The inpact of Coutts article

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?




Danny04 said:
Yeah, I thought that the fact the author's name is on the piece might give a clue as to who wrote it, before you had to read and interpret the words/style. Sorry if I'm mistaken, my friend.
Click to expand...


I knew who wrote it. I didn't say it was a JS article. You are clearly mistaken.
 
Anyone watching Coutts play will notice he is a smooth, controlled, technically gifted footballer. Comments from hardened old veterans Collins and Doyle confirmed they marvelled at his skills day-by-day in training. Such compliments from those two are to be respected and stored because they were made when the lad was not a permanent fixture in the side. Indeed, under Adkins he cut a dis-sinterested, unhappy figure.

When he first played for us I wrote an o.p. calling him a 'proper footballer' and a major acquisition but subsequently I had a problem with Coutts even in the promotion season. There's no doubt he retains possession but he often plays sideways and backwards and too often demands the ball to only play it easily sideways, to my frustration and opinion that it slows the build-up in forward momentum and gives the opposition time to re-group.

My other view of Coutts is that he plays the game in 'safe areas' and doesn't threaten enough in the final third ; statistics on goals and assists bear this out.

Whilst I would watch him play and repeatedly think 'quicker, quicker, forward not sideways' I would equally purr at his technique.

This article proves to me with stats how much we have missed the man and it confirms the obvious in a way. Without stats we all know we have not played as well and poor results have matched poor performances as many times as we have dominated games without getting the win we deserved.

When Coutts had his leg broken I was interested to see if we would speed up our play and attack more. I think we did to a degree though Lundstram tends to play steadily I'm afraid.

Wilder was still gung-ho for quite some time but to my surprise it emerged thay we were less solid without Coutts. He was never a 'ball winner' but he held his ground and rarely ventured right upfield. This gave Fleck the opportunity to push on. Without me realising it Coutts protected our defence more than I imagined. As a result Wilder reined us in and harnessed the overloads we used to relish.

I am not one who shouts 'gerrit forad' at all. I do appreciate a team cannot play 'gung-ho' all game. I like possession football but played quickly. I love to see 'overloads' and Coutts' possession did enable overloadsto materialise.

I did think Coutts was key to us before his injury and now I know. Come back Coutts, just as you were - or could you just speed your play up a bit and get more forward?!! - only kidding:p
 
l'm trying to remember who it was who said they'd prefer we kept Keiran Wallace and let Coutts go.......
 
LS16Blade said:
Much talked about on here, as ChampagneBlade says, and James Shield highlights a number of points that have been made by many Blades on this forum.

That night at Burton, it instantly felt like an incident capable of changing the short-term destiny of the entire club. Indeed, at the risk of subscribing to the often derided attitude that the fates are invariably against us, it felt entirely typical that something like this should happen to halt United's momentum.

We'd won 12 out of 17 games, and could make a strong case that we should also have won 3 and drawn 1 of the other 5 games that we'd played up to that point. My view, expressed at the time from what I'd seen of the division, was that we would have been in or very close to automatic promotion, if we could keep the midfield triumvirate together all season.

Nothing that I've seen since has changed that view. The fact that “crashingly functional teams”such as Cardiff, Boro, Millwall, Derby and Preston are contending, illustrates what an opportunity this season presented. It's sickening.

I said that it would cost £15m to replace Coutts. I'm not saying that anyone else would pay that to buy him from us. Rather, that to find a player to integrate into our side and have the effect that he has on the back 3; the way he makes the wing-backs play; the licence that he gives to Fleck to be at his most effective and the consequent effect that has on Duffy, would require us to be shopping for a 'finished article' kingpin midfielder.

We can only hope that Coutts returns at the same level and hope against hope that we'll have another opportunity as good as the one that was opening up for us in November, again.
Click to expand...

Yes they’re all crashingly functional, good description.

I love the way that United play under Wilder. Hope we can finish with three wins, gatecrash the play off party.
 
