Lovely worked goal for Mount, nice to see that.

Rudiger again leaves us baffled how he gets in the team. Such a poor defender and even worse footballer. To be honest I laughed when it happened but was not surprised at all.

Lucky with the VAR help on both pens. Just shows what I said before. Ramsdale is not a good keeper he did not need to make that challange and he cost his team again.

We are not creating enough chances, we need to link up better and get more shots on goal. Werner man of the match for me, 2 assists used his pace well.

 

This was pretty much how sheffield stopped us from building from the back, which spurs failed to do. 

Edited February 8, 20215 yr by Bob stark

9 hours ago, Nibs said:

Thought Christensen was solid and our best defender tonight.

Perhaps I am more critical of him than others. For me it is the lack of physicality and a slightly passive approach that bothers me and I think creates uncertainty in other defenders. He doesn't take control of the situation often enough and is too reactive. The early shot (I think it was Norwood) is a good example. Be active and take control and show him down the line. Instead Christensen just sort of stands there in no man's land and lets him play the ball inside him, neither making a challenge or really having any impact on the attackers decision. Same at end with Sharp. Stick your head in there. Don't let him have the space to bicycle it while you turn your head away.  All our best defenders recently (and I include Gary Cahill in this) aren't letting him get that shot away on target.

9 hours ago, Slojo said:

Not upset by any means, but these broadcasters provide a lot of revenue for the EPL. And the lack of coverage we as a club have been getting for years when we've been one of the top teams in England is just ridiculous. We and City get minimal protection, but at least City have Micah Richards there now, who do we get there? Joe Cole occasionally who's biased for us but that's it really. Ruud supports us but he's usually very harsh with us. 

You might not think it matters but it does. We got about 3 penalties in 2015 because of MOTD's coverage on our diving in one specific game, where they slaughtered all of our players. After that referees weren't giving us any penalties all season, that's why Jose was specifically talking about punditry bias, media bias and the campaign, he actually had a good point. United and Liverpool especially never get this treatment that we do. 

We're beginning to sound like victims.

Wasn't a great performance, but crucial 3 points and took us within touching distance of the top 4. Sheffield United deserved credits to give us a tough game, to be honest they gave us more problems that Spurs did 3 nights ago. We played well within ourselves, but had the right answers at the crucial moments to seize the game. I was critical during the game about lack of attackers TT put ( or left) on the pitch, but given it's a long season and a game every 3 days, we actually managed to give some players a rest without costing points. I believe in the next game we will probably see freshed up Ziyech, CHO or Tammy. We definitely need Silva back, just lost that calmness at the back, but for once Christensen stepped up and had a good game. Werner had a good game, and he said all the right things post game, but need that goal or two soon or he will be under the microscope everytime he steps on the field.

12 hours ago, carrickblue said:

we look like a bunch of strangers pulled out of a local pub to play a kick about

can't wait for Tuchel to decide his 1st 11 and start moulding them into a team - that's what he is supposed to be expert at

Go back through a lot of the threads since Lampard was sacked and there have been HUNDREDS of posts saying this game and the next couple of matches were a great chance to play all of the squad, give some of the others a chance to find out our best 11.  Now that the new manager is doing that, you find that a cause to have a moan?

No pleasing some people.

2 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Go back through a lot of the threads since Lampard was sacked and there have been HUNDREDS of posts saying this game and the next couple of matches were a great chance to play all of the squad, give some of the others a chance to find out our best 11.  Now that the new manager is doing that, you find that a cause to have a moan?

No pleasing some people.

Not to mention we played Thursday evening. Sheffield last played Tuesday afternoon and quite clearly had fresher legs than some of our players.

Rotation was absolutely necessary.

3 hours ago, Bob stark said:

 

This was pretty much how sheffield stopped us from building from the back, which spurs failed to do. 

I noticed this in the first half - Kovacic and Jorginho couldn't pass the ball through the middle towards Mount-Werner-Giroud due to those 3 that were marking that area around the final third. Kovacic managed to pass well longer balls towards Werner instead and Giroud came deeper to receive a pass.

We managed to score without having many players going forward which hasn't been the case in general this season and it's a must when we play with the 3 at the back.

Chilwell was pretty much ignoring Havertz making runs into space in his last game but he passed to Werner this game and we automatically scored from that, from his position he had no other attacking option so he finally just played someone making a run and it's a relief that such a simple thing worked so well.

Thought we were generally poor tonight with the exception of Mount, Werner and Christensen. The games are coming thick and fast so perhaps tiredness was an issue. I felt he could have played Billy instead of either Kova or Giorginho to freshen it up a bit.

I was more disappointed with the likes of Chilwell and James who were looking to prove a point to the new manager.

I didn't think the shape worked although it is refreshing to see TT trying different formations, I thought Giroud was a virtual passenger and his inclusion left us light in midfield, but we got the win against a tricky side which keeps a nice little run going and puts us back on the premisis.

KTBFFH

Tough game,as expected,three points ,job done.....UP THE CHELS !

12 hours ago, Malta Blue said:

But they have a game in hand. 

 

But would you punt a ton on them winning it?  It's f**king Spuds, FFS!

Arguably the least impressive performance since Tuchel took over. 

We struggled to play out from the back against the slightest wiff of a press from Sheffield United. 

Giroud was a ghost for the hour he was playing, I'm assuming Tuchel expected United to sit deeper and and was expecting to have Giroud to aim at for crosses but he was largely anonymous and if I were to guess, I'd venture he had the least number of touches from the starting XI in those 60 minutes. 

