Back from The game Sheff Utd

[Rex]

Having target man Kits in isn't helping Doyles positioning, though it's noted Doyles goals have dried recently.

Recently?

Is december really classed as recent then?

SW away IIRC. I remember the elation of a friggin goal. OK it was an easy one but he scored.

[AlexY25]

I have said it all season and its true- we are the best footballing side in this division by some stretch but playing low on confidence and not a settled starting 11.

I think there are better footballing sides than us in this league. Swansea for one.

[Southbank Old Boy]

Having target man Kits in isn't helping Doyles positioning, though it's noted Doyles goals have dried recently.

Recently?

Is december really classed as recent then?

SW away IIRC. I remember the elation of a friggin goal. OK it was an easy one but he scored.

he has played 6 games since then, most of them alongside Kits, but he hadnt score for the 6 games before it as well

His goals had dried up long before Kitson came back

[Southbank Old Boy]

Having target man Kits in isn't helping Doyles positioning, though it's noted Doyles goals have dried recently.

Yeh I agree Kits isn't helping. The thing which I find incredibly frustrating with Doyle is when we need him, he doesn't perform, last season he did nothing, he's a very hot and cold player.

N Hunt played well against Cov and leroy scored goals in reserves disappointing that either one wasn't given more minutes.

On top of his goals drying up, his shots have aswell, he playing scared. He gets a lot of praise for working hard but hes working hard in channels which doesn't help us. He needs to be braver and actually take shots on.

I honestly can't remember the last time he had a shot on goal more importantly on target

I don't get why we don't just go back to Noel and Doyle. They were doing fine at the beginning of the season.

How fine where they doing in decemember and january though?

How fine were Hunt and Kebe doing earlier in the season? Its not just about picking the same players as worked before, its about getting us back to playing half decent football again

[1871royals]

How fine where they doing in decemember and january though?

How fine were Hunt and Kebe doing earlier in the season? Its not just about picking the same players as worked before, its about getting us back to playing half decent football again

Thats jogged my memory, in Dec/Jan N Hunt and Doyle partnership was beginning to show cracks. I think the Cardiff H game summed it up. The euphoria of the Fed equaliser overshadowed a poor performance. SC must not have faith in putting those 2 back together as he hasn't tried it.

I think drop Doyle, hes doesn't step forward when we need him. Kitson and N Hunt I think.

[loyalroyal4life]

The players obviously arent lacking the ability to play football, its all a mental issue, get an outsider in to sort out their heads and see the difference (if any )

[Abbo]

Haven't been for a year or so, but was astonished at how poor the method of play was. Really remedial stuff. Where were the quick triangles and overlaps from 2/3 years ago?

Hunt was a disgrace to himself in the last 20 mins, Kebe is just messing around and seems to be a big ponce, Duberry gets 10% worse in each element of his game every year, the full backs cant cross for toffee.

Coppell was far too late making subs and even then they werent decisive enough.

But the worse bit was getting seats in Upper West Upper corner, four seats down from of the chanting goons. What success can you expect when your chanting goons pronounce their T's etc? Wanted should be pronounced "WONNEYD" not "WANTED". I was forced to cover my kids ears.

Finally, a mark of 7 out of ten to Mylo (Dickie Davies) for shouting ABBO really loudly at me outside the ground. I'm marking him down a couple of points for not cuddling me though. I felt I deserved an embrace.

[winchester_royal]

I still cannot believe we lost that game. They were fecking awful, we played the best we have since Jan, had a couple of excellent oppurtunities, should have had a penalty, and they should have been down to 9 men by half time.

Once again Hunt was awful, but otherwise the performances were good, Tabb was excellent in the middle and he looks much better there.

Coppell's substitutions beggered belief.

[rhroyal]

What I wrote somewhere else yesterday, a section from a massive post that sums up what I think we lack:

"That was a better performance than some we've had to put up with of late. We were looking like we were getting on top, however once they scored I never thought for a moment we would equalize. You can see the confidence issue. Coppell clearly doesn't provide inspiration from the sidelines and there is no leader providing drive on the pitch. With Sidwell leaving and Murty losing his place this team has become too weak mentally and that's why we can never seem to turn around a bad run. You don't just need technical ability to succeed, you need mental strength and that is what we're lacking."

I still think player for player we have a very strong championship squad. What we lack is player who can get the others fired up when it's not going well and lead from the front. Sidwell would get stuck into tackles and try and lift the tempo when it wasn't going so well. He'd try and get the tempo up. Parkinson could do it before him too. Likewise when we're playing decent enough football but we go behind you need a cool head to say "Keep doing what we were doing, the goal will come." That's where players like Murty and Adie Williams were useful, but we had nobody to do that yesterday. We've had nobody to do that all season. Here's the pattern of recent home games:

1) Start well, miss a couple of chances.
2) Concede a sucker punch
3) Stop doing everything that we were previously doing well.

We didn't have the mental strength within the squad of the management to cope with the relegation battle last season. We didn't have it to cope with the promotion battle this season. It's a great shame because I think both times we've had a squad doing what was expected of them in terms of ability. People talk about what we need for next season. Youthful enthusiasm, a right winger. Maybe, but the main component we're missing is the player who can help others perform to the best of their abilities consistently. Any ideas anyone?

EDIT:

07/08:
Bolton - Nolan and Davies
Fulham - McBride and Bullard
Reading - ??????

08/09:
Wolves - Have to admit I'm not sure, I don't know much about them apart from Ebanks-Blake and Kightly. McCarthy on the sidelines though.
Brum - Carsley and Phillips
Sheff Utd - Wes Morgan
Reading - ??????

[Royal Rother]

In 2004/5 we closed the season as poorly as this one appears to be going and I suggested that Coppell should leave as he seemed completely unable to motivate the players to produce passionate and energetic performances, or yet football that was worth paying to watch.

Talk about deja vu.

Can't believe Coppell will be around to stuff those thoughts down my neck again in 2009/10. More's the pity.

[loyalroyal4life]

In 2004/5 we closed the season as poorly as this one appears to be going and I suggested that Coppell should leave as he seemed completely unable to motivate the players to produce passionate and energetic performances, or yet football that was worth paying to watch.

Talk about deja vu.

Can't believe Coppell will be around to stuff those thoughts down my neck again in 2009/10. More's the pity.

he wont be here 09/10, we stay down coppell will go

[rotherwick_royal]

Can't be bothered to read the full thread but I'm actually quite upbeat about the game. I was expecting to lose, we did, but I thought we played the best we have in weeks and deserved something out of the game. I still think 2nd place is up for grabs. If Sheff Utd go up they are going to get so stuffed in the Premiership but I think so would we, so I'm not really that bothered. If we meet them in the play-outs I think we'll beat them.

Would get good if we could figure out our best team before the end of the season! Has to be Marek and Tabb for me in the middle in the next game. Thought Tabb was the best player when he came on, centre mid has to be his best position. Marek had a good 1st half then faded. Doyle needs a rest.

[Wycombe Royal]

I think it must be something to do with where you sit in the stadium , im guessing but do you sit
in the north stand or do you have resticted viewing ??

Very good view from the top of Y21 thanks.

At least Matejovsky agrees with me on how good his performance was.

Oh and at least I could see who put the cross in for Kitson's header.

At least I don't have blinkered viewing.

[RobRoyal]

I was at the game and I've since watched it twice more on the TV. Rewinding, checking.

I simply think 90% of the people posting on this list are morons.

Just check the thread and see Tabb being slammed and getting MoM from some.
Just check the thread and see Cisse being slammed for being invisible.
Just check the thread and see Stretch both slammed and MoM.

etc.

Point one, SHEFFIELD UNITED ARE A GOOD TEAM, on form, this was their seventh win (and two draws) in 9 games and they recently beat both Cardiff and Birmingham and are now second.

Point 2 we played very well and were a little unlucky not to have scored, then Sheffield had one piece of jam and got the goal.

Had we played like that against Preston, Bristol, Ipswich, Forest, Charlton we would have won those games comfortably.


Go watch Sky-Plus and explain to me why Cisse could be criticised at all. He won tackles, covered everything, completed virtually all his passes. He was a comfortable 8 until he got his injury.

Ditto his replacement, Tabb, gutsy, energetic, flew into tackles, passed well. Name a serious mistake he made other than his first tackle which could have got a card)... sure he might've got that shot on target but it's not like he hit the corner flag. Without a doubt, injury-free he should get a run in the team.

As for Stretch, he was immense, a 9 IMO. He worked and worked and worked, won tackles, supported the LW, and near the end saved us a couple of times and kept the ball in play.

Matejovsky was absolutely excellent for the first 70 minutes. He won tackles, he turned and beat players. IMO that 70 minutes, was as good as he's played and he's real class

Bikey is a great defender, and it's great to see someone take a chance and use the ball instead of the automatic hoof. SURE he'll cost us a goal here and there getting caught in possession but he'd be first man on the team-sheet for me, one of the few who have genuine class.

The boy Kelly, for all bar ten minutes, was playing well enough to keep his place. He played with speed and confidence, way beyond what should be expected for a kid who was starting just his third league game. CONGRATS, kid. There wa once where he took an extra touch to make sure and the ball went for a goal kick, but other than that he looked excellent.




I have been p!ssed off with SHunt for a while but I took the time yesterday to watch just how much work he does, the tackling back, the challenges, the covering. Get this, as a defender, as a defensive midfielder, as all-round support, he had a good game yesterday. A GOOD game. He won ball at least four times in our box. He broke up one Sheffield free-kick, raced away, fed Doyle and ran the length of the pitch with one other RFC player. Both were clear, in space and Doyle fluffed the pass. It should have been a goal.

Hunt played well.

What was WRONG, was he wasn't there on the LW or RW enough. It was our pattern of play that was the problem. They are chasing things too much instead of doing the simple stuff well.


What was wrong (and whose fault is that?) was we played far too much up the middle, chipping balls for Kitson to flick or Doyle to flick. It's boring and predictable and plays right into the hands of big, strong, quality defenders. I know it's easy to blame the wingers as individuals but what was more noticeable was that the overall pattern of play wasn't like the first half of the season (I'm saying pattern, not quality or commitment)....

When we were playing well first half of the season we were playing about 90% wing-play, the FBs worked well with the wings and there was always at least one striker (and the other winger) in the box waiting for the cross. Time and again yesterday, Kitson was deep and Doyle was wide, there was nobody in the box to receive a cross.


For 65 minutes or so, we played very well against a very good, strong side. The possession stats for long periods were 65%. After we let in the slightly unlucky goal we started to panic and could have conceded again, but that's par for the course for most sides chasing a game like that. Either they get the equaliser or conceded the killer second goal on the break.


We will win comfortably to nil at Blackpool and again versus Barnsley. I think we could easily win the next four, and if we beat Birmingham we could still nick second. Even if we don't get the auto-spot, I think we have turned the corner, and we could go into the play-offs with 5 wins or WWWWD and a bit of momentum.

Great post Snowball. I don't agree with all of it, but it's a good antedote to the absolute despair that most of us feel after the recent run of results. Best not to be so black and white. If Kitson's header had gone in, if the ref had given us a penalty for a clear handball, we would be here talking about a well-earned three points.

I still feel the way we played in the last 20 was shameful though. Morale and confidence are pretty much rock bottom, and it doesn't take much to utterly break us right now.

[howser]

As has been mentioned in some paper reports Sheffield United clearly "wanted" it so much more than we did, lots of effort and desire, something that is massively missing from Reading over the past four months, our players havent spent enough time in the Premiership to be this arrogant, so it makes me wonder is this the " we aint bothered about promotion" feeling that runs though the club from the top down.

[playoffs or layoffs]

My complaint for today was that my hot chocolate at half time was just over half full!!!

You're in the wrong place for that type of comment. Clearly your hot chocolate was just under half empty.

[Man Friday]

Remember, United had played in a tough fixture only 3 days previously yet they still outfought us. Very, very worrying.

[Royal Rother]

Wanted it more? So much so that they managed 2 shots on target and a couple of corners? (Haven't seen the stats but I suspect we outscored them on everything except the one that really matters.)

That sort of talk is just rubbish - we were fully committed, witness some of Tabb's challenges and Duberry's absolute cruncher, the problem was that we just weren't very good and lacked the wit to create space in front of their goal. Confidence is something that is very very hard to recover once lost - we probably need a lucky break to get it back but until that happens we can look forward to more of the same frustrating experiences.

If the break comes soon we just might turn things around in time for the play-offs but if not I really don't the players' desire can be questioned. Why would they NOT be trying their hardest?

[howser]

Rother, while I understand your support Sheffield had just played three games in 7 days and while they only had a couple of shots on goal their whole attitude was sharper with more effort and desire, we have, sadly, just been going through the motions over the past few months, Tabb yes got "stuckin" but he is new a trying his arse off to become a permanent fixture as for the majority of the side it seems like its all too much trouble at the moment where this attitude has come from is bemusing, Tabb aside the "creative" midfield is just not at the races and we have developed into a kick and hope side.

[Royal Rother]

Rother, while I understand your support Sheffield had just played three games in 7 days and while they only had a couple of shots on goal their whole attitude was sharper with more effort and desire, we have, sadly, just been going through the motions over the past few months, Tabb yes got "stuckin" but he is new a trying his arse off to become a permanent fixture as for the majority of the side it seems like its all too much trouble at the moment where this attitude has come from is bemusing, Tabb aside the "creative" midfield is just not at the races and we have developed into a kick and hope side.

It's a confidence thing not a lack of desire.

When confidence is low, rather than football being virtually instinctive, players / teams take a fraction of a second longer to make up their minds what they are going to do which results in them getting beaten to the punch time and time again. Looks like a lack of desire but it's really really not.

I repeat the question, why on earth would they not be busting a gut? Promotion could add potentially millions to their career earnings wherever they end up playing in 2009/10.

If we go up Shunt could expect to be back up to £25k pw - if we don't it is quite likely he will never get anywhere near that again. This is make or break for a number of players - I think it is illogical and disrespectful to suggest they aren't trying their damndest.