United 0 Palace 1 - report

[Sheffsteel]

Hopefully we won't see that line up start again for the rest of the season. It was a parody of Sheff It's, what all the journos and opposing fans think we are which is workmanlike and lacking quality. Time to shake it up.

Totally agree.
Our first match of the season is usually on Sky.
So it's a massive relief it wasn't televised.

The commentator would have been so patronising making comments like
"Sheffield United are one the hardest working teams in the Premier League"
"What they lack in quality, they make up with effort and most teams will find it really tough at Bramall Lane like Palace did today"
"The Sheffield United crowd are always worth a few points and their team played well today but it's going to be a tough season"

Fan comments would have been horrible
"Sheffield are the worse team in the league, they were embarrassing and will finish bottom"
"I'm putting a bet on them to beat Derby's low points record"
"If thats the standard of a promoted team then God help the Championship" etc etc
and even "They're an embarrassment to the Premier league, would much rather Wednesday be in the Premier League" from a Man City fan.

 

[Snowflake]

You often comment correctly that opponents are taller stronger & fitter - why do we not find & sign such athletes ? Why for example do we have tiny tots such as Osborn , Traore & Larouci trying to compete with superior men ? Have we not recognised that you need athletes the PL ?
How can professional sportsmen arrive at a new club and not be at full fitness ? Strikes me that they lack professional pride or , if at their personal limit , we have chosen badly.
Why Trusty has not played is a mystery to me , with JLT at LWB - our 2 LWBs seem worryingly poor.
The midfield today was an utter embarrassment - I do not expect to see any of those 3 starting in the PL.
They have only been extended by one year as a panic measure and only ever expected to be used in emergency , same goes for Fleck & Coulibaly.
Our midfield should consist of 3 from Hamer , Souza , Slimane & a new high quality L-footed MF to give balance.
Any others are just poor seconds except perhaps Brooks.
And so to strikers - well , we need 2 of starting quality and they better be athletes able to make some impression on PL defences - maybe one loan & one permanent - we all know McBurnie injury prone and anyway questionable at PL level and he's only been extended for one year. Brewster is something of a lost cause and hasn't played for so long I don't see how he can help us until most of the season is gone. The two lads Jebbo & Osula are great prospects but we need to sign them on longer contracts and loan them out or sell them coz they are not ready for the PL so don't really have a role to play.
In my mind we do not possess one single fit PL striker.
I suggest we need to get a pair pdq and have Traore as backup , with the faint hope of McBurnie and/or Brewster being fit enough as second backup.
Some might say play Jebbo/Osula alongside a PL quality recruit - if we do so without signing them on a longer contract , and against the odds they succeed in the PL , we'll lose them for nowt next summer.
The striker position is harder to resolve than midfield.
We've signed a £15m MF , a £10m MF and a £2m MF - we just need a quality L-footed MF and the jobs done and with luck we never see anyone else starting in midfield.
With strikers , the only fit ones are a youngster and a £5m tiny tot , both of whom are development prospects and not PL starting quality so we need to recruit fast.
Then we have a mixture of injured ones two if whom are injury prone and the other is a youngster.
Get moving Blades and get some players in - make sure they're athletes.

Does it not suggest a policy of preparing for an assault on the Championship next season ?

 

[RossingtonBlade]

Egan worries me - he is not performing as well as in previous seasons and yet he's been made captain so a nailed on starter - he doesn't even have any competition to keep him on his toes - we badly need another R-footed CB to compete with Anel & Egan because in Bash they know their place is not under threat.
However , our budget does not run to a CB when there are bigger holes in the squad

Egan has been absolutely piss poor for the best part of 18 months but like with Wes, there are many other positions that need addressing first. Can’t believe he has been given captaincy. His defending for the goal was embarrassing.

 

[Revolution]

Does it not suggest a policy of preparing for an assault on the Championship next season ?

No. The team is currently of mid table Championship quality. Great defence, poor midfield, untried strikers.

And it is a hell of a lot easier to stay in this division than to get into it, as our history of the last 50 seasons should prove.

 

[coaxingstar71]

I can easily be swayed to Norwoud being a 4/10 and Bash/Ozzy lower but they were all really poor. What annoyed me most about Norwood is he has the ability to keep it but just kept punting it away.

I've just had a proper look at the stars for possession, shots on targets and passes made. This was as comprehensive a 0-1 away win as you could expect. Was very much like a Champ - League 1 side in the cup.

Incredible that after 4 months that's the best the board gave Hecky. We need at least 2 more in for Forest and probably another 4/5 total before the end of the window. That's just to be competitive.

With better playing/prep we could easily have had 6-8 points at least from first 4. Now we will probably get 0 and then the hard games start!

My theory about Norwood now is that he plays those telegraphed first time balls with his first touch because he's scared he's going to get robbed if he tries more than one touch of the ball, and invariably he does. His second touch these days is usually either on the stretch or a tackle, such is his lack of pace and mobility.

For me, this is why Doyle made such a big difference to us at the latter end of last season, because he has the confidence and mobility to take more than one touch of the ball without getting caught.

