Saint Pete

Ings really not on his game today, let’s be honest.

?? Don’t think we are playing poorly at all. Only thing missing is a bit more sharpness in the box.

Great vision from Adams there again to play Ings in.

Yep, I would be bringing Ings off now with game coming in midweek.

Good example there of how being brave on the ball at the back can draw in the opposition and give you space to then move forward. Good stuff.

Good half, very dominant but we need that second goal. Djenepo could be a useful sub today as Sheffield defenders tire. May be sensible to bring Ings off midway through 2nd half and not stretch him too much so soon after the injury.

I think he's been a good signing so far in the context of what Ralph would have been looking for from him. I think we wanted someone to give us more options in wide positions and up front and that's exactly what he's done. Nice that for once we signed someone ready to come into first team immediately and the amount of time he's spent on the pitch so far suggests Ralph has been happy with him. I would be surprised if we end up signing him permanently though, would think we would look for someone younger on lower wages in the summer.

But in my opinion what you are suggesting is exactly what shouldn’t be happening with VAR and what most fans don’t want. Where is this going? More and more cameras, longer and longer delays while officials pore over them, referring the images backwards and forwards between on-field and off-field refs in order to make marginal and often very subjective decisions that don’t always have a clear-cut right or wrong answer anyway. Looking for 100% perfection from VAR and asking it to officiate on absolutely everything is not the right way to go, it will never resolve things in the way that some want it to and we’ll end up with 3 hour matches! I’m not against VAR as think it is generally helping to get fairer decisions and removing some of the bias towards bigger teams. But it needs limiting to correcting the really clear officiating errors, that was the way it was sold when it was first mooted.

Agree with most of what you said above apart from the first sentence. And the bit about going on to better things in the future. His ego will get the better of him wherever he goes eventually, he just doesn’t seem the type who will work at his game to improve and ultimately that will mean he won’t be popular with managers for too long.

I honestly don’t think anyone would have even spoken of that incident after the game had there been no VAR, I think pretty much everyone (even on here!) would have accepted it was outside the box and they could see why the ref on the field gave a free kick. I think on the whole VAR will prove to be a good thing in the long run, but they should operate it how it was sold in the first place, which was to eliminate the clear howlers made by the on field officials. At the moment, the VARs seem desperate to find things to overturn, often when the “evidence” is very inconclusive, like in this case.

Never ever a penalty that and everything that is wrong about VAR currently, interfering in decisions that it doesn’t need to, where the only clear and obvious thing is that there is no clear and obvious error by the ref! Maybe VAR should make a rule that if they need to review a decision for over a minute, they stay with the refs original decision as it can’t be a clear error if you have to watch it that many times? Having said that, I will take the win and 5th place in the table 😀 Particularly in a game where we really never got going. Very poor in the first half, aside from a superb header from Vestergaard just before half time which is always a great time to score. Our defending worried me all game but nothing unusual in that, apart from the defending from set pieces which was especially atrocious. Not sure who’s idea that high line from free kicks was but it needs a rethink for the next game. From open play, Vestergaard did play well though today, so fair play to him. We were a bit better in second half and the quality and work rate of Ings clearly helped us. Noticeable that others like Armstrong came into the game more once they had Ings buzzing around them. Now that Ings is back, would expect Djenepo to drop out to the bench and Theo to drop back out wide, although I would consider bringing Redmond back in for Theo as well if he is fully fit again.

Why the fuck is Adams playing it backwards when he had acres to turn and go forwards!

We’ll probably need it the way we have defended.

Have to say, if that was at other end I would be livid with that decision.

Great stuff, redmond and Ings. Fancy them to create something here if we can keep the door shut at the other end.

Armstrong getting in the game at last, promising signs.

Better from Armstrong there, close from Theo.

Yup, if we carry on defending set pieces like that we will concede, guaranteed.

I agree we should have made another sub earlier today. But our core problem that generates those stats is that our defence is not consistently strong enough to withstand pressure from quality sides when they up the pace. To beat sides like Utd you will have to withstand pressure vat points of the game no matter what subs you make, and you can't defend like we did for goals 2 and 3. If you do, you will keep losing leads like we do.

Got away with that Vestergaard. Bit shoddy from us so far.

Get the impression Sheff U are good example of team not coping well with behind closed doors football. They look like a side who really need the home crowd factor behind them to generate the energy in their team and help them compete against better technical teams, which they don’t have now.

I know we are all feeling euphoric today but let's be honest, if Man U or another of the usual suspects really did come knocking for Ralph, it's likely he would go and you couldn't really blame him for that. It's just a fact of life. Fortunately I reckon Man U will be more interested in one of our former managers who is freely available at this point so shouldn't be an issue for now. But if we continue this kind of form it's natural one of the "big boys" will come calling at some point. Best thing to do is enjoy Ralph and the team he is building while we can, it's great to watch what he is doing with these players!

Absolutely superb performance from us tonight, especially given we were without 2 of our most important players. Dominated from start to finish and could and should have had more goals. Thought the front 2 were excellent especially Adams in the first half who set the tone and really stepped up his game to show he can lead the line with Ings out. He looks like he belongs in this league now. Djenepo has his best game for quite a while, and Armstrong was lively on the ball throughout. But JWP man of the match for me, unbelievable energy and a real leader of this team now. And as for Ralph, it’s incredible what he is doing with these players. To be honest I still don’t think we have a great squad compared to the quality Poch and Koeman had available to them, so it makes what Ralph is doing right now all the more impressive.

Hmmm, bit surprised at that. Didn't think we would change from the winning team last week. Ralph must be impressed with what he is seeing from Theo so far.

Great finish JWP!!