The Pinch article on this season's troubled fortunes...

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

What a thread this is...

 

[Northernsoulblade]

What a thread this is...

And there u av it in 1

 

[Kizmet]

What a thread this is...

thats brilliant

 

[jt64]

Cannot disagree with that in the slightest

 

[Cradleyblade]

What does it say, don't have Twitter or X.

 

[S64 Blade]

Sums it up perfectly.

Our biggest issue is the ownership and sale of the club, though. Anything we do will be half measures at best until it’s resolved.

 

[Wards]

Pretty much expressed all of my current feelings. I hope this is the type of plan that is being whispered to PA but I very much doubt it.

 

[SUFCinks]

What a thread this is...

Well written and articulated better than i ever could

Nail on the head!

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

Sums it up perfectly.

Our biggest issue is the ownership and sale of the club, though. Anything we do will be half measures at best until it’s resolved.

We desperately need an owner like Bournemouth that can cover £50mm losses every year..

 

[Steve Mackan]

What does it say, don't have Twitter or X.

Here's the full-text version. Apols for typos. Harder to spot when you're writing a thread:
5 things that have gone wrong this season.
5 things we need to get right in the future.
Thread

What has gone wrong?

1. A WEAKENED TEAM

No serious team can weaken their starting XI and expect better results in a higer division. There was some logic to selling Ndiaye and Berge when we risked losing them on a free in summer 2024. However, by allowing them to leave, we lost two ball progressors, two creative outlets, two progressive carriers, one exceptional receiver (Ndiaye), one exceptional presser (Ndiaye), and most pointedly, we lost 20 goals and 16 assists.

And on top of all that, we lost Tommy Doyle too, albeit we had no control over his destination. Nevertheless, we have lost his progressive passing and his chance creation (his per 90 shot creating action was 0.58 - higher even than Ndiaye's).

Now, this list isn't ranked by order of importance. But arguably, our weakened team is the biggest reason we are struggling to compete.

Our XI would perform worse in the Championship than it did last season. So there's no reason to expect it would perform any better in the top flight.

2. RECRUITMENT
If you choose to sell two key players, the big question is who replaces them. And the problem for Sheffield United is that you can't just click your fingers and replace Ndiaye. You can't pluck a Sander Berge-adjacent signing from a talent pool where his unique attributes don't exist.

Trusty is a reliable enough signing. No problems with him, but he's not going to contribute to winning games like ID or SB.

In Hamer and Archer we have signed quality players, no doubt about it. But they haven't replaced what we lost. And we can't expect them to perform miracles.

Archer is a finisher in a team who don't create chances. Hamer - who has a song that exposes PH's tactical problem becuase he doesn't "Run down the wing" - hasn't got the players around him to thrive.

Souza cannot pass the ball forwards, which is a real problem when you want to get closer to the opposition's goal. And this leaves Norwood - pretty much our only progressive passer - over-exposed and subject to the sort of stupid scapegoating that helps nobody.

The rest are a patchwork of patch-ups and gambles that haven't paid off.

3. INJURIES
Our injury list is enormous, and whether they are freak occurrences or something more systemic, it's clear that absences have impacted our season. Only four players who started in our promotion-winning fixture against WBA started against Bournemouth yesterday. You simply cannot lose this number of players and expect good things to happen.

We need to look at the record of repeated injuries, which started in Wilder's second season in the PL and hasn't abated since, and work out what on earth is happening. But even if you do that, it won't change the results short term.

4. TACTICS
PH successfully put square pegs in square holes after he picked up the reigns from Slavisa Jokanovic. But the defensive solidity that 3-5-2 provided us in the Championship has been exposed in the top-flight.

We no longer have a reliable formation. We no longer have patterns of play that we can lean on. Part of that is down to injuries, selling players and recruitment. Another part is down to Paul Heckinbottom.

It's his job to find solutions, and he hasn't landed on them this season.

5. MANAGEMENT
We saw against Manchester United a first-half performance that should've been the blueprint from which we moved forward. It was the only game this season where we won the xG battle by any significant margin (1.42 v 1.10). You can slag off data as much as you want, but if we consistently created the chances we managed in that first half, then we would not be where we are today - and that is on Hecky.

Whoever the manager is, they are responsible for unpicking the problems. Don't get me wrong, I think PH has been dealt an outrageously bad hand. But there comes a point where the only lever available is to change manager.

