What a great season

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?




At the start of the season yes .
But we were far far better than this position in November and have seen a huge decline .
Are we a one man team relying on Coutts just as we did Ched all those years ago, well it looks like it, and I just hope it can be sorted by the start of next season. UTB
 
How many wouldn't have settled for this
Click to expand...

What the fuck does this mean?

Standards and expectations fluctuate during the season. Would I have settled for 11th in August? Yes. Would I have settled for 11th in December? No.

It has been a massive disappointment for 4-5 months and it’s not going to get any better next season if there is no major turnaround for the board.
 
Last edited:
First 3 months fantastic, fearless footy, playing without fear, best team in the league.

Next month Coutts injury disrupted our flow, we become more cautious and lose the momentum.

January arrives with hype of investment to pick us up, we are in a great position despite slipping and we need 2 or 3 quality players. Ryan Woods was a name doing the rounds but he was too expensive so we went bargain hunting (writing is on the wall).

Feb until now - we hold our own but lack quality, we are where we deserve to be.

Next season - Not even Coutts will save us unless Morecambe and Wise sort it out and give the best manager we've had since Bassett a significant war chest.
 
11th is above where I expected us to be a the start of the season absolutely no doubt about that.

However 11th is much lower than were we should have finished after being top in November, there is no doubt about that either.
 
Last season is the best free flowing United side I’ve seen in over 40 years.

I always always confident we’d finish top half, probably 8th.

However there hasn’t been many stand our teams this season
And up to the Coutts injury we were comfortably in the top 6 teams in this division, expected us to finish in the playoffs.

Performances have gradually dipped and results have been quite poor over the last 10 matches.

Although our recent decline has been a positive.
It shows the board that Wilder can’t perform miracles and
we require some proper investment next season, need about 4 new first teamers.
 
Agree with most of the above. We sensed that this season was going to be a challenge but we were flying until the Coutts injury. Thing is that, with whoever comes down from the Prem, we’ll have to strengthen or next season will be another mid table at best. Not wanting to sound like a delusional twat from the tin house but this city should have a team in the Premiership and we should be it. However, I’ve always suspected that, from a commercial perspective, McCabe is happy with Championship football. 25k every home game and no exposure to the potential financial ruin of the top flight. Even when we got there, he kept Warnock (mistake) and didn’t invest heavily (sound from a short term perspective) and trousered the parachute payments.
I guess it’s what you want in the long term. Personally, I love this club for its traditional roots and would hate to see us go down the Blackburn/ Portsmouth road of short term cash-fuelled success followed by long term decline. Even Bournemouth and Swansea etc. have smaller gates than us and, if they slip up, will slide away as the cheerleader fans desert them.
If we buy 3 quality players this summer we could be in with a shout but, you know what, I’ll be happy watching the type of football we played earlier this season even if we stay where we are. I have no desire for a period as the whipping boys of the premiership nor do I want to see a tactically massive cash injection to change things. That’s nothing to do with lack of desire, just a recognition that football in England has changed forever thanks to Sky and I don’t want the club I love, one with a great history, to be a casualty of the sordid pantomime it has created. That said, if the owners back Wilder, give him some sensible funds and we do a Burnley, happy days - UTB
 
Last edited:
The results have been poor in the final third. There's things we have to learn . Preston showed us today what it's taken them 3 seasons in here to learn how to be cute and hang on in games and grind out a 1-0. We've lost too many 1-0 but this is more naievity .of matching the experience some clubs have the edge on us in. It's our first season in 7 years against the quality that defines this league. We have done great and bossed the majority of games we've played but just lacked the 10 per cent of hard nosed grittiness that comes with time. A maturity to be ruthless .which has left us a bit wanting . In terms of football we are not far off just the mentality to have the confidence to see out and better the savvy bit of brutality needed to win tight games
 
It’s just very disappointing when you look back at how we ran out of steam. This is where January just didn’t work. None of the new signings added much inpetus and we needed that. When Duffy was being dropped, where was Holmes, when Leon and Billy were not scoring, where was Wilson? 2 bad outlays.

Even today, apart from the point for Derby, everything went for us again.

We’ve just lacked the quality to do our own bit.

We probably won’t, but say we win next week and Derby lose or draw with Barnsley.

We’ll have been 4 points short.

This with a run in that got nothing from 2 almost relegated sides in Barnsley and Brum, lost to Preston, drew with Millwall after gifting a goal. Winning those home games and getting draws in those away games - should have been 7 more points and that’s when you discount 4 extra points we should have got vs Cardiff and Brentford.

We’ve definitely chucked away double figure points in the run in. That’s why I also fear for such as Billy. If he’s not able to trouble the scorers now vs those teams, then when can we expect him to? Probably only Clarke of the forwards should remain and you question where he will be at come Christmas with his age. It’s remarkable he didn’t get the golden boot given he got 9 in one month. That was also a mistake resting him vs Forest when he was in such form.

So, well done overall but the season ends with more questions than answers for me and i hope that recruitment and the experience of this year adds more resilience. For all Preston and Norwich time wasting we would have taken far more points if we could do the same.

For long periods we have been better than the opposition regardless of the result but we can’t claim that in the past month which points to more than just ability that needs upgrading.
 



The problem I now see is being able to pick ourselves up out of this poor form and get off to a good start next season. I'd take mid table again next season to be honest as I don't think we have the budget to be pushing any higher. It will be a managerial miracle if we do rather than a strategic decision by the board.

A run of form like the last 6 games at the start of next season would see us with a completely different outlook on the season as we'd have 1 win and 2 draws from those 6. I expect some of you to say "look at last season's first 4 games", however it's La Liga we're in now and not the pub league so a poor start will leave us floundering all season in my view.
 
