Sheff Utd season ticket holder giving his feedback on your players.
McAtee
He came to us with a big reputation but we've had Liverpools high rated Ben Woodburn on loan a few years ago and he was surprisingly poor, like a rabbit in the headlights looking like a boy trying to play against men.
He made his debut away to Luton playing in Berge's more advanced role whilst Berge was asked to play more defensive. Luton were up for it, playing a really high tempo closing us down all over the pitch. First half we really struggled as the match became fast and furious reminiscent of a 80's match. McAtee struggled really badly, he missed placed passes and was knocked off the ball with ease. I bet he's never played in a match like it as he made was made to look like a little boy trying to play against men. In fairness to McAtee the whole midfielder was poor as we struggled to string 3 passes together. However what was alarming was just how poor McAtee was a dead ball situations. All his corners failed to beat the first man and his free-kicks were poor too. Another weakness was his temperent, he lost the ball then committed a bad foul getting booked. He looked like a walking time bomb ready be be sent off. So Sheff Utd did the right thing to sub him off at half time. It was a debut to forget and I reckon McAtee can't believe how poor he was, a real wake up call and test of character.
Some of our fans were blaming the manager for playing him in an away match against a very physical Wimbledon style team, where it would be a really tough test. However some of our fans praised Heckingbottom saying how he will have learnt so much in those 45 minutes. Also football is as much about character as it is ability. So when everything goes wrong in a match it's a real downer. You can bet McAtee isn't used to being a failure, so again great learning experience. Some of our fans on the forum have had the temerity to write him off, saying he could be another Ben Woodburn, very talents but not able to cope with the Championship.
Anyhow last night he came on as sub against Reading for the last 15 minutes whilst we were 3-0 up.
His first real touch was dribbling past their right back down the wing and whipping in a great cross for a header where we almost scored. He then played in midfield and looked really confident, with great control and nice passing.
Think last night was really important to him as it get the train back in the tracks after his dreadful debut.
There was 2 significant events in last nights match involving McAtee.
On the 85th minute he walked over to the corner flag near the Kop and he received a standing ovation of support from everyone at that end of the ground. Nice to see he's receiving support after last week.
Also again around the 85th minute there was almost a scuffle breaking out between Brewster and a really big Reading defender. McAtee was quite close by and he ran to break up the players then stood in front of the massive Reading player as tho he was breaking up a fight. Looked quite funny because McAtee still looks like a little boy on the pitch.
Regards the McAtee move don't judge our style of play on the appalling Luton display. Although to be fair to Luton they closed up down and totally stifled us. Check any stats site and it shows we usually play a nice keep possession passing game. We also have some high quality players so McAtee should feel at home. Think 2 of our players (N'Diaye and Ahmedhodzic) will eventually play for a top 6 Premier team. You never know one day one of these might even play for City.
