Sheffield United - Bad day at the office (Verdict Thread)

[Jinky]

Just seen the highlights.

Definite red. Stupid from Coady. Ruddy is coming out to close the angle down - knowing Leon he'd have smashed it in to row z. I know in the heat of the moment players do silly things, but that has cost us the game.

For their first - what is Batth doing? If he's 2-3 yards deeper, he cuts the cross out. Instead, he's in no mans land. Question marks over Miranda too. The ball travels a long way and surely one of them should be cutting it out?

For their second, Miranda beaten in the air by Clarke, leaving Ruddy with no chance.

Neves - less said about his last couple of performances the better. I think we all appreciate his circumstances off the field at the moment - but he's a big player for us and we need him back on form. Just twat that penalty right down the middle of the goal as hard as you can and we're back in the game.

An exceptionally bad day at the office, for us. Nuno didn't cover himself in glory by hooking Helder so quickly, either.

Puts pressure on us to go out and beat Burton at the weekend now.

 

[Alan]

Neves needs a rest. Opinions are fickle and I worry that some will turn on him.

 

[SSB]

I had a feeling from Neves's body language before he took it that he wasn't going to smash it down the middle.

 

[Tony Towner]

Tonight is not about overreacting, but there are points that need to be questioned?

Is Coady good enough to play deepest centre half against one of the better teams in the league? He left himself the wrong side to of Clarke from a fairly simply through ball?

What is up with Neves? Throughout September he has been a shadow of the August player, not just the penalty, the general performance was half arsed if I'm honest

Bright has wonderful talent, but at the moment no football brain, must have been 3/4 times he dallied on the ball and either lost it or belted at the defender Freddy style

Nuno is too wedded to 343, Costa for Saiss was fine, but straight into Coady's position wasn't, although he moved him forwards after about 5 minutes the dye had been cast and they were all over us, something we didn't recover from. Fair play to Wilder for exploiting it though. They'll make the play offs and Leon was unrecognizable.

We can't defend set pieces, happened too many times, average balls in the box get headed in. No excuse any more, sort it out or we can forget promotion

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

One loss and people are questioning everything.

Seriously?

 

[pr0sl0]

Lots of things to be frustrated about - like, I thought N'Diaye was just as mediocre as Neves, and it didn't help not being able to get a foot on the ball in the middle because those two weren't doing things they need to do for this system to work. But above all it was disappointing to see things go so badly wrong with just one player sent off. I said this in the match thread: it's not a good sign that Coady going off threw us off so profoundly. The match was very even until then and everything that happened after the red card indicates a number of things we need to address. We can't just rely on Coady for defensive organisation, because having him tidying up by making last-ditch tackles will mean he gets sent off more than once this season, and it's enough of a weakness that other teams will start to target him.

Similarly, thought Sheffield United played very well, and set up to do exactly what a team needs to do to do well against us at the moment. Play wide, pin the wing-backs in our half, and make the most of crosses and set pieces. We did actually manage to get some nice moves together again towards the final quarter of the game, but without a focal point up top things were just bitty and aimless.

Games like these are useful for showing the coaches what they've underestimated or unappreciated in the opposition they'll face in this league, and what needs to be worked on for the return leg after Christmas.

 

[Aikiwolf]

Really pissed off with Coady, miles away from goal and hauling down a player who isn't renowned for pace. Brill.

After that we tried to play at 100 miles an hour instead of keeping the ball and being patient. Only Miranda was trying to calm everyone.

Also, our set piece defending is dreadful, so static with no one attacking the ball. I don't hate zonal but we aren't playing it well at the moment.

 

[Aikiwolf]

Oh and N'Diaye and Douglas need calling out for both being dreadful too!

 

[FrankMunro-371]

How long is Neves going to be jaded for?

 

[Trips]

How long is Neves going to be jaded for?

Until he's recharged his batteries. How long are you going to be wumming for?

 

[Johnny75]

Trolling every thread tonight are we Waggy?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Oh for God's sake

If you cannot possibly see how your posting is a deliberate wind up to other posters then I give up with you. Whoever you are.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

One loss and people are questioning everything.

Seriously?

