Apparently Sammut is a deep lying CM so if he's in contention for the first team and we don't have much wiggle room on the wage budget, it'd be madness to sign Dobson instead of a forward. We've already got way too many CMs we don't need another but what we do need is a reliable goalscorer.
Need 3 or 4 more in, can we not have our money back for Wyke and Grigg and tell Ross he must do better this time ?
Player ratings here- https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/20...eres-how-the-lads-rated-in-portuguese-run-out
Looked to me like their keeper made a save in the first half, free kick over the bar and a header over bar. Not so much in the second half but it looked the ball was being played into the right places. Not great but ok ish.
I know, just wanting to see a spark, Embletons through ball was a peach and if Watmore keeps getting into those positions its a positive, not as bad the day after.
Looked like some occasional good football and one or two encouraging performances. Still looked a bit scrappy in places though. Would be happier if there were more than two preseason games to go.
I'm all for signing a striker capable of scoring goals in this league but we need to be careful, we've already done that twice with Grigg and Wyke. Signing another who fails to come up with the goods could demoralise us and cripple our season. What then, bring Grigg or Wyke back in then start looking to the January window. We have enough in this squad to create and score goals. Watmore, Maguire, McGeady, etc plus Grigg and Wyke should guarantee it if we play football and avoid 'mixing it' with teams.
Are four games enough ?. With so many unanswered questions a game or two against lower opposition would not have gone amiss imo, and going on tour seems a bit indulgent, after only one game against South Shields. This , and for me I would prefer Wyke to lead the line, in a 4/5/1 to start with.
We also played a behind closed doors game against some Danish side last Saturday. We can always do that sort of thing again at the Academy if we need to. Aparently we won 2-1 with Grigg and Embleton scoring - according to twitter so dont shoot the messenger.
Sunderland AFC v Belenenses Saturday 20th July - KO 19:30 (BST) - Estádio Municipal de Albufeira please log in to view this image The Black Cats will return to the Estádio Municipal de Albufeira just 48 hours after they played out a goalless draw against Benfica B on Thursday evening. . That saw Jack Ross continue to experiment with a 3-4-3 system as Duncan Watmore rattled the bar and Alim Ozturk flashed a low strike wide. Nearing the end of their European expedition, the Sunderland manager will shake things up once again this evening as he looks to give a number of players more minutes. Jordan Willis is one that Ross has highlighted who will build on his 45 minutes on Thursday, while others like Watmore, Dylan McGeouch, Tom Flanagan, Denver Hume and Luke O’Nien will also be keen for more game time. As for tonight’s opposition, Belenenses finished ninth last time out in the Primeira Liga, with 43 points from 34 games. The game against Sunderland forms part of a torrid schedule for Silas’ side as they’re set to play two games in as many days. The Portuguese outfit will face the Black Cats this evening before taking on Farense tomorrow tonight. A familiar name in the Belenenses ranks is stopper Mika Domingues who previously played for Sunderland between 2016-18. DON'T MISS A KICK We'll be streaming the game live on SAFSEE, with a match pass available for just £5 - more details are available here. Full coverage will be available on the club’s social media channels - @SunderlandAFC. Latest team news ahead of this evening Aiden McGeady could play some involvement - although that is likely to be from the bench Max Power will not feature as he continues to build his way back to full fitness Jon McLaughlin could play a part, having not featured in pre-season so far Bryan Oviedo will return to Sunderland on Thursday after an extended pre-season break
