View From Boro

“I’m glad that’s over”

“I think we met a team tonight who got their tactics spot on, they played at a really high intensity and knocked us our of our rhythm. It was probably a Sheff United side playing somewhere near their best and we were miles off it. “

“Sheff Utd were really good”

“We had no answer to the speed at which they have pressed every Boro player on the ball. Blades far superior tonight.”

“Sheff Utd lookied every bit the side our boys think they are.”

” They have a lot of quality in their side. They’ve been doing this to other teams for weeks. We’re not the only side to get battered by them.”

“We played badly but Blades would have beaten any team in this league and most in the league above tonight”

“They would d*ck Spurs, that’s for sure.”

“Sheff Utd were good, better than I thought they were. Very aggressive and strong.”

” I have to say I think Sheffield United were superb all over the pitch – probably the best we’ve faced all season including a couple of Premier League teams.”

“Think they were full value for this win, fair play to them.”

“SU game us a master class about how to up a game when it was needed, Boro once again fail to deliver when it matters the most.”

” know we haven’t played well by any means but lets not take anything away from them. Their pressing and their attacking play is one of the biggest reasons we’ve looked ordinary.”

“SU have played very well. Real pressing game and our guys just could not cope.”

” Sheff Utd were absolutely on it.”

“Well beaten by the better side on the night. They were physically, mentally and tactically better. We never got into our stride because they closed us down all over the park and as we couldn’t play through them our strikers inability to hold the ball up meant we had no plan b.”

“We were second best right across the pitch and hardly won a challenge”

“To use a footballing cliche… They wanted it more than us. A lot more than us. Been given a lesson by a good side tonight. “

” Sheff Utd overpowered us tonight, we couldn’t cope with their intensity, is that a result of us having tired legs? None of us really know. I think the Barnsley result was more affected by us being complacent and I’d put that down to the cup run than tonight to be honest. “

“No doubt about it, they’ve battered us. But we haven’t exactly made it difficult for them.”

“They blew us away and that’s exactly how you get out of this league. They pressed and pressured us in our usual comfortable areas and the mistakes came, as their management team knew they would. This casual trippy happy amongst the back 3 really came unstuck tonight, and basically, they did to us what we did to Spurs.”

” We looked short, a bit tired, sort of shell-shocked by how aggressive Sheffield United were”.

“I don’t think we were gassed, I think they are just quite slow. It shows up more when you don’t have the ball, and unfortunately we were giving it away far too easily.”

“I can’t imagine it could get much worse if we did meet them again in the playoffs. Maybe we’d set up a bit differently as well. “

“More concerning for me though was how with the press from Sheffield United how we went to bits. We can’t play under pressure and Sheff knew that. Added to that a tired midfield it was always going to be a recipe for disaster.”

“We really couldn’t hack Sheff Utd pressing us so hard. Even when our 3 cb’s had the ball they’d have 2/3/4 players at them. We couldn’t cope and our midfield wasn’t exactly helping them out offering for the ball. Just ended up in us lumping it forward to Connolly and Sporar. “

“Tactically Sheff Utd did us tonight, can’t hide from it. They out played us and out muscled us for the full game. Man for man, miles the better team.”

“Their pressing and their attacking play is one of the biggest reasons we looked ordinary.”

“I watched Sheffield United against Nottingham forest and they were horrendous. I though we would of out run them on pace but it seemed like we didn’t have the drive to do anything. Away from home we seem surprised teams will chase us down and try to win oppose to coming to the Riverside to sit back hoping for a draw.”

“They have better players all round, it reminded me of the norwich playoff final where we were outclassed in every position. The contrast in the forward positions was like night and day. Gibbs white is better than any striker we have and so is a 46 year old billy sharpe. “

“That Gibbs-White is pretty decent like, isn’t he”

“Gibbs-white ran the show tonight. “

” We’ve lacked something in defence but goodness me, Gibbs White has something special about him. Without doubt man of the match”.

“What a goal from him though”

“Love Billy Sharp as a player”

“For me we were outworked and that hasn’t happened since Warnock.”

“I must admit having been completely out battled by one of the most physical (dirty) sides in the league I’m not looking forward to what Millwall will do to us. “

“Wilders tactics are easily snuffed out when our opponents chase and close down from the front thereby preventing us from playing it out. We then haven’t the playing personnel to have a Plan B so we are pretty much stuffed.
The Players that may have provided a Plan B were shipped out in January and Players that fit Wilders system were brought in but have flopped badly (and not getting any better), to make it worse they can’t offer us an alternative tactically. That is on Wilders shoulders and as much as he deserves praise for the things he has got right you can’t play modern day football with one game plan. Heckingbottom out Wildered Wilder tonight and we had nothing in reply.”

“He’s the best manager we’ve had for years but Wilders not blameless when we have a night like tonight either. “

“Yea I agree. Think he was abit naive how we set up. Definitely when we went 2-0 down. A change of shape could of helped. “

“he clearly thought it was better to leave Spence out on loan who doesn’t want to play for us then bring him back, move our best player a different position and potentially ruin the squads morale. Not rocket science. Don’t care who they are, if someone doesn’t want to play for us then sack them off. “

“Sometimes you have an off night but I haven’t seen us get battered like that under Wilder, Sheff United made a bit of a statement tonight.”

“Wilder is shocking at setting us up away from home he makes us so exposed.”

“lacks the ability to man manage player and alter their egos”

“Wilder found out should have given Warnock til end a seazzzon”

“Very limited squad – Wilder is overachieving”

“Bit of a overreaction from a few on here tonight. Yes we’ve been poor but to say we’re mediocre mid table is madness. We’re still a work in progress team. Wilder has done an amazing job and the reality is anything that happened this season was a massive bonus, especially after the dross we were served up under Warnock. The team just wasn’t very good”

“We should have just played them when we had the COVID 19 outbreak. “

“Just lulling them in to a false sense of security before we batter them in the play-off final”