Wednesday’s 0-0 with Preston North End was a tedious affair but yesterday’s goalless draw with Sheffield United was actually an entertaining game and both sides played some nice football. I think Sheffield United were just about the better of the two teams but Town had a perfectly good goal ruled out and a few penalty shouts waved away so both teams can be happy with the point.
Even though Town didn’t score, I thought we played some lovely football at times and the tactical tweaks made before the game meant Town were a different proposition and several players were able to put in excellent shifts.
Lee Nicholls – 8 out of 10
Pulled off an unbelievable fingertip save to push the ball onto the post and then somehow cleared with his feet as he was falling to guide the ball to safety. Saved us on several other occasions too and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Lössl and Danny Ward are keepers that will live long on the memory for many Town fans for getting us to and keeping us in the Premier League but Nicholls heroics this season are putting him right up with those two and Nico Vaesen in my all-time favourite Town keepers (for the time I’ve been following Town).
Pipa – 7 out of 10
I’m enjoying seeing Pipa and Thomas working each other out and finding a way to get the best out of each other on the right flank. Thomas tucked in at times to allow Pipa to stay wide and get forward, other times it was Thomas wide and Pipa underlapping and drifting into the number ten position. The partnership is still in its early stages but if these two click together it could be a devastating combination as their styles of play should complement each other – providing at least one remembers to defend occasionally.
Matty Pearson – 7 out of 10
Very solid and dependable once more. I enjoyed the subtle shove he gave to Billy Sharp when the ref wasn’t looking too. He looked a bit uncomfortable with the ball at his feet when we tried to play out from the back but that’s not his natural game and he was often left with literally no forward options to pass to and opposition players closing him down.
Tom Lees – 7 out of 10
A calm reassuring presence at the back, helped the back line keep its shape and made some vital interventions when he needed to. He reminds me of those understated defenders that you don’t often see pulling off amazing tackles because their superior positioning means they’re rarely in a situation where they have to slide in and get a toe end on the ball (Terence Kongolo was the opposite of this – he was always making amazing tackles that were only required because he’d switched off).
Josh Ruffels – 8 out of 10
Perhaps eight is a tad generous but I’m basing this score on the fact he made his first Championship start and managed to fit into the team seamlessly. He dealt with everything that was thrown at him, put in a couple of decent balls and had some interesting winding runs out to the right side of the pitch which created some confusion for the other team. His good showing gives Carlos a selection headache for Fulham next weekend. Given how we’re likely to be doing a lot of defending, it might be a reasonable idea to play both left backs, one ahead of the other.
Jonathan Hogg – 8 out of 10
The changed tactics put Hoggy in a role that helped him to play at his best. Somewhere between a very defensive midfielder and a forward thinking defender, he looked very good. Playing five or ten yards deeper than usual gave him a bit more thinking time on the ball and he typically used that to play a better pass. When he slotted in between Lees and Pearson he looked comfortable as a central defender and coped well when under pressure.
Jon Russell – 8 out of 10
Another impressive display from the ex-Chelsea youngster. Building on his decent showings in the FA Cup he showed that he can cope with playing against one of the Championship’s form teams. He’s superb at using his huge frame to protect the ball and shrug off challenges and has a real eye for a pass. Not every one of his long passes from deep came off but you could see he was always trying to release the forward players and put them in positions where they could attack the Sheffield United back line. In youth football you are allowed far more time on the ball than in competitive second tier games and he sometimes lingered longer than ideal on the ball but he was pretty much OK. He also turned down a couple of opportunities to go into crunching tackles which may have been fear of picking up a yellow or red card. If I was on the coaching staff I’d be encouraging him to get stuck in when the ball is there to be won.
