At least we didn't lose another game! To be honest, we should have been out of Fulham's sight before halftime in a blistering performance that was reminiscent of the very best of Wilder's Sheffield United. Then the second half saw a change to the United that we've seen for a lot of since the restart of the Premier League. It looked like the same old story of our season so far when Ademola Lookman danced into our box and slammed home to give Fulham a lead just before the 75th minute. But then who would step up and save the day? Of course it was our beloved leader and captain Billy Sharp who scored his 99th competitive goal for United with a bullet of a penalty that looked like it might have snapped the net of the Kop End goal. So we're off the mark for points but I think most Blades fans feel that we should have got more than just the one point out of that game, plus, going into our next set of three games, this really looked like one of the few games where we could get three points. Anyway, enough build up, let's have a look at Sunday's game.
Changes were afoot for The Blades with Jack Robinson making way for Enda Stevens at left centre back, Max Lowe was given a Premier League debut at left wing back after putting in a very good performance in the Carabao Cup against Burnley. John Lundstram was moved across to the left side of our midfield three with Ben Osborn dropping to the bench with Oli Norwood returning to the starting XI for the first time since Burnley in the cup and Sander Berge moving to the right of our triumvirate. Fulham gave debuts to loan signings Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ademola Lookman. The game started and almost immediately United had more injury problems. Mere minutes into his Premier League debut, Max Lowe smashed into the cheek of Loftus-Cheek (thanks BladesPod) and was taken off to check for concussion. Incredibly, he was let back onto the field but was taken off about 10 minutes later with Robinson coming on to replace him. Before that, United started the game very quickly with a period of time in the game where we were just camped in the Fulham half. Oli McBurnie had the best chances to score during this period with a header that really should have worked the keeper Areola more. More pressure from the Blades saw another golden chance for McBurnie with the Scotsman somehow managing to miss the goal from about six yards out. The bombardment continued and United did actually manage to put the ball in the back of the net with a Sander Berge cross being turned home by Fulham defender Adarabiyo but the goal was ruled out (correctly) for offside. The half ended with Fulham mounting a little bit of a comeback but we went into the break somehow on level turns. United looked like they would take the second half much like they dominated the first with another McBurnie heading at the keeper once again but this chance was also offiside. The domination did not continue however and it would be Fulham who would have the better chances of the second half. It would all culminate in a bizarre penalty for The Cottagers after Jack Robinson appeared to be possessed by the spirit of Jay McEveley (it is spooky season) and throw his hand up to defend a corner. So despite Fulham not really having a concrete attempt on goal so far, they now had the greatest opportunity of them all to open the scoring and who else would step up but one of the most deadly strikers in England in Aleksander Mitrovic. Mitrovic stepped up... And blazed the ball over the bar! There was a slight bit of worry that Rammers might have stepped off his line but that was unnecessary and United had been given the biggest let off. Would we be able to use this to our advantage and crack on? No. Actually, it seemed to reinvigorate Fulham and on the 75th minute they would eventually get their goal. A couple of very weak challenges from Basham and Berge allowed Lookman a chance to bear down on goal and the Leipzig loanee did what his Serbian striker partner couldn't and lashed home past Ramsdale to put Fulham ahead and surely kill the game off. United did throw more bodies forward in search for an equaliser but that left us vulnerable on the counter and Fulham probably should have killed us off in our search for a goal. But they didn't and once again United had a huge bit of luck fall our way when Mitrovic appeared to foul Robinson in the aftermath of a corner. VAR confirmed this and all of a sudden, United had an opportunity to level the game. Billy Sharp was the man to step up to take the penalty (much to the horror of myself, I'm sorry Billy but your penalties do put the fear of god into me) but I needn't have worried because Billy bulleted his penalty into the top of the goal that pulled United level with five minutes of the game remaining. Instead of going out for a winner, it was Fulham who looked more likely in the last five minutes but United held on and secured a slightly disappointing first point of the season. So we're no longer pointless but if I'm honest we really should have secured more than one point based on our first half performance alone. It was a vintage performance of United under Wilder in the first half with Fulham looking lost as we pushed them further and further back into their own half and created umpteen opportunities that were begging to be converted. It was just a shame that none of them were converted and we once again looked bereft of ideas in the second half as Fulham grew in confidence and got their goal. If it wasn't for the penalty, I doubt we would have got a goal in this game and we would have been staring down the barrel of five straight losses to open the season with games against Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea all on the horizon. But I guess a point is better than none and who knows? We could go out and absolutely batter Liverpool. We'll see about that but one can dream. Until next time, UTB. P.S. Unfortunately, The Premier League has made the very smart decision to keep all games in the country televised. Sounds good right? Well, it does until you realise that your paying an extra £15 for the pleasure on top of paying your fee for BT Sport and Sky. A scheme that has been dressed up by all but one of the Premier League clubs as a way to "help out" your team in these dire financial times, this is a complete and utter farce of an idea. How can you tell me that clubs that have spent upwards of hundreds of millions of pounds on players during this window, a window where some were suggesting that money would be tight and we'd see less multi million pound transfers than in previous summer windows, and then turning around and saying "actually, we're skint, do you mind paying us £15 so we can stay afloat during these tough financial times?" It's almost a thing that something like Black Mirror would come up with. It's exploitation of fans of the highest level. I also heard on the grapevine that whilst the game was being presented on the premium service that your paying for on top of the premium prices you pay for BT and Sky, they had the gall to advertise other games that would be coming to the box office service alongside ads for BT itself. It's a complete mess and something that really proves that the Premier League really has misread the room when it comes to what fans are willing to do to watch their teams. It's embarrassing that the supposed 'best league in the world' has come to this to make an extra couple of quid from fans they are already bleeding dry.