Don't confuse despondency after a defeat for negativity. Lots has been right this season. A few things have been wrong. Letting shit like Clarke score 2 when you know him inside out is unforgivable. Fat bastard Leon cant run but can score from 6 yards or from headers and what do we let him do tonight? One of each. Coady fucked up, neves fucked up and we lost. Despondent? Yes. Better set piece defending required? Yes. Think we will beat Burton? Yes. Negative or losing faith? Nope

 

[PuntsWolf]

Well disaster from start to finish. Struggled to get into Sheffield. Ended up parking on an Aldi and will take the £70 fine. First thing I see when i walk in his Coady getting sent off and then the rest of that first half was horrific.

No idea what Nuno was doing. Didn't look like he restored a back 3. Looked like he went 4-3-2. Which ended up being 4-5-0 half the time with Bonatini in at RW. Our right was getting a peppering because Doherty had zero help. He also didn't cover himself in glory with his defensive efforts. The system ended up having Douglas and Doherty actually having to defend and packing the middle of the park where the midfielders had no out ball resulting in constant loss of possession. Was a complete car crash. Had to either go 4-4-1 or restore the 5 to allow the wingbacks to stick to what they are good at and keep providing the outballs but just lose one forward.

Neves had a stinker of a first half, not helped by the team being tactically hamstrung by Nuno. Then when we got the penalty, how badly he played you knew he would miss. He then played well for 5 after that but then went back to shit and was hooked.

Saiss best player by far, don't know why we keep dropping him, Alfred tried hard and was ok. Douglas wins Stephen Hunt award for "looking like a competition winner", he was awful.

Major issue is Coady and Nuno today though! Fat Leon would have missed! And 1-0 wouldn't have been end of world.

 

[SSB]

How long is Neves going to be jaded for?

I'm still only 5 mins from the ground. Do you want me to pop back and ask him before he gets on the bus?

 

[wombourne wolves]

I think Neves needs a rest, he's not been at it now for a while and the way we set up you can't afford to carry him.

I think tonight also demonstrated the need to be able to change systems as circumstances dictate.

How we react to tonight is key, we don't want to go into the break on the back of a couple of bad results.

Tough day at the office.

 

[playtheace]

Apart from the other header in the 2nd half i cant really remember Sheff Utd putting us under much presure in the 2nd half.
Fair play to the players going to the away fans - Couldnt hear them at all tonight.
Thought Douglas had an awful game tonight, foul throws, misplaced passes,bad control and a little petulant kick out at a Utd player
right at the end that could have got him in trouble.

For all the moaning at Bright, yeah he runs down blind alleys or straight into players but Jota was just as infuriating tonight.
Instead of laying balls off simple he tried little flicks over heads or flicks to players that gave the ball away many times but i suppose
people see what they want to see.

 

[pr0sl0]

Oh and N'Diaye and Douglas need calling out for both being dreadful too!

Harsh on Douglas, he was clearly carrying an injury for most of the second half but we couldn't make any more substitutions.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Well disaster from start to finish. Struggled to get into Sheffield. Ended up parking on an Aldi and will take the £70 fine. First thing I see when i walk in his Coady getting sent off and then the rest of that first half was horrific.

No idea what Nuno was doing. Didn't look like he restored a back 3. Looked like he went 4-3-2. Which ended up being 4-5-0 half the time with Bonatini in at RW. Our right was getting a peppering because Doherty had zero help. He also didn't cover himself in glory with his defensive efforts. The system ended up having Douglas and Doherty actually having to defend and packing the middle of the park where the midfielders had no out ball resulting in constant loss of possession. Was a complete car crash. Had to either go 4-4-1 or restore the 5 to allow the wingbacks to stick to what they are good at and keep providing the outballs but just lose one forward.

Neves had a stinker of a first half, not helped by the team being tactically hamstrung by Nuno. Then when we got the penalty, how badly he played you knew he would miss. He then played well for 5 after that but then went back to $#@! and was hooked.

Saiss best player by far, don't know why we keep dropping him, Alfred tried hard and was ok. Douglas wins Stephen Hunt award for "looking like a competition winner", he was awful.

Major issue is Coady and Nuno today though! Fat Leon would have missed! And 1-0 wouldn't have been end of world.

So true. Ruddy's one on one stats are good so far and Leon isn't great at converting from anything beyond 6 yards. His brain would have gone to mush. Coady had a Stearman moment. Let's hope that's it. I still think we miss bony lots

 

[Carrotdude]

Urgh. That's a shit result. No need to panic though, you go down to 10 men after 15 minutes away from home to a good side and you're going to struggle. We still could have come away with a draw if we could defend set pieces and if neves scores the penalty. Sounds like we were doing fine before the red too, still at 2 points a game average so just move on and win the next one.