We're not really creating a lot of chances from open play, we only had 3 shots on target last night, one being the penalty. We were playing bottom of the league, we really should be creating more clear cut chances. 

14 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Arguably the least impressive performance since Tuchel took over. 

We struggled to play out from the back against the slightest wiff of a press from Sheffield United. 

Giroud was a ghost for the hour he was playing, I'm assuming Tuchel expected United to sit deeper and and was expecting to have Giroud to aim at for crosses but he was largely anonymous and if I were to guess, I'd venture he had the least number of touches from the starting XI in those 60 minutes. 

We're not really creating a lot of chances from open play, we only had 3 shots on target last night, one being the penalty. We were playing bottom of the league, we really should be creating more clear cut chances. 

I think there are elements of truth to this noting Sheffield United have been much better recently. We didn't create lots but we took our one big chance which we hadn't been doing recently.

Giroud wasn't as involved but did his usual things well off the ball. Note his run taking the defenders away for Mounts goal. I actually like the combination of Werner running beyond with Giroud coming short,  Giroud is very good at creating opportunities for his team mates with his movement so I wouldn't bin this combination just yet.

As with all tactical setups, teams watch and react and setup to negate you, this is particularly the case with the more reactive teams. The more games they have to watch video and draw patterns in what you do the more successful they are. That's one of the key reasons Lampard's approach which dominated in the spring, failed in the winter. I think we're starting to see this with Tuchel.

I'll be interested in seeing the next phase of Tuchels approach which we will need against United and Everton next month if not sooner. He is well known for his tactical flexibility so I am hoping he has some options up his sleeve to keep us winning.

43 minutes ago, mojo said:

If you ask me it doesn't matter that he got the ball - this was for a yellow card as he had both studs up as he tackled Kovacic.

13 hours ago, Vagabond said:

Honestly, Souness is a c**t and always hated us, you will never hear him praise our team without some kind of backhanded insult.

I enjoy that though. Before the games I get to listen to his clueless comments on our players and club and afterwards I get to laugh at the rubbish he will come up with next to rationalize our victory.

I can't see Souness ever having a nice word for us, don't forget we stopped his Liverpool winning the league back in the 90's when they were favourites to win, don't think he has ever forgiven us. 

1 hour ago, mojo said:

ridiculous that he wasnt booked for that, there was obvious intent to do Kovacic.

1 hour ago, Strider6003 said:

I can't see Souness ever having a nice word for us, don't forget we stopped his Liverpool winning the league back in the 90's when they were favourites to win, don't think he has ever forgiven us. 

Let's face it, who has got a good word to say about us? The day I take notice of any of these w**k pundits is the day I don a Liverpool shirt. 

4 hours ago, Gol15 said:

I noticed this in the first half - Kovacic and Jorginho couldn't pass the ball through the middle towards Mount-Werner-Giroud due to those 3 that were marking that area around the final third. Kovacic managed to pass well longer balls towards Werner instead and Giroud came deeper to receive a pass.

We managed to score without having many players going forward which hasn't been the case in general this season and it's a must when we play with the 3 at the back.

Chilwell was pretty much ignoring Havertz making runs into space in his last game but he passed to Werner this game and we automatically scored from that, from his position he had no other attacking option so he finally just played someone making a run and it's a relief that such a simple thing worked so well.

Unlike against Spurs, sheffield pressed us with 2+3, azpi is not a good passer so he always problem against press, but I thought we played two press resistant midfielder. ??

Kovacic and Jorginho struggled to bring the ball forward plus they couldn't protect the d line. Sheffield united got into plenty of good position many times but they didn't have the quality to do any damage. They really need many thing to go their way in order for them to score.

Btw i don't think you can attack with few player, that simply doesn't work. Most team attack with 5-7 players depending on the opp and game state. 

 

I thought we kept the ball really well last night. There was time from 70-85 mins where they didn’t have a sniff of the ball. Fantastic game management. 
 

As ever, teams will always get 1 half chance before the game finishes. We saw that with Spurs and last night. Thankfully both were missed/saved. Creativity is still an issue but it was better last night. 

Tactically it was interesting second half, we brought on Alonso and CHO yet still could not kill them off and instead they pressed us even more, so Kante came on and he helped a bit yet then they brought on Sharp and Brewster and we still seemed to be under siege needing to make block after block.

 

40 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Unlike against Spurs, sheffield pressed us with 2+3, azpi is not a good passer so he always problem against press, but I thought we played two press resistant midfielder. ??

Kovacic and Jorginho struggled to bring the ball forward plus they couldn't protect the d line. Sheffield united got into plenty of good position many times but they didn't have the quality to do any damage. They really need many thing to go their way in order for them to score.

Btw i don't think you can attack with few player, that simply doesn't work. Most team attack with 5-7 players depending on the opp and game state. 

 

We'll see how we do against Atletico and Man United. With all said and done we comfortably had 70% possession and scored 3 times in total 

2 hours ago, dkw said:

ridiculous that he wasnt booked for that, there was obvious intent to do Kovacic.

Lets face it back in the day that kind of challenge would have got a big cheer of appreciation from the fans if it was your player. Joey Jones and Mickey Thomas would have got red cards every week in the modern game ?

3 hours ago, mojo said:

Have to say thought that was a great and well-timed tackle.

Too much of that missing from the modern game.

 

14 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

We'll see how we do against Atletico and Man United. With all said and done we comfortably had 70% possession and scored 3 times in total 

It will be a good test for Tuchel.

These first 4 game were quite easy. Spurs should have been more difficult but they were missing kane and regullon plus I have no clue what Mou was doing in the 1st halr.