Burnley v Sheffield United - Player Ratings

[claretspice]

Sending off or not, the better side won.

Muric - 7 - nothing to do with his hands, swept up and distributed well in the main (albeit with the odd casual moment) and a superb tackle come block at 1-0.

Roberts - 8 - he revelled in the space he was afforded down the right side and showcased a terrific range of passing.

Maatsen - 6 - a mixture of some outstanding long range passing, effective forward runs, and some slightly shaky defensive moments.

THB - 7 - slightly limited by his early booking, although he generally did what defending was asked of him well enough, and he produced a superb cross for the opener.

Beyer - 7 - a very steady night's work, one dodgy back pass aside.

Cork - 7 - a really composed first half, especially in the first 10 minutes when we were put under a little pressure, but understandably hooked when the shape of the game changed.

Cullen- 9 - conductor operations expertly once again.

Brownhill - 7 - neat and tidy with the odd useful switch of play, although he passed up a few opportunities to shoot.

Tella - 9 - forced the sending off, got the assist for the first goal and generally terrorised both full backs in turn with his direct running, whilst his defensive diligence was once again outstanding.

Foster- 7 - neat and tidy and unlucky a couple of times, but still a bit diffident around the box and needs to impose himself more.

Barnes - 5 - worked hard enough and occupied defenders but his link game was shabby by his recent standards and he wasn't really a goal threat. Perhaps the emotion of Friday night caught up a bit.

Benson - 7 - occupied defenders without particularly stretching them, and a couple of nice crosses - notably for the second goal.

Gudmundsson- 9 - two fabulous finishes and generally added the extra attacking craft we were after.

Taylor - 7 - solid enough.

With hindsight Fotheringham might regret giving away the red card and forcing Sheffield U to play with 10 - from then the result was a formality. However even before the goal we'd begun to establish control and test their ponderous back line in behind and so at 1-0 up you'd have been very confident in our ability to kick on and win at least as comfortably as we ultimately did against a low block. There wasn't too much wrong in the first half but the extra direct threat added by the subs added an extra dimension that the 10 men just couldn't handle. All in all a really satisfying night's work.

[Duffer_]

Tella - 9 - forced the sending off, got the assist for the first goal and generally terrorised both full backs in turn with his direct running, whilst his defensive diligence was once again outstanding.

verb: Tellarise
create and maintain a state of extreme fear and distress in opposition defences

[bfcmik]

Muric 8
Roberts 7
Harwood Bellis 6
Beyer 7
Maatsen 8
Cork 6
Cullen 8
Brownhill 6
Tella 7
Foster 6
Barnes 7

Benson 7
Gudmundsson 8

Atmosphere 3

[Dark Cloud]

Strangely I find I agree with bfcmik above regarding the atmosphere. I thought after Friday and with the opposition we had, it would have been electric and it was actually very (weirdly!) subdued.

[nil_desperandum]

Roberts - 8 - that one dodgy back pass aside, he revelled in the space he was afforded down the right side and showcased a terrific range of passing.

Beyer - 7 - a very steady night's work.

Generally agree your posts but I think you've got this one wrong.
I don't recall a dodgy back pass from Roberts, and if there was one it was certainly nowhere near as bad as Beyer's where Muric got him off the hook.
I suspect you've got the wrong man there.

[claretspice]

Generally agree your posts but I think you've got this one wrong.
I don't recall a dodgy back pass from Roberts, and if there was one it was certainly nowhere near as bad as Beyer's where Muric got him off the hook.
I suspect you've got the wrong man there.

Happy to correct the record - my mistake. I thought Beyer's back pass was Roberts'.

[bfcjg]

Muric 8
Roberts 8
Harwood Bellis 7
Beyer 8
Maatsen 7
Cork 6
Cullen 8
Brownhill 7
Tella 7
Foster 6
Barnes 7

Benson 7
Gudmundsson 9 mom.