we're better than that???????

STEVE Bruce accepted responsibility for Sunderland’s disappointing defeat to newly-promoted Norwich City last night.


“I pick the team, so I have to shoulder the blame,” he said afterwards.

But he could hardly blame himself for the way so many of his players performed under the standards expected of them.

Norwich’s enthusiasm and application seemed to stop Sunderland in their tracks and too many of the visiting players seemed to wilt under the pressure they were put under.

Instead of stamping their Premier League authority on the game, Sunderland went into siege mode, hurrying and misplacing passes as the waves of yellow shirts beat down on them.

And in the end, no one could argue that they hadn’t been well-beaten on the night – not even their manager.

“If we are going to be honest we didn’t play well enough,” admitted Bruce.

“Too many players were below par and the number of times we turned over possession and gave it away, we made it a difficult night for ourselves. We had a bit of a rally when we got a goal in the dying minute but it was too late by then.

“I can’t criticise my players’ work-rate and effort to get something out of the game but the mistakes we made cost us, simple mistakes.

“Norwich are on the crest of the wave at the moment and played very well. We expected them to.

“They are newly-promoted, they are at home but we needed to be bigger than that.

“Big players, international players haven’t performed on the night.”

Bruce was as subdued as he has been all season – as reserved as he was after the defeat to Newcastle – as frustration bubbled under.

He had fielded the same team which had swept away Stoke on its last outing but saw it perform at nowhere near the level needed on the night.

And the two goals conceded to the Canaries just about summed up Sunderland’s below par performance on the night.

“We’re disappointed with them because they’re bad goals to concede,” he said.

“We haven’t picked up in the box for the one-two for the first one, and then we haven’t gone with the runners for the second.

“Simple things, basic things really in terms of defence and we haven’t done them. We need to be better than that


No ****......

But why was the team that battered the Stoke bullies, so damn weak against what is a pretty average team?

Blame Bruce, but also have a look at the one's on the pitch.

 

I was very dissappointed with the lack of fight it was as if beating Stoke had put things right.

 

Certain players looked dissinterested last nite, however the majority of those players were brought in by Bruce, and some of those players (Bendtner, Gardner, Larsson, Bramble) openly stated that Steve Bruce was one of the major reasons they joined the club. So if he cant even motivate players that were desperate to work with him then it doesnt say much.

However altho Bruce is rightly taking a lot of the flack for our performance last night, the 11 anonymous highly paid players also need to take a good hard look at themselves as a large portion of the blame resides with them.

 

Ultimately Bruce is responsible for those players, whoever and however they are.

 

i think the problem was we sank to there level, and to be honest there level is prity poor!! we started really well but we only had one up top so it was always going to be hard..

 

It looked liked they spent the last week patting each other on the back like wed won the league. We beat a Stoke team who looked like they didn't really give a ****e after a great start to the season and a big game against Man U to think about. We lost Because bruce was incapable of changing the set up when it was obvious it wasn't working. Their fullbacks had us pinned in our half, Bendtner was having to come deep and there was no one beyond him, it was a shambles and everyone could see it apart from the one man that could have actually changed it.

 

You have to look at the manager anytime more than 1 or 2 people in a side are off key at once, it's his job to motivate.

Someone above mentions Gardner, and although i won't shoot the lad in the head at this point, you could say the bullets are ordered.

He's been ****ing woeful, and he was one of those i was excited about.

Were we all sucked in by '10 goals in a **** team'? He needs to act sharp or that'll be the tag.

 

Sshh don't mention tags, and especially rep..

 

I wouldn't place too much emphasis on that - it's just PR stuff you say when you join a new club. Bent said the same sort of thing about Rafa when he joined Villa. Gyan said he was proud to go to Al-Ain when, in reality, he'd probably never heard of them a week earlier. The days of Len Shackleton are gone. Today's players are high-profile show-biz personalities with cameras forever on them. They do a PR job that players of the past never dreamt of.

 

So we're ," better than that" , are we ? Sorry Steve , but I'm afraid we aren't.

It was a poor result and a poor performance. End of.

 

this

 

Better than him whining like a little girl, about the nasty media picking on him!