Lewis O’Brien – 8 out of 10
It’s almost boring how consistently good Lewis O’Brien is, constantly running, closing down and driving forward when he gets on the ball. His influence on the midfield was most obviously felt when he was taken out of it and made to play left back when Sinani was brought on for Ruffels. Carlos was spot on with many of his tactical decisions yesterday but this was a switch that gave Sheffield United the upper hand and put one of our most effective players in a position that he isn’t very good at. Seeing O’Brien’s shoulders slump when he was told to play left back mirrored most of the fans’ opinions on this switch too.
Sorba Thomas – 6 out of 10
It’s again tricky to boil Thomas’ performance down to a single number between one and ten because there were extremes of good and not so good things from him in this game. The fact he was picked as Sky’s Man of the Match suggests he caught their eye, and it’s understandable given the quality of some of his deliveries and his endless running. But his touch let him down too often and he seems to be rushing things too much at times too. If he took a moment to steady himself or look up at his options his final ball could improve even more.
Danny Ward – 7 out of 10
Despite having very few chances presented to him, he managed to put in a good shift with his energetic running to justify a seven. Even when he’s not getting on the end of balls in the box he is running the channels or dropping off to link play. He was very unlucky to be penalised in the sequence of play that led to Jon Russell’s goal being disallowed as he was the one being fouled.
Josh Koroma – 3 out of 10
After being fairly generous with my scores for a nil nil, the only starting player that I thought wasn’t very good was Koroma and he was completely ineffective against Sheffield United. On the few occasions he did get an opportunity to run at the defence he invariably made a poor choice, too often looking for personal glory when teammates were better positioned than him. His confidence looks very low and he doesn’t seem to fit with the system we’re currently playing. It was interesting to observe how often the bench were furiously shouting instructions to him and how little notice he seemed to take of them. If he’s not carrying out the instructions he has been given by the coaching team then it’s clear why he’s not starting many games at the moment.
Substitutes
Duane Holmes – 7 out of 10
A lively presence both on the left wing and in central midfield. Did enough to force himself back into the starting eleven for Fulham next week, most likely in place of Koroma.
Danel Sinani – 5 out of 10
There was one brief period when we won the ball back after a long period of Sheffield United pressure on our box that Sinani did a good job of holding the ball up the pitch and interchanging possession with others nearby. This relieved a bit of pressure. The rest of the time he looked a bit out of his depth and struggled to get into the game.
Harry Toffolo – N/A
An interesting sub because Jordan Rhodes had been stripped and ready to come on for a few minutes until at the last moment our final sub was changed to Toffolo, most likely to address the fact Sander Berge had gone out to our left flank and was putting in some quality balls. Having Toffolo come on to shore things up made more sense than a like-for-like striker swap.
I hadn’t noticed the bench laying into Koroma, so that was an interesting observation, your 3 may have been overgenerous for him and the 6 a little mean for Thomas – he does get bums off seats more regularly than most, otherwise the scores and comments are really good.
That was one of the best performances of the season with Russell putting his physicality and passing skills to good effect, he seemed to galvanise the whole team and certain individuals; Hogg was generally good although he retains the deep-rooted fault of occasionally ball-watching instead of man-marking, Ruffles compensated, improving upon the surprising omission of Toffolo, Thomas was close to his best with O’Brien influential as usual. Koroma in comparison was by far the weakest link, every aspect of his game was in need of improvement, I was surprised that he lasted so long and equally surprised by the energy of his replacement Holmes.
The referee did us no favours with his decisions or lack of them in the Blades’ penalty area, three critically could have lead to penalties, lady luck definitely not on our side, although she was in our penalty area with clearances, blocks, stops and saves.
In spite of the result that was the most satisfied that I have come away from a match in quite a while, we were entertaining and definitely did not look second best for long periods of the match; Russell surely has to stay in the starting eleven, with his control, passing ability (although one lose pass could have led to a goal), physique and lack of pace he reminds me a little of Tom Huddlestone once of Derby, Spurs and England.
With a period of eight games in twenty-nine days coming up any extra viable option is more than useful.
I find myself agreeing with you, TS, and with you, Beck Lane.
It was an entertaining match – shows what we all know that one nil-nil isn’t necessarily like another. The PNE midweek match was extremely dull.
