“Seemed to have the beating of him every time” – Sheffield United fan pundit slams performance of defender in Middlesbrough defeat | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sheffield United were somewhat humbled on their own turf on Wednesday evening as promotion rivals Middlesbrough defeated the Blades 3-1 at Bramall Lane.

Oli McBurnie put the hosts into a very early lead ahead heading in a long throw-in from Jack Robinson, only for Boro to be level at the interval thanks to Chuba Akpom’s 17th league goal of the campaign.

Cameron Archer was the difference for the visitors in the second half with his brace sealing all three points for the Teessiders, and in-turn cut the gap between the two sides to seven points – although United do have a game in-hand also in their favour.

It was a poor performance in general from Paul Heckingbottom’s side, with one player in particular who put in a far-from stellar showing being Max Lowe.

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The left wing-back has cemented his spot in the starting 11 since Enda Stevens picked up an injury and for the most part has performed well, but he had an off night against Boro.

And FLW’s Blades fan pundit Owain Wyse was rather critical of Lowe’s showing on Wednesday night, but doesn’t believe he should be taken out of the team in favour of Rhys Norrington-Davies when the Wales international returns to fitness from a hamstring injury.

“Max Lowe was really poor,” Owain said.

“Firstly, it was his missed tackle on the edge of our own box which led to Boro’s first goal, and Marcus Forss just seemed to have the beating of him every time he got the ball.

“I liked Max’s desire to break forward with the ball, but unfortunately too often his final delivery into the box or the little interplay passes were just misplaced – it just didn’t quite work for him.

“As for Norrington-Davies, I think we will have to wait and see really.

“Rhys was superb before he got injured but that was predominantly in the left centre-half role – I’ve been impressed by Lowe all season, and it wouldn’t be fair to drop him off the back of one game.”

The Verdict

In Heckingbottom’s system, the main role of the wing-back is to provide an attacking outlet and service for the strikers, but Lowe didn’t do that on Wednesday as he only put in two accurate crosses and didn’t even attempt a dribble.

And on the defensive end he was poor too, with the role of Marcus Forss on the right-hand side of an attacking midfield three causing him real issues at the back.

As Owain mentioned, Lowe failed to stop the Finland international from turning him inside out on the flank, which allowed him to slide Akpom in for the equaliser, and it never got any better for the Blades after that.

Lowe will have better matches and easier tasks than he did earlier this week, but he cannot afford to have too many slip-ups as Stevens and Norrington-Davies work their way back to fitness.