{"id":2712,"date":"2021-04-10T15:51:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T14:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2712"},"modified":"2021-04-12T06:29:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T05:29:03","slug":"and-so-to-bramall-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2712","title":{"rendered":"And So to Bramall Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"Wr2gwvyRSYxEfFR2irdIlQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1291165133\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Wr2gwvyRSYxEfFR2irdIlQ',sig:'ST502zn_hjLQ35p4YqqSrdXanbhn0srYlh3rwXTpUfU=',w:'594px',h:'380px',items:'1291165133',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>I intended to start this preview with a discursion into how football was played under its first set of rules, published in 1858 by the original footballing occupants of the venue for our match on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the wheels came perilously close to coming off our season this past week. In truth, the locknuts have looked loose more often than secure for much of the season. The abject performance against Liverpool last Saturday and the precarious, albeit not irretrievable, position in which the team finds itself after Thursday&#8217;s first leg of the Europa League quarter-final against Slavia Prague demand contemporary reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have eight league games, starting with Sunday&#8217;s against Sheffield United, and between one and four Europe League ties, to determine whether the club has made progress, retreated or just trodden water under our tyro manager.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arteta is trying to get a team that is not yet an elite team to play like the one he (and we) want it to become. This, though, is what the club, and thus by default, we the fans, bought into when Arteta was appointed. We would gain little by changing horses in midstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This season was always going to be one of rebuilding and reshaping. It was also going to require patience on our part, a quality in limited supply in the Goonerverse at the best of times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arteta&#8217;s way of playing football bears \u2014 unsurprisingly \u2014 much resemblance to Pep Guardiola&#8217;s: the balanced, positional play, the build-up from the back even under pressure, the overloads in the centre while maintaining high width and depth, the long diagonal passes to exploit the space that creates; the pressing to regain possession quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a game of fine margins that has to be played at pace, with precision, vision and perhaps most of all, confidence and consistency. It requires players with skill and speed (of which we have many) but also imagination, fleetness of mind, fluidity of movement and a ruthless commitment to the system (of which we have far fewer).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Liverpool defeat confirmed the lack of depth of quality in the squad necessary to play the way Arteta wants. The Slavia Prague draw pointed up two other inescapable lacunae: the intermittency of consistency and intensity, exacerbated by our persistent inability to convert chances into goals and lapses of autopedicide at the other end of the pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Manchester City Arteta came from has international-class plug-and-play replacements for every position. We are still short of having even one, and that at full strength. Take four key players out of the starting line-up that embody various qualities essential to Artetaball \u2014 Saka, ESR, David Luiz and KT3 \u2014 and we get brushed aside as against Liverpool. Take two of the leaders out, and we cannot manage out a game as Slavia Prague&#8217;s late equaliser underlined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further squad reconstruction has to wait until the summer. Tactical and psychological improvement via the training ground will be piecemeal given the schedule of games. Belief in the football the manager wants them to play, executing it with intensity and showing pride in the shirt are in the players&#8217; hands now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so to Bramall Lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has never been a happy hunting ground \u2014 14 wins in 58 visits and 30 defeats, starting with an inauspicious 4-0 thumping three days after Christmas, 1904. The first victory at Bramall Lane would not come until 1912. The second would have to wait until 1927.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The record is as grim in modern times \u2014 thee wins in eleven visits going back to 1981, the last one in 1991. Last season&#8217;s trip added to the catalogue of woe, a 1-0 not to the Arsenal, chronicled by the Guv&#8217;nor in one of his last match reports&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goonerholic.com\/2019\/10\/punchless-gunners-humiliated-again\/\">https:\/\/goonerholic.com\/2019\/10\/punchless-gunners-humiliated-again\/<\/a>&nbsp;and in which he foreshadowed Unai Emery&#8217;s sacking.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That loss also meant that we had made more Premiership visits to Bramall Lane without winning than any other ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If our season has been faltering, United&#8217;s has been calamitous. The Blades have tumbled from mid-table respectability to the bottom of the Premiership to which they returned only last season. The Championship beckons.