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Another transfer window and another review, despite a truncated pre season this year and despite the fact that the transfer window is still open for domestic transfers I think the time for transfers for Sheffield United may be by and large done. So despite allegedly being skint, we still managed to spend close to £50 million on players including breaking our transfer record for the sixth time in just over a year. Let's see what our 8 new signings are all about.
Ismaila Coulibaly Age: 19 Position: Midfield Previous Clubs: Sarpsborg 08 Career Appearances/Goals: 27/4 Fee (According to transfermarkt): £1.80 million This signing came out of left field a little bit and is a player who probably won't pull on a United shirt until 2023 at the latest. Coulibaly started his career off at Duguwolofila but soon left to join Sarpsborg 08 in Norway's top flight. Making a total of 14 appearances in his first year, it would be the 2019/20 season where Coulibaly would catch the attention of United's scouting team. Once again he made 14 appearances but also manged to bag 4 goals as he helped Sarpsborg to 8th in the Eliteserien. United duly swooped for the Malia international's signature and immediately sent him out on loan to our sister club Beerschot. Definitely one for the future and it will be interesting to see how Coulibaly will develop whilst out in Belgium. Oliver Burke Age: 23 Position: Striker Previous Clubs: Nottingham Forest, Bradford City (loan), RB Leipzig, West Brom, Celtic (loan), Alaves (loan) Career Appearances/Goals: 107/13 Fee: Swap deal for Callum Robinson Honours: Scottish Premiership 2018/19, Scottish Cup 2018/19 At 23 years of age, I think you'll be hard pressed to find a player that's had as an eclectic career as what Oli Burke has had. Starting off as a product of the Nottingham Forest academy, Burke soon forced his way into the starting XI and had a breakthrough year during 2015/16, making 21 appearances over the course of the season and scoring twice. This impressive form caught the eye of upcoming German outfit RB Leipzig who shilled out a reported £13 million which was a record for a fee paid for a Scottish player. Burke was a regular during his first season, making 25 appearances as Leipzig finished a very impressive second during their first season ever campaign in the German top flight. Despite an impressive season, Burke didn't make a league appearances the following season and returned to English football in August 2017 with West Brom paying £15 million for his services, once again breaking the record for a fee paid for a Scottish player. Despite making 16 appearances in his first season, West Brom were relegated from the Premier League and Burke was once again on the move with a loan spell to Celtic where his 4 goals contributed to a league and cup double for The Hoops. Burke was once again out on loan the next season with a stint at Alaves in La Liga. All this lead to signing for United, his sixth club in six years. Despite being branded as lazy and not good enough for West Brom, there has to be a talented player somewhere in Burke, if clubs are paying a combined £28 million for your services you've got to have something about you and hopefully Wilder can help Burke unlock the talent that led to him earning a move to RB Leipzig. Fingers crossed we get to see the best of Burke. Ethan Ampadu Age: 20 Position: Centre Back/Defensive Midfield Previous Clubs: Exeter City, Chelsea, RB Leipzig (loan) Career Appearances/Goals: 40/0 Fee: Loan Honours: Europa League 2018/19 The only thing that disappoints me about the signing of Ethan Ampadu is the fact the he's cut his luscious dreadlocks off. That disappointment aside, this could be a very astute signing for United, starting his career off at Exeter, Ampadu caught the eye of Chelsea and was signed up in 2017. despite not being able to clamp down a starting XI spot in the Chelsea squad, Ampadu is highly thought of at Chelsea and spent the last season on loan at RB Leipzig. He only made 7 appearances for the German outfit but gained praise from many media outlets for his performance against Tottenham in the last 16 of the Champions League. Despite not being a regular at club level, Ampadu has been a regular part of the senior set up in the Wales team where he has made 15 appearances for the Welsh since making his debut in 2017. Wes Foderingham Age: 29 Position: Goalkeeper Previous Clubs: Fulham, Bromley (loan), Crystal Palace, Bromley (loan), Boreham Wood (loan), Histon (loan), Swindon Town, Rangers Career Apperances/Goals: 389/0 Fee: Free Honours: Football League Two 2011/12, Scottish Championship 2015/16, Scottish Challenge Cup 2015/16, PFA Team Of The Year League One 2012/13, Football League Two Golden Glove 2011/12, Football League Two Golden Glove (Monthly) April 2012 Foderingham was actually our first signing of the summer and came to United on the back of a fairly fruitful five year stint north of the border with Rangers where he helped the Scottish club regain it's status in the top flight of Scottish football following it's demotion to the bottom tier of the Scottish pyramid. Foderingham was almost an ever present as Rangers did a League and Cup double in his first season in the Glaswegian blue. He was once again the unanimous first choice the following season as Rangers finished 3rd in their first season back in the top flight since 2011/12. However, appearances in the League have been hard to come by since the end of the 2017/18 season with the two seasons following that season bringing just 6 league appearances. Foderingham bolsters a goalkeeping staff that needed some experience after the loss of Dean Henderson over the summer. He should provide adequate back up to the player who we signed a few weeks after sealing his signature. Aaron Ramsdale Age: 22 Position: Goalkeeper Previous Clubs: Sheffield United, AFC Bournemouth, Chesterfield (loan), AFC Wimbledon (loan) Career Appearances/Goals: 84/0 Fee: £18.45 Million Honours: European Under 19 Championship 2017, Toulon Tournament 2018, AFC Bournemouth Supporter's Player Of The Year 2019/20 After the departure of Dean Henderson after two years of excellent performances on loan, United needed to find a new number 1. After rumblings about a deal for Ugurcan Cakir, we eventually settled on a player who we sold for about a million quid in the January of the year we were eventually promoted to the Championship. It's been said by Wilder in the media that he never really wanted to sell Aaron Ramsdale when he did but his sale to Bournemouth allowed us to buy players who proved crucial in getting us out of League 1. In the years since he left The Lane, Ramsdale has gone on to have impressive spells at both Wimbledon and Bournemouth with our youth product providing performances that eventually helped keep The Wombles in League 1 and earning the supporter's vote for player of the year at The Cherries despite their relegation to the Championship. People were a little bit cautious about the fee that we payed Bournemouth for the player and there will be comparisons to how Rammers does in a Blades shirt compared to his predecessor. But hopefully Rammers will show everyone how good a keeper he can be and that we could have our no.1 for the next decade at least. Max Lowe Age: 23 Position: Left Back Previous Clubs: Derby County, Shrewsbury Town (loan), Aberdeen (loan) Career Appearances/Goals: 107/3 Fee: £3.47 Million Honours: Scottish League Cup Runner Up 2018/19, EFL Trophy Runner Up 2017/18 Part of a double Derby deal (we'll get onto the other player we bought shortly) Max Lowe comes to United on the back of a breakout season at Derby where he established himself as their go to left back after a couple of very fruitful years in the Scottish Premiership with Aberdeen. A versatile performer, Lowe has been capped at every England youth level up to under 20's where he was included in the squad for the 2019 Toulon Tournament. Hopefully Lowe will be able to provide good competition for Enda Stevens this year and hopefully goes on to be our left back of the future. Jayden Bogle Age: 20 Position: Right Back Previous Clubs: Derby County Career Appearances/Goals: 91/3 Fee: £3.47 Million The second part of the double Derby deal, Jayden Bogle is a very exciting prospect who, despite being only 20 years old, has been the first choice Derby right back since the beginning of the 2018/19 season making 40+ appearances for The Rams during his stint. Another player who was picked as part of the 2019 Toulon Tournament squad, Bogle has all the tools to make it in the top flight of English football and could go on to be a very important player in the future for United. Definitely one to watch. Rhian Brewster Age: 20 Position: Striker Previous Clubs: Liverpool, Swansea City (loan) Career Appearances/Goals: 26/11 Fee: £23.4 Million Honours: Champions League 2018/19, Super Cup 2019, FIFA Under 17 World Cup 2017, European Under 17 Championship Runner Up 2017, FIFA Under 17 World Cup Golden Boot 2017, FIFA Under 17 World Cup Bronze Ball 2017 So here he is, our new record signing. A player who hasn't even played a minute of Premier League football, so why have United spent £23 million on him? Well, despite not being able to get into the Liverpool starting XI (that could be due to him competing against players like Divock Origi, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah) Brewster has had a very trophy laden start to his young career. During the 2017 European under 17 championships, Brewster scored three goals in six appearances as England finished as runners up to eventual winners Spain. Brewster then went on to star in England's triumph at the under 17 World Cup where he managed eight goals in the tournament including back to back hat tricks against the USA and Brazil in the quarter and semi finals and bagging England's opening goal in the final against Spain. In the club game, Brewster spent the second half of last season on loan at Swansea City where he helped the Swans late charge for a play off place scoring 11 goals in 22 games. Not bad for a lad that hadn't played adult football until that point. Brewster continued his goalscoring form in pre season for Liverpool with a goal against Stuttgart being followed up by a brace against RB Salzburg which got Liverpool back on level terms after going 2-0 down. So he definitely