Sheffield United preview
Here is Nat’s preview for our Sunday lunch time game.
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Current Form
The Blades (or is it Blunts?) come into this game on a slide with no win in the last four competitive games, though two were admittedly against Premiership Hull City in an FA Cup tie they lost in a fraught replay at the KC Stadium on Thursday. It can only be hoped that a lack of recovery time from playing on Thursday can only hinder their performance through tiredness on Sunday.
Last time out
The last time these two sides met at Bramall Lane was in a low-key League Cup tie in October 2006, which even with the backdrop of Steve Bruce ‘s job at St.Andrews being in severe jeopardy was nothing more than a mundane looking game, treated as such by the paltry 10,584 crowd and by Neil Warnock fielding a reserve team.
The Yorkshiremen took an early lead through the often underrated Ade Akinbiyi. Twenty minutes later Blues equalised with one of the strangest goals seen. Centre-half Chris Morgan attempted to hoof the ball up the pitch, only for it to rebound of DJ Campbell and from some twenty-five yards the ball soared over Ian Bennett’s (yes, OUR Ian Bennett) despairing dive and into the net.
The unbelievable luck seemed to give Blues’ charges an essence of resurgence, and after the interval they raced into a two-goal lead through Bendtner and Jerome (yes he can score, only joking Cameron, keep on trucking). A fabulous Nick Montgomery strike gave United hope before Larsson sealed the win in the ninety-third minute.
For those of you lucky (or unlucky, whatever the case may be) enough to read my Derby preview this is déjà vu, but as we know in the aftermath of this game Bruce clung on to his job like me to a warm Balti Pie and the rest, as the coined cliché goes, is history.
The season so far
After a late-season resurgence under Kevin Blackwell after the malaise of the Bryan Robson era, the Blades went into this season full of hope that they could lodge a serious bid for promotion to the Premiership.
The season started in Bordesley Green, where they were stoutly set up and heading for a well-deserved draw until Kevin Phillips struck with an injury-time winner. Following one from that was a collection of a seven points from a possible nine, until they suffered the ignominy of being the first team to lose a league game against Paul Jewell’s Derby County. Still their positive start seemed to reaffirm themselves as promotion candidates.
After that, their season started to level out into a consistent point-winning rhythm, consolidating themselves in the play-off picture without ever really looking like overtaking Wolves, Reading or ourselves to try and claim a top-two spot. Much of their decent form was seemingly down to the talismanic work of James Beattie, but with his future in the balance it seemed that Sheffield’s aspirations balanced with it.
The dawn of the January transfer window heralded the departure of Beattie to Stoke City, and his ex-side’s form has been indifferent since then, with good wins against Charlton and Southampton being complimented by local derby defeats at Bramall Lane against Doncaster Rovers and, much more seriously, Sheffield Wednesday.
They currently sit in seventh, and with three points separating Ipswich in tenth and Cardiff in fourth it is undeniably tight in the play-off chase. United probably have the talent to gain a play-off space, but consistently solid performances will be needed from now until May to cement that place, particularly as teams vying for one of those spots have matches in hand over them.
The Manager
Those of you who have read my previews recently may well have come to the conclusion that my appraisals show I am nothing more than a devout follower of Managers in this Division. Not so, as the following will show. It is my sad duty to inform you that my personal opinion is that Kevin Blackwell is a bellend, a seemingly friendly man, but in my opinion undoubtedly a bellend.
Blackwell had a rather insignificant career pottering around the English lower leagues, with the highlight (and highlight in a loose sense of the word) being part of five different teams under Neil Warnock’s Management. He took his first steps into being a coach/manager by helping Warnock with training at Huddersfield Town, and from then on wherever Warnock went Blackwell lingered like a bad smell.
This partnership was bitterly ended however when Blackwell left his post as Warnock’s assistant at Sheffield United to join the Leeds backroom staff in the Summer of 2003. Following relegation from the premiership, Blackwell was appointed to the hotseat. A season of transition and much needed consolidation in the Championship for the debt-ridden club followed, and the following season Blackwell guided the club to the play-off final. However the fairytale turnaround was to remain a fairytale as Blackwell was outwitted and his team comprehensively destroyed by Aidy Boothroyd and Watford.
The failure to get promotion was a farce, because for long periods of that season Leeds were nicely poised to overhaul the stumbling Sheffield United into second place, but Blackwell’s conservatively defensive tactics often meant they were held back from picking up vital points. The following season was a disaster, and after a three-nil crushing at home to Sunderland he received the sack.
