What was good last night was that the SAME team took the pitch as Sunday when we won and looked pretty decent. What was not good was the way we played last night, and the apparent inability of ALL involved to get things right. These are important times, not crucial or vital yet, but certainly important. Teams are not relegated after 5 games, nor after 10, but can leave a team in a position where it is very hard to acheive the seasons aims. It is up to both the management AND the players to look at themselves, sort out what is going wrong and put it right. They are all highly paid professionals who ostensibly "love the game" and want to win, well now is the time for them to show that they are worth it. I'm going to nail my colours to the mast. I do not want any changes in personnel (except in the Jan window) and will stick by SB until the end of the season - irrespective of where we are. Why?? I support SAFC and WILL give 100% support to that end. There is always room for constructive comments and criticism, but not for totally OTT and near bigoted slatings. I am SAFC 'til I die KTF
Inability to pass the football quickly was incredible. I don't know the end of game stats but I thought you had plenty of the ball, you just couldn't do nowt with it. Have to say I'm still not convinced with Gardner. He'll run all day but barely takes part in the game. He's living off a few goals last season. You needed a creator in there who could get his foot on the ball and get some little triangles going to shift people around and make space. Bruce hasn't the foggiest for me. Kieron Richardson will never ever be a full back. The lad is being made to look a fool and his body language last night suggested he knew it. He's clearly got a good attitude as I haven't heard much moaning in the papers etc, but I'd be livid if I was having my pro career pissed about with. Just put O'Shea there until January and be done with it. I thought Turner looked a good centre back and thought him and Brown would make a more solid pairing. Titus will always drop clangers like last night now and again. Also why does Larsson play left? All his best work in his career has been done from the right. Maybe the Egytian kid could drop to full back to allow O'Shea to move over. The bright side is Wickham and Dong. I've always liked Wickham and he took up good areas last night. He nearly scored from the Egyptian lads cross but closed his eyes! I really like the Korean kid, he came on and suddenly Sunderland had movement. I'd probably play him ahead of Wickham simply because he brings something you need, movement. I think Sessegnon is a good player but could only see him used at the front of a diamond in a narrow midfield (Cattermole sitting) or out wide left. Him and Bendtner were not great but the service was poor and Sessegnon looks ill suited to a forward role. Just seems like so many things he's getting wrong before you even take to the pitch. His transfer work has been lopsided and not filled the key gaps. He's bought the wrong type of central midfielder. He plays players out of position almost as much as Sam Allardyce! You're not as bad as you currently look, I have no doubt we'll see an upturn when he is sacked. He will be because some American billionnaire is not going to be satisfied with the crap Bruce is serving up.
But the point is warm pouch, the point that puzzles me, is for all of what you say, that team last night is the one that looked very good a week ago.
Spot on analysis. Syd, what it shows is that Stoke was a fluke and a 'good time to play them' situation. The Stoke team that played Man Utd at the weekend would have walloped us. Its buggered for Bruce and although we may not actually be relegated (we could be mind), we WILL definitely be in the bottom half and fighting relegation all this season imo. We are now already, being 1 point off the bottom 3 now after 6 league games and the trend of play has been the same for 9 months now, not 5 weeks. We have now LOST 14 of the last 26 games in all competitions, winning just 7. If thats not relegation form then I'm at a loss as to what is. No on denies that to start the team that won 4-0 was correct. What concerns me is that when it was obvioulsy going tits up, no effort was made to change it until 16 mins from the end and then it was kitchen sink and panic time. It was knackered at half time. EVERYONE could see that except the man in charge. When will you declare we are in the fight? April? May?
I know what you mean and I don't want to take anything away from your result, but they are in their first season or European football, and had travelled to eastern europe. I'm a bit old school and wonder how they can't cope, but all the bosses say its a killer and the physical output stats back it up. If I look back to when we were in Europe (some time ago now!), we always struggled the week after. Its even tougher now and certainly when you consider they are experiencing something new. Put it this way I won't be disappointed if we get them after a European week! Even the likes of Ferguson make wholesale changes, its just they have the quality throughout to cope. He must take the lion share of the blame but I have to say though they kept the ball alright, the lack of drive from players who have had a nice break and should be chomping at the bit, was not acceptable to Sunderland fans. I was sat with two and after 15mins, one said "we're going through the ****ing motions here".
