Thought the front 2 O'brien and Graham showed a lot of promise creating chances and causing their defence problem. Then we bring on the most ineffective pair of strikers who are arguably the worst in our history even compensating for the league we play in. The whole game changed and not for the better. My all time worst 11 had Belford and Le Tallec as my front 2 - but Grigg and Wyke are making an outstanding job of claiming their places. Two moment summed it up how rubbish these 2 are- we had a throw in on the left - playing the touchline as we run the clock down - down the line to Wyke - flicked it on Grigg was stood 50 yards away shocking. Ball in the box centre half struggling running back hoping the ball might run out so does not have to play it - Wyke pushes him over free kick easy clearance for them.
We all know what the problems are. We haven't scored a first half goal this season and not a lot more second half. We've played some difficult opponents on paper and no one has dominated us, we've clearly been better than the opposition so far it's just this lack of goals. Flanagan detractors will find out how good or bad he is when we miss him, if it's last man is that a one match ban or automatic three. I posted earlier that PP has to stick with one main striker and find the best suited players to play around him, this subbing off of his strikers to replace like for like doesn't make any sense.
He has to stick with Graham for a run of games, despite his shoddy finishing today, so players have the time to adjust/fine-tune. If that dorsn't work, try summat else. Wyke should not be featuring, or on the bench - he looks shot to ****, and needs to sort himself out in the reserves if he can.
out of the four i would stick with graham and obrien...graham had more chances (aye, and misses) in this one game than he did in his whole previous sunderland career, obrien is covering right across the front sometimes being the 'extraman' for the lads on the wings, big help in itself, bur really need at least one to get those goals and confidence back...wyke, apart from against the kids, has done nowt except foul/fall over, he really needs sorting out and i just fail to see wtf has happened to grigg.
nothing wrong with your post mate the laughing emo at the end means i am joking, just a bit of frustration on my part with Parky his team and tactics, everyone can see what is needed bar him...
Wyke should not even make the bench unless there is a vast improvement in his goal tally on the training pitch.
Under JR we would have conceded in the last 20mins with the 10 men. "From little acorns do big oaks grow" but I do feel we've a bit more about us this time.
i honestly do not want to throw any negatives in, was a good performance after our 'no show' last week but hard not to pick fault with the front line, our best effort came from a defender...graham took two shots at the lad standing in front of him, a striker on form would have side stepped to create an angle or better still placed a nice short, sharp pass to onien who had a clean shot. my only 'gripe' is with people talking our defence up, while they have mainly done a sound job and kept chances against us to a minimum, i feel no team has really put any pressure on them as yet although i am far more confident with the current lads than i have been for a while...take today as an example, i can remember 3 wild shots from outside the box from them, nowt on target, this could well be down to a sterling defence or they are all just struggling to put any real attacks together, something we know only too well.
again enjoyed your read, my contribution would be apart from Grigg all the striker choices are his if i'm not mistaken, so they are not worth keeping and time to get rid of all of them they are clearly not up to scratch, or Parky's selection and tactics are wrong either way either get rid of the strikers or Parky. we are 3 games in and 4 points adrift already not looking good.
As I've said a few times, our defence is the least of my worries, a lot of that is down to Bailey Wright. Great signing at this level.
