Ben Meakin and @Panchero discussed Sheffield United’s 2-1 loss to Arsenal in the FA Cup last weekend during a recent edition of the ‘Blades Pod’ podcast.
Sheffield United suffered a third-straight defeat in all competitions on Sunday as a 91st minute Dani Ceballos goal gave Arsenal a 2-1 win over the Blades in this FA Cup Quarter-Final.
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Despite losing this game 2-1, Meakin and @Panchero had some positive words for the Blades’ January signing Sander Berge during this recent edition of the ‘Blades Pod’ podcast.
@Panchero raised the topic of Berge’s performance in this weekend FA Cup loss to Arsenal, saying: “I think the standout – maybe not the best player – but the biggest improvement’s got to be Sander Berge hasn’t it?”
Meakin replied to this by saying: “That was the most exciting of yesterday’s performances, in terms of like – ‘oh hello! This is what we’ve signed!’
“What was interesting for me was, we’ve sort of been saying [that] he’s been shunted into this right-hand midfield role and it’s like – that’s not his game, he’s never played there, he’s more of a deep-lying midfielder.
“Then of course, he is out of necessity slotted into the right side of midfield and it looked absolutely fantastic, easily his best showing for us. Every facet of his game was really, really good and exciting in terms of this like – this is what we saw in those YouTube highlights. This is the guy who can press and win the ball, can carry it, can break lines with his passing, can play the simple ball when he needs to, be a bit of a defensive shield.”
Was Sander Berge Sheffield United's best player versus Arsenal?YES
NO
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TIF Thoughts…
As per WhoScored, Berge, who is currently valued at £18m by Transfermarkt, was introduced to this fixture in the 35th minute of the game to replace John Lundstram.
During his time on the pitch, he made one successful tackle, one successful interception, one key pass, and he also completed two successful dribbles in this game against Arsenal, as per WhoScored. This helped him to earn an average overall rating of 6.85 from this game, which was the sixth-highest rating of any Blades player in this game despite only being introduced in the 35th minute.
With that in mind, it may be understandable why Meakin and @Panchero were impressed by what they saw from Berge in Sunday’s game.