You guys might have a touch of the old "Stoke-itis". Can put together a top performance at home, but when it comes to away matches, things just seem to fall apart much easier. I guess we'll see whether that's true over the next few games.
I hope the clubs owner doesn't wait until its too late as well then. 6 league games. 1 point above relegation zone. 1 win, 4 defeats and 2 draws. The team look shell shocked and disorganised and are playing without heart, fight or spirit. We have lost 14 of the last 26 games dating back 9 months and won only 7. I'd hate to see what you really thought relegation form was Syd, if your comfortable with the current situation.
Our home form is the one thing I have most concern over. Its been absolutely shocking since January. Since Jan 2011 we have: P 13 W 3 D 1 L 9 If its our home form that will save us this year, then we are already well and truly ****ed.
Norwich played better than us really thats about it, they scored by utilising width (Which we have none). The one time we did shift the ball to the flanks we scored, its not rocket science. Some of the relegation crack is mental! Sort your heads out man and **** the Mags.
Hey its all about opinions mate. You think it could be simply solved and will be okay. I think it ****ed and a relegation scrap looms large and wide. Its all about opinions though right, although what '****ing the mags' will actually do to help our current playing situation has baffled me somewhat?
I thoght Elmo put in some good crosses, but the Norwich player covering him did a very good job and limited Elmo very well. Richardson was good imo, so was Oshea. Bramble and Brown made a few mistakes between them - for example, when Mig was nearly caught out in the first few minutes 1) Bramble screwed up his header 2) Brown wasnt awake enough to cover it and the Norwich player was quicker off the mark. Bendtner was good, Sess was not up to his usual standard (in fact i would say he was poor) Gardner? was he even playing? Vaughn, Larsson were good in the 1st half, ineffective in the 2nd (Vaughn played better in the latter stages of the 2nd half) Overall: Poor team performance, in fact it was the worst of the season so far, and Bruce was obviously pissed off with the players (Hence Richardsons apology to the fans in the media this morning) Now that Bruce is pissed off with the performance (he was happy with previous ones, just disappointed with the results), lets how he and the team react.
Why play play Elmo on the right forcing Seb out of position. Not only is Elmo not good enough it aslo detracts from Seb's natural game, a double whammy just to accomodate a very poor player. Richardson must start left side, ok, he is no world beater but he offers a hell of a lot more than Elmo does and the balance of the team is much improved.....If not Richardson becasue we are short at teh back give the young Irish lad a chance. HE can't do any worse than the Egyptian Beckham. I always support manangers but my support is getting less and less after each game and if he was sacked tomorrow my general feeling would be one of sadness that it had come to that but also of relief. The team need a shot in the arm, some enthusiasm, some passion from somewhere and I just can't see him delivering it.
I think your letting reputation cloud your judgemetn on that one, he was very poor lst night, distribution was terrible and he never got close enough to his man all night.
I would agree but they did well a week earlier. I am a fan of Richardson and think he suffers from being played in the wrong place.
Richardson was our best defender??????? Bloody hell we watched a completely different match Syd. For 89 minutes Richardson was his usual inept self, then a a badly defended shot come cross deflected into the goal will make him brilliant in peoples eyes again.
Richardson was poor, as a defender, but he made 3-4 great overlapping runs, and larsson just didnt pass to him, he went inside to Vaughan instead, he even apologised once to Richardson for doing it. I can see why Bruce plays him there, but he cant defend and he looks panicked when the ball comes to him in that position if there is an opponent near him, but his pace when on the overlap can be an asset, we just never used it last night.
I am afraid its looking like Stoke were knackered from their European trip Syd. Hope I am wrong and it all comes good against WBA and we smash them but I am not holding my breath. At least Richardson showed he can strike a ball, an ability lacking last night in most of our attack.
