So, How did you spend the few hours after our ninth loss of the season? Did you stare at your screen in disbelief as you tried to comprehend how United squandered chance after chance to score a goal in this game? That's a good one. Did you watch something else to try wash away the pain of a loss to a team that will probably be relegated alongside us? If you did that, let me know what you watched, I could do with some recommendations. Do you want to know what I did? I sat on my bed, turned on YouTube, and listened sad songs whilst sipping orange juice. I know, pretty crazy right? But yes, United lost another game on Saturday with our newest conquerors being newly promoted West Brom who before this match had not yet won a game this season. So that means that not only are United bottom of the Premier League after 10 games with a solitary point to our name, but it means that we're the only team in the division that are yet to win a game. It's fairly depressing and it only get's more depressing when you realise we had an Xg in this game of 3.3 (Man City, who scored 5 goals this weekend, had a 1.97 Xg in comparison) and squandered various chances to score. I think it's fair to say we are now aiming to finish at least 17th in the table and even that might be beyond us at this point. Let's review this game and be done with it.
Changes were once again afoot for United with the big shocker being the inclusion of Kean Bryan in the starting XI of a Premier League game. Yes, it's got the the point in the season where we're handing out league debuts to players who spent part of the last year on loan at then bottom of League 1 Bolton Wanderers. Having been present in person for all of Kean Bryan's professional appearances for Sheffield United (not exactly the best thing in the world to brag about) it was fair to say this was a bit of a surprise to see him line up in a crucial Premier League game. Also returning to the starting line up was Oli Burke and within 30 seconds of the match starting, he was already making an impact on the match. A flick on by Oli McBurnie appeared to have played Burke in but the Scotsman slipped on the turf before he could get a shot off and the ball bounced into the arms of Sam Johnstone. United continued to put pressure on the West Brom goal with John Fleck glancing an effort just wide of the left post. to end the trio of good chances we created in the opening three minutes Oli Burke was at it again showing a clean pair of heels to get away from Ivanovic to slide a ball across to George Baldock who's seemingly goal bound effort was blocked on the line. It was a very encouraging start to the game for The Blades but, just like in pretty much every other game this season, after the first ten minutes we conceded a goal that was pretty avoidable. A corner was put in by Brom which was cleared but only as far as Declan Gallagher on the edge of the box with the Chelsea loanee hitting a tame effort that bobbled it's way into the net and despite all our early pressure, we were once again chasing a game. However, unlike in other games in the season where we just regressed and stopped looking for a goal, we actually went about looking to equalise and almost got it not long after. For the first time in a long time, an overlapping centre back nearly led to a goal. link up play between Lowe and Bryan saw the debutant play in a brilliant ball that Oli Burke met and flicked on towards goal... Unfortunately, Sam Johnstone was in inspired form and tipped the ball over the bar. United continued the pressure and Sander Berge was the next to test Johnstone with a rasping drive that Johnstone was equal to. Despite the continued pressure, United couldn't find a breakthrough and went into the break still one down. Would we be able to find an equaliser to get at least a point from this game? Well we didn't but we did try. George Baldock was the next to the 'should really have scored there' column with our right wing back dancing his way into the box with the whole right of Johnstone's goal to aim for from about 10 yards out. George somehow managed to blaze the ball so far over the bar that it still hasn't been found and returned to The Hawthorns as I write this article. West Brom then had a couple of chance to kill of the game with Rammers pulling off a couple of very good saves to keep United in the game. United were once again on the front foot with McBurnie the next to sqander a good chance. The pressure continued and the likes of McBurnie, Brewster and Mousset (welcome back Moose!) Were next up to miss opportunities and eventually the match ended and we lost and everyone got very depressed. There were probably more chances we created in the second half than the one's mentioned here but I don't want to talk about them because then I'd have to remember how profligate we were in front of goal this weekend. I've just realised that the second half paragraph that I usually do to summarise the game has been getting shorter and shorter as our losing streak continues. I think that's because I really don't enjoy writing about the end of matches at the minute because I know that I'll have to relive us either being abysmal and losing or squandering chance upon chance only to lose. It's just very disheartening to write about United at the minute. Maybe it'll get better when we win a game? But then again I genuinely now don't have a clue when we will win our next game. I guess I'll see you at some point next week after the Leicester game. Until then, UTB.
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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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