Deadbat
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2020/21 SUFC SEASON REVIEW / SCHOOL REPORT
*Note - this was written before the Jokanovic appointment – I have tried to update in sections but apologies if it refer to us not having a manager yet in sections!
Rest of week will be posted as below
Part 6 Midfield
Part 7 Attack
Part 8 Final awards / Conclusions
Midfielders
Oliver Norwood After Brighton and Fulham opted that he would not be able to cope at the highest level, Wilder had every faith he would be fine and so it proved as he started every game and had a really good season. He played pretty well and was a key man and his passing and ability to dictate the tempo in games even versus bigger teams/more illustrious opponents was a big part of us being near the top of the league for long periods.
After lockdown, he was a player like a few others that had a drop off and ended up being a real argument whether newcomer Berge would take his place as he may be better in that position than the right side where he had played. The whole team did seem to struggle with the intensity and however they had spent time off (either doing too much or not enough) fitness wise we/he never really got to the level needed.
As the new season started, this theme continued. It was like we had not had time to reset or look at this aspect of the game and so many players came in either under cooked or not fit. Norwood was a casing point as players ran off him, he seemed at full stretch and we had no control of midfield – an area we had been fine in last year with the three main midfielders all being excellent.
He was taken out of the team quite early and was in and out but when he did get recalled he did not do enough to convince. There were a number of poor games where he kept giving the ball away and his tackling and inability to keep up with fitter/quicker midfielders really hampered us. The games around Xmas his game hit a particularly low point in terms of production or lack of it in games v Everton and Burnley. The mistakes then started to creep in as his slowness to react and give aways cost us goals. Watching him wave his hands as Palace robbed him and broke and scored was a symbol of his season sadly.
He had a bit of a spell in wins v Newcastle and Man Utd – he was superb in this game and carried this on at Man City. He could not maintain it though and there were a number of pathetic showings where the midfield were invisible but worse were giving away the ball that often it seemed like Ramsdale was constantly having to make saves or having shots reigning in. He did become a regular and we saw some ‘ok’ games to close the season but we never controlled midfield at all and so many games the other midfielders were better. Players just ran off him, he saw little of the ball and when he had set plays he wasted many of them. We saw flashes in odd games (Everton) to end the season but mostly it continued to be ineffective displays. His showing at Newcastle was horrific where he could not keep the ball on the pitch and was just quite lacklustre generally to end the season with more bad stuff than good stuff.
We had seen daft fouls and him diving in somewhat last season but we saw much more of this. He often went to floor or would just grab/foul his man. He became quite dirty and cynical. We did not see anywhere near enough of the ball and as Fleck/Lundstram and even Berge at times struggled with the intensity, he was not really a factor. He literally had seemingly dropped off a cliff with his performances both on and off the ball being just not good enough at this level. His set plays for the most part were terrible too.
Really sad to see such a sudden decline. Like with Stevens it came out of nowhere. Norwood has never been that quick or strong but had enough about him positionally and fitness wise to compensate but his flaws were magnified hugely this season and we maybe saw why teams did not carry on with him when they went up. The oddest thing was that he had been fine until the lockdown and had been competent to good for the eight months of the previous season. Whether it was confidence or what it was, I am not really sure but everything started to unravel. The other midfielders were poor, the strikers had no impact and the defence was not as solid but I felt the midfield was our weakest area. We just seemed so unfit, slow and weak. So, the rare times he/we had the ball we had to make use of it. We did not and just invited pressure. We had kept the ball with sense and thought the previous campaign but became almost a long ball team and he and others were just helping the ball on rather than trusting each other to keep it and play little triangles.
As I have done with Ampadu, he seems to be another that has made lots of direct mistakes that have led to goals. I am not scapegoating (maybe I am!) but that is odd for a midfielder and kind of sums up his season when you can recall a number of goals coming due to his poor touch/pass. Maybe he was unlucky as teams seemed to capitalise on lots of errors but there were more times than below, he did this and we got away with it.
