Since Coutts’ injury...

[Jim Chimmerney]

Even before Wilder took the reigns, we were a better side with Coutts in the team. Being one of the Blades who recognised Coutts as, in the gaffer's parlance, 'a proper footballer' right from the off, I merely attach what I posted back in December 2016:



Cerberus Blade is spot on. Losing Coutts wasn't so much about losing a midfielder, it was about losing the team's 'brain'. Of course, you can stick another midfielder in to try to perform the same role (and I think Evans and Lundstrum have at times done reasonably well in Coutts' position) but Coutts is a more intelligent player than anyone else we have in the squad.

Watch how Coutts receives the ball from the defenders on the 'half-turn' because he has already decided where he is going to move the ball; he always dictated the direction of our play and the big part of our success in the first third of the season was that Coutts instinctively knew whether a given attack should be down the left, right or the middle, depending on which area we had an overload on the opposition.

Now, just watch how our other midfielders receive the ball 'square on' to the defender that has passed to them. They have their back to the strikers, can't see how the play is unfolding, have nowhere to go and consequently, invariably end up passing the ball straight back to one of the defenders. Opposition teams are then shepherding our play back into tight corners and, ultimately, it often ends with the defender hitting it long.

When Coutts got injured I said that he was the one single player that we could not afford to lose; he is literally the brain of the team. I also said that, regardless of Coutts' actual value on the open market, it would cost us £15m to replace what he does within our system (Woods at Brentford is the closest I've seen to what Coutts does).

Obviously, we were never going to spend millions. With the hindsight of what has happened since November 17th 2017, though, what we perhaps should have tried to find in January was a 'Gordon Cowans type' intelligent player coming to the end of his career, who had the intelligence to come in and do what Coutts did so brilliantly in the first part of the season.

In fact, Cowans is a salutary example of how losing one cog in the machine can be absolutely critical, even if most or all of the other players, who are excellent in their own right, are still in place. I've no doubt that had United persuaded Cowans to do another season, with the quality assembled in the rest of Howard Kendall's squad, we would have romped to promotion in the 1996/97 season.

Just playing devil's advocate, I was also one who defended him at the time.

 

[grafikhaus]

Actually, the 'facts' were precursed by:



So, the 'facts' did not include things like possession, domination, shots on goal, goals scored. In other words, they were selective facts picked to back up an argument, which isn't really much better than witticisms.

Football is a funny game. We are all told that "the only fact that matters is the league table", but the problem with the league table is that it doesn't account for good luck and bad luck. If one of our four efforts that hit the woodwork had gone in against Bristol City, I'm sure we would have won that game and would be sitting the play-off spots now, with a game in hand. In sport, people are very often too quick to attribute a bad (or good) run of results to some tangible change, rather than just accept that sometimes randomness throws up sequences that deceptively appear to mean something. The bad managers respond to these little runs with knee-jerk reactions, whilst the good ones stick to what is working. For the most part, Wilder is pretty good at keeping a calm head, but in the last six or seven games, I think he's been a bit guilty of change for change's sake.

In short, yes, we can look at facts, but the best analysis is wider still.

I broadly agree, but I think that some 'stats' trotted out by the media are misleading. The four efforts you mentioned v. Bristol City that hit the woodwork would not have featured in 'shots on target', yet stand a far better chance of resulting in beating the goalie than a 20 yard 'bobbler' straight at the goalie (which would have been called a 'shot on target'). Now we have 'Expected goals' which is also prone to misinterpretation. Possession is a notoriously-overused 'stat'. Some players - Ray Wilkins, Leon Britton to name just two - have built an entire career out of safe, meaningless, sideways ten yard passes. It's the killer ball that really counts and this is one of United's main failings. Sure we can play tiki-taka with the rest of them, but it's so ponderous that it doesn't stand a chance of catching the opposition off-balance by changing the angle of attack. That's why we resort (too often) to the hoofball and that's why Sharp and Clarke's goalscoring has dried up. We're not providing a service to our attackers, we just hit it in their general direction. Think about it. A United defender or midfielder has the ball = 100% possession of the ball. Whack it forward with little precision and it becomes, at best, 50% possession (less actually, as their defender is facing the ball and can 'set' himself to receive it.

Good luck with defining good luck and bad luck. Only Wednesday seem to have bad luck. Oh, and injuries and bent refs.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

It was obvious to all who were prepared to listen, that the two players in this team we could not afford to lose were Fleck and Coutts.
It’s as simple as that.