In my opinion, he deserves some of the blame for Leeds’ subsequent demise. The failure to win promotion was in a way down to his archaic tactics in the league campaign generally, and were cruelly exposed by the switched on Boothroyd in the play-off final. That failure had a massive impact on Leeds, as the Premiership parachute money departed, contributing to their debts which forced them into administration. The team he created also crumbled under the weight of too many has-beens and it was the team that was bad enough to get relegated to League One.
After an ill-fated spell at Luton, he joined Sheffield United in February 2008 as Manager. After a fairly decent start, they have fallen by the wayside of late and the test is on to see if Blackwell can take them into the play-offs and beyond. My opinion is that he won’t, and it won’t be too long after that before he is looking for his fourth manager’s job.
Team news
Lupoli, Ward, O’Toole, Beattie (Craig) and Bromby are back after being cup-tied for their replay at Hull in midweek, and Darius Henderson is back after injury. However Kilgallon, Montgomery and Webber are all doubts and Gary Speed is definitely out.
Possible line-up
Kenny, Naughton, Morgan, Bromby, Naysmith, Lupoli, O’Toole, Howard, Quinn, Sharp, Beattie
Key man
Brian Howard is a wonderful player. A player who runs his socks off for ninety minutes. A player who has a great ability to run past players with strength and skill as if they were statues. A player who can propel a shot from forty yards or keep his composure from four. A man who you can build a whole team around. A player who can drag a team by its bootstraps and carry it through games, weeks, months, seasons, an ability only possessed by him and Steven Gerrard.
There is nothing we can do to legally stop him. We can only hope that we crock him, he crocks himself or he has an off-day.
This man quite simply should be a Premiership player.
Tactical strengths
The main strength United have when looking at their prospective side is their attacking strength in midfield. In players such as Howard, O’Toole, Lee Hendrie and Quinn, there is much creativity and the potential for a goal from anyone of them. It might be an idea to stick to deep lying centre-midfielders to try and solidify in the middle of the park for the beginning of the game until we gain a footing.
Tactical weaknesses
As I talk about the attacking strength of their midfield, the lack of a holding midfielder in Gary Speed’s absence must be a concern for Blackwell. Their midfield has a similar mindset to Nottingham Forest’s midfield at St.Andrews, and they evidently struggled. Blackwell has the option of placing Sun Jihai there, but it would be a case of fitting round pegs in square holes, and I haven’t been of the opinion that he has been any good in recent times. Blues could look to exploit this by potentially looking to play a third centre-midfielder to play in front of the two centre-midfielders behind the striker.
A second principal weakness in the Blades’ side is the lack of pace at the back, particularly with Kilgallon being out on Sunday. Therefore we should look to play Jerome, because the Bramall Lane pitch is big and the two centre-halves will leave spaces behind them which they will struggle to cover which Jerome can look to run into. It is noticeable that Jerome tends to score on bigger pitches away from the short pitch at St.Andrews. This could be the place where he can break his goal drought.
My team would be…
Taylor
Carr–Jaidi–Ridgewell–Murphy
Larsson–Bowyer–Carsley/Johnson–Bouazza
Fahey
Jerome
I would pick this reason for a few reasons. One is that the back four deserve a game because they did very well to nullify Crystal Palace on Tuesday, so they can stay as they are. Another reason is that the two deep centre-midfielders in Bowyer and Carsley (or Johnson if Carsley is injured) have the discipline, quality and experience to stop their midfield from getting balls through to the strikers. A third reason is that when I was talking about playing a midfielder in front of the bank of four, there is no-one more creative than Keith Fahey, and I definitely think they could struggle to deal with him if he’s given a free role . Another is that the two wingers in Larsson and Bouazza give us the width to stretch the gung-ho midfield, and are more inclined to hug the touchline than Scott Sinclair, who spends a lot of his time trying to cut inside. My final factor is that Jerome is the only striker with the pace and power to really cause problems for the cumbersome centre-halves, which could create space for Fahey, Larsson and Bouazza to flood into spaces, or for him to get his own opportunities to score.
Prediction
Blades will come at us and with our tendency to start games slow don’t be too surprised with an early setback. However I think we have the quality and discipline to at least nick a point from this one, but we are due a win, especially after our unrewarded good performance on Tuesday.
