Fulwood Blade
Well-Known Member
“You’ve got a good team there, you have” – were the words.
This is my take on the game last night.
Walking out of the ground chatting to the two people I went with along Bolton Road and back to the car, I could see a lad of about 30(ish) look at my shirt, and look again, and I could tell he wanted to day something. A few seconds later he came out with the line above. How refreshing I thought and with deep honesty he went on to say “you were just too good for us tonight”.
So, was it that good? Well, accepting that football fans all have opinions, for me it was one of the best away team performances I have seen from United in recent years, including L1 days.
It was my first away match of the season as I only manage to get to 3 or 4 in a season, but what a game to pick. Pleased to hear from the Blades twitter feed that the team was unchanged – CW really had learnt his lesson from Birmingham and we went with our A team. Usual set up of 3-4-1-2, but one of the interesting things that developed during the evening is how we swapped it about. Mcgoldrick has quite clearly given the team a different perspective – his footballing brain allows him to come deep and in effect we change to a 3-4-2-1 formation seamlessly, but still with great movement all over the pitch – it’s a great away formation, giving us a massive overload in midfield. We quite simply out passed Blackburn ALL evening. Reading Tony Mowbrys comments from the previous evening, it was quite obvious from his words that he was worried about our all round ability and he said they had a plan – well, they did, and it started as a high press. We simply kept calm and passed around them in defence and midfield. Our ability to transform the ball through the pitch is quite exceptional now – every player has an excellent first touch (although give Blackburn credit – their pitch was in exceptional condition) and we are not scared to pass it around always looking to move it forward.
The first half was nearly all Blades – constantly probing, not panicking, just passing the football. The only criticism is that our play warrants more goals and we should have gone in at half time leading. Can see that Dack has talent, but we might have dodged a bullet really - bit like Baxter, good skill, but he's just not quite Carling. Mishit two shots in and around our box when under pressure.
Blackburn changed it 2nd half, brought on Mulgrew and his position reminded me of the sweeper system in Germany in the 70’s – really deep and in the middle at the back. Dack played deeper, although generally ineffective all evening, but they pushed us back for 15 minutes. We defended well as they pushed on, but our organisation was very good. On about 60 minutes (ish) we changed to 4-3-3 – Bash pushed into the middle of Norwood (right) and Fleck (left). Duffy on the right, Billy in the middle and Mcgoldrick on the left. Not sure if Blackburn were switched on to this change, but the plan worked – we got an overload down the left, good feed by Fleck to Mcgoldrick, nice movement by Billy (our fox in the box) to receive a great ball from Mcgoldrick – 1 nil!.....and yes, crowd went bonkers. Similar for the second – magnificent curling ball from Stevens (was right behind the trajectory) and nice, clever header from the goal machine that is Billy Sharp.
And so to Coutts.............great noise from the travelling Blades when we knew he was coming on. 3-5-2 was the formation, so we switched again – it started Coutts sitting between Norwood and Fleck. Great reception for the fella – great to see him back. We are going to pass teams to death if we can keep them all fit. Clarke and Washington came on and it’s quite obvious that when we see Washington, it’s going to be long balls into the channels for him to chase and then support. It isn’t going to be too pretty, but it’s just to see the game out. It is obviously our way of game management near the end and we’ll defend with the other 10 if and when.
As a summary:
One of the best away performances i’ve seen in donkeys years.
We are getting better and better as each week progresses.
We play lovely football.
Billy has stepped up his game.
Mcgoldrick – bargain of the season – a very very clever footballer.
Basham – stepped up his game again this season - outstanding last night.
Freeman – for me, a better wing back than Borbokis.
Stevens – what a transformation this season – should walk into Irelands team.
Egan – settled in nicely – a massive thanks to Brentford (aka: idiots)
Duffy – for fucks sake man, what were you doing in your early days as a footballer – quite exceptional now at this level.
The fans – great noise Blades, for majority of the evening.
The only downer was to the fan behind me – who was complaining about the 10-15 minutes after half time about us getting pushed back. This is what happens – opposition managers have a right go at their teams after we dominate on their patch – it’s bound to happen. We managed that part of the game very well, obviously learnt lessons after Bristol, Millwall and Preston. We then step out and take over the game again - we quite simply can't play forward football for 90 mins!
And finally to CW & AK – they have to get 10 out of 10 for how they set us up and managed the game. If only all our games could be like that.
For sure, we put down another marker last night to the Championship and we passed yet another test along the way.
Sorry to keep writing it - BUT – it’s like L1 all over again for me – we are getting better and better as each game goes on.
WE SHOULD LITERALLY FEAR NO ONE............and COUTTS is back !
