Back From The Game - Sheff Utd (H)

[The Prisoner]

Why didn't Howard start? Tepid team performance vs Leeds + point to prove + playing former club + need for creativity + Need to rotate for fresh legs = Howard starts

Has McD never played Football Manager?!

[robb the royal]

blaming 4-4-2? we changed formation twice after that and they didn't work either...tactically we could have played any formation yesterday and would have still lost, we (the players and supporters) got cocky when we went 2-0 up and gave up...the players didn't start playing again until Howard came on.
And the support yesterday was absolutely shocking! We barely sung from them scoring their 1st goal to when they scored their 3rd...the players need our support not just our expectations. I was embarrassed to be a reading fan yesterday (for the 1st time since Wimbledon at home on boxing day many years ago now)
Its pointless saying how we shouldn't have lost to a team who only won 3 times away from home all season...the Sheffield united team now is a very different one to even a few weeks ago...for the form they HAVE to put in now, they might as well be unbeaten away from home! and they played like it yesterday (after 20 minutes)
Harte at fault for goal one (and i think Mcarthy could have done better to save a weak shot)
I'm not too sure anyone was at fault for the 2nd one...maybe Jem for being losing his man
Marking was at fault for the 3rd goal...I'm going to place the blame at Hartes feet, he was marking 3 players and should have been screaming for someone to move across to help him out!
I'm surprised by the amount of arguement there is about their "4th goal". The guy clearly impeeded Mcarthy from rolling the ball out. The unwritten rule is that an attacker can stand there, but not move to block the ball, which Henderson (?) clearly did.

[Stuka]

Not up for seeing swansea celebrate getting to Wembeley in our ground like they've won the world cup, seen it all before.

Either them or Leeds. Nightmare

[Hoop Blah]

Far too sloppy a performance all over the park, and probably off it too.

I think the result has been coming though (performances haven't really warrented 8 wins on the spin) and it's better in many ways for it to happen this weekend than in the next couple of weeks. At least we have time to regroup and kick on again, if we can.

Henderson caused us no end of problems and Mills just didn't seem to want to challenge him half the time. He'll need to toughen up a bit if he wants to be the player he thinks he is.

The other thing the game showed up was how much we now rely on Kebe and Long to win us games (if only by winning freekicks for Harte to bang one in from). The rest of the side is just too workman like to consistently create much but that's the hand we've been dealt by the way we run things and the players we've brought in. We have to make the most of it and hope that this shocking performance will get a positive reaction out of the squad.

[loyalroyal4life]

Mills was the one losing all of his headers to Henderson, jumping far too early and getting caught out of position time and time again. And his distribution was was pub team level. How is captain of this club is beyond me.

+1.

+2

Griffin for captain!

And 4-5-1 with howard in the centre for Cov

[Terminal Boardom]

Did anyone hear SJM on 5 Live at about 1.30pm?

[Croydon Royal]

Far too sloppy a performance all over the park, and probably off it too.

I think the result has been coming though (performances haven't really warrented 8 wins on the spin) and it's better in many ways for it to happen this weekend than in the next couple of weeks. At least we have time to regroup and kick on again, if we can.

Henderson caused us no end of problems and Mills just didn't seem to want to challenge him half the time. He'll need to toughen up a bit if he wants to be the player he thinks he is.

The other thing the game showed up was how much we now rely on Kebe and Long to win us games (if only by winning freekicks for Harte to bang one in from). The rest of the side is just too workman like to consistently create much but that's the hand we've been dealt by the way we run things and the players we've brought in. We have to make the most of it and hope that this shocking performance will get a positive reaction out of the squad.

Agree with all of this, except the "Mills didn't want to challenge him" bit - I think it was the fact that Mills didn't KNOW HOW to challenge him instead.

Through a mixture of great last ditch defending and a fair bit of luck we've managed to eek out a few of those 8 wins - (notable moments against Leicester and Barnsley spring to mind). That's fine - every team who goes on a run like that needs a bit of luck and we've generally defended very well - but it also meant that we'd have a game where those chances the other team makes go in and we'd concede 3. And inevitably, it came in a game where we had already gone 2-0 up and took our foot completely off the gas.

And once they'd got it back to 2-2, we had too many players playing below par to claw it back. Long, Harte, Mills, Karacan and McAnuff have been exceptional at times in recent weeks, but yesterday all put in poor performances. Players will always tend to have a poor performances once in a while, it just becomes a problem when half your team do that on the same game. I'll always remember during the 05/06 season Coppell saying that the secret behind the run was always having 8 players playing well to make up for the 3 who may have been having an off day.

We do miss Kebe though - we must have the most functional central midfield in the league, but that's fine when all they are asked to do is win the ball and give it to our creative wide men. When one of those wingers is missing and the other is playing poorly that becomes a problem, which is why we should have started with Howard instead of Karacan to give us an alternative source of creativity (and looked so much better when he came on).

Let's just hope we can use it as a positive and turn yesterday into the wake up call that was needed just before we enter the play offs.

[Snowball]

Far too sloppy a performance all over the park, and probably off it too.

I think the result has been coming though (performances haven't really warrented 8 wins on the spin) and it's better in many ways for it to happen this weekend than in the next couple of weeks. At least we have time to regroup and kick on again, if we can.

Henderson caused us no end of problems and Mills just didn't seem to want to challenge him half the time. He'll need to toughen up a bit if he wants to be the player he thinks he is.

The other thing the game showed up was how much we now rely on Kebe and Long to win us games (if only by winning freekicks for Harte to bang one in from). The rest of the side is just too workman like to consistently create much but that's the hand we've been dealt by the way we run things and the players we've brought in. We have to make the most of it and hope that this shocking performance will get a positive reaction out of the squad.

Agree with all of this, except the "Mills didn't want to challenge him" bit - I think it was the fact that Mills didn't KNOW HOW to challenge him instead.

Through a mixture of great last ditch defending and a fair bit of luck we've managed to eek out a few of those 8 wins - (notable moments against Leicester and Barnsley spring to mind). That's fine - every team who goes on a run like that needs a bit of luck and we've generally defended very well - but it also meant that we'd have a game where those chances the other team makes go in and we'd concede 3. And inevitably, it came in a game where we had already gone 2-0 up and took our foot completely off the gas.

And once they'd got it back to 2-2, we had too many players playing below par to claw it back. Long, Harte, Mills, Karacan and McAnuff have been exceptional at times in recent weeks, but yesterday all put in poor performances. Players will always tend to have a poor performances once in a while, it just becomes a problem when half your team do that on the same game. I'll always remember during the 05/06 season Coppell saying that the secret behind the run was always having 8 players playing well to make up for the 3 who may have been having an off day.

We do miss Kebe though - we must have the most functional central midfield in the league, but that's fine when all they are asked to do is win the ball and give it to our creative wide men. When one of those wingers is missing and the other is playing poorly that becomes a problem, which is why we should have started with Howard instead of Karacan to give us an alternative source of creativity (and looked so much better when he came on).

Let's just hope we can use it as a positive and turn yesterday into the wake up call that was needed just before we enter the play offs.

THIS.

I've been saying for weeks that we were due to let in 2-3 before HT
because we weren't dominating. Before we scored yesterday we had
a scare where the ball flew across the goal (not sure what happened)

But then we got two goals and I thought, like a few tens of thousands
(and the RFC team) that it was all over.


But the performance put me in mind of a side in a cup final
or semi and unable to play well in the league. They were jaded
and I think had settled for the POs (after Friday's game) and went
through the motions a bit.

We are a side that trades on energy and it just wasn't there yesterday

[Gordons Cumming]

I'm just waiting for SDR & Thou Voice to raise their considerably ugly heads.

[Royal Lady]

I'm just waiting for SDR & Thou Voice to raise their considerably ugly heads.

They'll be straight on here if we lose the play-offs.

[brendywendy]

One thing that really amazed me was that Antonio's long throws seemed to leave our attackers as confused and worried as it did the SU defence. Surely they have practised what to do when he arrows in a throw like that?

very annoying- they are as good as a corner, so at the very least have more than 2-3 bodies in the box.

the hoofball was simply down to the pressing game of UTD,
put players under pressure and they panic more.

[Elm Park Old Boy]

Better than a corner I thought. Was very surprised we didn't attack them more.

[KC Royal]

Shocking last hour yesterday. If voting for Armstrong for POTS seemed mad at the time I certainly felt like it was the right choice after this game. If the first half v Leicester was strange this was just surreal, as McD said afterwards. The fans were complacent ( i said if we got a 3rd before HT it could be 4 or 5) and it filtered down to the players. Before the game it almost seemed like the game may as well have been like a testimonial for Armstrong, Sheff Utd were ideal opponents for it, and for the final hour it had the feeling of a testimonial. We cruised through it and the defence decided that tackling wasn't part of the gameplan. Its strange, its probably one of the 3 worst games i've seen but whilst I was disappointed I wasn't as disappointed as I expected to be afterwards. Maybe it was the Armstrong factor, maybe it was because i was already preparing for us to play Swansea in the playoffs and for me finishing 4th or 5th makes little difference, i expect us to lose to them over 2 legs anyway (which based on this years events is probably a good attitude to have), i dunno.

Must say I was shocked by the away support. Yes their fans prob feared a defeat and relegation but they're a big club and Armstrong deserved better than that. "Wigan in disguise" would have been an appropriate chant!

Ratings
McCarthy 6.5 - Looked like we were playing a passing game - McCarthy was throwing the ball out at every opportunuity, certainly in the first half hour anyway. One of these throws led to a good opportunity for McAnuff and then Hunt on the follow up. Also made a decent save to push a shot round the post in the first half. Felt that he could have done better with the first goal though. No blame for the 2nd, and for the 3rd made a good initial save which then proved irrelevant as they scored anyway.
Griffin 6 – Wobbled a bit defensively but did at least try to give us an attacking option in the 2nd half.
Mills 5 – Was having a solid game but then fell apart in the final 60.
Zurab 6 – Again solid before fading
Harte 4 – Worst performance I’ve seen from him. Too easily beaten for the goal, Henderson is hardly quick, poor free-kick which hit the wall in the 2nd half from a dangerous position and was then later beaten again later in the half.
McAnuff 6 – Had a bright start, set up the 2nd and shortly afterwards had an effort from McCarthy’s throw saved. But was frustrating after that even though he was fouled after one good run which led to Harte’s free-kick 2nd half.
Karacan 6 – Was playing well, one impressive crossfield pass being his standout moment before fading.
Leigertwood 7 – Was dominant when we were on top, our best player, but again faded.
HRK 5.5 – Scored and that’s about it! Although he did give away the free-kick which led to the winning goal.
Long 6 – Set up the opening goal and was playing well. Then had to go off for treatment for a head injury (which I only noticed when he came back on the pitch) and this hampered him (just like it did in the Ireland-Macedonia game). His aerial ability was off after that.
Hunt 5 – Scored with an impressive strike but was otherwise awful. Seemed to shirk out of every 50/50.

Subs Manset 6 – Should have come on as soon as we went behind. Was more competitive than Hunt and held the ball up better.
Antonio 6.5 – Has something about him, showed pace and skill and his long throws are a threat. If only we could learn to utilise them better!
Howard 7 – Made an instant impact, kept the ball well and was unlucky not to score with an effort that crashed back off the bar.

[bcubed]

Mills was the one losing all of his headers to Henderson, jumping far too early and getting caught out of position time and time again. And his distribution was was pub team level. How is captain of this club is beyond me.

+1.

very accurate though not even sure Mills was jumping - he barely got off the ground

+ 1

[KC Royal]

is kebe ever going to be fit again?

Hope so even if it means he comes straight in for the playoffs, quite evident he was missed today and at Leeds!

I saw him before the game walking from the car park to the players entrance about 1.50pm, or rather my dad did, so it was obvious he wasn't playing. There were no autograph hunters and he seemed so oblivious to the people walking past that almost missed him! Must admit it did put a bit of a dampener on the match knowing he wasn't playing, but it wasn't worth the risk him playing yesterday if there was any doubt. He seemed to be moving freely enough though, it certainly looked a minor injury, so expect him to be back for Coventry, which McD also confirmed in the post-match BBC Berks interview.

[RoyalBlue]

!I'm surprised by the amount of arguement there is about their "4th goal". The guy clearly impeeded Mcarthy from rolling the ball out. The unwritten rule is that an attacker can stand there, but not move to block the ball, which Henderson (?) clearly did.

Well I was sat with two goalkeepers one of whom is a qualified ref and both felt there was nothing wrong with the 'goal'. McCarthy 'telegraphed' that he was going to try to roll the ball out. When he then rolled the ball, the forward, who was not stood immediately in front of him nor tracking his run, stuck out his foot, stopped the ball and passed it to a teammate. Just how far away does your 'unwritten rule' state that an opponent needs to stand before he is allowed to attempt to intercept rolled out passes? And what would you have said had McCarthy put the ball on the ground in preparation for passing it out with his foot? Would the forward still not be allowed to kick the ball when it was on the ground?

[RoyalBlue]

One thing that really amazed me was that Antonio's long throws seemed to leave our attackers as confused and worried as it did the SU defence. Surely they have practised what to do when he arrows in a throw like that?

very annoying- they are as good as a corner, so at the very least have more than 2-3 bodies in the box.

the hoofball was simply down to the pressing game of UTD,
put players under pressure and they panic more.

Unless they are called Brynyar, in which case they calmly nutmeg the pressuring opponent before playing an inch perfect pass to the feet/head of a teammate!

Despite the Utd pressure there were still plenty of occasions where our players had time to pick a decent pass (as they were all doing in the first half hour) but chose to hoof the ball forward in the hope that someone might get on the end of it.

[Hoop Blah]

All this switching to hoofball rubbish...have you not been watching all season? We're a direct team and get the ball forward pretty quickly all the time.

When we don't have Kebe to launch a quick counter attack our only consistent method of attack is to lump it to Long, and whoever gets to partner him, and see what happens. When we've managed to get opposition defences turned so that Long can chase down the punts we've created chances. When teams have defended deep and mopped it up we've looked a bit toothless.

[KC Royal]

Re Antonio's long throws - there was one where Long was hesitant and went in half heartedly. If he'd been fully fit i reckon he might have got on the end of it. The problem is that Antonio plays so rarely we're not used to it. Maybe to make up for that doing more work on it in training could be the answer? Though to me the players always seem a bit reluctant to let him take them in the first place!

[Sarah Star]

Antonio seemed to be throwing them further than they were expecting.