Stoke City vs Sheffield United

S24SU · OFFICIAL MATCHDAY EDITION · 2026/27 · No.11

19th September 2026 - Kick-off 12:30
Stoke City v. Sheffield United
EFL Championship Week 7 - Bet365 Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent

EFL Championship Week 7 – Saturday 19th September 2026, 12:30 – Bet365 Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent
Please keep all discussion related to the match within this thread.

Match Info

Competition: EFL Championship Week 7

Kick-off: Saturday 19th September 2026, 12:30

Venue: Bet365 Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent/frow]

Player Ratings: CLICK HERE (will open shortly after full time)

Officials

Referee: Tim Robinson

Assistants: Andrew Dallison and Hugh Gilroy

Fourth Official: Ed Duckworth

How to Watch

TV/Stream:

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Keep it on-topic and within the rules – see the forum rules if unsure.​

 

[LS5 Blade]

There must be players in our u-21s who are more mobile than 75% of that team today that would improve our ability to put attacking moves together.

If they can't string together better passing than the 1st team then professional football wont be for them

 

[Nedski]

Yeah all that but we played well today and was decent on the ball and never under threat from stoke.

Just unlucky from 2 wonder goals (* I personally cant forgive them for gallagher scoring that, as hes one of the worst strikers ever to grace chamionship).

Played well? You are aware we were the team in the black/luminous yellow, not red and white stripes?

 

[uTurn]

Sheffield United's pass network is absolutely grim
64.7% pass completion, and the graphic basically explains why.
Stoke have an actual passing web. Loads of triangles, multiple options and players constantly connected to each other.
Sheffield United have two separate groups that barely seem to know each other exist.
At the back you've got:
Cooper → Tanganga → Phillips
Then Phillips basically has to figure out what happens next.
Up front you've got:
Norrington-Davies → Brereton → Peck → Bamford
And between the two groups? A massive empty space.
Phillips is basically being asked to run the entire midfield department on his own. If the opposition marks him, the whole thing starts looking like a broken circuit.
Bamford is especially unfortunate. He's at the end of a four-man chain looking like he's waiting for someone to actually connect him to the rest of the team.
Stoke have a nervous system.
Sheffield United have Phillips running around trying to reconnect the wires while everyone else waits for the Wi-Fi password.
The biggest problem isn't even the number of passes. It's the lack of connections between the lines.
Stoke look like a team passing TO each other.
Sheffield United look like a team passing THROUGH stages.
And that 64.7% completion rate suddenly makes a lot more sense.

I mentioned after the game how we had nothing on the right flank. That graphic emphasises how bad it was.

We were nonexistent down that side, to the extent that a passing map has no player on the right wing in the Stoke half of the pitch. Considering how much of their offence came from Bocat on that side, it's appalling that nobody was positioned out there to try and force him to drop back and defend somewhat.

 

[Blade56]

Herzeler said game plan to beat Gunners was intensity, intensity and intensity.

Secret of our dismal start to season is sit backy, sit backy and sit backy

 

[Belvedere Blade]

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

View attachment 244520

Perhaps the feeling comfortable in the last 10 minutes when we are notorious at switching off and giving away late goals is questionable? Stoke were not going to accept defeat until 90+ were they?

Their 2 goals (despite 1 looking offside) were first class. Dear Owners, why do we not have more players that are capable of that?

 

[Nedski]

Perhaps the feeling comfortable in the last 10 minutes when we are notorious at switching off and giving away late goals is questionable? Stoke were not going to accept defeat until 90+ were they?

Their 2 goals (despite 1 looking offside) were first class. Dear Owners, why do we not have more players that are capable of that?

It's another thing that everyone but Wilder sees. We go ahead and instead of applying pressure we sit deep and hit long balls back to their defence. They attack and have chances, we give it back to them. It's amateur stuff.

We probably do have players capable of scoring from 30+ yards but they aren't allowed because long shots aren't considered "high value chances" or whatever he used to call it. Players aren't allowed to shoot unless there's a high chance of a goal. Luckily Gus didn't give a shit about instructions or we would've missed out on seeing probably 10 of our best 20 goals of all time.

As a side note, the high value chances thing was just xG wasn't it? But Wilder gave it a different name so it's not the same and xG is a load of crap apparently?

 

[Blademan89]

Played well? You are aware we were the team in the black/luminous yellow, not red and white stripes?

Yes well aware, I was taking the piss with a touch of sarcasm... from wilders match presser after the game where he thought we played well and improved over last few games.

 

[vas borbokis]

Sarcasm gets lost on many here.

 

[The Fox]

Trying to be objective on yesterday's match and against Wolves.

It seams they are trying to sort the defence out and to be fair with a degree of improvement with 3 at the back.

As we all know we carry little threat up front hence Bamford chasing long balls , the ball doesnt stick and the defence is constantly under pressure .

I actually think the trio at the back in both games did ok but we really have move the play further up the pitch to give them a chance .

Hopefully the break and subsequent return of a few will help sort out midfield and give some support up front.

If Sereki comes back perhaps choudry in defencive mid allows Philips and peck to get forward and allow us 2 up top.

I know most of the forum is full of Wilder stuff but whoever the manager is still has the same squad and problems to solve .

We can harp on about what signings we should have and the squad but its now what it is , hopefully they can find a way of making best use of it.

 

[Grappler]

Trying to be objective on yesterday's match and against Wolves.

It seams they are trying to sort the defence out and to be fair with a degree of improvement with 3 at the back.

As we all know we carry little threat up front hence Bamford chasing long balls , the ball doesnt stick and the defence is constantly under pressure .

I actually think the trio at the back in both games did ok but we really have move the play further up the pitch to give them a chance .

Hopefully the break and subsequent return of a few will help sort out midfield and give some support up front.

If Sereki comes back perhaps choudry in defencive mid allows Philips and peck to get forward and allow us 2 up top.

I know most of the forum is full of Wilder stuff but whoever the manager is still has the same squad and problems to solve .

We can harp on about what signings we should have and the squad but its now what it is , hopefully they can find a way of making best use of it.

"...I know most of the forum is full of Wilder stuff but whoever the manager is still has the same squad and problems to solve ...."

Exactly.

Walked into the pub last night, and the first thing my non-Blades supporting mate said was , "let's get this out of the way; yes, the second goal was offside, looked great on TV, but when they showed the replay, the pundits said "oh, that was offside, the linesmen hadn't kept up with the game and wasn't in line to see it", or something like that.