Match Day Thread Sheffield United v Sunderland AFC – Wednesday 17th August 2022 - KO 20:00

Warnock reckons we are going to be top 6, rates Stewart, tried to sign Onien, said lots of nice stuff about us overall.

 

didn’t know that

we are competing on a different budget tho. Brewster only signed for them two years ago for a fee higher than the value of our entire club.

not saying that’s an excuse - we are just on a different level right now

 

Yeah good shout. He never stopped all game up and down. Seemed decent in possession, too.

 

I'll put a word in with Bash

 

I love Heckingbottom saying they earned their first goal but “gave” us ours. Pretty one sided view that. As you’d expect but still

 

The bloke is a knob. Can’t stand his face.

 

He forgot the sending off I think, seems to feel they upped their game after first 30 minutes.

 

Decent performance that even down to 10 men. Gave them a game with 10 men. Disappointed with Dan Neil and his red card which was correct . Needs to learn quickly that you can’t do that when last man. Not the first time he’s been caught out. Thought Clarke had a cracking game and gave 100% and well played Gooch. . Good performance from Matete when he came on but I’ll say it again we need some proper experienced championship players in midfield. It is our weakest area in my opinion. Would have been an interesting game with 11 on the pitch. Woeful ref again to eager to book ours and poor overall, mind onien was a red. Win at Stoke on Saturday put us back on track. Keep the faith lads and lasses.

 

Berge cost a fair whack too they had far better options on the bench too but even down to ten men it wasn’t like we didn’t belong on the same pitch a far cry from our last season at this level

 

Matete impressed me, much better when allowed to be combative and press higher up

 

It is. Looks a coaching issue to me, rather than a player one. Looks to me like we are trying to match up man for man, getting dragged too close to the keeper, and making it a scrap. We need to get back to having a free man attacking the ball. Mind you we havent half given away some stupid bloody set pieces and free kicks this season.

I believe the coaches and players will learn. 4 games in, that is all. Massive learning curve for all of these players and staff. Even Alex Neil has learning to do for me, as do the owners and recruiters and every bugger else who is at a new level. I have faith in them all to do it and I believe 100% they all are giving everything, even if we as fans dont like some of what they do and whinge at their mistakes.

 

Think him and Evans could work

 

In games like tonight when we are going to be under pressure yes, not sure Matete is good enough on the ball yet when we are trying to dominate a game but that will come

 

He's had a cracking managerial career considering he's only 41 and still has a long way to go. Really like the bloke and what he's doing with the club.

 

My thoughts exactly mate.

 

once again i find myself typing 'onien is a lucky lad' and i hope it is the last time this season, that was yet another nasty, mistimed tackle.

two good teams on the pitch there i would say would have been nice to see an even sided game but no complaints about the sending off, a stupid mistake and a rash grab to try and stop the player, he knew he was fecked as soon as the whistle went...as long as he learns from it but going off past mistakes he is not going to do so in a hurry.

for a change i don't think the ref lost us* the game but he did seem to want to blow every time we moved the ball forwards, just niggly things that he never seemed to blow when they did them but i doubt any of them made a jot of difference.

now to patterson, as with a few keepers we have had recently, when he first got into the team i was over the moon to see him command his area, unfortunately he seems to have had that coached out of him, as others have said he looks as if he is going to collect the ball then goes back to his line, granted he makes some good saves but i can't help feeling if he made sure the ball was his in the first place he would not be making those saves.

also, must have been at least two other lads completely free for their first goal, second goal and another lad manages to get completely clear in the box, A.N. needs to work on this as well, becoming commonplace now.

pritchard going off was a bit of a surprise at that time, he can find the passes no one else can and we needed that i felt if we were to get back into the game (although we scored after the subs so maybe once again the manager got it right), thought embelton was fairly quiet anyway and in all honesty i think simms was a better choice than stewart in this game.

thought sheffield pretty much controlled the game well, it would have been easy for them to go 'gung ho' and feck it up but they passed the ball around well and made good use of the extra man, that said we defended well after that second goal but still no taking away they were two 'easy' goals that could/should have been defended better...not going to lose any sleep over this as most probably expected a loss anyway and after the red card we probably thought they would score a few, but as i said, two good teams on the pitch and a fair result considering.

* a joke.

 

Fair play to Neil for having the balls to keep on going with the gameplan despite the red and subsequent goal. Shows his attitude, wants to win every game.

 

Agree and am not hammering him. Just think, like everyone, he is on an upward curve and has some improvement in him. Best use of subs tonight for a while for me.