Sunderland host Oxford United at The Stadium of Light in Skybet League One Last time out Sunderland beat Hartlepool United and Oxford drew with Solihull in pre-season friendlies. Sunderland have had a busy transfer window, losing among others Ruiter, Cattermole, Oviedo & Matthews but adding new blood in Burge, Dobson, Willis & McNulty. Oxford have lost Gavin Whyte, Charlie Raglan and Curtis Nelson. They have added Ben Woodburn, Chris Cadden, Tariq Fosu and signed Alex Gorrin, formerly of Sunderland academy. Jack Ross: “I spoke to George last night and sometimes you have to make big decisions. For George, it was a busy day, a lot for him to process." “He is just having his medical today. I would be reluctant to get too far ahead. When it is confirmed we will look at it properly from there.” “Duncan, Chris, Aiden and Max have had pre-season injuries, but we’re hoping that they’ll be around the squad. Duncan trained today without a reaction so that puts him in and around the squad.” “We have worked hard at it (defending), for us to be flexible, getting the personnel to fit the system is important, and I feel that we have that.” "We are getting better at it, we still need to improve in certain areas but we restricted Heerenveen (on Saturday) and still managed to create chances. To finish in the top two you need about 20 clean sheets. We only had 13 last year.” Karl Robinson: "Sunderland’s almost a free hit really because we’ve had so much activity, you can’t expect to click your fingers and all of a sudden players understand what the people are doing next to them. It will take a lot of hard work on the training ground.” “We need more players, we know that. We need four still and that’s hard for everyone, but we have to make sure that we stick with each other right now. It’s hard, but people who really have the club in their hearts have to stick together and believe in each other. Whatever gets said, negative or positive, I don’t care. It’s about one thing - the badge. “We have to be sustainable and believe in what we do. Are we frustrated? Yes, all of us, but we can’t just click our fingers and magic something special. That doesn’t happen unfortunately. We have got to make sure that we keep doing the right things. That means continuing to find the right players. We are working extremely hard and will get it right.” Prutton predicts: 2-0 Match Appointments: Referee: PETER WRIGHT Assistants: Stephen Wade and David Benton Fourth Official: Dean Hulme Team Line ups Sunderland: J.McLaughlin, C.McLaughlin, Flanagan, Willis, Hume, Leadbitter, O’Nien, Dobson, Maguire, McNulty, McGeady Subs: Burge, Ozturk, McGeouch. Gooch, Embleton, Watmore, Grigg Injured: Honeyman , Wyke, Robson, Loovens Oxford United Eastwood, Cadden, Dickie, Moore, Ruffels, Hanson, Gorrin, Woodburn, Brannagan, Fosu, Mackie Subs: Stevens, Long, Mousinho, Hall, Henry, Napa Injured: Baptiste Betting Odds: Sunderland 8/13 Oxford 17/4 Draw 11/4 My two pence: At last the waiting is over and the footy season is about to kick-off. Hopefully we get off to a good start at home. Oxford gave us a tough time of it last season, but like us they have lost a few of their key players and somehow managed to get Ben Woodburn on loan from Liverpool. They have also just signed a young defender, Elliot Moore, from Leicester. My guess is a 3-1 win Ha’way the Lads
Is McGeady match fit? If not, swap him and Watmore around. I'd also swap in Embleton for either power or mcgeouch. But we're looking good in any case imo
McGeady, Watmore and Power should be available according to Jack Ross - not sure about match fit though.
Looking forward to the season starting but looking more forward to seeing Jack's starting eleven. he's got some big decisions to make and I hope he gets it right first time. 2-0 to the lads.
I'm just guessing - It's hard to tell at the moment, I don't think Jack Ross knows either. I've updated the bench to swap Embleton for Power. You have a point about Ozturk - I suppose he might get ahead of Baldwin given that his mistake lead to one of Hartlepool's goals on Monday.
Great job RTB. Good to see your standards haven't slipped. I think that line-up is right, although Ozturk on the bench rather than Baldwin maybe Power in the middle for Grant and just go at the ****ers from the off.
There are a lot of options at present for most positions, not at all sure what the best eleven will be tbh. We will know better after a game or two. .
3-1 the Lads and me bang in the **** for cancelling the Sunday dinner out I promised the bird due to a crippling hangover. Nice.
