Sheffield United 1 - 0 Wolves: The Verdict

[Deleted Cyber]

Last season you spent every week moaning that we don’t beat the bottom teams. In fact I’m pretty confident you said you’d take us beating the bottom teams even if it meant worse results against the top teams.

We are still in Europe (good chance to progress into quarters) and on course to equal or probably better last seasons points total. That would still be a great season in pretty special circumstances

Quite right. We have finally learnt to put shit to bed and have done it well without expending all our energy.But does that then mean I cant complain when we play shite? Cause thats not on either.

Only Crystal Palace (10) have scored fewer first half Premier League goals this season than Wolves (12), who have failed to score in the first half of 15 of their past 18 Premier League matches.That doesnt help either.

 

[YoungWolf]

Respect you on level of footballing and studying and such, great to see us needing more creativity..but dont know what youre talking about Traore not creating, he is about the only one..one touch and its a good cross in the box..doenst matter if they are 10 defendeing him...Jota, is falling over, has been great some games in the El and really rate him too but...come on..yes, we missed Neto today, but WHY wasnt Podence given a fair chance..not disrespecting Donck, he is a fine balanced international, or even box to box mid..

Getting to the line and crossing it isn’t creating chances. In fact, it’s not a particularly good tactic in general anyway. Adama has improved a lot in terms of receiving centrally in transition, and sometimes he’ll step inside to receive but he’s still got plenty to improve on (which is fine). Jota multiple times dragged opponents out, combined with team mates to play through the opposition. It’s not quite coming off for him (shame he was brought down For free kick that hit the bar) but I’d be sticking with him in the starting line up

 

[slink]

Anyway, we definitely need to find solutions to create chances more consistently, especially in circumstances where the game is slower due to the three months off. Jota has looked the only one capable of drawing opponents out in that respect for me so has to stay in. I would play Podence or Neto (fitness dependant) on the right against Everton. Traore hasn’t done anything wrong but it’s definitely too predictable at this point, he looks most threatening when he has space through the middle which is obviously not happening that often for him lately.

I understand what you're saying with Jota YW but i don't think Jota's end product has been good enough since the restart, do we miss him yes because up to 25 yards out he's arguably up there as our best player but he's severely lacking in the final third atm. Slides Jimenez in on Saturday and possibly today in the first half and results wise we're probably looking at it differently. Do understand why you would keep him in though as if he plays himself in to form then we will look so much better. Don't think anyone can say over the whole of the last 2 90 minutes though that we've been anything other than poor.

I keep going back to the shoulder with Traoré. It's clearly weighing on his mind.

Doherty is the one we need to bench IMO. He just looked so sloppy today.

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Traore's shoulder is definitely having an impact on him and especially today once it popped out after a minute. Despite that i still thought if we were going to score it was probably through him putting a good cross in after using his pace. This indicates we have a problem to sort.

 

[Freddeno]

Getting to the line and crossing it isn’t creating chances. In fact, it’s not a particularly good tactic in general anyway. Adama has improved a lot in terms of receiving centrally in transition, and sometimes he’ll step inside to receive but he’s still got plenty to improve on (which is fine). Jota multiple times dragged opponents out, combined with team mates to play through the opposition. It’s not quite coming off for him (shame he was brought down For free kick that hit the bar) but I’d be sticking with him in the starting line up

Really, i think our most recent goals came out of just that

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Two criticisms of Raul in the last two games:

1) Stop pulling out wide left all the bloody time. Yes occasionally it's good for us, but it's the majority of the time now. Leaves us with no one in the box.

2) Please cut down on the little flicks a bit, sometimes we need you to hold it up.

 

[Freddeno]

I understand what you're saying with Jota YW but i don't think Jota's end product has been good enough since the restart, do we miss him yes because up to 25 yards out he's arguably up there as our best player but he's severely lacking in the final third atm. Slides Jimenez in on Saturday and possibly today in the first half and results wise we're probably looking at it differently. Do understand why you would keep him in though as if he plays himself in to form then we will look so much better. Don't think anyone can say over the whole of the last 2 90 minutes though that we've been anything other than poor.



Traore's shoulder is definitely having an impact on him and especially today once it popped out after a minute. Despite that i still thought if we were going to score it was probably through him putting a good cross in after using his pace. This indicates we have a problem to sort.

yeah, almost just creating through Adama just isnt holding it, getting a place in the 4-5 of course..we need to threat from AM too..one-twos, be more unpredictable..and so on..just look how many chances the top teams create..of course they win more games..

 

[Tony Towner]

I think in the last couple of games we've seen what for me has been apparent for some time. Traore aside we are built for 352, but we don't have an attacking centre midfielder to make the most of it. That needs to be priority number one in the transfer window. Until we sort that we will always draw too many or hope we are on the right side of one goal games

 

[sycophantia]

I think our superb progress over the last 3 seasons has created expections that are just a bit unrealistic. Lets not forget where we started from, we have improved every season so far. I understand people would like to have more varied attacking options but it won't happen overnight. Lets see what Nuno and the boys come up with over the next few games. Don't get me wrong, I will be a bit disappointed if we don't get 6th now after having such a good season but a bit of perspective is required

 

[Freddeno]

I think in the last couple of games we've seen what for me has been apparent for some time. Traore aside we are built for 352, but we don't have an attacking centre midfielder to make the most of it. That needs to be priority number one in the transfer window. Until we sort that we will always draw too many or hope we are on the right side of one goal games

I think we have the central midfielder already in the team..just for the coaching team to train him in that position..much like what they did with Adama,,and another thing, more positive, attacking apporoach on weaker teams..top 6 have been fine

 

[Tony Towner]

I think we have the central midfielder already in the team..just for the coaching team to train him in that position..much like what they did with Adama,,and another thing, more positive, attacking apporoach on weaker teams..top 6 have been fine

MGW? Maybe and I was on the build up thread saying I'd have played him today if Moutinho is running on empty. To say he's the answer is a stretch at the moment. If you mean Donck then no, he's not ever going to be that player. Doesn't have the guile or pace

 

[Premier Quality]

I think we have the central midfielder already in the team..just for the coaching team to train him in that position..much like what they did with Adama,,and another thing, more positive, attacking apporoach on weaker teams..top 6 have been fine

MGW?

 

[Alan]

I don't think it's unreasonable to see this season as a huge success while also accepting that two shots on target over 180 minutes is pretty unacceptable output for the team.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I don't think it's unreasonable to see this season as a huge success while also accepting that two shots on target over 180 minutes is pretty unacceptable output for the team.

Problem is that gets conflated with us creating two chances, which is blatantly not true.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Probably is that gets conflated with us creating two chances, which is blatantly not true.

Yep, and it also means Neves effort off the bar isn't registered.

 

[Alan]

Problem is that gets conflated with us creating two chances, which is blatantly not true.

That's fair, although I wouldn't say we've looked consistently dangerous, either (although we have looked good in an attacking sense in small bursts).

Much as I am frustrated with Neves (again, borne from wanting him to really step up and take control of games moreso than him being outright poor), I'm much more concerned with Doherty, Saiss, Coady, and Boly, all of whom I thought were very far below their standard over these past two games.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I thought Coady was pretty good tonight, did a hell of a lot of cleaning up and was in the right place at the right time regularly, he read the game well.

I agree about Doc and Saiss though their defending was pretty good (particularly when Doc chased back to make a really good challenge by the touchline, a few important defensive headers too) but they were really poor on the ball tonight, Doc's pass completion stats must have been woeful, it's vital they are both better than that with how we play, and i thought Jonny was really poor tonight in both aspects, defence and attack.

Boly has been poor since that interview, having been superb prior to it, i don't think it's a coincidence, i think it's rattled him for some reason. 3 or 4 major mistakes in 2 games, when i bet you'd struggle to find that many in all his previous games this season.

John Egan is 6ft 1, Boly is 6ft 5, no way in the world he should be being beaten by Egan there.

 

[Jinky]

Nothing wrong with Coady. Saiss & Boly have both had a couple of poor games with distribution. Is that down to them, or down to the fact we’ve become a bit predictable with our movement and are giving them less options to hit? Everyone knows how we play, at the end of the day.

I also suspect that’s part of the problem with Doc. When did he last make one of those runs cutting in from the right and pulling defenders inside creating room for others? I’ve certainly not seen him do that in the last two games.

Massive game this weekend now.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Doc has been largely poor since the restart for me. Good ball to Neto vs West Ham but otherwise more than a bit slack, we all know that if he gets tested defensively (as he was tonight) then it's a bit of a minefield at best. He has zero competition though as we won't ever start Oskar in the Premier League unless we have to.

Boly had an iffy 10-15 today and made an error vs Arsenal (which 99% of the time would amount to nothing) but I think he's been fine.

Saiss was ok tonight, don't get the Neves or Jonny criticism. If you're handing blame to the goal on Jonny then I don't know what to say. Not his man, not his zone. He's in the picture I'll grant you. What we've done there is put our tallest player and best headerer of the ball in that zone, so if you want to blame Boly for not being 7'2'', crack on. We don't do man to man, never have done in three years. Realistically it's just a good set play.

 

[Tony Towner]

Doc has been largely poor since the restart for me. Good ball to Neto vs West Ham but otherwise more than a bit slack, we all know that if he gets tested defensively (as he was tonight) then it's a bit of a minefield at best. He has zero competition though as we won't ever start Oskar in the Premier League unless we have to.

Boly had an iffy 10-15 today and made an error vs Arsenal (which 99% of the time would amount to nothing) but I think he's been fine.

Saiss was ok tonight, don't get the Neves or Jonny criticism. If you're handing blame to the goal on Jonny then I don't know what to say. Not his man, not his zone. He's in the picture I'll grant you. What we've done there is put our tallest player and best headerer of the ball in that zone, so if you want to blame Boly for not being 7'2'', crack on. We don't do man to man, never have done in three years. Realistically it's just a good set play.

That's not how zonal marking works. Jonny's job is to block the run, not beat him in the air. Boly is marking his zone, once Egan gets the run on him he'd got no chance. It is on Jonny. He also ball watched the chance Norwood? put wide

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

No Jonny wasn't to blame for the goal at all, but he was asleep for the Baldock effort that they should have done better on and i feel that in each of the last two games he has allowed his opponent the opportunity to get the ball in the box far more often than usual.

I think Doc's defending has been pretty good since the restart, can't recall him making a mistake, and he has made a number of good interceptions and tackles too, his heading is really important for us at the back post, but going forward he has done next to nothing since the West Ham game, he hasn't worked well with Traore and as said he hasn't really got himself in the box like we know he can either.

As for his competition, i'd see that as being Jonny over to the right and then Vinagre in at LWB, but if Jonny is out of form too....