Blades 1-2 Blues
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The way it works is after you have opened the post on the forum that lists the companies, you then select the image for the company you want to do business with – say E-Bay. This will open a window showing the normal front page of E-Bay, but assigns a code that relates to J&S.
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Kev
View From the South – Crystal Palace vs Birmingham City
The latest match report from Bazza with his View From the South.
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I cannot believe that I am not reporting an emphatic and I mean EMPHATIC win for the Blues this morning. Birmingham were superior in every department of the game last night except one; finishing when we were profligate and they were woeful at best and non-existent the rest of the time.
I went to the game with my youngest son with the tickets that I had originally purchased when the game got snowed off. The drive was a much shorter one from my home in Surrey and I’m glad to say that the rush hour traffic held no demons and we were able to park up easily a short walk from the ground. I have to compliment the Palace catering on their footie pie which was by far the best I have tasted anywhere in a long while. Fortified by that and an overpriced bottle of Foster’s we took our seats.
Carsley was left out and we had a changed look with Stephen Carr making his debut at right back, Jaidi reinserted into the centre-half berth next to Ridgewell and Murphy. The midfield looked well balanced with Seb Larsson back in his right sided role, Bowyer and Fahey in the centre and the exciting Sinclair on the left. Carlos Costly started for the first time up front with Bent. Following an initial flurry from the home side when they forced three corners in the first five minutes Blues rapidly gained control and started bossing the game. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the front two worked together and Blues looked dangerous for the first time in weeks going forward. A glorious chance came along about 35 minutes in when a beautiful curving cross delivered by Larsson allowed Bent a free header about eight yards out. He had time to size it up and power up the neck muscles. Although the cross was coming in from slightly behind the striker, there was little excuse for the subsequent failure to hit the target. The ball went wide and the chance begging.
Immediately before half-time was the time to press the self-destruct button not once but at least three times as misplaced control and passes, thumping the ball into other players; you know the sort of thing led to a comedy show around our box. The worst moment however, was courtesy of Maik Taylor whose kicking was dodgy all night, when with a simple goal kick, he contrived to pass the ball out to their waiting centre-forward who was so surprised he dithered, attempted to pass to a colleague instead of belting it back from whence it had come. It would have been a travesty and we cannot expect Sheffield United on Saturday to be anywhere near as profligate. Talking of which, early in the second half Carlos Costly wasted the best chance of the game. An exquisite through ball gave him time to take a touch, set himself, wait for the keeper to commit himself and dink it over the top of him towards the yawning net. Executed perfectly except for one thing – WIDE! Arrrrrrrgh! I could not believe what I was seeing. We were slaughtering this hapless team 0 – 0.
Palace were reduced to ten men when Nick Carle was rightly sent off for a simply dreadful stamping tackle on Cameron Jerome who had come on for Costly a few minutes before. Misses from Bowyer, Fahey and Jerome followed as the second period came to a close as Blues peppered Speroni’s goal. Late on, Birmingham still nearly tried to present all the spoils to totally undeserving opponents nearly getting caught out by a suicidal square ball from Ridgewell to Jaidi who had to sprint to get to the ball only succeeding in slamming it against the forward. Once again our hosts messed up their efforts to provide the perfect chance and Ridgewell escaped his blushes by doing what he should have done in the first place launching it! Then there was a needless foul on Neil Danns (their best player on the night I thought) 25 yards out and central. Luckily, they clearly had no free kick specialist and the nudged free kick resulted in the attempted drive being easily blocked.
I am bitterly disappointed that we did not claim all three points here. The strikers should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves that they have failed to cap an otherwise fine performance, Blues best by far for many weeks. We looked so much better with a proper full back in the right-sided berth and Jaidi had a solid game I thought. Fahey drifted out of the match in the second half but otherwise played well. Bowyer was excellent and Larsson much more effective in his best position. I think we will have to play differently against Sheffield United on Saturday. I would keep the back four as they are, Carsley if fit will play and I would be tempted to play Damien Johnson with Larrson and Bowyer both suspended. The front two apart from the chances they missed caused Palace problems and on the grounds of lack of choice I would probably play the same pairing as Jerome hardly set things alight when he came on against the most lumbering defenders I’ve seen in the Championship all season.
This was two points dropped and no mistake. The miss by Carlos especially; I hope and pray that it will not be as ‘costly’ as it was last night come May. If we miss out on automatic promotion by a point or goal difference that is the moment I will undoubtedly remember above all others.