There's no guarantee that a new manager changes anything, and there is a chance they could worsen our standing in the long-term (I think all Blades fans would agree that PH is a good custodian). However, eventually, things need to be refreshed, recycled and remade.

We find ourselves rock bottom, although only metaphorically. Burnley still languish at the foot of the table. But what happens next? What are the things we need to get right in future?

1. MANAGEMENT

The question of whether PH leaves is not really very interesting. All managers leave at some point. It is always a question of when not if. So when PH leaves, what matters most is how the ownership (and fans) assess the task of the next manager.

Our two most successful appointments since PA bought a stake in SUFC have been Wilder and Heckinbottom.
In the case of the former, we hired a manager who had recently seen success further down the pyramid. In the case of the latter, we hired a manager who could reunited the club at a time of uncertainty.

In my view, we should ignore the past in favour of the future. Our situation today is not the same as when Wilder joined, neither is it the same as when PH took over from Jokanovic.

Now is the time for vision. Someone who can transition from a past that has relied too heavily on both tactical identity (3-5-2) and a sclerotic approach to recruitment (let's get creative in our transfers).

If PH goes, I want someone who is wedded to control and possession, no matter the formation. I want a manager whose stock is rising (like Wilder's was when we hire him). I want a manager who can get fans excited, embrace smarter recruitment and give youth a chance.

That person might be out there on the international scene already - I don't who they are. But domestically, every club is fishing from the same pond. So if you want a manager who plies their trade in England, you've got to do what Bristol City, Luton Town, Ipswich and Southampton have done and spot the talent before the talent overtakes you.

That leaves a tiny cohort of managers. And out of that bunch, I'd pick out Luke Williams of Notts County as the one I'd want. If only for his ability to communicate so fluently on points of tactics like this:

He's the sort of hire that would get me excited. You don't need Championship experience - that's a myth. You don't need tried and tested - that's a myth. You need talent. How many senior figures do you notice at work who are worse at their job than their juniors? There's no reason to believe that is any different in football.

2. TACTICS

In the top flight and now in the Championship too, the 3-5-2 is dead. We need a manager who can break us out of this mould. That's going to be difficult, and it may lead to results getting worse in the short-term given that we've recruited exclusively for a dying formation.

However, in the medium term, we have a real opportunity to change our tactics by trying something different and recruiting differently. We can practice change over the remaining PL campaign, and if it keeps us up; amazing. If it doesn't, we will at least have started the process.

On top of that, lots of contracts are up at the end of the season. Any new manager should have room to manoeuvre in the transfer market in summer 2024.

3. RECRUITMENT

Look at Luton! There are ways to recruit good teams on tight budgets. We cannot continue to pursue a strategy of nabbing City Group graduates. There are plenty of clubs that prove that you can punch above your weight. And Sheffield United are lucky enough to have some clout.

Let's pick up young talented players with re-sale value, and then (as fans) let's get real about selling. SELLING IS A GOOD THING WHEN YOU MAKE DOSH. A good football business buys low and sells high. Why has that never been our model?

4. YOUTH
We have a crop of talented young players who could certainly make the grade at Championship level. Risking another period - like Wilder's - where the youth are not blooded, are not given a chance, and are sold on for peanuts would be stupid. Homegrown players like Ben Whiteman and Regan Slater are plying their trade in the Championship; we let them leave and signed players like Ben Osborn instead.

This cannot happen again with Arblaster, Jebbison, Osula, Sachdev, Brooks etc. They may not all make the grade. But I would sooner give them a chance than sign older, poorer replacements - it's cheaper to do this after all.

5. EXPECTATION

No matter who is in charge, a period of flux is coming. Fan expectation was incredibly high last season in the Championship and PH did an incredible job not only to meet them, but also to secure an FA Cup Semi Final to boot.

The coming transition - in tactics, in recruitment, in the ownership of our football club - will inevitably lead to a certain precariousness. It's hard to judge what our expectations should be. It's hard to judge what medium-term success looks like.

We should temper expectations and focus on the desperate need to fundamentally re-shape our club. We are now a relatively big fish in the football pond, certainly in the Championship. And that gives us an advantage in terms of the players we can recruit.

I want us to have a swagger: let's become an attacking team with a possession-based identity. Let's adopt a loose set of principles - possession, control, youth development - that means managers and players can come and go without leaving gaping holes.

That's what a forward-thinking club does... So of course, what happens next will be the opposite.

