Sheffield United 1 - 0 Wolves: The Verdict

[Deleted Cyber]

Those who said we were on target for the champions league I hope you like the reality check. That was mind numbingly awful. One shot on target. Creatively naive , stilted and dull. This lot may as well be on the beach,. They have looked anything but european contenders this week against a Sheffield side who were there for the taking with pace and passing. Neither of which we did. We had more shots on target against West Ham than we have in the other games since the restart. And we have fucked up against two of our biggest rivals. Thats bloody awful.

Youngwolf told me to grow up on the matchday thread. My response to him is wake up and smell the coffee. We have stunk the place out two games in a row. Not good enough by a long long way given our intended ambitions. If we miss out on europe next year its our own fault. The only way in gods earth we qualify for the CL is via the EL winning it. And If we play like that against Olympiakos we will lose heavily.

6 shots on target in 360 minutes is bloody useless.

 

[jd1981]

Poor performances deserve criticism, that was a very tepid poor performance. Miserable game with a depressing finish. We’ve started to become a hard team to watch, it worked against the dross but has failed badly in the last 2 games. Since restart you could easily accuse us of being flat track bullies.
Swapping Donk for Traore in hindsight was a poor call but if that late goal doesn’t go in Nuno can say he ensured we didn’t lose the game.
Reality is if you perform to that level then you can’t complain at losing the game, yes Sheff Utd weren’t any better but that’s how it goes.
We looked defensively ropey especially Boly and so one dimensional going forward.
The game was similar to the Huddersfield game last season two teams playing out a miserable game but one gets the lucky break at the end.

 

[Jinky]

Quite a few players performing below their usually excellent standards - Boly, Moutinho, Jota - Traore was very quiet today and Raúl doesn’t look like scoring. We are a small squad but Nuno has to show more trust in some of the fringe players to come on and change the game in a scenario like today. I see no reason why someone like Podence couldn’t have been given 10 mins at the end. As I said in the match day thread, he clearly doesn’t trust him yet because if Neto was fit, he’d have got a run out. Quite a few of us were critical of the recruitment in the summer and it’s proving to be the case now (despite being told otherwise by a section of this board at the time). We look knackered and out of ideas. We’re not creating opportunities and most of our goals since lockdown have been a bit of Traore magic and Raúl getting on the end of it.

Nuno has turned us around before when we’ve gone in to sticky patches, but there isn’t much time to stop the rot here (5 games is it?) - so we could well end up in 8th/9th place and crashing out of the EL, which would be a hugely disappointing end to the season. I hope he can fix things quickly because we are desperate for a result at the weekend now - but it’s going to need about 7-8 of our players to go up a couple of gears compared to the last two games and I’m not sure they have that in their locker at this stage of the season.

 

[Premier Quality]

Thought he was our best player

Me too, he wasn’t a problem.

 

[AndyWolves]

Nothing like a defeat to see the vitriol come out!

 

[Deleted Cyber]

the quality teams recover after a set back. Liverpool lost 4-0 and won their next game 2-0. City lost and then drubbed Newcastle.We lose two on the bounce without ever looking a threat. Thats the difference between the best teams and Wolves.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Nothing like a defeat to see the vitriol come out!

actually , nothing like two shocking games with no goals and two shots on target to get the vitriol out if you want to be accurate. But I would like to hear your positives from this week. I have to be honest. I am struggling

 

[Tredman]

Well, that a few hundred million £s and years of experience in the PL.

 

[AndyWolves]

actually , nothing like two shocking games with no goals and two shots on target to get the vitriol out if you want to be accurate. But I would like to hear your positives from this week. I have to be honest. I am struggling

There are no positives, we're all doomed!

 

[Norman Deeley]

Those who said we were on target for the champions league I hope you like the reality check. That was mind numbingly awful. One shot on target. Creatively naive , stilted and dull. This lot may as well be on the beach,. They have looked anything but european contenders this week against a Sheffield side who were there for the taking with pace and passing. Neither of which we did. We had more shots on target against West Ham than we have in the other games since the restart. And we have fucked up against two of our biggest rivals. Thats bloody awful.