I miss the old Green ‘un, “ shocked and stunned”........”amazed and staggered”

No understatement in Tony Pritchett’s reporting.
 
Coutts is a top class technician. As much as I acknowledge we have missed him, I feel the game against Fulham knocked the team's confidence in themselves and the way they had played up to that point. To some degree it would have shaken Wilder too. I played in a game where we were 5-1 down but it ended 5-4. In my head and in the collective psyche it was always a 5-1 battering. Add the damage to the psyche of the Fulham game to the loss of the most technically gifted player and you get doubt. We are still a very good team without Coutts, like Wilder, I have been left bewildered at a few of our results since his injury.
 



Danny04 said:
Yeah, Sheffield F.C. are also (colloquially) known as Club. It’s those pesky capital letters that cause the confusion!
Click to expand...


Well I'm a Unitedite and neither "Club" nor Hallam tend to appear on my radar other than in a "Sheffield the home of football kind of way" Blasphemy I know but there it is.

Forgive me for not being a proper football fan.

I can tell the difference between Bramall Lane. and the Sty though, which to me is of more "importance". Some can't you know.
 
Sean Thornton said:
Well I'm a Unitedite and neither "Club" nor Hallam tend to appear on my radar other than in a "Sheffield the home of football kind of way" Blasphemy I know but there it is.

Forgive me for not being a proper football fan.

I can tell the difference between Bramall Lane. and the Sty though, which to me is of more "importance". Some can't you know.
Click to expand...

Bit tetchy Sean o_O
 
Danny04 said:
Not quite - not your day today, old bean
Click to expand...


Let's check,

Well I'm a Blade
I'm genuinely not bothered about "Club"
Some won't like that.
There was this photo above someone's by line.....

Nope, all true.
 
Sean Thornton said:
Let's check,

Well I'm a Blade
I'm genuinely not bothered about "Club"
Some won't like that.
There was this photo above someone's by line.....

Nope, all true.
Click to expand...

Peter wasn’t chairman of Club - incorrect
Someone (me) can’t tell the difference between Hillsborough and Bramall Lane - incorrect
 
Danny04 said:
Peter wasn’t chairman of Club - incorrect
Someone (me) can’t tell the difference between Hillsborough and Bramall Lane - incorrect
Click to expand...


Clearly I was referring to United. As you well know. And as I referred to that earlier it wasn't included in the posts you replied to afterwards.

So sloppy journalism, not proofed, didnt care?

All worse if you do know the difference.
 
I feel like Basil Fawlty not mentioning the war regarding Danny's "Blades at Bramall Lane/ Hillsborough" cock up.
Sadly, I don't think I've gotten away with it :)
 
"
↑
Are they not United fans? What's wrong, exactly? Lazy comment.



Clearly :rolleyes:
To be fair the story is about Bramall Lane, therefore a picture of the actual stadium would be the least expected."


Plus those blue seats referred to by itsinyerblood early in the thread seem to be missing in the photo now accompanying the article. If there was nothing wrong with it, as you claimed repeatedly, why change it?
 



There’s also some great stats on Twitter from Blades Analytics suggesting that United’s number of good chances hasn’t decreased without Coutts. So much has changed without him of course but it’s surprising, or it was to me at least, that the # of chances hasn’t
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PaulPeschBlade
The return of mardy Chris
3 4 5
Replies
139
Views
9K
Tom Bott
Tom Bott
Deadbat
United 2 Hull 1 - report/ratings
Replies
27
Views
2K
KMC-1889
KMC-1889
Deadbat
United 3 Ipswich 1 - report/ratings
2
Replies
55
Views
4K
TJ blade
T
Deadbat
Preston 3 United 2 - report/ratings
2
Replies
55
Views
5K
Rodley
Rodley
Deadbat
United 1 Norwich 1 - report/ratings
2
Replies
50
Views
3K
Blademan89
Blademan89

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom