Topic: Sheffield United Thread: Can they avoid relegation? Hopefully not.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

It's starting to look like a real battle for 4th, 5th & 6th place. I still reckon Sheffield have a chance, but it would turn out to be a weird year for them if they finish 4th but Wolves win the Europa League. That would mean the 4th place finisher gets bumped down to Europa, right?

no both go in, 2017 united won it after finished 6th and they go in and we did finishing 4th

[Morgana]

no both go in, 2017 united won it after finished 6th and they go in and we did finishing 4th

Oh, I see. Good for them. Hope after they lose tomorrow they will win every game after that. 

[kloppagetime]

Would love them to do it for Chris Wilder who's a top top guy but they just don't have the squad for it but it would be an incredible achievement and a massive reward for the great work Wilder has done with that club.

[newterp]

So long as they lose tomorrow when they play us.

[BlackandWhitePaul]

Win tonight and they are up to 5th.   

[Henry Gale]

Win tonight and they are up to 5th.   

Staying 8th then 

[Cu Chulainn]

No, they won't make the Champions League; even Europa League will be difficult. But they've done brilliantly this season, I doubt many predicted them to be in the top half in January! Would be nice to see them make the Europa League at the expense of Spurs or Man United (by winning every game after their defeat tonight, of course).

[sinnermichael]

Must be the first time this season they've been totally dominated from start to finish in a game.

Good interview with Wilder after the game. Brutally honest and very complimentary about us.

[Snail]

Wilder’s a class act.

[OsirisMVZ]

Must be the first time this season they've been totally dominated from start to finish in a game.

Good interview with Wilder after the game. Brutally honest and very complimentary about us.

https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1212859719918006272

"I love everything about them"

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Must be the first time this season they've been totally dominated from start to finish in a game.

Good interview with Wilder after the game. Brutally honest and very complimentary about us.

He's a sound bloke.

[Desert Red Fox]

Wilder's a class act and he's done a great job with them. Hope to see Sheffield United in the top half of the table come season's end

[jillcwhomever]

Wilder has done a brilliant job, hope they stay where they are now.

[dudleyred]

Fair play to wilder and special mention to their fans singing “champions of league one, you’ll never sing that”. Made me laugh more than it should have

[Guz-kop]

Must be the first time this season they've been totally dominated from start to finish in a game.

Good interview with Wilder after the game. Brutally honest and very complimentary about us.

Don't disagree at all but what's he on about talking about the "nonsense" of academy coaching? Dismissing tactics
We're the best coached team in the world ffs. The amount of tactical work and technical coaching that has gone into what we're currently seeing is unreal

Apt that 10 minutes later Michael Owen is talking about how am some of the England players thought in 2002 they'd be world champions if they beat Brazil.

[YJT]

Don't disagree at all but what's he on about talking about the "nonsense" of academy coaching? Dismissing tactics
We're the best coached team in the world ffs. The amount of tactical work and technical coaching that has gone into what we're currently seeing is unreal

Apt that 10 minutes later Michael Owen is talking about how am some of the England players thought in 2002 they'd be world champions if they beat Brazil.

I took it as a compliment. As in yes we may have some of the best coaches in the world, the best tactics and so on but what prevented them getting in to the game was our hard work and desire to win the first and second balls and to go up and down as a team. And in his opinion he would hope no matter how much better coaching we have, that they would at least be able to match the work rate of us and he seemed in awe that everyone of us is still prepared to work harder than the opposition despite where we are and what we've won

[Caligula?]

Don't disagree at all but what's he on about talking about the "nonsense" of academy coaching? Dismissing tactics
We're the best coached team in the world ffs. The amount of tactical work and technical coaching that has gone into what we're currently seeing is unreal

Apt that 10 minutes later Michael Owen is talking about how am some of the England players thought in 2002 they'd be world champions if they beat Brazil.

I think what he meant was that we're the current European and World champions and command an aura of respect from every team we play and could have gone into that game with a bit of nonchalance. But we didn't. We worked our socks off tonight and never stopped running and were first to every second ball with just had an incredible desire to win the game. There was no "oh it's just Sheffield tonight" about that at all. And I think he recognized that.

I hope Sheffield continue to do well this season. There's an honesty and graft about them that you rarely see nowadays. They aren't too physical and don't commit fouls all over the place and they don't have just one style of football ala Burnley or peak Stoke that you may expect from a more technically-limited side. They're well coached, well drilled, and always well set up tactically and actually try to play football. Of course we didn't allow any of that tonight, but it's been there to see all season long.

[arthur sarnoff]

Don't disagree at all but what's he on about talking about the "nonsense" of academy coaching? Dismissing tactics
We're the best coached team in the world ffs. The amount of tactical work and technical coaching that has gone into what we're currently seeing is unreal

Apt that 10 minutes later Michael Owen is talking about how am some of the England players thought in 2002 they'd be world champions if they beat Brazil.

'Nonsense' seems wrong, but like others have said, I think he was saying that before everything else, you need the desire to chase everything down and be committed.  We did that tonight, like we do every game.  He's a smart technical coach, I just think he was impressed by how well we do everything, on top of being brilliantly coached and technically excellent.

[Kopenhagen]

Dean Henderson needs to replace Pickford for England based on what we saw tonight.

Wonder how long it takes Southgate to drop one of the media darlings...

[stoopid yank]

well set up tactically and actually try to play football.

Agreed - I was thinking that after the 1st goal - they didn't panic and hoof it - still tried to play out the back, and didn't resort to thuggery. Like you said - they played actual football.  And their 2 recent away losses, against city and then today, don't mean anything.

Edit - also Henderson, their goalie - what a save on that Salah shot. How is he behind Pickford? Doesn't make sense.

[Guz-kop]

I took it as a compliment. As in yes we may have some of the best coaches in the world, the best tactics and so on but what prevented them getting in to the game was our hard work and desire to win the first and second balls and to go up and down as a team. And in his opinion he would hope no matter how much better coaching we have, that they would at least be able to match the work rate of us and he seemed in awe that everyone of us is still prepared to work harder than the opposition despite where we are and what we've won

Oh I have no doubt it was a compliment. I just took it to mean he genuinely thinks the reason we are so good is because we work hard, win the first and second balls and "run forward and run back" which for someone who is obviously a really talented coach seems so.... For lack of a better term.... So disappointingly stereotypically English

Mind you, seeing our midfielders cover as much ground as thy do despite 70% possession.and seeing big Divock there chasing back in the penalty area in stoppage time, maybe see where he's coming from

[PhaseOfPlay]

Oh I have no doubt it was a compliment. I just took it to mean he genuinely thinks the reason we are so good is because we work hard, win the first and second balls and "run forward and run back" which for someone who is obviously a really talented coach seems so.... For lack of a better term.... So disappointingly stereotypically English

Mind you, seeing our midfielders cover as much ground as thy do despite 70% possession.and seeing big Divock there chasing back in the penalty area in stoppage time, maybe see where he's coming from

I thought he was talking more about how the prominent philosophy among a lot of younger academy coaches is that you can rely purely on your technical game to win things, and that technique and playing out from the back and playing through the thirds, and creativity, etc., are all you need. And what Wilder is pointing out is that the best team in the world HAS all that, but they are still competing for every first ball, every second ball, and getting overloads in both penalty areas before any of the other stuff happens. In other words, the fundamentals of hard work, pressing and defending, overloading the other team, putting the graft in and treating each opponent as if they are the best opponent you will ever face, is good enough for Liverpool, and should be good enough for everyone else as well.

[Ravishing Rick Dude]

Wilder just won himself a new fan, and i hope he gets top4. Bitter c*nts like Hodgson and Big Sam could learn a thing or two from him.

[an fear dearg]

I think what Wilder was getting at is the we do the basics right repeatedly. It doesn’t take a coaching manual to know that’s the best way forward. Basics, rinse, repeat, do them better and faster. A team that does that better than any other team wins.

[Original]

Fans weren't too bad last night either, none of the usual shite being sang, more concerned about their own team

[Red Beret]

Fair play to wilder and special mention to their fans singing “champions of league one, you’ll never sing that”. Made me laugh more than it should have

Well we used to sing it.

[Statto Red]

Didn't know Sheffield United were playing West Ham tonight in the Cup which is bonkers, both most likely have second string out.

[Passmaster Molby]

Didn't know Sheffield United were playing West Ham tonight in the Cup which is bonkers, both most likely have second string out.

They aren't, they play West Ham in the league next Friday. They play AFC Fylde in the cup on sunday I think.

[Lfc19ynwa]

Didn't know Sheffield United were playing West Ham tonight in the Cup which is bonkers, both most likely have second string out.

They play Fylde in the cup on Sunday

[Lush is the best medicine...]

Dean Henderson needs to replace Pickford for England based on what we saw tonight.

Wonder how long it takes Southgate to drop one of the media darlings...

Mancs will be an interesting spot with him this summer, far too good/young to be a backup but de gea is a bit shite on unshiftable wages

[Funky_Gibbons]

Wilder just won himself a new fan, and i hope he gets top4. Bitter c*nts like Hodgson and Big Sam could learn a thing or two from him.

Really? I was a fan of how they play and their tactics but I thought his interview after the game was quite poor.

"People talk about academy coaches and all this nonsense about tactics and technical stuff"

And he said it such a disrespectful and disparaging way, almost Hodgson or Allardycesq, like it was nothing to do with tactics but because they didn’t run more. Yes he gave us some nice praise but it was difficult not to.

[Qston]

Really? I was a fan of how they play and their tactics but I thought his interview after the game was quite poor.

"People talk about academy coaches and all this nonsense about tactics and technical stuff"

And he said it such a disrespectful and disparaging way, almost Hodgson or Allardycesq, like it was nothing to do with tactics but because they didn’t run more. Yes he gave us some nice praise but it was difficult not to.

I think the point he was making was that we showed great determination to do the basics right like tackling, desire and getting to the ball first before even considering the technical stuff.

I thought he came across very well.

[Funky_Gibbons]

I think the point he was making was that we showed great determination to do the basics right like tackling, desire and getting to the ball first before even considering the technical stuff.

I thought he came across very well.

It sounded to me like he was belittling academy coaches and all this ‘nonsense’ about tactics and technique and simplifying the game into who was prepared to run more and do the hard stuff.

I may be wrong but that’s how it came across to me.

[Vinay]

I don't think they will make CL. Wolves are more likely to do it.

[Chig]

It sounded to me like he was belittling academy coaches and all this ‘nonsense’ about tactics and technique and simplifying the game into who was prepared to run more and do the hard stuff.

I may be wrong but that’s how it came across to me.

I think the point he try to get across is that hard work always come first. Tactic and technique are pointless without willingness to do the hard yard.

[elsewhere]

I don't think they will make CL. Wolves are more likely to do it.

Nah, none of them will even come close imo.

[Clayton Bigsby]

No point in them making Europa as they will only bin it off

[MJD-L4]

No.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

I think the point he try to get across is that hard work always come first. Tactic and technique are pointless without willingness to do the hard yard.

thats the point he’s making, instead of obsessing over different tactical systems to 7 year olds success in the game fundamentally comes down to effort and work rate

[Funky_Gibbons]

thats the point he’s making, instead of obsessing over different tactical systems to 7 year olds success in the game fundamentally comes down to effort and work rate

Argh the good old British tactic of running faster, longer further than your opponents rather than pesky old tactical systems those foreigners use.

That's exactly what I'd expect Hodgson or Allardyce to come out with.