Delighted and relieved to get the win, but….. there seems to be a lot of forum hysteria that last night’s win indicates that we’ve turned a corner.
If you take away the bright 15 mins opening, I’m not convinced.
- At face value, McAtee and Doyle starting were huge successes and the right calls by Hecky. McAtee has been a welcome surprise for me after his difficult start to his Blades career. He’s got bags of talent and what an outstanding goal, but…. he still goes missing for long periods and is lightweight.
As for Doyle, the Spurs performance seems the exception rather than the norm. Take away his winner last night and I’m not sure how effective he was. His dead balls are largely disappointing and I don’t think he’s as influential as many wish he is. Doyle remains a mirage where people assume he’s better then he is.
Both Citeh lads have the shirt to lose now, and I hope they kick on. It’s more hope than expectation that they will
- I thought our win vs Reading was more comfortable. Sunderland hit the post and forced a great save by Wes in the second half and looked more likely to equalise than us scoring a third. A draw would have been a fair result.
- Goalscoring opportunities - we created one (Ndiaye in the second half) clear cut scoring chance all game? McAtee’s leveller was wonderful, but more a touch of inspiration than a clear gilt edged opening. Jebbo looked lively in the first half and struck a good effort, but was on the periphery in the second.
- Left side defending. Max Lowe is really struggling and is an enormous problem, and arguably the biggest one we need to fix. Positionally and defensively he was a liability in the first half, as he has been for a concerted period now. Everyone talks about sorting the midfield but the wing back areas are where we are being carved open.
I don’t know what the answer is. Can Clark come back into central defence and JLT move to wing back? Would we dare risk Bogle as LWB with George at RWB? With no RND, Stevens or Ozzy, Lowe has the shirt. But that doesn’t mean he has to keep it given his poor form.
Overall a great win, and signs of promise early on. But it was desperately hard work once again against an injury ravaged Sunderland on a poor run themselves (apart from the Norwich win).
We’ve still got a lot of work and convincing to do to scrape over the line.