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Wilder, who took them from League One to the Premiership during his five years in charge, departed last month amid a public and bitter disagreement with owner HRH Prince Abdullah bin Musa&#8217;ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud over strategy and recruitment. Paul Heckingbottom &#8212; the former Barnsley, Leeds and Hibs manager and a man with as proper a Yorkshire name as befits one Barnsley-born \u2014 has replaced him until the end of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alexander Blessin, the 47-year-old German now turning around KV Oostende&#8217;s fortunes in Belgium, is the prince&#8217;s favoured permanent replacement. However, Blessin and his backroom team face employment qualification obstacles in post-Brexit Britain. In which case, United may turn to Slavisa Jokanovic, the former Watford and Fulham manager currently coaching in Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our visit will be caretaker Heckingbottom&#8217;s fourth game in charge. Losses at Leicester and Leeds in the league were interspersed with another at the bus stop in Fulham in the FA Cup. Sunday&#8217;s match will be his first home game, not that home advantage means much this season \u2014 as we well know. Heckingbottom has threatened any players not giving 100% through to the season&#8217;s end with the axe. MA8, please, note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The interim manager has stuck with but simplified the 3-5-2 formation favoured by his predecessor. That secured ninth-place last season, but this season has left United adrift at the bottom of the Premiership since match week eight.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defensive solidity that covered for a paucity of goals has gone. Injuries have repeatedly disrupted a previously settled defence. Lynchpin centre back Jack O&#8217;Connell has been out for the season. The extended absence of Sander Berge, the midfield pivot, has been felt, as has been the inability to deploy regularly Enda Stephens and George Baldock as wing-backs. They were vital in those positions last year to Wilder&#8217;s tactical plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After 30 games in 2019-20, the Blades had scored only 30 goals but conceded just 28 (only title-bound Liverpool had a more miserly defence). This term, the corresponding numbers are 17 and 52. That has translated into 24 defeats at this point versus eight, although 15 were by a single goal, suggesting we face a closely-fought game regardless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have an unhappy knack of helping lowly opponents break such runs of wretched form. We must avoid that this time not just to build self-confidence ahead of the trip to Prague, but also because, of our eight remaining league games, six are against teams currently below us in the table, Everton and the mob from the bus stop in Fulham being the exceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an opportune time to be flat-track bullies. Twenty points from those eight games are the minimum we should look for. That would put a gloss on the season, even if the absence of potential six-pointers in the run-in means that points might advance our league position only modestly unless others Spurz it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Long-term knee injuries rule out David Luiz and Tierney for Sunday. \u00d8degaard&#8217;s ankle is not being risked, with the hope that the Norweigan can make the Prague trip. Arteta will probably start something close to his core team, as is his wont.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Bellerin &#8211; Holding &#8211; Gabriel &#8211; Cedric<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Partey &#8211; Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Saka &#8211; Smith Rowe &#8211; Willian<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">In his pre-match press conference, Arteta suggested that he saw those on the bench as impact players for the later stages of games. So I expect rotation to be limited, perhaps just to Auba and Laca swapping roles, possibly Mari giving Gabriel a break. Pepe and Martinelli would be the likely replacements for one or both of Saka or ESR should they be rested; a full 90 minutes was beyond either on Thursday. We shall need that from both next Thursday. Might we also see the newly re-signed Balogun on the bench?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>The &#8216;holics&#8217; pound<\/strong><br>The bookies have us favourites to fly in the face of history and win. One- and two-nil to the Arsenal are available at around sixes, the more likely, to my mind, 2-1 at eights, None are overly attractive odds. A 3-1 away win at 15s looks more enticing. But that would mean we would have to put the ball in the net!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">I will save for a diversionary summer read the tale of football&#8217;s mid-Victorian transformation from handling and scrimmaging to kicking and passing and the disappearance of the rouge in the process. The order of the day for Sunday is no red-faces and the start of a winning run through to the end of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy the match, &#8216;holics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Coming soon on Goonerholics Forever&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"366\" src=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-07-at-16.14.10.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2698\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-07-at-16.14.10.png 640w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-07-at-16.14.10-300x172.png 300w, https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-07-at-16.14.10-75x43.png 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images I intended to start this preview with a discursion into how football was played under its first set of rules, published in 1858 by the original footballing occupants of the venue for our match on Sunday. However, the wheels came perilously close to coming off our season this past week. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2712"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2728,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions\/2728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}