Sheff United, how to survive and prosper in the Premiership

[Spirit of 2000]

Sadly I think we got a glimpse last season but if you get out of the championship playing nice possession football, it wont get you far in the premier as there's too many sides with superior players who will do that better than you.

Watching Sheffield United take Man U apart at the moment with 46% possession. Aggression,  pace, team spirit,  pressing,  transition quickly into attacking positions and ready to run through walls. A win takes them 5th.

Yes I know we dont have the players to replicate that as we are but we need to work on transforming to a slightly more competitive approach, quicker transition as we saw 2nd half vs QPR and look to bring more pace into the side when we can in forthcoming transfer windows,  as championship sides with less than star packed highly paid stars can survive but currently our model isn't right for that. IF this side under Parker were to get up I could only see us coming straight back down again. (And no I wont go and support another side as Ive been a FFC supporter for 45 years!)

[Spirit of 2000]

Typically Man U score three times after I posted that but the principles remain and survival for a club like Sheff Utd represents success given the budget they've been built on!

[Spirit of 2000]

3-3! What a game!!

[Fulham 442]

Absolutely.  VAR for it right for once!!

[mancwhite]

Holding on to Norwood might have helped - would have him above any of our current midfield including TC

[Statto]

And yet, would anyone bet against them going down next season

[Spirit of 2000]

And yet, would anyone bet against them going down next season

Doesn't matter. Fact remains that to survive with the big boys you need more than what we offer. Wolves, yes good football side but also with pace, power and who transition quickly,  Bournemouth,  physicality and pace again. Lets face it a technically decent but slow and pedestrian side trying to outplay sides in the premiership isn't going to work. I point to how much more dangerous we looked with the pace and power of Kamara (despite his footballing limitations),  especially 2nd half vs QPR and with a 90 minute possession stat of 50%. I maintain Parker/we as a club need to evolve and change if we're to return to the premier league and stay there.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Spirit of 2000 you make some very good salient points.

[Statto]

I maintain Parker/we as a club need to evolve and change if we're to return to the premier league and stay there.

IMO any club promoted from the Championship needs to upgrade something like 30%-60% of their team to survive in the PL, which you'd expect to involve acquiring players who can pass and move more quickly and incisively

But I don't agree we need to fundamentally change our style to stay up, if we go up, except to the extent that we need to start playing with more tempo and guile just to go up in the first place.

You don't need to be technically better than Man City to stay up playing a technical game. You just need to be technically better than a handful of teams around you. Even as awful as we were last year, we'd have stayed up had we beaten Huddersfield, Cardiff, Brighton and Southampton consistently.

FWIW I also don't think we neglected pace in Summer 2018. Our fast players like Sessegnon, Vietto and Fosu-Mensah just didn't perform and had to be left out the starting XI most weeks.

[bog]

I really rate their manager Chris Wilder. He has worked his way up from the National League.  :54:

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[Spirit of 2000]

I maintain Parker/we as a club need to evolve and change if we're to return to the premier league and stay there.

IMO any club promoted from the Championship needs to upgrade something like 30%-60% of their team to survive in the PL, which you'd expect to involve acquiring players who can pass and move more quickly and incisively

I don't think we neglected pace in Summer 2018. Our fast players like Sessegnon, Vietto and Fosu-Mensah just didn't perform and had to be left out the starting XI most weeks.

I don't agree we need to fundamentally change our style to stay up, if we go up.

You don't need to be technically better than Man City to stay up playing a technical game. You just need to be technically better than a handful of teams around you.

Even as awful as we were last year, we'd have stayed up had we beaten Huddersfield, Cardiff, Brighton and Southampton consistently

With respect Fosu Mensah was utter pony and Vietto lightweight and mostly anonymous. You need power, pace and commitment,  those 2 were way off.

[Statto]

With respect Fosu Mensah was utter pony and Vietto lightweight and mostly anonymous. You need power, pace and commitment,  those 2 were way off.

So your point is you need players who aren't utter pony or uncommitted to the cause?
I agree. Obviously.

[grandad]

In the PL the top 4 are already sorted. The next 11 clubs are scrapping it out for 5th. The bottom 5 all face relegation struggles.

