I'm sorry but this is a case of red and white coloured specs. Please dont misinterpret me as a miserable objectivist TC because I admire anyone who looks at the glass half full and talks up the Blades but if anyone thinks we were unlucky yesterday then they must have been watching a different game to me..........
Watford deservedly won the game. They outplayed us for most of the first half and defended comfortably for the whole of the second. United were devoid of any ideas in the final third and produced nothing of note. The only exception would be Boggy's tame header into the goalies hands.....admittedly a difficult chance to take with the way it arrived to him.
Speed does need more time to get his methods across, that is true. But he also needs about 6 or 7 new players to make it work. We're disjointed and unbalanced right across the park and we have so little goal threat that mediocre sides are turning up and getting an easy three points at the lane.
The one positive thing I can say is that the players are trying and it must be horribly frustrating for Speed because he will be able to see the things that are wrong. The biggest question is how he's going to improve things with what we've got because I'm not sure anyone can. We're just not good enough because we dont have the players its as simple as that. Lots of triers with big hearts but not enough quality and guile.
I'm 100% behind them and I will turn out week in week out. Nothing will stop me going but without any help the manager needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat. I saw nothing yesterday to suggest much will change soon.
Totally agree with all of that.
There are a few things that really worry me, including the total lack of a goal threat, the number of loan players and the squad size and ability.
At present we have absolutely no threat from midfield, I doubt our whole midfield will score very many this season. Monty and Ertl are too similar and although ok at their job, breaking from midfield or playing killer passes they are not. This puts more pressure on the attackers, and at present they aren't performing either.
Personally I don't like having a lot of loan players. Ultimately their commitment isn't to our club, it can't be. It's either to gain experience in order to play for their parent club when they return or to get themselves a contract at another club, and not necessarily ours. I'm sure they'll profess to be totally commited to us, but it's probable that the next season they won't be here so actually what happens to us won't affect their career.
Of course I realise that buying and signing players of the quality of Taylor, Kozluk and France is a good argument for having loans!
Finally, we were discussing just how poor our squad is now.
Not one player is good enough to be playing in the Premiership, and some shouldn't be in the Championship. The 1st eleven isn't especially strong, and the reserves, including the players mentioned above leave us very weak.
Too many good players have been allowed to leave and not been replaced, and for me it's not the ones who have left for 'big' money such as the Kyles that has caused the problem for Speed now, it's the ones such a Cotterill and Howard who didn't suit the style under Blackwell and so left. We simply have too many players of similar ability, and more worringly, very few who can do much to really threaten the opponents or do something unexpected.
:hello:
