In pre-season i commented on how i didnt rate John O'Shea and a lot of people on these forums had a dig at me and stated that i hadnt a clue because a player that has won so many trophies clearly has to be a good player. Based upon the Norwich game and yesterdays game i think my comments have been justified. In all my years supporting Sunderland i have never seen someone so uncomposed on the ball. Even in the Peter Reid era i dont think i have seen someone hoof the ball up field so much. Everytime he got the ball i would turn to say to my brother-in-law 'here we go, lump it up' and everytime he proved me right. You would honestly think we had paid 5 mil for Brown and 1 mil for O'Shea based upon performances so far. I think part of the reason we have had such a poor start is Bruce's sheer arrogance of not playing players in there proper positions. Richardson is not a LB, Larrson is not a LW, Sessegnon is not a striker and the 4-5-1 clearly doesnt work. Another thing that baffled me was, why,ohh,why bring a meyler on with 2 minutes to go? Surely Wickham would have been a better option to try and win the game. On a positive note, Bendner's hold-up play was fantastic and if we played another forward upfront with him i think we could start threatening games but at the moment the negative tactics is proving we have no killer instinct.
Must admit, I'm not convinced on OShea at full back and I was a fan of him coming, funny how Oshea was the star and Brown the concern, maybe not now.
I think you are a bit harsh on O`Shea but I will admit I was a lot more excited about Brown out of the 2 (i seemed to be the only one though) Whickam was injured and wasnt even on the bench yesterday, so not sure how he could have brought him on, and isnt that what most managers do anyway, player coming back from a long injury, they stick them on with a couple of minutes to go, to get a taste for it again but with no serious concerns of getting injured.
Brown AND O'shea (and Bendtner) are class. 2 sometime 3 moves ahead of certain players in our team. Lets hope the 3 of them can drag some others up to their level of play and not the other way round. Here's hoping.
I didnt realise Whickham wasnt on the bench as i came through the turnstile late and missed the subs. Yes, you maybe bring players on with a couple of minutes remaining if you are winning the match but at 2-2 in a game we should be winning, i dont think so. Its negative tactics and shows Bruce was quiet happy with the draw.
but we didnt have another striker to bring on, ji was aready on, only other attacking player was mclean and as he hasnt had any minutes at all yet...
John O'Shea is a class above most players in the team, probably all players except Brown and Bendtner, as you say. If O'Shea is not playing very well (which i disagree with), it's because of those players around him. If we start questioning players like O'Shea, we've got no chance. O'shea plays direct passes, rather than long hopeful punts to nobody. His passes always have a target, and i'm sure they'd be more successful if there were more happening ahead of him. I thought Cattermole was very poor yesterday and couldn't believe we'd dropped Vaughan. Vaughan had been such a feature of our possession in the Stoke and Norwich game. We'd not have raced into a 2 niil deficit had he started instead of Cattermole.
He has played 2 games since injury and had no pre season. I think it's a bit to early to write him off.
wickham was not on the bench due to injury,also i believe o'shea played a lot of games at left back not right back.
Nobody happy with 4-4-1-1 or 4-5-1. Go 4-3-2-1 Ricco isnt a left back. Stick him with Sess behind Bendy and give them a free role. Radical but anythings better than at the mo. Turner got better as the game wore on yesterday, however, imo you need somebody with pace alongside him.
It's a shame (because I like him) but Catts days are numbered. I think he could be one of the next to go. Colback (imo) has caught and passed him by and I'm not sure how he doesn't get in the team before him. BUT and it is a big BUT Maylor is a better player than both. When he gets up to speed I can see him getting in and staying in. All being well with his past injury problems.
He had a bad game yesterday, no getting away from that. To say you've never seen a Sunderland player with less composure on the ball than him is laughable imo.
. This! He's not even up to speed so I think it's a little early to be crowing about how bad a Sunderland player is and how right you were.....jeez, leabe thr crowing to thr craaaas! Yesterday O'shea was making decent passes forward to Sess and Sess just couldn't make them!!!!!
Lets not forget O'Shea was doing two men's work yesterday, the commentator even mentioned it in commentary he was having to cover for Turner!