This season has been slightly better than expected. At least we shocked a few early on. I was disappointed with our 0-0 thrashing at the hands of Wednesday but at least we managed to squeeze a victory at their place :eek:

wtf is this? :shark:
 
Bashar Al Asaba said:
People don't look beyond the result at Hillsborough. Yes it was great.

But are we really defined by those cunts?

I would argue not. We are Sheffield United. We have our own community and our own culture. Beating them is a good outcome, but we are so much more.
Click to expand...
Call it tinpot but I'd take 4th bottom and a sheffield double every season for the rest of my life.
 
It's been a good first season back, and I would have taken 11th in August for sure. I will echo sentiment that we've been our own worst enemy at times though. The chance to get into the play-offs and potentially the Premier League was completely in our hands from January, and we chucked it away at every possible opportunity.

Next season I'll be satisfied with something broadly similar, but I want that winning mentality when it matters to return. No more losing to key sides in the 90th min literally every time please.
 
SK10Blade said:
How many wouldn't have settled for this, promoted last year after 6 years in League 1 and still in with a chance of the play offs with only two games to go. Love how far we've come, onwards and upwards.
Click to expand...
This has not been a great season, in fact far from it. Last season was great, 100 points after a terrible first month.
This season started great, but to be classed as a great season it had to be maintained.
Now if you asked if it has been a good season, I would say yes. We’ve established ourselves in a league we have always been competitive in during our history, with only a few blips.
Where we go from here is anyone’s guess. I feel less confident than I did at the start of the season due to Wilders failure to maintain momentum and the boardroom shenanigans.
 
Wilders first season with us and his promotion winning team raised him to the lofty heights of best manager ever in some people's eyes
I think it's safe to.say now that he is not up there with the Warnocks and Bassetts yet
Certainly not bassett who took a far more limited team and gave them enough belief to get through the pressure moments of a promotion run

It could be argued that wilder could surpass Warnock given time but up to now he hasn't outdone him
 
last season things went our way
we steered clear of injuries
we got some good break breaks and had to play lesser opponents

We could say weve fallen away or just admit we found our current level,of being competitive , but in terms of squad a bit light in comparison to 6 or 7 other more estabalished championship teams.
We havent been found out , weve just found out where we need to improve

Injuries came along this season and the squad we have wasnt quite god enough to cope with the losses, or the finances to buy instant replacements
We only really been beaten badly , ie more than 1 goal in 4 games, by the better teams at the top

13 defeats by 1 goal , a lot of which we when more savvy in this division will turn around into points

theres been very few lucky wins for us, most we deserved
theres been some desperately unlucky 1-0 defeats


think with careful investment on the right calibre we can better our selves by 10 points next season and make the play offs

to say we will struggle is just seeing the negatives , most of which we can eradicate rather than let them linger
its a learning curve for Wilder too pitting his skills against more competant managers than he faced in league one and he too will hopefully improve and refine his ways
 
Blade 62 said:
At the start of the season yes .
But we were far far better than this position in November and have seen a huge decline .
Are we a one man team relying on Coutts just as we did Ched all those years ago, well it looks like it, and I just hope it can be sorted by the start of next season. UTB
Click to expand...
I actually think that the loss of Freeman was as a big a blow as the loss of Coutts.

No issues with Baldock who has done well, but he hasn't given anything like the goals and assists that Freeman did last season.

I think we saw in the first hour yesterday that Freeman added a different dimension to the team.
 
Not sorting out left wing back was wilders biggest mistake as blades manager

I also think right wing back needs upgrading as these are key positions to our formation

The strikers have done well but were being rotated well until the supporting players form just fell off a cliff and the two main guys just didn't have the legs
Shame but the championship.is a hard slog and this happens
 
It has been a very decent season, considering our aim was to survive and especially when considering where we were this time two years ago. It could have been much, much better though, for reasons detailed on other threads.

When time passes, I think the enduring memory of this season will be the 4-2 beating of the Pigs at the sty. The bouncing and Duffy's goal are now part of United folklore and will be discussed for years, if not decades to come.
 
Yes.

And no !

If the 2nd half of the season had come first, meaning that we had finished strongly, the positivity would be there for all to see. Alas it did not.

Overall, for the 46 game season it’s a B from DB.

The nagging doubt however is that we have underachieved rather than the opposite. We have left sooooo many points out there on the pitch, it’s just not funny. Performances, on the whole, have been better than the points secured would suggest.

Wolves and Fulham aside, how big a gap is there to the others in the Play Off mix ????

Slight at the very most. If we HAD managed to sneak 6th, would we have fancied it against Cardiff ? Villa ? Borough ? Millwall ? Derby ?

I suspect yes.

Plenty of positives to look ahead to. Retaining Coutts and Fleck, and building the side around them, we won’t go far wrong.

Even Leon can have the odd game or two ;)

UTB
 



We benefited from an easy run of games against teams in poor teams and teams in poor form early doors. When we played the top teams we were found wanting. We’ll finish in upper mid table, which is of course the only accurate barometer of how good we are. Coutts will be great to have back. 2 or 3 signings and we’ll be top 8.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Badger Blade
Comatose football
Replies
4
Views
840
Alex Cheeseright
Alex Cheeseright
Silkblade
We WILL get promoted this season.
2
Replies
47
Views
5K
PeterNdlovu081
PeterNdlovu081
Bergen Blade
Similar seasons
Replies
4
Views
718
Carlton Blade
Carlton Blade
M
Looking forward to a great Season ahead
Replies
0
Views
450
munksyb
M
BalticBlade
Compared with the 2021/22 season
Replies
8
Views
909
MJM
MJM

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom