Match Day Thread Sheffield Weds v QPR

Wow, Caulker did bottle it, didn't he!

 

The Professor Pat Pending of QPR

 

We're only 4 points off the play off position, but ominously only 4 points off Cardiff too...
Hope they don't just rush past us in too much of a hurry

 

Plenty of time for a team to form in the meanwhile i am saving up for some Dmitri Kharine pyjamas

 

Not the worst highlights I've seen. Just one of those days. Home form is the key - for this season anyway.

 

I went to the game. All rather depressing. The highlights flatter us as it was quite easy to see why Sheffield Wednesday are effective at what they do and why we are a very average team

The thoughts that spring to my mind and which I hope are borne out by anyone who watches the full 90 minutes as opposed to 1 minute or even 10 minutes highlights are:

1 Bizzarre decision to start with Gladwin as opposed to Wszolek, or Shodipo. We have an abundance of wingers at the club and yet expect our full backs to get into space on the overlap, beat the man and cross. Gladwin doesn't do that and that seemed to be the position that Washington was played in.

2 Bizzarre decision to start with Washington as opposed to Polter. I was encouraged by the comments in midweek but had my doubts. Nothing I saw today gives me cause for optimism that he can make the step up.. Some on Wednesday also said he was like a poor man's version of Jamie Mackie. If so very poor man indeed. In this league there is no point in having a short stocky forward who is useless in the air, has no ball skills, and only seems to chase the ball. BFG is not the finished article but he has a good understanding with Chery, a physical presence about him (on occasions too physical) and when he does win the ball his touch is far more effective. Some on Wednesday, Beth I believe felt that he was too similar to Silla for the two of them to play together. Nonsense. Both are good in the air. Polter is more effective at winning aerial duels where Silla seems to have more of a killer instinct. Why it is believed we only need one target man as opposed to sharing the responsibility and being ready to feed off the other's knock downs in beyond me. There have been plenty of effective pairings over the years. Macondald and Tudor for Newcastle. Our very own Gallen?Fulrong and before that Given/Bowles and Bannister/Byrne

There may be good reasons we don't know about for those two decisions but it looked wrong in principle to me.

3 I was glad to see that Lungo and Borysiuk look now to be first choice centre midfield pairing. On another day we might have had some reward.

4 However the big difference was that in the second half when we were chasing the game, we inevitably started with a hopeful punt upfield. Silla and Polter both occasionally got on the end of it, Washington just chased shadows. Contrast that with Wednesday's play and this is why I believe the scoreline flatters us. They played with width. Their midfielders knew that a wide man would be standing unmarked on the other side and they swept it out to them. Their passing had purpose and caused us danger. There were two or three occasions when a winger swept the ball in low and they failed to connect. In Hooper's case because he clearly ate all the pies and could not keep up. In Forestieri's because he only likes to do pretty things. That is why it is deceiving because when you think that Smithies hardly had a save to make you come away with the snapshot that they did not create many chances. They did. On another day (such as our recent visit to Fulham) the defending team would have been punished. Add to this the players attacked our box -they wanted to score, shoot or open space for a colleague.

5 By contrast, we had a couple of spells including one lasting about 5 minutes just before they scored when we passed the ball sideways back and forth and never created anything by doing so. And to rub salt in the wound we were not really challenged at all. That is the fault of the whole team . They were static and did not make runs into space to receive a through pass or allow a colleague to run into the open gap they had just vacated. If they did the midfielders and defenders chose the safe option o a sideways or backward pass. That was the big difference.

6 They (Wednesday) all remembered that the purpose was to put the ball into our goal. We are well organised to battle and win the ball but apart from Chery and to a lesser extent , Luongo, not enough in the team take responsibility to try and do something with it.

I have reserved my judgment on JFH up to now and I am not about to jump two footed into the camp of those who wanted him out before/almost as soon as he had started. However what has become clear over time is that we always set up with aim of stifling the opposition and outmuscling them. We do not seem to have made any real progress and won't while we have such a limited vision of how our team is going to attack. We are not in any danger of being relegated and I have always said a team needs to be built slowly and carefully. However at this stage of the season our owners may well see it differently. Unfortunately I have my doubts that JFH will improve us much more until he develops some ambition. When Cardiff do catch us up even Tone/Sir Les will being to have some doubts given their long-term project to have us holding our own in the Prem in a new stadium.

Overall, an uninspiring performance and there has been enough squad rotation by now that J FH should know his best line up. Squad rotation for the sake if it is a waste of everybody's time.

 

Cheers, I think.

 

Was out all day. ..just saw the highlights on channel 5 and not sure how we lost that. .....looked good and they seem to have a huge slice of luck for their goal. ....let's hope for a bounce back on Friday. ..

 

It was 4-2-3-1 according to those who went.
Anyway, Gladwin is pure pants in any formation.

 

That, sadly, says it all for this season and most of last season. We have too many squad players who are not good enough, so rotating is to the detriment of the team. It will be very easy to drift towards the bottom six and put ourselves under unnecessary pressure. We need a big performance against Brentford...

 

A lot of sensible talk. We have rebuilt our squad with just that - squad players. Come January we need to invest in at least one strong wing player or forward. Anything else has to be a player better than someone we have now (i.e. I'm with Col on Gladwin, he should be replaced with better/stronger/more creative/more productive).
It seems to be all about transition for our club this (next?) year - as much as I'd like to think we could challenge for play offs, I just don't see it. Hope I'm wrong.

 

On the basis of the season's results so far we don't look top 6, and yesterday's failure to get even a point underlines that. On the other hand I feel we are improving and if that can be maintained and the squad strengthened where needed we could be in with a shout! It will only take a slight deterioration though for us to drop to the wrong end of the table, which seems tighter than ever.

 

For Overseas posters who cannot open Sky through Route 1 or 2

 

Caulker should have scored or got kicked in the face for a penalty, but he bottled it.

 

I'm not so sure about that as he always looked like he was going to be second to that ball. Knowing our luck he would have been kicked in the head and gone off injured, we'd have been down to one recognised CB/RB, and Caulker would have got a yellow card and them a free kick for dangerous use of his head.

 

Washington looked to have the worst miss from these highlights when given a free header from about 4 meters out, he headed hard down and it bounced straight over the bar.

 

We're never going to score many goals with Washington as main striker and it's pretty clear now that whatever instincts brought him a degree of success in the lower leagues do not translate to the Championship. To have any chance of the play-offs we need to score more goals and the team should be picked accordingly.

 

You are right, phone too small, eyes too old!