Two good posts Nacho. Fulwell Bri reminds me so much as our old mucker The Little General, never able to see anything positive about Ross. Bear in mind we've played something like 70 games under Jack and our defeats number in single figures so in my book he's doing something right. He doesn't get it right all the time but show me a manager who does. It really is time some of our fans realised this division is a hard slog and we've no right to expect to win every week but these fans still feel we should be doing so by blowing teams away by 4,5,6 or more which is totally disrespectful to the other teams in this league.
Strange that luton, barnsley and charlton were all able to do it in this league. And on a comparative shoe string. Wilder did it with sheff utd when in this league in his first season. As for maja, I doubt ross had 1 single thought that benefited the lad other than give him a start because he bought ( knowingly ) an unfit injured striker. Maja was the epitome of serendipity. We can be thankful mama had the great fortune to watch at a close range the incomparable defoe
Aye let's give the credit to Defoe for playing Maja and training out his weaknesses Anyone but Ross hey. The teams that went up ahead of us were better teams who were better equipped for the league and deserved to go up, it's pretty simple. It's difficult when your goalscorer leaves and you don't adequately replace them, which absolutely was a failing on Ross' part, on paper Grigg should have been banging them in for fun but safe to say that didn't happen.
Defoe did have Maja and Asoro in for specialist training to be fair while he was here, I personally think Ross is doing OK but he needs to do better, Ipswich are looking like they could run away with it this year, we dont, and the failure of Ross to find a settled formation is holding us back. The defence is now looking very good get the other two departments sorted and we should join Ipswich at the top before Xmas. If he cant do this with the players available, fitness alowing, he shoud go.
I remember Defoe doing some one to one stuff with Maja and Asoro but he was probably asked to do so by the manager. It's bizarre not to give credit to a manager for being the first to put faith in a young player and working closely with them to improve their weaknesses. The manager gets praised for it every time as long as people don't have an agenda. I think if we add one quality goalscorer for the level we'll go up with Ross but I agree that if we're adrift by Christmas and we've got the new owners in it'd be sensible to get someone else in.
Moyes was manager when we had Defoe and I ain’t crediting that ****er with anything. All on Jermaine
I league game that defence has had. C macglaughlin has already had several shockers. I'll reserve judgement that the defence has settled for a few more games. We still managed to concede a goal. Some blame the gk for it. Surprised JM has any nerves left given the amount of change in front of him courtesy of ross. He must be shot to pieces. But maybe the fact we concede is due to ross's love of hoofball which we reverted to in the second half. Striker wise he hasnt a clue. Hoofball doesnt suit grigg. It doesnt suit any striker unless they are a big lump of willing muscle which he isnt. An excellent article in RR expertly pointed out that our effectiveness in scoring is due in main to the technical quality of macgeady and maguire. Last season and this we dont any where near top the charts for shots on target but the quality we have means we have a better chance of putting them away. Nowt to do with ross or his style of play. CM wise he is still like a dog with 2 whatnots. He is consistent in acquiring small slow players for that position. Such players are easily overrun and pressured when the opposition fights back, hence the number of draws. But hey poor jack has only had 70 odd games, the biggest budget, best facilities and inheriting players like catts, oviedo, honeyman, gooch ( both very good before ross got his hands on them ) maja, embleton, hume macgeady. He's a joke
I agree, and so far he is working well with Hume, and I hope before long he follows suit with Embleton, Mumba and Robson, who I rate as highly as I did Maja and Asoro at a similar stage of their development.
You make very good points here for the prosecution, and Natcho makes a spirited defence, so like you, I think we should all wait a while longer before we reach any verdict, its all part of the endless fascination of being a Sunderland supporter.
When Maja played infrequently in the Championship he looked like a little boy lost. Asoro looked more likely to succeed with his pace than Maja ever did. he started scoring goals once Jack had given him a decent run of games which he didn't get under our previous two managers, however apart from his goals he didn't add anything to the team, he didn't run off the ball or hold it up, he learnt that on the training ground under the guidance of Jack Ross and his coaching staff and he was bang at it when he decided to walk away from our club, which wasn't Jack Ross's fault. The signing of Grigg is another matter entirely and will remain a mystery as to why he's not produced what we all thought he would.
Now we've got De Bock it should make Hume's development a bit smoother, tough situation being thrown in at the deep end out of necessity but he's been protected as much as possible. Didn't help that the players clearly didn't know what they were doing in defence with 5 at the back. If he gets the same bespoke training that Maja did I think he'll turn into a real player. I think Robson scored the other day for Grimsby, shame we couldn't play him instead but when it comes to CMs we've got too many of the buggers.
Maja looked lethal in his first preseason after working with Defoe, it was Coleman who brought in some rubbish loanees which restricted both Maja and Asoro's progress at the time, and Maja hit goals for Ross the minute he got into the side which was more by default than design.
I read somewhere that Hume was a midfield player when he joined the club, similar to Mumba but the coaches played him at full back as they are now doing with Mumba, strange tactics if so.
That's what I'd do with him, bring him on as a sub to replace the LM/LW/whatever. He doesn't look ready to own the LB spot yet but game time will do him good obviously and he can learn from De Bock who looks like a sensible lad. If nothing else Hume's a racehorse of a player and the last person you want galloping at you after 70 tiring minutes.
What I like about Hume is the quality of his passing both long and short range,( bit of the Henderson about him), he like Robson and Embleton are exciting prospects imo.and are ready to play some part at first team level this season and beyond. Its a pity both lost the chance to establish themselves through injury but all four could be part of a brighter future at Sunderland, injury permitting, in the very near future.
