This was Sheffield United at their best. It was a professional performance from them and although I wouldn’t call it dirty by any stretch, it shows they leave no stone unturned. They wasted time fairly whenever possible and didn’t retrieve any balls that were not for them, allowing them to get back into position and shape themselves for the ball coming in.
By contrast, we’ve conceded goals this season for being naive and not doing the same, just think back to the Derby game on TV for some examples and hopefully Paul Hart can bring that side of the game to QPR, because we do need a little bit of that sometimes.
The actual match to be fair was a little bit flat and dull in places. Legs was great for the first half an hour or so, which I was delighted and annoyed with. Something told me inside that perhaps it was because he was playing against his former club, but if that was the case, he should be performing like that every week! It might just be because he was buzzing though from scoring early on, so who knows and maybe I’m being a bit harsh.
There were several times during the game though when Sheffield United actually put all 11 players behind the ball when we had it. It’s this tactic that’s causing us problems and plenty of teams are doing it against us. Even if we’re playing 4-4-2, we do lack the quality across the team to sometimes pass our way out of this mess when it’s congested. It’s definitely a problem when we play 4-5-1 and don’t adapt to that or realise that’s what’s happening.
As a consequence we did concede a lot of simple balls. The switch over of possession meant that the usual quick counter passes were not really on. Ben Watson gave the ball away plenty as a result, even though he’s a lot better than that and Adel Taarabt in recent games just won’t pass the ball sometimes to feet, which is the easy option, but keeps going for these awkward through balls that look nice but never quite get there.
When the game is scrappy and dull like it was here, mainly because of the way the opposition have set out their stall, we’ve got to be more clever when we finally get hold of the ball. There’s no point just launching a quick attack and give it away. There’s nothing wrong in going backwards, spreading out the play and just playing a little keep ball first. If there’s nothing on, there’s nothing on… just move the ball side-to-side and build some momentum and rhythm.
Anyway. I suppose a point is decent here considering the few weeks we’ve had. I’m not keen on seeing Jay Simpson on the wing and hope he’s moved back to the top of the pitch soon. Patrick Agyemang put in a decent enough shift, but when the moments came where he needed to show sharpness, he didn’t have it on the day and that’s where we’re lacking at the moment.
It’s those moments where we need to be sharp and on the ball. But we’re not and there’s so many reasons why. Sometimes it’s because the player isn’t sharp enough, sometimes it’s because they lack that little bit of quality to get it right, sometimes it’s a lack of experience and decision making and other times, it’s because certain players are being played out of position and they are not doing what would come naturally to those who play those positions, which is further complicating matters.
I still think it’s easier to solve, but the longer we don’t stick to what we do best by just playing it easy and doing the obvious, the more likely we’re going to sap our own confidence and affect our own performance.
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