 

[Snowflake]

No. The team is currently of mid table Championship quality. Great defence, poor midfield, untried strikers.

And it is a hell of a lot easier to stay in this division than to get into it, as our history of the last 50 seasons should prove.

That doesn’t mean that the policy is as you would prefer it.

 

[Revolution]

That doesn’t mean that the policy is as you would prefer it.

No, it doesn’t.

The policy is to get players who are in the last year of their deals and who other clubs want off the books, and to replace them with cheaper players, who invariably have no PL experience. Quantity over quality. It won’t keep us up and it likely won’t get us up either.

 

[Snowflake]

No, it doesn’t.

The policy is to get players who are in the last year of their deals and who other clubs want off the books, and to replace them with cheaper players, who invariably have no PL experience. Quantity over quality. It won’t keep us up and it likely won’t get us up either.

I think it is too early to judge how good (or not) the incoming players are. We also need to see who and with what experience arrives this month.
Only then can we begin to see whether we might stay up and if not whether we have the basis of a better equipped side to come back up and stay.

 

[Deadbat]

I think it is too early to judge how good (or not) the incoming players are. We also need to see who and with what experience arrives this month.
Only then can we begin to see whether we might stay up and if not whether we have the basis of a better equipped side to come back up and stay.

The problem is if we don't get anything against Forest or Everton, then the next run of games up to Nov is grim. Its not ridiculous to suggest we could be as good as down again by Xmas unless we get some proven players in now. We can't be waiting. We seem to slmost chucked away a month of games (next argument will be new players aren't up to speed when they come in) due to dreadful planning and mismanagement since we went up in April.

We spent a season keeping our better players and doing the hard work to go up. Now we threaten to quite quickly almost have conceded relegation and possibly years of purgatory again due to rank.bad planning snd complete lack of ambition.

Those saying we've done great to get 30 mill for Ndiaye and Berge with a year left and we had yo do it. We go down and that 30 mill is swallowed up instantly in costs etc. The nation of having assets on longer term deals is nonsensical if the players aren't as good and if they are will go anyway if we go down (Ramsdale situation). If we go down snd fail to come back up, we are in the same situation we were 2 years ago knowing we are skint.

We seemed to just have kicked the can down the road but in a weird way.

Ultimately we have to hope for a change of ownership and fast as that seems to be the only way out but that's not going to happen before the end of the window. With each loss,the value nosedive from now to the end of the season.

 

[Snowflake]

The problem is if we don't get anything against Forest or Everton, then the next run of games up to Nov is grim. Its not ridiculous to suggest we could be as good as down again by Xmas unless we get some proven players in now. We can't be waiting. We seem to slmost chucked away a month of games (next argument will be new players aren't up to speed when they come in) due to dreadful planning and mismanagement since we went up in April.

We spent a season keeping our better players and doing the hard work to go up. Now we threaten to quite quickly almost have conceded relegation and possibly years of purgatory again due to rank.bad planning snd complete lack of ambition.

Those saying we've done great to get 30 mill for Ndiaye and Berge with a year left and we had yo do it. We go down and that 30 mill is swallowed up instantly in costs etc. The nation of having assets on longer term deals is nonsensical if the players aren't as good and if they are will go anyway if we go down (Ramsdale situation). If we go down snd fail to come back up, we are in the same situation we were 2 years ago knowing we are skint.

We seemed to just have kicked the can down the road but in a weird way.

Ultimately we have to hope for a change of ownership and fast as that seems to be the only way out but that's not going to happen before the end of the window. With each loss,the value nosedive from now to the end of the season.

I don’t think we are likely to have an owner that puts in sufficient money for us to become an established PL side.If that happens then great, but it’s not within my expectations.
If the £30m for those two enabled us to get either players to keep us up this year or sufficient players who become PL standard to enable us to come back up or sell at large profit then it makes sense. Until we know what we have ended up with and how good they are then I reserve judgment, but the lack of news from day to day doesn’t bode well.

 

[Silent Blade]

Those saying we've done great to get 30 mill for Ndiaye and Berge with a year left and we had yo do it.

Who said this?

We have done great to get £15M for Berge and I said this along with many others but you are trying to make it sound that there are some in here who have said that we have done well to get £30M for Berge AND Ndiaye and I dont agree with what you said.

 

[Deadbat]

Who said this?

We have done great to get £15M for Berge and I said this along with many others but you are trying to make it sound that there are some in here who have said that we have done well to get £30M for Berge AND Ndiaye and I dont agree with what you said.

There's been a number on twitter/X saying we were right to sell and get the fees due to the contract situation (which we should have sorted a long time ago). You might not agree but trust me lots were saying it was right to sell and get the money now.

I disagree with this opinion. I personally think keeping both players even if they departed for free and adding a few this summer would have given us a chance to stay up. If we stayed up we make another 150-200 million for staying up. The 30 mill is small change and will disappear within a year on operating costs/wages if we go down.