Coutts ability to receive the ball under pressure in midfield but STILL retain possession and find a team mate is a skill that is saved only for some of the best players in the game. Yes he lacks the ability to spray passes 60 yds plus to feet 9 times out of 10, or the ability to smash one in from 20 yards plus and if he could then he really would be one of the best there is, but in this league and to this team the value of his ability was understated.
Everything revolved around him, the tempo of the side, his presence gave Bash and JOC the confidence to overlap, Fleck the confidence to look for give and go’s.
And while Lundstram has done his best, and Evans came in and showed some ability passing wise, neither have ever allowed this team to play with the same attacking flair and intensity as Coutts.

I fear that the way we have been playing since his injury has put the writing on the wall for promotion, and no matter what Wilder has tried to reverse the form it ultimately isn’t enough. And much as I hate saying it, his January window arrivals appear to be making very little impact over a month in.

The best we can hope, is that Coutts comes back the same as he was and we retain the services of our big players for another crack next season. Otherwise we look unlikely to see our overlapping centre halves again.

This x1000. I'd also add: his ability to pass and move is one of things which we miss the most. It gave us a fluidity - the antithesis of which was Friday night.

Evans, Lundstram, Leonard are all decent passes of the ball, but they stand still before and after. Coutts strength was his ability to be never standing still.

That energy and movement is what we miss the most...

 

[pommpey]

Actually, the 'facts' were precursed by:

So, the 'facts' did not include things like possession, domination, shots on goal, goals scored. In other words, they were selective facts picked to back up an argument, which isn't really much better than witticisms.

We could go through the season hitting posts, bar, offsides given against us and refs waving away stonewall penalties ... and yet still be relegated. None such bad luck as some iffy goalkeeping in the nineties and a team intent on playing third party owned players yet still, we ended up through the trapdoor.

Bad luck is bad luck. You don't get marked on the questions you don't answer.

It is all about results and the league position, I'm afraid.

pommpey

 

[sitwell]

If there is pineapple on that pizza then I can see why he turned a gun himself for making such a poor choice.

Are you daft ,pineapple and onions are the only things that make a pizza worth eating ,oh and that tomato puree sauce.

 

[sitwell]

Haven't you thought that maybe some of our corners that don't beat the first man may actually be played near post on purpose? It could be that the opposition is blocking the players run to get there. Happens all of the time in every match. When this happens it appears that it was a useless corner - not always the case imo

I do tend to agree that our record from corners is very poor conversion wise.

Holmes will sort the edge of the box free kicks out

And yet still Robbie Savage and a million other no nowts would stick that man on the line rather than the front post. the front post defender can head away 10 corners a match ,the one on the line maybe 2 a season.

 

[Geordie Blade]

We could go through the season hitting posts, bar, offsides given against us and refs waving away stonewall penalties ... and yet still be relegated. None such bad luck as some iffy goalkeeping in the nineties and a team intent on playing third party owned players yet still, we ended up through the trapdoor.

Bad luck is bad luck. You don't get marked on the questions you don't answer.

It is all about results and the league position, I'm afraid.

pommpey

Yes, I get that, but the point is that changing the team or tactics might actually make things even worse. A good manager has to decide whether the bad luck really is just bad luck, or if it is something more systemic (i.e. a striker who hits the post often because his approach is, for reason, to aim directly at the posts). If the latter, then it needs addressing. If the former, then it's better to stay cool and keeping doing things right. For SUFC at the moment, I don't know the answer, but I do know that the 'facts' certainly don't tell us the whole story.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Yes, I get that, but the point is that changing the team or tactics might actually make things even worse. A good manager has to decide whether the bad luck really is just bad luck, or if it is something more systemic (i.e. a striker who hits the post often because his approach is, for reason, to aim directly at the posts). If the latter, then it needs addressing. If the former, then it's better to stay cool and keeping doing things right. For SUFC at the moment, I don't know the answer, but I do know that the 'facts' certainly don't tell us the whole story.

For weeks and weeks before the JTW Wilder was reflecting on our failure to convert dominance into goals and wins. I got the impression he was like the 'cat with the cream' when he did the early business in January.

No doubt he will be very disappointed at this stage but as ever a realist and pragmatist.

 

[Roygbiv]

If it's all down to Coutts then the good news is we are going up next season

 

[Iceybabey]

Just had a little road rage spat with a nobhead speeding on the other side of a parked lorry I was trying to get around. Realised it was Coutts as he passed me with the F word seemingly expressed from the formation of his lips. I let him off due to being my favourite player. Anyone else would have got a kidney punch.