Apathy Rules at Bramall Lane

As I said last year, after another Play-Off Final defeat, as a Blade you just have to carry on regardless. Regardless of the frustration. Regardless of the pain. Regardless of the knowledge that nine times out of ten it will end in an unmitigated disaster.  

 

But now some are not carrying on. Some have had enough. And can I blame them? Probably not.

 

The Play Off semi final first leg will probably see a relatively low crowd at Bramall Lane, despite the £15 tickets. People have had enough. Had enough of a well rewarded team showing little desire, had enough of performances without shape or structure and of a board who stumble along from one ill-thought out decision to another, without a long term plan and with little autonomy for the men supposedly in charge day to day.

 

Hard though it may be to recognise; there are elements of our season to commend. Defensively we have been consistently strong. A team doesn't keep 21 clean sheets by chance and a great deal of credit should be given to a back four and goalkeeper, who have performed at a level that belies the lack of experience some of them have.

 

But those clean sheets have come at a price. Some of the performances witnessed this season can best be described as turgid. We lost just nine games all season, equalling Brentford with the fewest defeats in the division. Our problem was draws, all eighteen of them. There’s been seven 0-0 draws, all bar one at Bramall Lane, with four in the last seven home games demonstrates a side shorn of creativity, movement and that special something that can unlock a resolute visiting side.

 

Charlton went up last season as champions, without really standing out as a thrilling or exciting team to watch. Efficiently going about their business, taking wins by the odd goal, many Blades clung to the hope that we were going to replicate that this season. It was not to be.

 

Criticism has been building all season, with initial murmurings dismissed by local media who said we were ridiculous for not focusing on results and league position. The initial symptoms of failing to react to second balls, a lack of natural width, pace and cutting edge were clear to anyone watching the Blades week after week. The failure to properly address any of these areas left the team pedestrian, lumbering and disjointed as the season petered out.

 

Hopes of automatic promotion, lost to an ageing and slow squad, with injuries and player sales leaving it weaker than it was before. Broken promises of adequate replacements, a manager working without free reign and with severe limitations on what he can do to change things. Yet the option for youth was ignored for so long, it is asking a lot for them to come in and have the positive impact required right now.

 

Why should people bother if the rest of the club show such a lack of ambition? There is no such thing as blind loyalty. Everyone has their limits. For some, it is when the owner and his acolytes are trapped in a downward spiral of risky and hurried decisions, the like of which they wouldn't engage in in their day to day business. The sacking of Danny Wilson has realistically left us no better off than we would have been if we had kept him. The initial burst of positivity and intent demonstrated in Chris Morgan's first game in charge against Swindon Town was quickly extinguished and there is no discernible improvement.

 

Even the stoically positive away supporters have recognised that a day on the ale and 90 minutes of positive support, cannot hide our players' failings, nor lift them to a level of performance that is anywhere near adequate. When the away supporters turn, when they have had enough, then you know there are fundamental issues.

 

I will accept that clubs have players that aren't good enough, that can't do the things you would like them to do, but what I can't accept is a lack of effort, application or will to win. Many would deny that our players have demonstrated that, that it is not in their make-up, they aren't that kind of player. I am sorry, but performances at times this season have suggested otherwise. Maybe their fear and timidity could be misconstrued for a lack of application, either way it is unacceptable; especially when it is the more experienced professionals who seem unable to cope.

 

At the start of the season, when asked for my predicted League table for When Saturday Comes magazine, I tipped the Blades to finish 8th, a view clearly not shared by the representative fans of other League 1 clubs who, based on average predicted positions, had the Blades as champions.

 

On that basis, I should be happy with 5th place but for me this represents a real missed opportunity. My prediction was at a time when the make-up of the squad and that of other clubs was still uncertain. Expectations fluctuate over the course of the season; once you have seen other teams, once you see where the league table pans out. The thing is I genuinely saw little else of any quality in League One this season. Crewe and Brentford were the teams that impressed me the most, whilst Doncaster were efficient, but not exciting, and Bournemouth were beaten twice.

 

Wage bills don't necessarily translate to on pitch success, I accept that. But the United players, who are probably paid a combined amount near double that of most of the competing teams and many of whom are experienced and well paid professionals, need to take a long hard look at themselves and consider whether 5th place was truly acceptable. To hear our Captain Michael Doyle speak in recent weeks, it seems it was. How disappointing.

 

An acceptance of 5^th place is as spineless as some of those end of season performances, when there wasn’t even the will to maximise our league position for home second leg advantage, nor to enter the play offs with a positive frame of mind enveloping the club.

 

Instead we have an attitude where many can’t even be bothered leaving the pub or their settee on Friday night and I can understand the ambivalence of my fellow Blades. I am going on Friday and I cannot see where United's goals will come from. I cannot see us keeping another clean sheet. I don't expect us to get to Wembley. I have renewed my season ticket, expecting League One football. I have seen little to persuade me otherwise.