And yes, I agree, Town at times looked really slick.
And yes I agree, Jon Russell was immense. He’s a physical presence in midfield and he has the skills to go with it.
And yes I agree, the euphoria of the Sky Sports pundit for Sorba Thomas made me wonder if he was seeing what I was seeing. Yes, Sorba is eye-catching but there’s so much that could be improved.
And yes, Koroma was dreadful. I cast my mind back to my early sightings of him and I thought “this guy is hopeless”; and then he went on a regular scoring spree, cutting in effectively off that left wing, and I thought “maybe I’ve misjudged him”. Then he got injured. Since he’s returned, yes he’s scored occasionally, but other than that I’m afraid I’ve returned to my first impression judgement. He reminds me of players in schoolboy football – he charges off down the wing with the ball not totally under control and never seems to lift his head up to consider the options. Very often he just runs down a cul-de-sac because his left foot is very poor.
Anyway, next week at Fulham will reveal just how far Town have come since that early season mauling; a long way or not very far? We’ll see.
I clearly believe we were the better side on the day. Koroma was our least effective, most wasteful player on the day but i often wonder if his apparent drop in performance levels is just that or if its the improved level of the team and playing within side competing at upper end of Championship that’s found him out . The analogy of him running down a cul-de-sac I’ll take with me👍. I have taken renewed encouragement from Saturdays performance especially in light of imminent return of Colwill and the introduction of Russell and Ruffels.
Not sure why Nichols is only given 8. What more could he have done? 9 or 10 would have not been over generous. Sorba has to be higher than 6. He is still Towns most dangerous player and mostly he was only crossing to a single attacker, Ward, as the abysmal Koroma was never there. Ward moving left and Rhodes on would have been a better solution which could have overloaded Sheffield defence. I previously commented that Toffolo should be rested as he isn’t performing as good as he was but didn’t expect him to be dropped this soon. Ruffels looked good and didn’t do anything wrong. Russell was very good and “scored” too. He looks like a class player though a bit slow. Given more time to get up to Championship speed he could be our midfield answer. He also will need to get a bit fitter as he looked rather tired late on in the game. Perhaps he and Eiting could share the position. Finally I do not agree that Sheffield were the better team. From the start they made some horrendous tackles and with a proper referee could easily have ended with 10 men. Town played really well. The passing was more accurate and they looked likely to score on each attack. It would have been a totally different game if the goal had not been disallowed and we could have won by 2 or 3 goals with the confidence of having the lead.
A good summary, a fair assessment and I agree entirely.
It was a good, all round performance, much better than hanging on for the second half of recent games.
I was worried without a third central defender but thought Hogg had one of his best games and is suited to the more defensive role. It showed that he and Russell can play together and with O’Brien would form a formidable midfield 3. Russell was again excellent and would have been my man of the match.
I became worried again when O’Brien moved to left back, where he is obviously uncomfortable, but CC quickly realised his mistake and corrected it.
I feel that we may just miss out on a top 6 place to Middlesbrough and Forest.
After that performance there were 10 who deserve to be in the team next Saturday, the only exception being Koroma who continues to disappoint after promising so much last season.
Fulham away will be our toughest game of the season so will need 11 on the pitch who are totally committed to the cause. For that reason I would bring back Duane Holmes whose long throw ins provide an extra weapon and we might even get a penalty for a blatant foul when a high ball comes over.If we can stretch our unbeaten run then even the hardiest of doubters may begin to believe the impossible dream. An added plus is we have a squad who have given us a surprise cup run
UTT
Spot on analysis. Baldes about 1% better than us, BUT the ref ruined that game by chalking off our goal and not giving at least one pen (that’s not my view, that’s from my WBA cousins).
The idea of playing Toffs and Ruffs is interesting. Wondered if we might get Rowe fit or even Danny Grant…
Totally agree on the Thomas score. Exciting, yes, erratic yes. 6 out of 10.