"I'm Back."
Don' let that put you off, please.
I’m back. Matt’s now in America, though sadly not meeting his idols like I did — Mulan was lovely. The glitz and glamour of Disney are done… back to reality. So, what have I missed? Are we still in for a Epic Universe ending?
Or maybe I’m better off not asking what in the Universal Studios has happened?
There won’t be a Disney Hollywood Studios ending to United’s season now, but is that really a bad thing? This squad has more holes then my socks after marching around 15,000 steps around Magic Kingdom.
I’ve been front and centre of the “there’s still life in this season” brigade, but after the West Brom game that hope faded. After throwing away the game at Norwich, it felt stamped out. The point at Birmingham was probably the only real positive from my four-game absence, but going into the Wrexham game ten points behind, when it realistically could have been three had United not thrown silly points away, tells its own story and maybe how the season has faired in general.. Almost getting within touching distance but letting it slip. Even with a win against Wrexham, and they didn’t manage that, seven points would have been too much with so few games left.
So, what now? Well fuck knows…
The West Brom game was poor. The fact I forked out £18 for plane WiFi to watch it made it even worse. Just like last season in the push for automatics, when United needed a performance against a side lower down the table, they produced a complete shit show.
In hindsight, West Brom have picked up since that draw, winning two and drawing one, including an impressive 3-0 against Hull, which softens it slightly. But at the time, it felt like a massive missed opportunity.
Last season, do we win that game at home in that position? Maybe. We drew 2-2, but if we’re 1-0 up going into the final ten minutes, I think we probably see it out. That seems to be a common theme this year.
The Norwich game, Matt is probably spot on calling it a game of two halves. I’ll take his word for it, as I was at The Players golf tournament and only caught the highlights. Same with Birmingham and Wrexham. Ironically, Wrexham sounds like it was the best performance.
But if anything, it highlights one of the biggest issues with this Blades side. There’s no backbone. I hate saying it, but there’s very little faith that this team will stand strong and see a game out.
Looking towards the final games what now?
Well, any talk of Wilder going is just plain silly. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t against trying something new last summer, but I wasn’t fully for it either. I was somewhere in the middle. If we were going to move on, I wanted someone like Sean Dyche or Steve Cooper, managers who could take this squad and push it forward. If those options weren’t there, then I was always happy to stick with Wilder.
As the summer dragged on, with players not arriving and bits of information filtering out from people within the club, it became clear there wasn’t much of a plan after sacking Wilder and that’s the worrying part. The phrase little black book was used a lot.
That’s why, for me, there’s no sense in ripping it up again now. For all the frustrations, at least with Wilder you know what you’re getting. There’s structure, and there’s a connection to the club that you can’t just manufacture overnight and their is a proven tract record in the Championship.
I never personally thought we’d go down, even at the lowest point. The beauty of writing these is you can’t hide from what you’ve said. There were plenty who had us dead and buried, and then as soon as things picked up, expectations jumped straight to the play-offs. Now, because we’ve fallen short of that, it’s framed as failure. But to get this comfortable in mid-table from where we were is a serious achievement.
Yes, there are worrying trends. Conceding within ten minutes of the second half is a pathetic habit. Not being able to hold onto leads is a big concern. The inability to get back into games is another. But these feel like issues that Chris and his staff can work on and iron out over the summer.
There’s been far more positive than negative since he came back. And right now, I can’t really be bothered getting lost in stats. The eye test tells me United have struggled against the better sides and generally beaten the poorer ones, which sounds very familiar to last season. Ultimately, if you beat the teams you should beat, you’ll be at the right end of the table and Since Chris has come back, for the majority of it they have done that.
For me, Chris has earned the chance to take us into next season and have another go. No parachute payments, but look at Coventry, Boro, Millwall and Hull, even under a transfer ban, they’ve all been up there competing. All this predicting about next season is nonsense anyway. No one really knows how it’ll pan out, no matter how loud they are on Twitter.
Let’s just hope United can pick up as many points as possible between now and the end. I’ve been told Phillips is out for the season. The lad who told me has been right about everything so far, so I’ve no real reason to doubt it. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Chris sees himself as the man to try and rehabilitate Phillips’ career providing they can work out the wages, so i wouldn’t be shocked if he returned in summer.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Faxon get a couple of starts towards the back end, just to see what we actually have there. That doesn’t take anything away from Davies, who, all things considered, has been very good and has certainly shut me up, but seeing Faxon in action may show us weather we can rely on him next season.
For me now, it’s about making sure the season doesn’t just drift out with a whimper. Finish strong, build a bit of momentum, and give us something to take into next year with the player who will be here next season.
For me, the game reviews are still coming, odd bits and bats in-between will be coming and a season review and preview blah blah blah blah will there. You might even here my voice again on a pod or two.
Swansea is lining up to be a real midtable match and maybe a good sign as to where we actually are, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a rare Ben Mee sighting.
Thanks again to Matt for covering while I was away, he’ll definitely be back because he’s very good at this.
And give his podcast a listen while you’re at it… he’s fucking plugged it enough and you wont be disappointed.
Please comment let me know what you’d like to see with the back end of the season, like and subscribe its all very appreciated.