 

Yes, there must be a first time for the play offs are kind to us. Then again, can we get through three games with three clean sheets and a goal again, for the second year running? I doubt it. Mind you, if we did that it would come to penalties again and oh how the Football Gods would be laughing!

Do The Right Thing

 

 

It started as a simple question on Saturday night; “If your club had a player shown two yellow cards, but no red, would you expect them to do the right thing and walk?”

 The responses I received were very interesting and once you put aside those comments driven by football rivalries i.e. applying it to the case in hand rather than, as I asked, if it was their club’s player, they showed a lack of belief in fairness and sportsmanship in football. The general tone being; If officials don’t do their jobs properly then why shouldn’t players/teams exploit it? On Saturday, gamesmanship took over from sportsmanship, a majority of fans who responded seemed happy with that precedence.

For me, it doesn’t sit right, but I can see where they are coming from. Taking Saturday’s incidents at the John Smith’s Stadium as the example, Sheffield Wednesday’s Jeremy Helan received his second yellow card after 20 minutes.  In effect, Huddersfield Town should have had a man advantage it what proved to be a tight Derby tussle for around 70 minutes. You could argue that the referee’s failure had a significant influence on the potential outcome of the game and Huddersfield’s anger was understandable.

However, I guess there are incidents like that in every game, where the outcome changes on one decision. Be it an incorrect offside call, a handball that is missed, or the Stuart Atwell goal incident at Watford, the official are potentially culpable in determining the outcome of game. Many of the responses on Saturday night, including several from Terriers supporters took this view. The referee has made a mistake, by all means complain, but if he refuses to reverse his decision or acknowledge his mistake, move on and get on with the game.

What makes Saturday’s situation even worse was that there was a fourth official and two assistant referees who witnessed the decisions. The fourth official in particular was the recipient of Simon Grayson’s ire and that of his coaching staff. What stopped him realising the mistake. For one official to get a decision wrong is one thing, for it to be compounded by the failure of three others is something quite unbelievable.

So Saturday and the response of fans afterwards tells me that we are quite happy to accept gamesmanship when the officials fail in their duties. That we are content to watch players shuffle away with a wry grin, for benefiting managers to pass it off post match in interviews. The very same manager who for the last couple of months has done nothing but complain about unfair refereeing decisions as his side went on a long and fruitless winless run.

That end of the last paragraph isn’t meant as a dig at the manager involved on Saturday. I can think of many managers who would have done the same, including those who have stood on the Bramall Lane touchline.

Maybe I am foolishly hoping for a utopian footballing world where sportsmanship actually wins over. Where the player voluntarily walks off to the tunnel, knowing the incorrect decision has been made. Where his manager wouldn’t condemn him for his action, but acknowledge the claims of opposition manager and fans and tells his player to come off. But hey, as someone pointed out on Saturday night, it’s just not cricket. Or Snooker. Or Rugby.  Or other sports where you see sporting acknowledgement of incorrect decisions of those that the referee/umpire misses. Not always, I grant you, but it is still a more frequent event than at a football match.

I can think of few occasions when sportsmanship has stood out over gamesmanship in football; Di Canio catching the ball as Everton goalkeeper lay injured and the empty goal was beckoning in December 2000, some may suggest the Arsenal offer of a replay to the Blades following Marc Overmars’ controversial goal in the 1999 cup tie, but I beg to differ. Arsenal could have let United equalise and then play on the rest of the match with the scores level, as they were prior to the goal. The offer of a replay benefited Arsenal as much with home advantage, gate receipts etc.

More recent examples show that when advantage has been gained, the benefiting team rarely recognise their advantageous stretching of fair play and there is little the officials could do. Ask Nordsjaelland or even Sheffield Wednesday themselves. The fact that so few stand up for fair play, seems to make it less and less likely other teams will set the example, particularly when they have suffered an injustice previously.

Maybe football could try and set new standards. Maybe Reading players should have admitted to Stuart Attwell that the “ghost goal” he awarded them in 2008 was nowhere near the Watford goal. Maybe the Shakhtar Donetsk players and management together should have acknowledged that Luiz Adriano’s goal was out of order and properly stood aside for Nordsjaelland to score from the kick off, instead of being split on what they should do. Maybe the Yeovil players last season should have stood aside to allow Wednesday to score; their player manager was on the pitch and could have instigated it. Maybe Jeremy Helan should have walked off the pitch on Saturday. Instead he lingered, saw the red card hadn’t followed and sheepishly shrugged and walked back into position.  Maybe his manager should have hauled him off, or supported Simon Grayson’s claims to the fourth official.

And maybe football won’t. In fact I know it won’t. Football over the last 20 years has been corrupted by money, to a greater extent than any other sport. Money places enormous pressure on managers and players. Pressure to win, pressure to succeed whatever the cost, every point and every place has a huge financial reward. Morals are marginalised and a generation of fans see the boundaries of acceptable behaviour stretched, more so if the officials and authorities are inept at dealing with those incidents when they occur.

Do you know what? In a year of depressing incidents in football, that makes me a little sadder and a little more disillusioned with the game. I doubt 2013 will do much to change my view.