2023/24 Player Ratings pod is out - an episode so long, we might have sold the club while
@Panchero
and I were recording it. Features a 0/10; now let's never speak of this season again.
SC:
AP:
Sp:
Lampard ahead of Sean Dyche... you know, the manager of the team who are constantly favourites for relegation and had three keepers on the bench at one stage because they had no other players, the only team to earn points at Anfield, and finished top 10...
With Burke, for me it’s simple: until other players offer more, just play the insane athlete who makes things happen even if he isn’t particularly good at football
Huge credit to George Baldock, one of only 7 (not 6, can’t count 🤦♂️) outfield players to play all 3,420 minutes of Premier League football this season - amazing consistency at a high level (and somehow avoiding a red card / suspension).
Egan coming iiiiiin... so happy with that, every player worked their balls off and we were the only ones trying to win it at the end. Amazing effort against an excellent team (who are apparently pretty good at second halves).
Apologies for the lack of pod this week - had my hands full (albeit not as much as her amazing mum). Glad to see she brought a win for both of her parents’ teams today ⚔️👑
John Lundstram
17/19 attacking third passes (most for Blades)
5/6 tackles (most for Blades)
0.58 expected assists (most on pitch -in fact, basically double Palace’s xA)
1 goal (well, also most on pitch)
Park your prejudices, lad has been our best player in the first two games.
Best-case scenario is Huddersfield have made themselves a laughing stock for the sake of a few bob from said bookmaker.
Worst-case scenario: that's really their kit
Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who's listened to BladesPod in 2019. In fact, I can't get over how many of you there are. 33k listens in 2018, almost 200k in 2019 😳 Love doing the pods but couldn't do them without you - thanks again, and happy new year!
Premier League shareholders today agreed temporary changes to the rules relating to substitute players.
For the remainder of the 2019/20 season, the number of substitutes used during a match will increase from 3 to 5, with players on the bench increasing from 7 to 9.
#SUFC
🔴
📢If the Oli McBurnie news wasn't exciting enough... someone else is signing on the dotted line today ✍️
After some complex negotiations, I'm delighted to announce that
@Panchero
will be a permanent part of BladesPod for this season 🙌
#AnnounceRoy
#WelcomeWeirdo
Can’t help but smile at the ovation McGoldrick got there. The guy was essentially on the scrapheap 14 months ago and now he’s playing in the Premier League and getting a hero’s send-off for his national team. Heck he might be starting up front at Euro 2020!
BladesPod has now been listened to over 100,000 times... As a random United fan who just does this in his spare time, I'd like to say a HUGE thank you (again!) to every one of you - pretty stunned by that! Cheers and UTB ⚔️
Well that was absolutely bloody brilliant and I really missed us doing this whole “goals” thing. Ndiaye and Gibbs-White = HELLO, but how about that man Billy Sharp. Unreal.
How different would we feel if not for this save. Another game with points dropped from a winning position, another game where we missed chances to seal it, five without a win... instead he pulls this one out the fire. Phenomenal stop.
Hot take alert but IMO that’s our best win of the season. Boro are an utter grind to play against and we just beat them without 2 of our most important players, blokes out of position, and THEN having to reshuffle again when Baldock went off. Stepped up big time when it counted.
So proud. Particularly sat right here. What a performance. We need to have a serious conversation about VAR, but we just rocked up at TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR and got a draw which was the least we deserve. FWIW Spurs fans applauded when United sang “fuck VAR” after the “equaliser”.
Shooting is overrated anyway. What a win, the back three and Henderson were immense. Shout out to Lundstram and Mousset who were excellent off the bench. NOW can everyone enjoy the rest of the season and stop fretting about relegation? ;)
Deserved win against possibly the most irritating team to come to Bramall Lane this season. Really poor first 30 mins and then much the better team from then on - and a welcome return to the scoresheet for “Lord Lundstram”. All he needed was £22m worth of competition 😄
Appreciate the gesture but if everyone could stop sharing videos from the last time we played Man Utd at the Lane, when the ground was packed and we were bloody brilliant, I'd be grateful - cheers ⚔️
Genuinely sad about Coutts leaving. Brutal, freakish injury when he was at the absolute peak of his abilities, and had gone to a level I don't think many of us had seen from a Blades midfielder for years (decades?). Hope to see him starting games for someone very soon.
Absolutely hate that we've sold Berge to Burnley. You can make all the counterarguments you like for why it's actually a good / acceptable thing; I've considered them all and still absolutely hate it. Bah.
Is it just me that actually kind of likes Jamie Vardy? Done well for himself, worked his way up from non league, proper decent Premier Leaguer finisher...
The McGoldrick highlight reel from that one is going to be quite the sight. Possibly even better than the goals was the moment he sent Jorginho for a Bovril in the second half
Henderson and O’Connell have been so good this season that it was a genuine shock to see those errors. Absolutely gutting that a *superb* performance up to then is only worth a point, sure, but those two (and this team) have so much credit in the bank.
That at least looked a lot more “normal” from us today - two dumb bits of play to concede but some good stuff second half. Never enjoy losing but that was 1000 times better than the last three games.
A major thing for me was that United used this transfer window to bring the overall age of the squad down - as well as, y'know, signing good players:
McBurnie - 23
Mousset - 23
Osborn - 24
Robinson - 24
Morrison - 26
Freeman - 27
👏
Burnley podcast coming later this afternoon - meanwhile I just want to say how much I love that this is the first image to come up when you google Sander Berge, presumably from when he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Looks like it’s time to get that unbeaten away run started again. Great point, and what a season Fleck is having. One game left of this nightmare run of fixtures and we’ve picked up 4 points from them which is 4 more than I expected back in August!
Former national striker Luton Shelton has died.
Shelton passed away on Friday after suffering from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease since 2017.
Really glad that my 3yo daughter’s first experience of a red card was very much in the “even a toddler can understand that” category than, say, denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity
Pod is uploading now... and I just noticed that we've now gone over 200,000 listens in the 2 years (almost to the day) since I started it. Thank you very much for being a part of it!
Brereton-Diaz has a chance to be the best Ben to ever play for the Blades, which by my reckoning is a title currently held by Ben Osborn.
The field: Ben Davies (x2), Ben Doane, Ben Heneghan, Ben Starosta, Benie Traore, Ben Whiteman, Ben Woodburn.
Yes, I'm invested in this
Early early early days, BUT
Most goals scored
Highest xG
Most shots on target
20th lowest xG Against
Most Big Chances missed
(Most points)
It’s a hell of a good start.
#SheffieldUnited
@SkyBetChamp
form:
3️⃣ consecutive wins without conceding.
6️⃣ unbeaten.
1️⃣ defeat in 1️⃣2️⃣.
⛔️ Only team to stop
#WestBrom
scoring at home this season.
1️⃣9️⃣ wins this season - joint most.
7️⃣ clean-sheets in last 1️⃣0️⃣.
⚔️🔴⚪️⚫️
#twitterblades
#SUFC
In US sports they say “defence wins championships”. Now I’m not going that far, but that has to be the gutsiest defending I have ever seen from United. Incredible, what a bloody win!
Good news: emergency pod will take place
Bad news: afraid it'll be tomorrow (although maybe we'll have even more to talk about?)
Good news:
@Blades_analytic
[CONFIRMED] to be joining
@Panchero
and me
It seems this didn’t send at half-time so I’ll lob it out there now. I’m coming round to the “fuck VAR” angle. I just saw my team score at Goodison Park and all I cared about is the ref touching his ear. I didn’t go particularly mad or go nuts with my brother. Something’s wrong.