Palace (A) - First goal - tackled it into the path of the scorer
Palace (A) - Second goal - Let Eze go through him - joint one with Norwood *
Spurs (H) - Second goal - miscontrol led to Kane getting it and scoring
Spurs (H) - Third goal - Just let ball run away from him
West Brom (H) - Passed it straight to them led to a break and a goal
West Ham (A) - Passed it straight to them led to a break and a pen
Chelsea (A) Own goal
Not sure where we go. A lot feel he will be fine next season and he might be but then we go up (we hope) then what? Sadly, the evidence over the 2 seasons (yes, he did well to start but could not maintain it like top players do) is he is not up the highest level and we would have to replace him. Maybe we keep him and look to bring in others but again much depends on the style. I maintain despite the likes of him and Fleck being great in the league below before and that they should do better, that we will still get overrun and struggle in this area if they perform how they have. I know h will get the ball more but even his passing when under no pressure was off and teams will press him more than they did the last time we were down here. I am not convinced what we achieve by having him in the central of midfield regularly. He has had a really poor season and whilst we cannot change the whole team, we need a natural churn of players. I personally think whilst he will remain (has 2 years left on his contract and he has just turned 30, so maybe the extension on reflection was a really poor move – hindsight a fabulous thing!) in the squad, I would be looking in a different direction. We need some legs, athleticism and something different. We have loved watching the likes of him, Fleck, Duffy (and even Lundstram) etc for 3 seasons but I just think it is not working now and we need to look at evolving how we play and maybe approach things tactically. Jokanovic is someone that has signed him before and know how he works but then did not retain him when Fulham went up. Be interesting what happens with him in that regard as he is 3 years older than when he last worked with him too. I understand some will pan this opinion and say we should just throw him and Fleck, Stevens, McBurnie out there as they were fine before and will be again. I feel a year of losing and confidence being eroded means we need to change more than the odd player personally. I think he may remain but will not be a regular.
Grade F+ (Last season B+)
John Fleck Before the first lockdown I would have been hard pressed whether to pick Fleck or Basham as our player of the season. He had been brilliant for us and at times been sensational. I recall the Villa game at home and Man City away. The final game I went to, he scored that great leveller at Arsenal and there were many games he was dictating midfield with his penetrating runs, energy and box to box displays. He was superb and added goals t his repertoire. Like many others, we were not sure he would have the pace/stamina and consistency to excel at the higher level, but along with the rest he showed he was fine. He was one of our best players in a side going for Europe and it was a shock he was not a regular for an awful Scotland team.
Fleck has always been slow to get going after breaks (pre season or international) so you worried the lockdown would hinder him and so it proved. He never seemed fit and he did have a number of niggling injuries and to this day I am not sure he is still right with reports of an ongoing back issue which he confirmed this season.
He started really slowly struggling in the opening games and then the aforementioned injury issues saw him taken out of the side for a period. He came back against West Ham but the team continued to struggle and he just looked miles off the player he was. Gone were the bursting runs, dribbles, link ups and goal threats. He looked so tentative and was not helped by Stevens bad form and O’Connell being out. The whole midfield saw less of the ball than the opponents every week and he just looked a different player. He could not get going at all and we did not create anything, did not protect the defence and barely even competitive in this area. Teams just ran though us as we got physically swarmed all over and seemed like we were stuck in quick sand. We went from a midfield doing really well to now being completely out matched every week.
He did get back to some form finally as Wilder joked his brother ‘Jimmy Fleck’ had been playing instead of John. I thought in some of the wins against Newcastle, Man Utd and West Brom he was very good and more like the Fleck of old. He was superb at Old Trafford and played well at the Etihad a few days later and nearly scored a leveller. He was not really creating goals or having the same attacking threat and barely had an effort on goal all season (after the one that hit the post v Wolves to the City effort). The burst of good form was not maintained for him or the team. He dropped off again and I thought just before Wilder left to just after he put in some shambolic and anonymous performances. Under Heckingbottom he did show some improvements in some games and we saw a few glimpses but it was never consistently maintained in games or over a run of games. He also committed some dirty, cynical fouls including a horrific stamp at Spurs he was lucky to get away with. Terrible v Palace with more lazy, half-hearted play and struggling to even keep up with play at times. Then at Everton more committed and better with and without the ball but this was a rare decent outing. He ended up with more slow and very ordinary performances to finish the season.
Many focused-on Norwood and Lundstram as the issue in midfield. I love Fleck but felt he was as culpable most of the season. He was just not in games and when he got it, he played it safe or ran into trouble or got outmuscled. Gone was that confidence, bustling midfielder who ran away from opponents, could tackle and press and do things both defensively and attacking wise. It was sad to see a player who had been sensational look a shadow of himself. He was ironically in and around the Scotland squad now after being overlooked when he played so well but rarely used and even for the National Team he did not convince.
He turns 30 (like Norwood just has) soon and his career is another at a crossroads. He deservedly got a new contract but you wonder whether many players’ appetite now they got to the top level and got bigger deals is still there. I never thought I would question the desire and application of this group but he is another that has seemingly just tossed it off since he got his new contract. Our midfield has been dire all season and he has featured most weeks. A year ago, if a team had offered 15-20 million, fans would have said not to sell him as he had been brilliant. Now if we got a bid of 1.5-2 million, we’d snatch the other teams hands off. He has declined so rapidly and been so poor for such a long period now. At the top level he has been worse for a longer period than he was good and another that is just not quick enough strong enough or consistent enough to play at the top level. I thought he was but top players maintain it for longer than 4 or 5 months and do it for 4 or 5 years. He has not shown he can do that.
It is hard as a fair few fans think he deserves a chance to come back and with under contract for a further 2 seasons not sure United will move on Lundstram (going anyway), Berge, Norwood and Fleck. The former two will almost certainly depart so changing the whole midfield might be hard but not sure any have done enough to say I should be starting next season. If he moved on, I would not be that bothered and another that may need a fresh start. I maybe am in the camp of giving him the summer and the opening to the season to see if he can get back to any kind of form but as I say he traditionally starts slow and I am not sure he is the type of player that will go away and put in the hard yards to get really fit. I do not get the impression he takes the game as serious as he should do in order to stay at the top. That may seem harsh but conditioning wise he never gives himself a chance and the fact he is so slow to get back to any form is surely a major flaw in his game. He played fantastic for a year but has not shown the commitment or consistency to show he is a top-level player sadly.
Another that I would be surprised if he is still here in a year’s time. Next summer he would only have a year left on his contract and like with Norwood, these players are not going to improve now. I just feel he has been brilliant for United but has not gone on to the be the top-level Premier League player he probably could have been. It remains to be seen whether O’Connell, Baldock, Egan etc (being younger) can do that but for Fleck sadly his chance has probably gone. Like most the damage of his performances and United’s horrific season may be more far reaching than you would imagine but I see his career declining from this point without a serious attitude/fitness change.
Grade E (Last season A-)
*Note - this was written before the Jokanovic appointment – I have tried to update in sections but apologies if it refer to us not having a manager yet in sections!
Rest of week will be posted as below
Part 6 Midfield
Part 7 Attack
Part 8 Final awards / Conclusions
Midfielders
Oliver Norwood After Brighton and Fulham opted that he would not be able to cope at the highest level, Wilder had every faith he would be fine and so it proved as he started every game and had a really good season. He played pretty well and was a key man and his passing and ability to dictate the tempo in games even versus bigger teams/more illustrious opponents was a big part of us being near the top of the league for long periods.
After lockdown, he was a player like a few others that had a drop off and ended up being a real argument whether newcomer Berge would take his place as he may be better in that position than the right side where he had played. The whole team did seem to struggle with the intensity and however they had spent time off (either doing too much or not enough) fitness wise we/he never really got to the level needed.
As the new season started, this theme continued. It was like we had not had time to reset or look at this aspect of the game and so many players came in either under cooked or not fit. Norwood was a casing point as players ran off him, he seemed at full stretch and we had no control of midfield – an area we had been fine in last year with the three main midfielders all being excellent.
He was taken out of the team quite early and was in and out but when he did get recalled he did not do enough to convince. There were a number of poor games where he kept giving the ball away and his tackling and inability to keep up with fitter/quicker midfielders really hampered us. The games around Xmas his game hit a particularly low point in terms of production or lack of it in games v Everton and Burnley. The mistakes then started to creep in as his slowness to react and give aways cost us goals. Watching him wave his hands as Palace robbed him and broke and scored was a symbol of his season sadly.
He had a bit of a spell in wins v Newcastle and Man Utd – he was superb in this game and carried this on at Man City. He could not maintain it though and there were a number of pathetic showings where the midfield were invisible but worse were giving away the ball that often it seemed like Ramsdale was constantly having to make saves or having shots reigning in. He did become a regular and we saw some ‘ok’ games to close the season but we never controlled midfield at all and so many games the other midfielders were better. Players just ran off him, he saw little of the ball and when he had set plays he wasted many of them. We saw flashes in odd games (Everton) to end the season but mostly it continued to be ineffective displays. His showing at Newcastle was horrific where he could not keep the ball on the pitch and was just quite lacklustre generally to end the season with more bad stuff than good stuff.
We had seen daft fouls and him diving in somewhat last season but we saw much more of this. He often went to floor or would just grab/foul his man. He became quite dirty and cynical. We did not see anywhere near enough of the ball and as Fleck/Lundstram and even Berge at times struggled with the intensity, he was not really a factor. He literally had seemingly dropped off a cliff with his performances both on and off the ball being just not good enough at this level. His set plays for the most part were terrible too.
Really sad to see such a sudden decline. Like with Stevens it came out of nowhere. Norwood has never been that quick or strong but had enough about him positionally and fitness wise to compensate but his flaws were magnified hugely this season and we maybe saw why teams did not carry on with him when they went up. The oddest thing was that he had been fine until the lockdown and had been competent to good for the eight months of the previous season. Whether it was confidence or what it was, I am not really sure but everything started to unravel. The other midfielders were poor, the strikers had no impact and the defence was not as solid but I felt the midfield was our weakest area. We just seemed so unfit, slow and weak. So, the rare times he/we had the ball we had to make use of it. We did not and just invited pressure. We had kept the ball with sense and thought the previous campaign but became almost a long ball team and he and others were just helping the ball on rather than trusting each other to keep it and play little triangles.
As I have done with Ampadu, he seems to be another that has made lots of direct mistakes that have led to goals. I am not scapegoating (maybe I am!) but that is odd for a midfielder and kind of sums up his season when you can recall a number of goals coming due to his poor touch/pass. Maybe he was unlucky as teams seemed to capitalise on lots of errors but there were more times than below, he did this and we got away with it.
Palace (A) - First goal - tackled it into the path of the scorer
Palace (A) - Second goal - Let Eze go through him - joint one with Norwood *
Spurs (H) - Second goal - miscontrol led to Kane getting it and scoring
Spurs (H) - Third goal - Just let ball run away from him
West Brom (H) - Passed it straight to them led to a break and a goal
West Ham (A) - Passed it straight to them led to a break and a pen
Chelsea (A) Own goal
Not sure where we go. A lot feel he will be fine next season and he might be but then we go up (we hope) then what? Sadly, the evidence over the 2 seasons (yes, he did well to start but could not maintain it like top players do) is he is not up the highest level and we would have to replace him. Maybe we keep him and look to bring in others but again much depends on the style. I maintain despite the likes of him and Fleck being great in the league below before and that they should do better, that we will still get overrun and struggle in this area if they perform how they have. I know h will get the ball more but even his passing when under no pressure was off and teams will press him more than they did the last time we were down here. I am not convinced what we achieve by having him in the central of midfield regularly. He has had a really poor season and whilst we cannot change the whole team, we need a natural churn of players. I personally think whilst he will remain (has 2 years left on his contract and he has just turned 30, so maybe the extension on reflection was a really poor move – hindsight a fabulous thing!) in the squad, I would be looking in a different direction. We need some legs, athleticism and something different. We have loved watching the likes of him, Fleck, Duffy (and even Lundstram) etc for 3 seasons but I just think it is not working now and we need to look at evolving how we play and maybe approach things tactically. Jokanovic is someone that has signed him before and know how he works but then did not retain him when Fulham went up. Be interesting what happens with him in that regard as he is 3 years older than when he last worked with him too. I understand some will pan this opinion and say we should just throw him and Fleck, Stevens, McBurnie out there as they were fine before and will be again. I feel a year of losing and confidence being eroded means we need to change more than the odd player personally. I think he may remain but will not be a regular.
Grade F+ (Last season B+)
John Fleck Before the first lockdown I would have been hard pressed whether to pick Fleck or Basham as our player of the season. He had been brilliant for us and at times been sensational. I recall the Villa game at home and Man City away. The final game I went to, he scored that great leveller at Arsenal and there were many games he was dictating midfield with his penetrating runs, energy and box to box displays. He was superb and added goals t his repertoire. Like many others, we were not sure he would have the pace/stamina and consistency to excel at the higher level, but along with the rest he showed he was fine. He was one of our best players in a side going for Europe and it was a shock he was not a regular for an awful Scotland team.