UTB and bring on the DULL
This is my take on the game last night.
Walking out of the ground chatting to the two people I went with along Bolton Road and back to the car, I could see a lad of about 30(ish) look at my shirt, and look again, and I could tell he wanted to day something. A few seconds later he came out with the line above. How refreshing I thought and with deep honesty he went on to say “you were just too good for us tonight”.
So, was it that good? Well, accepting that football fans all have opinions, for me it was one of the best away team performances I have seen from United in recent years, including L1 days.
It was my first away match of the season as I only manage to get to 3 or 4 in a season, but what a game to pick. Pleased to hear from the Blades twitter feed that the team was unchanged – CW really had learnt his lesson from Birmingham and we went with our A team. Usual set up of 3-4-1-2, but one of the interesting things that developed during the evening is how we swapped it about. Mcgoldrick has quite clearly given the team a different perspective – his footballing brain allows him to come deep and in effect we change to a 3-4-2-1 formation seamlessly, but still with great movement all over the pitch – it’s a great away formation, giving us a massive overload in midfield. We quite simply out passed Blackburn ALL evening. Reading Tony Mowbrys comments from the previous evening, it was quite obvious from his words that he was worried about our all round ability and he said they had a plan – well, they did, and it started as a high press. We simply kept calm and passed around them in defence and midfield. Our ability to transform the ball through the pitch is quite exceptional now – every player has an excellent first touch (although give Blackburn credit – their pitch was in exceptional condition) and we are not scared to pass it around always looking to move it forward.
The first half was nearly all Blades – constantly probing, not panicking, just passing the football. The only criticism is that our play warrants more goals and we should have gone in at half time leading. Can see that Dack has talent, but we might have dodged a bullet really - bit like Baxter, good skill, but he's just not quite Carling. Mishit two shots in and around our box when under pressure.
Blackburn changed it 2nd half, brought on Mulgrew and his position reminded me of the sweeper system in Germany in the 70’s – really deep and in the middle at the back. Dack played deeper, although generally ineffective all evening, but they pushed us back for 15 minutes. We defended well as they pushed on, but our organisation was very good. On about 60 minutes (ish) we changed to 4-3-3 – Bash pushed into the middle of Norwood (right) and Fleck (left). Duffy on the right, Billy in the middle and Mcgoldrick on the left. Not sure if Blackburn were switched on to this change, but the plan worked – we got an overload down the left, good feed by Fleck to Mcgoldrick, nice movement by Billy (our fox in the box) to receive a great ball from Mcgoldrick – 1 nil!.....and yes, crowd went bonkers. Similar for the second – magnificent curling ball from Stevens (was right behind the trajectory) and nice, clever header from the goal machine that is Billy Sharp.
And so to Coutts.............great noise from the travelling Blades when we knew he was coming on. 3-5-2 was the formation, so we switched again – it started Coutts sitting between Norwood and Fleck. Great reception for the fella – great to see him back. We are going to pass teams to death if we can keep them all fit. Clarke and Washington came on and it’s quite obvious that when we see Washington, it’s going to be long balls into the channels for him to chase and then support. It isn’t going to be too pretty, but it’s just to see the game out. It is obviously our way of game management near the end and we’ll defend with the other 10 if and when.
As a summary:
One of the best away performances i’ve seen in donkeys years.
We are getting better and better as each week progresses.
We play lovely football.
Billy has stepped up his game.
Mcgoldrick – bargain of the season – a very very clever footballer.
Basham – stepped up his game again this season - outstanding last night.
Freeman – for me, a better wing back than Borbokis.
Stevens – what a transformation this season – should walk into Irelands team.
Egan – settled in nicely – a massive thanks to Brentford (aka: idiots)
Duffy – for fucks sake man, what were you doing in your early days as a footballer – quite exceptional now at this level.
The fans – great noise Blades, for majority of the evening.
The only downer was to the fan behind me – who was complaining about the 10-15 minutes after half time about us getting pushed back. This is what happens – opposition managers have a right go at their teams after we dominate on their patch – it’s bound to happen. We managed that part of the game very well, obviously learnt lessons after Bristol, Millwall and Preston. We then step out and take over the game again - we quite simply can't play forward football for 90 mins!
And finally to CW & AK – they have to get 10 out of 10 for how they set us up and managed the game. If only all our games could be like that.
For sure, we put down another marker last night to the Championship and we passed yet another test along the way.
Sorry to keep writing it - BUT – it’s like L1 all over again for me – we are getting better and better as each game goes on.
WE SHOULD LITERALLY FEAR NO ONE............and COUTTS is back !
UTB and bring on the DULL
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