KRO SOTV
Unplanned Downtime
Some may have had a difficulty reading the site earlier, we had a few problems.
Actually it was my fault, I put some code in the wrong place. LESSON 1:
MAKE A BACKUP FIRST!!!
Anyway, all sorted and back and running. More articles to come soon.
Kev
Penny for your thoughts?
Here is akvbcfc’s latest article. (Now he has recovered from the dreaded lurgy!)
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Sing at a football game? How very dare you…
It has emerged that at their recent home game against Wigan, some Middlesbrough fans were handed letters from the safety officer at the club, Sue Watson, which asked for them to stop singing during the game. Watson said,
Now, is it me, or is this the stupidest request you have ever heard? What are we coming to, if a football club is asking its own fans to sit down and be quiet because it is annoying other fans? Apparently, some other home fans had been complaining about the noise levels, but who are these fans in the first place?! If you don’t want to be around people making noise, go to a library.
Why should fans be quiet anyway? Let’s face it; Boro are 19th in the table…they could do with the support. They hardly sell out their stadium week in week out anyway, so why should they alienate their most loyal supporters?
Watson said that fans could make as much noise as they liked when Boro scored…That’s all good and well, but when the team have only scored 4 goals in the past 8 games, there’s hardly much for fans to shout about.
This ludicrous request simply proves to show how out of touch football is becoming with the real world. People go to football matches to support their team, and they do this by shouting, screaming, and generally acting like a madman whenever anything happens. It’s just the way it is.
If you don’t like it, don’t go to a football game…simple.
The UEFA Cup? Are you serious?
Pointless – serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being
…the UEFA Cup?
It seems this way after both Spurs and our ‘friends’ from B6 have chosen to rest key players for their UEFA Cup matches this week. Villa travel to CSKA Moscow without the likes of Barry, Young, Heskey, Agbonlahor and Friedel. Spurs sent out a team for the first leg against Shakhtar with nine changes from the side who faced Arsenal the weekend before.
Martin O’Neill has tried to defend his decision by saying,
“We have to try and please Villa fans but I am sure they would think that the Premier League – which can help drive you into the Champions League – is the holy grail.”
I’m sorry, but the last time I checked, the winners of the UEFA Cup were given automatic entry to the Champions League the following season…or has Martin forgotten that?
However, these two sides aren’t the first to ignore the UEFA Cup. Gary Megson did the same last season. In the last 16 tie against Sporting Lisbon, Megson rested seven first team players ahead of a crucial relegation 6 pointer against Wigan…which they lost.
Are clubs right to ignore the UEFA Cup?
Of course not. It is a European competition where you have a realistic chance of being successful, but clubs seem to ignore this. Bolton, Spurs, and Villa all had/have the chance to do something special, but they are rejecting it.
It is ridiculous. This is a massive chance for both Villa and Spurs to establish themselves on the European stage, and it is also a chance to add another trophy to the cabinet.
If you asked any of the fans who have spent near to £1000 travelling to these away matches supporting their side in Europe if they think that the UEFA Cup is a waste of time, then I’m sure that they wouldn’t see the UEFA Cup as a waste of time.
“You do what you think is right for you and the football club. I certainly don’t see myself walking away, if the worst happens.” Sam Allardyce, manager of Blackburn Rovers
So, Big Sam says that he will not leave the club if they are relegated at the end of the season. That’s very nice of you Sam. But if you take the club down to the Championship, then you never know. You might even be sacked…or has your giant ego not considered that possibility?
A Real Legend
There are very few players left in the modern day game who have all the integrity and honesty that we would like to expect from footballers, but if you want to find evidence of such players, look no further than a certain Mr Giggs. For years, Ryan Giggs has entertained crowds up and down the land, and he is not done yet.
He burst on to the scene as part of the golden generation at Manchester United, and he has enjoyed unrivalled success, as he heads for his 11th Premier League title.
He may be coming to the end of his career, but he is determined not to just bow out quietly. His performances this season have been nothing short of sensational. Not only is he a true gent, he is also a true professional in every sense of the world, and it will be a travesty if he is not rewarded with the PFA Player of the Year award come May.
It’s a Miracle
A player makes a terrible challenge and duly receives a red card. The player realises he is wrong, and then waits for the other player to come down the tunnel to apologise to him because he knows he is in the wrong. The footballer shows real integrity. The victim survives the challenge, when it was very possible that his leg could have broken.
It’s a modern day miracle.
By akvbcfc
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