Youngwolf told me to grow up on the matchday thread. My response to him is wake up and smell the coffee. We have stunk the place out two games in a row. Not good enough by a long long way given our intended ambitions. If we miss out on europe next year its our own fault. The only way in gods earth we qualify for the CL is via the EL winning it. And If we play like that against Olympiakos we will lose heavily.

6 shots on target in 360 minutes is bloody useless.

I know you get a bollocking on a regular basis Cyber, but the stats don't lie and 4 goals in 5 games is simply nowhere near good enough. The number of times we have a break, we're up against 5 or 6 players then we check back, play it to Coady and we're up against 11 defenders. Absolutely stupid.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Well, that a few hundred million £s and years of experience in the PL.

hold on! There was talk of fourth on here a week ago? We are nearer fourteenth than fourth on that showing!

Nuno may like a small squad but the depth is still not there. Alternatives are lacking and we can and will be exposed.

I fucking hate Sheffield United the plucky little club who are punching above their weight but they thoroughly deserved to nick it tonight and thats a travesty

 

[Parkins left foot]

Nuno needs to find a way to turn this around as they looked lacklustre in both the last 2 games (though tonight was slightly better than v Arsenal even if the result wasn't)

Fail to achieve some form of European comp next year, whilst not being terminal to the club, will mean more serious pressure on keeping our better players & encouraging upgrades to join.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

There are no positives, we're all doomed!

go on. I am waiting for the positives.

1. No new injuries
2. There is no number 2

 

[Norman Deeley]

Jonny has been one of the few players who's been a positive since lockdown ended, but how many attacks end because he's right footed, and checks back inside? And why do we get so few players in the box when we do attack?

 

[Deleted Cyber]

I know I get pelters on here but this from May last year didnt hold up too badly. Sheff United are the 2020 exception. Trying to take some positives from it.

May 2019- Cybertosis thread before a ball had been kicked or a player transferred.

Basically I see the 2019-20 league as three leagues. Anyone who is not listed below in the top 5 who makes the top five has over performed. Anyone in the middle eight who either breaks top 5 ( over performs)or finishes bottom 7 ( underperforms) Anyone in the bottom 7 who finishes higher over performs. Hope that explains the logic ( lolz- logic on this thread)

Top 5- In any Order
Liverpool- Starting to click right through the squad
Man City- awesome quality and depth.
Spurs- Need to buy in a couple and keep Poch.
Arsenal- Starting to get it right but defensively shaky
Chelsea- Transfer ban may have an impact.

Middle 8- These I expect to be challenging the top 5 more closely but ultimately not break into it.
Man Utd- In transition
Everton- Looking more the part since Christmas.
Leicester- Rogers has them playing better and more consistently.
Wolves- Now people know what we are capable of
West Ham- Just starting to click
Palace- Beat anyone on their day
Southampton- decent squad if they keep their stars
Watford- Always capable on their day

Bottom 7
Newcastle- They still have underlying issues that will prevent real progress
Norwich- Still concede to often only 13 clean sheets coming up.
Sheff utd- May Find goals difficult. Will do well to stay up without major strengthening
Brighton- only just survived
Bournemouth- crap overall since Christmas.
Burnley- Real team ethic but they lack quality and depth.
Play off winners- None should get out of the bottom 7 whoever wins.

3 from Brighton, Bournemouth , Sheff Utd or Norwich to go down.

I could end up with two out of three for relegation!

 

[Lycan]

I was fairly happy with the first half (but worried about our right hand side) but I thought we played within ourselves in the second half.

I understand the move to 3-5-2 but don't understand why we didn't make more subs. Doherty (and Jonny 2nd half) were ineffectual, at least throw Vinagre on for one of them and make a go of it. We didn't do enough to go out and win that game and if you do that you open yourself up to late goals like that.

Doherty... I'm sorry but he looks a clear step down in quality to the rest of our squad recently, I have no idea what happened to Willy Boly today and Adama's shoulder is a massive problem. It's clearly affecting his performance now.

Sent from my GM1920 using Tapatalk

 

[slink]

It's a strange one because of how well we have done that criticism seems to be really harsh but i think we've been pretty bad in our last 2 games. We looked very comfortable in the first 3 games soaking it up then hitting 3 poor teams with quality and i don't think anyone can really complain about them. I think if we are to progress there will come a time we we have to control those games by finishing teams off earlier and scoring 3 or 4 but i wasn't too worried about that.

