04 Mar 2021 08:07:38
So we dominated the ball, Watkins and El Ghazi link up well, McGinn misses a brilliant chance, we then struggled to create obvious chances, conceded against the run of play largely due to Elmo's lapse in concentration, but Targett shouldn't have let him get that far across the box. We then continue to dominate the ball, Traore drags a wonderful chance wide and we go into half time on top but losing.
Second half the ref continues in his awful performance and some how sends Jagielka off, This largely suits Sheffield United whom close ranks, defend well and see out the win.
Subs should have been made a lot sooner, Nakamba can't pass a ball further than 8 yards, there was no need for him to be on when they went down to 10. Davis should have came on sooner, if we were going to continually cross it, we needed more than just El Ghazi and Watkins willing to challenge for it.
Barkley came on and didn't have too much of an effect, he fired a few balls across the box but with that many men in there would have been better off firing toward goal and hoping for a touch. Sanson, did largely what Sanson has done, very little, the pass that went straight out of play summed it up to me. He is clearly miles of it and nowhere near the player some were expecting, he needs more time in training and around the team to get up to speed with his team mates, similar to Dougie last season.
Someone mentioned on here that the players were scared to take anyone on and El Ghazi had gone to a 1/ 10, just to put some facts (although I know some prefer their made up facts) el Ghazi completed 3/ 4 take ones, Watkins 2/ 4 and Traore 3/ 5, so please, if your going to whine, at least back it up with something factual.
Bad night, bad performance. Shame that whenever there are times like this we really play into the Whiney, fickle tag. Move onto the weekend, tough game, hopefully we have Cash back, I think at the minute he's a bigger miss than Grealish.
04 Mar 2021 08:52:35
Spot on analysis Chris I'd say.
04 Mar 2021 10:00:18
I agree with everything in the first 4 paragraphs Chris. re dribbles- so that’s 8 dribbles completed with 72% possession, the 3 players you names all had a match rating of 7 so yes that’s decent, everyone else had 5 and 6, we dominated the game after they scored, and dominated most stats before they scored except passes in the final third they had 3 times what we had, so we were basically happy knocking it around our own half, constantly going backwards, that’s not progression imo,
Dean picked the wrong team last night and then took way to long to change it, should if switched things at half time like any higher lvl coach would after looking at that tripe for 45 mins, but dean just sits on his laurels and hopes that something will happen when it was never going to, Sheffield had their goal and happy to defend it,
Just out of interest when is the last time you were happy with the performance u seen? And take away the Leeds game as we were quiet lucky to get the early goal, we defended well after that and broke up play but they dominated the ball, we didn’t play amazing we just stopped them playing,
We all know we have made great progress this year but we are going backwards now and not just with results but with performance aswel, how many games going backwards will it take for u to admit that yes we have started slipping backwards,
So I ask you when did we last play well in your opinion?
04 Mar 2021 10:40:54
Sorry mate I’ve missed your point at the start of that, I was just highlighting that anyone saying players looked scared to take people on, were miles from the truth, as the stats showed.
And happy with a performance, you’ve said leave out the Leeds game but how can you, I was happy with that performance, we were solid against a decent attacking side. There was no luck in the goal, we created it, we scored it, where’s the luck.
Similar to the Arsenal game, we have showed we can get those one nil wins which take teams from fighting relegation to mid table. Against tough teams to add!
We lost against Burnley, but played good football, couldn’t make chances count and were let down largely by one or two individuals. So happy with the performance yes, the result no.
Add context we had 59 shots and 29 shots on target in games against Burnley home and away, Man United, West Ham (A) combined, and got one point. So performances have been attacking, that amount of shots and shots on target in four games shows that. But you don’t always get the result, doesn’t mean the performance wasn’t good or entertaining.
04 Mar 2021 16:14:31
Every team this season has had ups and downs, let's not forget we're still in the building process with players bought for specific roles, of course we haven't got variation at the moment because the players we bought in the summer were upgrades for Trez, El Ghazi, Wes and Conner with Emi bought because of Heatons injury. We're developing a style of play, let the players get it embedded into them then add a couple of marquee signings that'll push us on. I'd imagine everyone at the club is happy with the progress made. If Deano picks his strongest 11 available every week and only has players of less ability to bring on, wouldn't you wait as long as possible to make a change?
04 Mar 2021 17:24:27
Yes Btw, your point is spot on, but not everyone is the same.
Some posters, and I include myself, are giving an opinion on what they see, and what they see are problems that need improving on.
But for some reason, it is being misconstrued, and are being accused of wanting the manager out.