Ok, Blades fan here, didn't want to write loads on initial message as it said on the bottom of the page I didn't have enough credit to message! So hope I hope this lands and I hope you don't mind an opposing fan on here, but I just thought it may be of interest as a Blades fan and also to just give an alternative views on yesterday. I've read through the Views From City on our forum, I notice it's got a mention on here with the comment "what a bunch of vaginas! on here! Lol.
Fans will always see their own club's perspective and generally defend their club to the hilt solely because it's their club. I am a very passionate Blades fan but like to think I am fairly balanced in my view also.
So from reading the City fans views on yesterday's match which I thought was a really great match to watch, and there's a few things City fans said which I wanted to respond to, hope this is not seen as a dig back, it's not intended.
Firstly the "parking the bus". I was surprised at how most City fans on here were critical of us parking the bus which I will admit we did, and I think we did it reasonably well for the most part. Yes City could have ran out 4/5 nil winners but we limited City to less chances than we would have done had we "had a go". There's no way on God's earth that we could have "had a go" , we'd have ended up losing by a ridiculous margin! When you're playing a team of City's quality you can only sporadically attack and have to be so careful to not lose possession when doing so because one intercepted pass when we're attacking and City are straight back at you and they'll just pick us off. The only chance is to limit the space both in behind and just in shear numbers. I saw one City fan saying that if you attack then you can get something out of the game like what Leicester and Brighton did. Leicester may have got relegated but the team they had last season is a lot more experienced and with big players than what we have, same for Brighton. It was not cowardly to do so as one City fan said, it's the only sensible option.
To compare us to Stoke as one or more City fan did on our style of play I thought was a tad harsh to say the least! Yes we have a long throw, why not use it because it causes teams problems. You can say it's primitive but if you have a player who can do it and you've very little times when you're going to get into the oppositions box then I'd say the long throw is an ideal opportunity to gain 20 or so more yards up the pitch and an opportunity for a flick on or lay off for a shot.
Some City fans rightly acknowledge that we're not even as strong as last season yet because we've lost Ndiaye and Berge and as you know Doyle and McAtee, but we're getting stronger now with new recruits. Therefore even more so we have to play defensively, we've had so many injuries this season already, we've got two 20 year olds up top, one we signed from Sweden, the other is a youth product who isn't ready yet for PL football in Osula but he's learning. So when McBurnie came on as you saw, there's an added dimension and in future weeks and as the season goes on I think we'll cause some teams problems more than what we can do to City with the team we had out yesterday still 3/4 or more short of what it needs to be.
Why do our fans boo Grealish? For starters this goes way back to when he played for Villa and his theoretical throwing himself to the ground and as he did yesterday rolling around with arm up in the air and then minutes later he's back on running full pelt. Now don't get me wrong, most players now exaggerate fouls, but Grealish is always going to be the type of player who gets stick for this because: A he's very good at winning fouls, and B he's a dangerous player; you can't just let him drift past you at will. So yes, as a team we are physical, we will make fouls at times which stop City, you have to be to compete with City, we've just got promoted and have a tiny budget, if we played less physically and out from the back all the time, we'd have been screwed by City's players and City's press would kill us trying to play out from the back like what Burnley are trying to do. Personally re Grealish, I didn't boo him, I don't boo players as a rule, and I have always rated Grealish and think he's underused for England. I also think as a bloke he seems a good lad, however football fans as a whole focus on what they see on a pitch and as I say Grealish is someone who does make a meal of fouls, it's one of his biggest assets winning fouls in attacking positions and presumably the rolling on the floor is just part of the process, but expect fans to give some banter on it, boos etc!
The "where were you when you were s@@t" song: This is something I would imagine many fans sing against City because that's football, it's banter, whether it's strictly true is almost irrelevant because fans will sing all against the teams they play on the day, City is no different to any other cub we'll face. Again, I didn't actually sing this because I recognise that City fans were there in the darker times, but I would add, Man City is a huge, huge football club with a huge area to pull fans from in the north-west. It doesn't surprise me City got 36,000 in League One because City fans are loyal and as I say you've got a huge fan base, but in fairness Leeds dropped to around 20,000 when they were there at times which shows a more fickle fan base.
We're not like Leeds as a club as one fan said, just because we sung "where were you when you were s@@t" and Yorkshire, Yorkshire. Leeds is a very different club to us, they see themselves as the flag bearers for Yorkshire, the "Pride of Yorkshire/one team in Yorkshire". We are a very down to earth fan base, we've got here on merit and there's no divine right to be in the PL which Wednesday and Leeds fans have generally thought "that's where they belong", no team belongs there unless you deserve to get there. I appreciate City will enjoy matches possibly more v the better teams in the top 7/8 who can compete better than we can and give you a more exciting end to end game, games against the lower sides are often a comfortable affair like v Burnley, but I would have thought the fact we kept the game tight was actually more satisfying a win than v a team where it's more comfortable.
Finally, we are grateful to City for Doyle and McAtee, United and City appear to have a very good relationship and for Pep to trust United with City players is something that is a huge benefit to us as a club and even if McAtee and Doyle don't make it at City, the two players really enjoyed their time with us last season and we increased their value whilst with us.
As for City, it's still the City of old that I preferred with Rosler, Quinn, and the Kippax, the City that I respected in particular. I'm not saying that City fans are now glory hunters, it's always been a massive club, I just think the City of old was more heroic, but at the same time in todays era you can't win without huge money. Whether this is good for the game is arguable, high ticket prices, money spent on transfers and wages is out of control and we need great control of this in my view. I digress now and this is a very long post. Take care, Blades fan.