I am very worried about the last 2 performances though and Nuno which i don't think anyone can really argue with. He's not utilised his squad well enough in both games, he's got blind spots for playerslike Jota and Moutinho who imo should not have played today. Joao has looked tired for a while now even before lockdown, he's played an awful lot of games and with his intensity at his age it's catching up with him and Jota is bang out of form again. The Diogo that played at Spurs plays today and we win the game still because we had opportunities but something just wasn't there whether it was his speed or his touch. Boly has gone from looking imperious to looking like a centre back that struggles to get in to Porto's team and that has definitely had a big effect on us, looks out of ides with the ball and very nervous when defending.

At this level if there's a weakness it generally gets exposed but on the last 2 games we have several. Some players look tired, some out of form, some injured and we have a manager that only really trusts 13 players when it comes down to massive games/moments and that is a serious issue. He's had moments like this before, changed things and got us back going forward and it is only 2 games so he could do it again but the team he picks, the intensity we play at and the quality we show is going to be really interesting on Sunday and it could make or break the season.

 

[Freddeno]

Quite a few players performing below their usually excellent standards - Boly, Moutinho, Jota - Traore was very quiet today and Raúl doesn’t look like scoring. We are a small squad but Nuno has to show more trust in some of the fringe players to come on and change the game in a scenario like today. I see no reason why someone like Podence couldn’t have been given 10 mins at the end. As I said in the match day thread, he clearly doesn’t trust him yet because if Neto was fit, he’d have got a run out. Quite a few of us were critical of the recruitment in the summer and it’s proving to be the case now (despite being told otherwise by a section of this board at the time). We look knackered and out of ideas. We’re not creating opportunities and most of our goals since lockdown have been a bit of Traore magic and Raúl getting on the end of it.

Nuno has turned us around before when we’ve gone in to sticky patches, but there isn’t much time to stop the rot here (5 games is it?) - so we could well end up in 8th/9th place and crashing out of the EL, which would be a hugely disappointing end to the season. I hope he can fix things quickly because we are desperate for a result at the weekend now - but it’s going to need about 7-8 of our players to go up a couple of gears compared to the last two games and I’m not sure they have that in their locker at this stage of the season.

yes, exactly..i mean i trust very much in Nuno, everything he do, bringing teamspirit and skill, he is an excellent manager but he really should have put podence on before donck IF there is something we dont know(and could well be)

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Some of youse need to get a fucking grip.

Better team first half. Passed it fine, a lot of "nearly" moments (Raul scores if he controls it even vaguely properly, Jota should have shot, Jota hacked down when he was just about to be clean through, free kick off the bar) and not overly troubled.

Conditions were woeful, got worse as the game went on and we didn't adapt properly. Should have taken Adama off earlier, he was doing nothing and we totally lost midfield. By the time we changed it was neither fish nor fowl, we lost a threat on the break but we'd already lost momentum for too long for it to make any difference.

Podence would have been no good tonight, no-one could run with the ball on that pudding of a pitch in the second half.

Good ball in, good header for the goal. Sometimes you just hold your hands up. Freakish how they got a corner in the first place with it pinballing around but that's football sometimes.

Nothing is too different from the three games we won, we scored then, we didn't in these two.

Doc got a bit of a doing from Stevens.

Disappointing to lose like that of course but 6th is in our hands and for all the lofty dreaming, that is what we are. Oh noes, how will we ever cope.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Started as a bit of stalemate then turned into the standard Wolves conservative control after the first drinks break, no great threat at either end but Wolves more composed at the break. Second half was just shit all round, almost zero footballing merit and then a Sunday morning scramble lead to the corner for the winner.

As with the Arsenal game there were far too many players well below par, everything looks so laboured and direction less. Don't think there's much you can pin on Nuno for that in either game and generally speaking when that many players are off it for whatever reason you're going to struggle to remedy it from the bench. Today though there was no attempt to remedy it, it was a surrender and Sheff Utd managed to take advantage.

The first games after the restart were hardly thrill a minute but they were at least composed and controlled, ruthlessly efficient with the few chances created and generally allowed opponents little hope. Last two games that sense of control has disappeared with the lack of performance from many individuals and the opportunity to edge it with the odd chance gone with it.