[Spirit of 2000]

Pace, power, commitment.  Saha, Boa Morte, Dempsey, Fredericks, Finnan, Hayles  Presently Kamara is closest but sadly doesn't have a fraction of the prerequisite football ability

[ALG01]

i do not agree with the OP
Obviously Sheff Utd are brilliant and have stuck to their style and it works for them but to say we would have had to play like that is in my opinion a flawed argument.

We failed because wpent a fortune on the wrong players and loanees. we played the rioght style but had the wrong director of football as we still do. if sheff utd would have had £100 to spend they would have got proper players that worked hard and complemented the way slav wanted to play. what we got were a bunch of lazy so and sos that came for a mega payday, that played for themselves not the team, were lazy, or did I say that already, and basically ripped the heart out of the team.

We went down because our owner and his son are not experienced and did not get management help of an appropriate level as MAF did on his first when he brought in Keegan to run things. That is what was wrong with us, the style was fine, wolves sort of show that but they have propermanagement, we still do not.

[filham]

Fully agree with the OP.

The reason Jocanovic had to go was that he stuck with his tactics and was too obstinate to adjust. I think Parker has seen the light and now realises that there are teams, even in the Championship, who will tactically outplay us if we just continually play our slow pretty pretty stuff.

[Spirit of 2000]

i do not agree with the OP
Obviously Sheff Utd are brilliant and have stuck to their style and it works for them but to say we would have had to play like that is in my opinion a flawed argument.

We failed because wpent a fortune on the wrong players and loanees. we played the rioght style but had the wrong director of football as we still do. if sheff utd would have had £100 to spend they would have got proper players that worked hard and complemented the way slav wanted to play. what we got were a bunch of lazy so and sos that came for a mega payday, that played for themselves not the team, were lazy, or did I say that already, and basically ripped the heart out of the team.

We went down because our owner and his son are not experienced and did not get management help of an appropriate level as MAF did on his first when he brought in Keegan to run things. That is what was wrong with us, the style was fine, wolves sort of show that but they have propermanagement, we still do not.

Disagree. No "smaller club" does brilliantly in the premiership  playing a pedestrian,  possession based style. We're not Barcelona and you need that type/calibre of player to make that style work  Wolves play a much more dynamic pace and movement based game than us. Leicester,  Bournemouth,  Watford and all other less glamorous sides with relative success at that level in recent years play with more physicality and pace  than we are likely to offer in our present form. If we try to match up against a top side in the premiership playing as we do without the quality of player needed to succeed playing that way we would get destroyed. Even if we sort our defence the way Parker favours would (in my opinion) be pulled to pieces in the top division.  It needs balance. Eddie Howe is a better example than Sean Dyche as far as what we need to aim at. Good football,  passing,  sure, but with physicality and pace.

[Statto]

Disagree. No "smaller club" does brilliantly in the premiership  playing a pedestrian,  possession based style. We're not Barcelona and you need that type/calibre of player to make that style work  Wolves play a much more dynamic pace and movement based game than us. Leicester,  Bournemouth,  Watford and all other less glamorous sides with relative success at that level in recent years play with more physicality and pace  than we are likely to offer in our present form. If we try to match up against a top side in the premiership playing as we do without the quality of player needed to succeed playing that way we would get destroyed. Even if we sort our defence the way Parker favours would (in my opinion) be pulled to pieces in the top division.  It needs balance. Eddie Howe is a better example than Sean Dyche as far as what we need to aim at. Good football,  passing,  sure, but with physicality and pace.

Just out of interest, if we go up this year, which of our current front four (so say Cavaliero, Mitrovic, Cairney and Reid/Knockaert) would you want dropped due to their lack of "physicality and pace"?

[Spirit of 2000]

Knockaert and Cavaleiro have been underwhelming,  although a more dynamic style will probably see better returns from both. Bobby Reid no more than a bench warmer at that level. TC is a brilliant championship midfielder but isn't indispensable ,  Mitrovic certainly can serve at the top level.

[fcfulham55]

Sheffield United would not survive the Premiership as they don't play Rugby?