I don't know about you, but I measure major events in life on the P.J. scale. For the uninitiated, the P.J. scale stands for Phil Jagielka because for the past twenty two years, the one constant in all our lives hasn't been The Queen, it's Phil Jagielka. 10th birthday? Phil Jagielka was probably playing in a Premier League match for Everton. End of school? Phil Jagielka was probably at an international tournament for England. 21st birthday? Jags was supposed to be winding down his career in a Blades shirt in our godawful second season team and now we come to 2022. Phil Jagielka is still here and still in red and white. Not United red and white though, since leaving United, Jags has played for two(!) clubs with a short stint at Derby proceeding his current stint at our opponents on Saturday Stoke City. This was a man who was due to be retiring two years ago and yet, here he is. Scoring and assisting against United. It's genuinely incredible the length of this man's career and he is defiantly up there in regards to modern legends of the 21st century in English football. But it would have been nice had he not had a worldy on Saturday. But hey ho, let's get on with the review.
United were once again down to the bare bones after more injuries in midweek. Four changes came with Baldock, Bogle and Berge out with injury. Oli McBurnie also missed out but that was due to suspension rather than injury although knowing our luck, he's probably stubbed his toe or something getting to his seat at the Bet365 and is now out for six years. Gordon, Khadra, McAtee and Brewster came in and it would be United who would have the first big chance of the game less than a minute in. Good interplay between various players saw McAtee played in by McAtee but his effort from the angle just went wide of Bursik's post. United wouldn't capitalise on this early chance and instead Stoke would open the scoring moments later. A corner was half cleared to Jags on the edge of the box with our former player having all the time in the world to curl a cracking cross to the back stick that Ben Wilmot slammed into the roof of the net to quell our thunder and send The Potters potty. Stoke continued to hunt for a second as our makeshift line up tried to regroup. Fosu-Henry was causing chaos for United and had multiple efforts on our goal that thankfully either went wide or were saved by Wes. United rallied after the opening twenty and went close through Tommy Doyle who forced Bursik into a cracking save with a curling effort that looked destined for the top corner. The pressure continued and we should have had an equaliser from the resulting corner. Egan headed the corner back across goal to Gordon who saw his seemingly goal bound effort miraculously cleared off the line. We actually made the pressure count and just before the half hour mark had the equaliser! A brilliant cross from McAtee looped onto the foot of Rhian Brewster with the ex-Liverpool man slicing home on the volley to open his account for the year and getting us back in the game! Moments after that however, Stoke nearly were back in front through that man again Fosu-Henry. The Brentford loanee had acres of space just outside our box and he unleashed a shot that cracked off of our bar and thankfully away before anyone could capitalise on the rebound. United would be the next to hit the woodwork with Ndiaye jinking his way to just outside the Stoke box. He hit the ball hard and low that had Bursik beat however, the ball cannoned off the post, hit Bursik in the hand and looked like it was bouncing in. This is Sheffield United in 2022 however, and our luck was out. The ball bounced back towards Bursik who gratefully claimed the ball and made Blades fans sad. United would be even sadder minutes later as Stoke would reclaim the lead on the cusp of halftime through that man Jagielka. Another poorly defended set piece allowed Baker time to loft a cross into the box that Jags got on the end of and nodded past Wes to send us into the break behind and very, very sad. United had a cracking chance to equalise five minutes after the restart with Doyle picking out RND at the back stick. Our Wales man couldn't keep his effort down however, and the ball skewed over the bar to safety. That would more or less be that creativity wise from United in the game as we scrambled to find a spark of inspiration that just wasn't coming. Sharp, Osborn, Arblaster, Jebbison and debuting Sachdev were brought on as we went back to the 3-5-2 but nothing really worked as Stoke just sat in and absorbed pressure. Ndiaye sent a shot spiralling over the bar in our best chance since the RND chance. In our half-hearted attempts to get an equaliser, Stoke would get a third through another name from the past in son of Rory Liam Delap converting a Tyrese Campbell cross to secure the points for The Potters. RND eliminated a Stoke man from the Stoke-On-Trent Royal Rumble as the frustrations finally boiled over and the final whistle went not long after to condemn United to a second defeat on the bounce and no wins in three. What a difference a week makes. From the hottest of hots, to the coldest of colds. United have struggled to find our rhythm since the resumption of League football. It's a thing that has affected us since the first season back in the Championship under Wilder but at least then we were able to put out something resembling a full squad then. Full credit to Stoke, they took their opportunities and deserved the win but our injury crisis did not let us put out anything near our full strength eleven. I don't know what's happened since the restart of football since Covid but it appears that United have no medical team whatsoever. We're 13 games into a new season and we've got 11, yes 11, players currently out injured. We're at the point once again 3 months into a season where we are having only two senior players on our bench as options and the rest being filled up with youth team players that shouldn't be near a first team bench yet. 4 out of our 7 players on the bench were under the age of twenty on Saturday. Injuries happen yes, we can accept that but to have nearly half of your squad out injured not even 15 games into a new season is just plain incomprehensible yet here we are. Whether it be the training pitch at Shirecliffe or tired legs, something has got to give if we want to make a serious tilt at promotion. We can't be consistently competing at a high level when so many first team players have long term injuries. The fact we're top of the league despite all these set backs is a massive credit to Heckingbottom and the team in maximising results in challenging circumstances. So yes, we lost but some perspective is needed on the external factors. We've got a week between Stoke and Blackpool, hopefully we'll have a few bodies back by then otherwise the uphill task will continue. Until next time, 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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