knows where the goal is, the big question is whether he will be able to produce goals in the Premier League. The fee is big and expectations are high but if there's one thing that Rhian Brewster seems to thrive under, it's pressure. It's another transfer window where United have bought young again with the only signing over the age of 23 being Foderingham. It's perhaps a risky strategy buying young with very little Premier League experience but what it does do is bring down the age of our squad and set us up with potentially quality players who could be with the club for the next 10 years at least. Let's hope that they'll all have a positive impact not only on our future, but on our present. Until next time, UTB. At least we actually managed to score against Arsenal. It's a real shame that before that we conceded two goals in a game that for long periods we looked pretty comfortable in. I think it was perhaps the first time since the middle of the Adkins reign that I wasn't surprised that we conceded goals or was particularly angry when we did concede. It was just sad. Enough of this opening paragraph, let's get on with the review.
A single change for United from or last minute loss against Leeds with Ethan Ampadu making way for the returning from suspension John Egan. changes were also afoot for the opposition with the most notable probably being the inclusion of Eddie Nketiah ahead of Alexandre Lacazette. There was no appearance for United's new record signing Rhian Brewster with his player registration form being submitted after the deadline for this weekend's games. United started on the front foot and there was some minor controversy just 2 minutes into the game. A lovely through ball was played in front of our Scottish speedster Oli Burke who looked like he would be played one on one with Leno. However, David Luiz was the last defender back and pulled on Burke's shirt that possibly stopped our man from reaching the ball before Leno did. It was a situation that was eerily similar to Egan's red card against Villa except there could be more of an argument that this challenge from Luiz was more central than Egan's. Was Luiz sent off though? Nah don't be silly, it wasn't even checked on VAR. The consistencies of refereeing could once again be called into question. It would be interesting to see if Wilder does eventually get that call from Mike Riley and whilst he's explaining Egan's red card, he could also explain why Luiz's challenge wasn't a red card. Anyway, enough about that, United were undeterred by this and continued to search from the elusive first goal of the season but couldn't manage to get any shots off at the Arsenal goal. On the defensive end United managed to keep Arsenal very quiet with the first shot on goal coming from a flicked on Nketiah header that was simple enough for Ramsdale to save. United nearly threw all of the good defensive work away as the half came to an end after a sloppy Ramsdale clearance only went as far as Aubameyang who's dipping effort from about 30 yards out was kept out with a cracking save from Rammers. Although United weren't creating much in the first half, they were keeping Arsenal quiet at the other end and as long as the game stayed 0-0 we still hand a chance to get something. Despite all our good defensive work in the first half, the second half saw what has become the story of United's season so far with the opposition eventually scoring which more or less killed our chance of winning the game. Lovely passing play from Arsenal (vintage Arsenal perhaps?) eventually led to Saka heading home at the far post to give The Gunners a 1-0 lead. A few minutes later the lead was doubled with Pepe making an instant impact and driving at The Blades defence and slotting home to truly put the game beyond our reach. United didn't really look like scoring after that but we did actually score a goal and it came from a very unlikely source. David McGoldrick looks like he's learnt how to score goals again grabbing his second of the season with a lovely curled effort from just outside the 18 yard box. However with six minutes left, United were unable to get an equaliser and we were condemned to our fourth consecutive loss of the season. At least we scored a goal though, that was nice to see. Well... Things can definitely only get better from here. The strange thing about this game was that we looked very comfortable in this match until we took off Oli Burke for Oli McBurnie. Burke had manged to help keep the Arsenal backline contained and pressurised them into making errors and stopped them playing out from the back. But then once Burke was gone, we lost the ability to apply that lightning quick press that allowed Arsenal time on the ball and let them play out from the back which in turn allowed them to turn the screw and get their goals. So we're off for two weeks now and the game against Fulham looks pretty crucial in seeing how this season will go. Let's hope we get a win. Anyway, until next time, UTB. |
AuthorHi my name is John and i will be giving my thoughts on the blades matches and all blades related news in this section Archives
November 2022
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