Sheff u were as good last night as they were at CCS in August with only poor finishing letting them down (even though their goal was streaky). Still credit to the team for never giving up and what a finish by Pilkington! Our midfield was swamped. Our defenders couldn’t clear to a blue shirt. Hoilett & ML were anonymous. Granted the pitch didn’t help but it was fortunate we had our outstanding keeper as the MOM. Yes NW will have a few things to think about for Friday regarding team selection but he won’t panic. Someone here mentioned Peltier for Manga; that could be realistic after Bruno’s average game last night. Central midfield may need to be reviewed but the Wolves challenge will be different to Sheff U’s. Hope Leeds do us a favour tonight but can’t see it. In reality more concerned with Fulham’s chance to enhance their GD.
Hoilett poorest game yet and Mendez can't play with his back to the goal to save his life - he can only go forward. City were crying out for someone to put his foot on the ball in midfield and control things. Grujic and Gunnar relied on grunt and didn't give Paterson a chance to do what he does best. Sheff Utd had total control of the middle 3rd and we relied on lumping it up to Zohore and Madine. Defensively we were OK but turning that into meaningful play going forward was lacking - we just couldn't get a grip on the game at all. A point at the death was probably deserved, but for all the (deserved) praise on the box about gritting our teeth and never giving up, we looked a poor footballing outfit. As said, Wolves will be a different game altogether and I wouldn't be surprised if we take it on merit rather than in all honesty, getting lucky last night.
Conditions were so poor, no wonder it was scrappy. Ninety minute side are city. Good contest...Exciting!
Fair play to Sheffield the stopped us playing, had far more energy than us and ran the midfield and won 90% of the second balls. Gunnar did not do it for me it was all hit and hope. At the end of the day to take a point from that game was . But that's why we are 2nd.
Make that 92 minutes - dead lucky not to lose that 3-0. The very poor conditions would seem to favour a choice of Grujic/Gunnar in the middle in favour of a Bryson or Damour type of player but it didn't work and played into Sheffield's hands. They controlled the midfield and were far quicker to the second ball - every loose ball was picked up by a Sheffield player, we had no pace. Another thing - why the hell was Hoilett switched to the right for the second half when Mendez went off? He was like a fish out of water over there and it gave Baldock a free run up and down their right flank to cause us no end of trouble. I accept we got a point from nothing last night but it was very nearly nothing.
