns about them stupid tactics he used why can't we just play like we did for most of first half every game

 

[Bruce Wayne]

He could be fitter.

Just a bit. He looked like AJ had smashed him, surprised he managed to walk off the pitch.

 

[wizadry]

I agree it's down to management, but I don't agree that's it about conditioning.

Could you explain what you mean in more detail please, dc?

 

[Speedracer]

Those two halfs didn't belong to the same match, we were superb in the 1st half apart from the first 19 seconds, as good as we have played for a bit, but what the heck happened at half time, we didn't look like the same team after. You can ignore the commentators comments about settling for a draw after 75 mins, CW might have said it but surely he didn't mean it, we never settle for anything. Not sure it was fitness either, sure we put lots into the 1st half but we had 15 minutes recovery time & they are proper athletes now, but honestly I am not too disappointed, we looked great for the most part & just have to get our heads down & work harder.

 

[Eric Cartman]

Just a bit. He looked like AJ had smashed him, surprised he managed to walk off the pitch.

He gets by on talent alone, Baldock needs to keep pushing him

 

[dc_blade]

Could you explain what you mean in more detail please, dc?

I think we came out second half with the idea that Derby had looked dangerous on the break in the first half, and that they might struggle to break us down if we sat in. As I've posted in another thread already, professional footballers do not stop pressing and sit back like we did unless they've been told to. I think it's too easy to say we were tired, that the subs are poor players, etc. It was a poor choice, tactically.

 

[Rodley]

Those two halfs didn't belong to the same match, we were superb in the 1st half apart from the first 19 seconds, as good as we have played for a bit, but what the heck happened at half time, we didn't look like the same team after. You can ignore the commentators comments about settling for a draw after 75 mins, CW might have said it but surely he didn't mean it, we never settle for anything. Not sure it was fitness either, sure we put lots into the 1st half but we had 15 minutes recovery time & they are proper athletes now, but honestly I am not too disappointed, we looked great for the most part & just have to get our heads down & work harder.

On to the next one. Stoke will be another challenge. Never stops in the Championship!

 

[Topplayersleave]

It's these kind of defeats that annoy the fuck out of me

Play shit from the off, get beaten by a better team, have bad luck, hit the post 12 times and get beat by a sucker punch I can accept...…..Frustrating but I can accept it.

A game where there is only gonna be one winner and we still conspire to fuck it all up due to a complete lack of urgency and professionalism is the most annoying thing

It's pretty obvious that ANY team that we allow to have the ball for longer than 3 minutes will score against us, if we let one have the ball for 45 minutes they must be shit if they can only score one more, because everybody who we've sat back against, anybody that we've had a five minute breather against manages to score at least one.

Even Aston Villa managed one goal in the 10 seconds of play we allowed them to have after we went 4-0 up

 

[wizadry]

I think we came out second half with the idea that Derby had looked dangerous on the break in the first half, and that they might struggle to break us down if we sat in. As I've posted in another thread already, professional footballers do not stop pressing and sit back like we did unless they've been told to. I think it's too easy to say we were tired, that the subs are poor players, etc. It was a poor choice, tactically.

Fair enough, I agree Wilder was to blame for tonight’s loss.

 

[dc_blade]

Fair enough, I agree Wilder was to blame for tonight’s loss.

Yeah. I mean, the first half shows that Wilder can take a group of League One journeymen and play one of the most fancied teams in the divison off the park. We are where are because of him. But the guy is not faultless.

 

[wizadry]

Yeah. I mean, the first half shows that Wilder can take a group of League One journeymen and play one of the most fancied teams in the divison off the park. We are where are because of him. But the guy is not faultless.

Exactly!

He’s done brilliantly but people can come out and say when he’s to blame, he will get things wrong and that’s all I’m saying.

 

[spongebobblade]

One of the worst performances I've seen from Chris Wilder's Sheffield United.
.

Daftest quote of the season so far. Absolutely wiped the floor with them first half. and we were outstanding. For whatever reason it didn’t happen for us second half. You obviously have forgotten Southend at home, Walsall away and Boro this season. A massive overreaction. The negativity tonight is astounding