Another man playing the same turgid 3-5-2 will condemn us to mediocrity in the Championship next year. If we make a change, we need REAL CHANGE, not some piecemeal nostalgia.

 

[Cradleyblade]

Here's the full-text version. Apols for typos. Harder to spot when you're writing a thread:
5 things that have gone wrong this season.
5 things we need to get right in the future.
Thread

What has gone wrong?

1. A WEAKENED TEAM

No serious team can weaken their starting XI and expect better results in a higer division. There was some logic to selling Ndiaye and Berge when we risked losing them on a free in summer 2024. However, by allowing them to leave, we lost two ball progressors, two creative outlets, two progressive carriers, one exceptional receiver (Ndiaye), one exceptional presser (Ndiaye), and most pointedly, we lost 20 goals and 16 assists.

And on top of all that, we lost Tommy Doyle too, albeit we had no control over his destination. Nevertheless, we have lost his progressive passing and his chance creation (his per 90 shot creating action was 0.58 - higher even than Ndiaye's).

Now, this list isn't ranked by order of importance. But arguably, our weakened team is the biggest reason we are struggling to compete.

Our XI would perform worse in the Championship than it did last season. So there's no reason to expect it would perform any better in the top flight.

2. RECRUITMENT
If you choose to sell two key players, the big question is who replaces them. And the problem for Sheffield United is that you can't just click your fingers and replace Ndiaye. You can't pluck a Sander Berge-adjacent signing from a talent pool where his unique attributes don't exist.

Trusty is a reliable enough signing. No problems with him, but he's not going to contribute to winning games like ID or SB.

In Hamer and Archer we have signed quality players, no doubt about it. But they haven't replaced what we lost. And we can't expect them to perform miracles.

Archer is a finisher in a team who don't create chances. Hamer - who has a song that exposes PH's tactical problem becuase he doesn't "Run down the wing" - hasn't got the players around him to thrive.

Souza cannot pass the ball forwards, which is a real problem when you want to get closer to the opposition's goal. And this leaves Norwood - pretty much our only progressive passer - over-exposed and subject to the sort of stupid scapegoating that helps nobody.

The rest are a patchwork of patch-ups and gambles that haven't paid off.

3. INJURIES
Our injury list is enormous, and whether they are freak occurrences or something more systemic, it's clear that absences have impacted our season. Only four players who started in our promotion-winning fixture against WBA started against Bournemouth yesterday. You simply cannot lose this number of players and expect good things to happen.

We need to look at the record of repeated injuries, which started in Wilder's second season in the PL and hasn't abated since, and work out what on earth is happening. But even if you do that, it won't change the results short term.

4. TACTICS
PH successfully put square pegs in square holes after he picked up the reigns from Slavisa Jokanovic. But the defensive solidity that 3-5-2 provided us in the Championship has been exposed in the top-flight.

We no longer have a reliable formation. We no longer have patterns of play that we can lean on. Part of that is down to injuries, selling players and recruitment. Another part is down to Paul Heckinbottom.

It's his job to find solutions, and he hasn't landed on them this season.

5. MANAGEMENT
We saw against Manchester United a first-half performance that should've been the blueprint from which we moved forward. It was the only game this season where we won the xG battle by any significant margin (1.42 v 1.10). You can slag off data as much as you want, but if we consistently created the chances we managed in that first half, then we would not be where we are today - and that is on Hecky.

Whoever the manager is, they are responsible for unpicking the problems. Don't get me wrong, I think PH has been dealt an outrageously bad hand. But there comes a point where the only lever available is to change manager.

There's no guarantee that a new manager changes anything, and there is a chance they could worsen our standing in the long-term (I think all Blades fans would agree that PH is a good custodian). However, eventually, things need to be refreshed, recycled and remade.

We find ourselves rock bottom, although only metaphorically. Burnley still languish at the foot of the table. But what happens next? What are the things we need to get right in future?

1. MANAGEMENT

The question of whether PH leaves is not really very interesting. All managers leave at some point. It is always a question of when not if. So when PH leaves, what matters most is how the ownership (and fans) assess the task of the next manager.

Our two most successful appointments since PA bought a stake in SUFC have been Wilder and Heckinbottom.
In the case of the former, we hired a manager who had recently seen success further down the pyramid. In the case of the latter, we hired a manager who could reunited the club at a time of uncertainty.

In my view, we should ignore the past in favour of the future. Our situation today is not the same as when Wilder joined, neither is it the same as when PH took over from Jokanovic.