I think the benefits of keeping them far outweighed the decision to sell. They were under contract to us. Maybe if we looked like staying up they resign? At some point we have to keep our better players to progress.

 

[Silent Blade]

There's been a number on twitter/X saying we were right to sell and get the fees due to the contract situation (which we should have sorted a long time ago). You might not agree but trust me lots were saying it was right to sell and get the money now.

I disagree with this opinion. I personally think keeping both players even if they departed for free and adding a few this summer would have given us a chance to stay up. If we stayed up we make another 150-200 million for staying up. The 30 mill is small change and will disappear within a year on operating costs/wages if we go down.

I think the benefits of keeping them far outweighed the decision to sell. They were under contract to us. Maybe if we looked like staying up they resign? At some point we have to keep our better players to progress.

There are idiots in Twitter and I don’t have a twitter account.
Berge isn't good enough to play in the PL

 

[Deadbat]

There are idiots in Twitter and I don’t have a twitter account.
Berge isn't good enough to play in the PL

There's idiots everywhere!

Berge will be fine in the Premier League.

He was frustrating but was one of few we had who would be fine at this level IMHO. Just another we need to replace now.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Berge isn't good enough to play in the PL

Neither were the majority of the side on Saturday. I would have rather Berge than Bash or Ozzy in midfield.

 

[Silent Blade]

Neither were the majority of the side on Saturday. I would have rather Berge than Bash or Ozzy in midfield.

So you would rather keep Berge and not sign Hamer?

 

[Pollingtonblade]

So you would rather keep Berge and not sign Hamer?

I didn't say that, I said Berge was better than the midfield on Sat.

 

[Silent Blade]

I didn't say that, I said Berge was better than the midfield on Sat.

If we kept Berge then we will not have the money for Hamer. Am very surprised that Burnley went for Berge rather than Hamer

 

[Silent Blade]

I disagree with this opinion. I personally think keeping both players even if they departed for free and adding a few this summer would have given us a little chance to stay up.

Corrected for you

 

[Champagneblade]

Linz Foxy

Hi there, Happy Monday to you both.

Is there any plan to replace the picture or report of the opening day 1-0 defeat by Palace on the home page?

It saddens me beyond words every time I open the site!

Much obliged

 

[Deadbat]

There are idiots in Twitter and I don’t have a twitter account.
Berge isn't good enough to play in the PL

Seen someone bumped this thread but interested if you still feel the same Silent Blade about Berge?

My workmate who supports Fulham says he has been outstanding and a regular in a Fulham side that is now established at this level. He Is worried he might interest other clubs. Says Chelsea and Man Utd been linked.

 

[Silent Blade]

Seen someone bumped this thread but interested if you still feel the same Silent Blade about Berge?

My workmate who supports Fulham says he has been outstanding and a regular in a Fulham side that is now established at this level. He Is worried he might interest other clubs. Says Chelsea and Man Utd been linked.

Ok to play in a team of quality players. Still never worth the fee we paid for him

 

[Bell4]

Linz Foxy

Hi there, Happy Monday to you both.

Is there any plan to replace the picture or report of the opening day 1-0 defeat by Palace on the home page?

It saddens me beyond words every time I open the site!

Much obliged

Agree

Can’t we replace it with the 7-0 victory over Ipswich in the early 70s . Silent could write a report and Deadbat could provide player ratings by reading the report ?

Just a thought

 

[Youngand70]

Agree

Can’t we replace it with the 7-0 victory over Ipswich in the early 70s . Silent could write a report and Deadbat could provide player ratings by reading the report ?

Just a thought

Remember sitting in the Cricketers before that Ipswich game having some banter with some over confident tractor boys needless to say they weren't so confident 7 goals later.

 

[Lord Eddard Muir]

Linz Foxy

Hi there, Happy Monday to you both.

Is there any plan to replace the picture or report of the opening day 1-0 defeat by Palace on the home page?

It saddens me beyond words every time I open the site!

Much obliged

I think the hugely out of date homepage is there on purpose to a) host ads and b) trick the casual visitor into thinking the site is abandoned, reducing their chances of stumbling on the forum

 

[Chimpan-A]

I think the hugely out of date homepage is there on purpose to a) host ads and b) trick the casual visitor into thinking the site is abandoned, reducing their chances of stumbling on the forum

Like in one of those horror films where a car full of teenagers breakdown near what appears to be an abandoned house? Of course, in those films the house is really inhabited by toothless inbred simpletons, totally out of touch with the modern world, who will destroy (and eat) anything that threatens their insular view.

Whereas this forum … er …

 

[Champagneblade]

Like in one of those horror films where a car full of teenagers breakdown near what appears to be an abandoned house? Of course, in those films the house is really inhabited by toothless inbred simpletons, totally out of touch with the modern world, who will destroy (and eat) anything that threatens their insular view.

Whereas this forum … er …

You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself

 

[Bell4]

Remember sitting in the Cricketers before that Ipswich game having some banter with some over confident tractor boys needless to say they weren't so confident 7 goals later.

Needless to say - we had the last laugh