Sheffield United are as bad a Premier League as we’ve seen and this performance was barely good enough to beat them. Wretched, worse than the Luton game, because Luton are much better than these. I didn't enjoy a single minute of this game, it was awful.
But we won and we’re in great shape when you look at the table. I do feel a little uneasy about us after this though, particularly after what happened at Luton. Our away form hasn’t been too impressive so far and this was a good opportunity to rack up a comfortable win and bang in a few goals. I’d have felt more confident about us moving forward if we’d done that, but after seeing this I still have that nagging doubt about us in games like this. You can’t drop points to shite because there are enough decent sides that will take points from you. Look at Fulham at the weekend, they played really well and we almost came unstuck.
I said after that game I didn’t think we played as badly as a lot of other people did. Sometimes when you’re just a bit off and the opponent plays well, it can be trouble. That was what happened on Sunday. This wasn’t that. Sheffield United are genuinely terrible and we made really hard work of it. You can’t just put this down to “one of those nights” because our overall body of work against the body teams these last couple of years points to a trend. We don’t perform against them.
Some will put that down to complacency, but it can’t be. After dropping points at Luton there’s no way we were taking the Blades lightly. So why did we look so impotent? To me it has to be tactical. I don’t know what the fuck we were even trying to do.
I’m not going to make this about Trent and the inverted full back thing. It isn’t specifically that, although that’s part of it and it’s fair to wonder whether it’s something that helps us against shite. We’ve been the best team in the league since that switch was made for that Arsenal game last season, and that record speaks for itself I guess.
And Trent played well in this game. It’s not about him, or about where he plays. But if you’re going to do that and you have Joe Gomez on the left, then most of the play is coming down the middle. Chris Wilder knew that and he’ll have been delighted by it. Just as Luton were. It’s easier to play against us when the width isn’t there. The space is down the sides and we ignored it for most of the game. It’s a regular thing and it’s frustrating.
But we won, and we’re second in the table and the only reason we aren’t top is because of what happened at Spurs, so it seems somewhat churlish complaining about it. I just think it’s a problem that might bite us in the arse again and with every point likely to be crucial, I want to see us adapt our tactics when we face shite, especially away from home.
Recommended Comments