Now is the time for vision. Someone who can transition from a past that has relied too heavily on both tactical identity (3-5-2) and a sclerotic approach to recruitment (let's get creative in our transfers).

If PH goes, I want someone who is wedded to control and possession, no matter the formation. I want a manager whose stock is rising (like Wilder's was when we hire him). I want a manager who can get fans excited, embrace smarter recruitment and give youth a chance.

That person might be out there on the international scene already - I don't who they are. But domestically, every club is fishing from the same pond. So if you want a manager who plies their trade in England, you've got to do what Bristol City, Luton Town, Ipswich and Southampton have done and spot the talent before the talent overtakes you.

That leaves a tiny cohort of managers. And out of that bunch, I'd pick out Luke Williams of Notts County as the one I'd want. If only for his ability to communicate so fluently on points of tactics like this:

He's the sort of hire that would get me excited. You don't need Championship experience - that's a myth. You don't need tried and tested - that's a myth. You need talent. How many senior figures do you notice at work who are worse at their job than their juniors? There's no reason to believe that is any different in football.

2. TACTICS

In the top flight and now in the Championship too, the 3-5-2 is dead. We need a manager who can break us out of this mould. That's going to be difficult, and it may lead to results getting worse in the short-term given that we've recruited exclusively for a dying formation.

However, in the medium term, we have a real opportunity to change our tactics by trying something different and recruiting differently. We can practice change over the remaining PL campaign, and if it keeps us up; amazing. If it doesn't, we will at least have started the process.

On top of that, lots of contracts are up at the end of the season. Any new manager should have room to manoeuvre in the transfer market in summer 2024.

3. RECRUITMENT

Look at Luton! There are ways to recruit good teams on tight budgets. We cannot continue to pursue a strategy of nabbing City Group graduates. There are plenty of clubs that prove that you can punch above your weight. And Sheffield United are lucky enough to have some clout.

Let's pick up young talented players with re-sale value, and then (as fans) let's get real about selling. SELLING IS A GOOD THING WHEN YOU MAKE DOSH. A good football business buys low and sells high. Why has that never been our model?

4. YOUTH
We have a crop of talented young players who could certainly make the grade at Championship level. Risking another period - like Wilder's - where the youth are not blooded, are not given a chance, and are sold on for peanuts would be stupid. Homegrown players like Ben Whiteman and Regan Slater are plying their trade in the Championship; we let them leave and signed players like Ben Osborn instead.

This cannot happen again with Arblaster, Jebbison, Osula, Sachdev, Brooks etc. They may not all make the grade. But I would sooner give them a chance than sign older, poorer replacements - it's cheaper to do this after all.

5. EXPECTATION

No matter who is in charge, a period of flux is coming. Fan expectation was incredibly high last season in the Championship and PH did an incredible job not only to meet them, but also to secure an FA Cup Semi Final to boot.

The coming transition - in tactics, in recruitment, in the ownership of our football club - will inevitably lead to a certain precariousness. It's hard to judge what our expectations should be. It's hard to judge what medium-term success looks like.

We should temper expectations and focus on the desperate need to fundamentally re-shape our club. We are now a relatively big fish in the football pond, certainly in the Championship. And that gives us an advantage in terms of the players we can recruit.

I want us to have a swagger: let's become an attacking team with a possession-based identity. Let's adopt a loose set of principles - possession, control, youth development - that means managers and players can come and go without leaving gaping holes.

That's what a forward-thinking club does... So of course, what happens next will be the opposite.

Another man playing the same turgid 3-5-2 will condemn us to mediocrity in the Championship next year. If we make a change, we need REAL CHANGE, not some piecemeal nostalgia.

Thanks

 

[Alex Cheeseright]

Luke Williams is a good shout for manager. Modern thinker, not afraid to change , talks honestly, gets players, albeit Notts County, motivated. Plays attractive football on a shoe string budget. Worth a serious look Mr Bettis.

 

[jt64]

Luke Williams is a good shout for manager. Modern thinker, not afraid to change , talks honestly, gets players, albeit Notts County, motivated. Plays attractive football on a shoe string budget. Worth a serious look Mr Bettis.

Counterpoint - likes short corners, has a very good clip explaining why short corners work, but it's not gerritinbox so will be hated by half the fanbase

 

[S64 Blade]

Bald managers are quite in vogue at the minute too, so I’m all for it.