Fleck has always been slow to get going after breaks (pre season or international) so you worried the lockdown would hinder him and so it proved. He never seemed fit and he did have a number of niggling injuries and to this day I am not sure he is still right with reports of an ongoing back issue which he confirmed this season.
He started really slowly struggling in the opening games and then the aforementioned injury issues saw him taken out of the side for a period. He came back against West Ham but the team continued to struggle and he just looked miles off the player he was. Gone were the bursting runs, dribbles, link ups and goal threats. He looked so tentative and was not helped by Stevens bad form and O’Connell being out. The whole midfield saw less of the ball than the opponents every week and he just looked a different player. He could not get going at all and we did not create anything, did not protect the defence and barely even competitive in this area. Teams just ran though us as we got physically swarmed all over and seemed like we were stuck in quick sand. We went from a midfield doing really well to now being completely out matched every week.
He did get back to some form finally as Wilder joked his brother ‘Jimmy Fleck’ had been playing instead of John. I thought in some of the wins against Newcastle, Man Utd and West Brom he was very good and more like the Fleck of old. He was superb at Old Trafford and played well at the Etihad a few days later and nearly scored a leveller. He was not really creating goals or having the same attacking threat and barely had an effort on goal all season (after the one that hit the post v Wolves to the City effort). The burst of good form was not maintained for him or the team. He dropped off again and I thought just before Wilder left to just after he put in some shambolic and anonymous performances. Under Heckingbottom he did show some improvements in some games and we saw a few glimpses but it was never consistently maintained in games or over a run of games. He also committed some dirty, cynical fouls including a horrific stamp at Spurs he was lucky to get away with. Terrible v Palace with more lazy, half-hearted play and struggling to even keep up with play at times. Then at Everton more committed and better with and without the ball but this was a rare decent outing. He ended up with more slow and very ordinary performances to finish the season.
Many focused-on Norwood and Lundstram as the issue in midfield. I love Fleck but felt he was as culpable most of the season. He was just not in games and when he got it, he played it safe or ran into trouble or got outmuscled. Gone was that confidence, bustling midfielder who ran away from opponents, could tackle and press and do things both defensively and attacking wise. It was sad to see a player who had been sensational look a shadow of himself. He was ironically in and around the Scotland squad now after being overlooked when he played so well but rarely used and even for the National Team he did not convince.
He turns 30 (like Norwood just has) soon and his career is another at a crossroads. He deservedly got a new contract but you wonder whether many players’ appetite now they got to the top level and got bigger deals is still there. I never thought I would question the desire and application of this group but he is another that has seemingly just tossed it off since he got his new contract. Our midfield has been dire all season and he has featured most weeks. A year ago, if a team had offered 15-20 million, fans would have said not to sell him as he had been brilliant. Now if we got a bid of 1.5-2 million, we’d snatch the other teams hands off. He has declined so rapidly and been so poor for such a long period now. At the top level he has been worse for a longer period than he was good and another that is just not quick enough strong enough or consistent enough to play at the top level. I thought he was but top players maintain it for longer than 4 or 5 months and do it for 4 or 5 years. He has not shown he can do that.
It is hard as a fair few fans think he deserves a chance to come back and with under contract for a further 2 seasons not sure United will move on Lundstram (going anyway), Berge, Norwood and Fleck. The former two will almost certainly depart so changing the whole midfield might be hard but not sure any have done enough to say I should be starting next season. If he moved on, I would not be that bothered and another that may need a fresh start. I maybe am in the camp of giving him the summer and the opening to the season to see if he can get back to any kind of form but as I say he traditionally starts slow and I am not sure he is the type of player that will go away and put in the hard yards to get really fit. I do not get the impression he takes the game as serious as he should do in order to stay at the top. That may seem harsh but conditioning wise he never gives himself a chance and the fact he is so slow to get back to any form is surely a major flaw in his game. He played fantastic for a year but has not shown the commitment or consistency to show he is a top-level player sadly.
Another that I would be surprised if he is still here in a year’s time. Next summer he would only have a year left on his contract and like with Norwood, these players are not going to improve now. I just feel he has been brilliant for United but has not gone on to the be the top-level Premier League player he probably could have been. It remains to be seen whether O’Connell, Baldock, Egan etc (being younger) can do that but for Fleck sadly his chance has probably gone. Like most the damage of his performances and United’s horrific season may be more far reaching than you would imagine but I see his career declining from this point without a serious attitude/fitness change.
Grade E (Last season A-)
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