Would be the best business of our summer if we did bring a new keeper in, but unfortunately LJ really rates Burge for some reason so can’t see it.
Evans for me was outstanding yesterday Very understated but the kind of midfielder we have needed for a long time. Kind of glue that Held everything together and allowed others to play one swallow doesn’t make a summer but hopefully there is more to come. Also a word for Stewart thought he was great yesterday and there’s more to come his mobility and heading should bring the midfield more into play Quite a lot of our moves broke down yesterday with a misplaced header or slight lack of understanding but once things start to click I think we may have a pretty good team on our hands
I doubt they have the manoeuvrability financially to bring in 2 full backs, another c.back,a striker AND a keeper unless either most of them are loans or Grigg/O’Brien both get moves to free up the budget. We will be very lucky if all that falls into place by August 31st.
Evans was the one who took it off their lads toes when Burge parried the shot straight back out. He just seems to be in the right place all of time and it's not a coincidence. Never seems to be over stretching or late arriving to make a challenge. Looks a 'proper' footballer to me, uses his head and knows the game.
Gawd I was so pissed when that happened, that Stoke keeper was so far above any other L1 keeper I had seen it was ridiculous. Our GK position has been a running sore for ages but it seems there has always been a higher priority that needed sorting. Brian Clough always built his teams from the goalkeeper up but if he was in LJs position I think he would be saying Burge is just about good enough for now and that I need to get the defence sorted out first or even the best keeper will concede too many goals. We have to accept that any keeper is prone to make a mistake or two in any match (yesterday Pickford spilled a headed back pass right to a Man U player who scored in the Everton friendly).
The problem with Burge is he easily capable of costing us between 10 and 15 points a season. I am convinced if Jon McLaughlin was in goal for us last season we would have been promoted.
Jon was a class above and everybody at Sunderland knew that.Still as ITK says if a decent one comes up we may well jump but i see Patty taking over the role of keeper
Big Jon was great but he seemed to go awol in the last 6 months after his head had been turned. I don't think there was anything we could have done to keep him here apart from throw silly money at him - and I'm not even sure that would have worked. I would prefer Big Jon to Burge any day, but we are where we are. At this stage in our rebuild it's more about damage limitation and our position re defenders is a fire that is only going to get bigger and more damaging as the season progresses and our opponents sides gel and sharpen. I would love for KLD to splash out on loads of top quality players and get us out of L1 but I have come to accept that if that was what he wanted to do then we would have done it by now. That leaves me with the reality that he wants to properly build a self-sustaining club and is prepared to take time to do it. From his perspective it might be cheaper to do this in L1 than in the championship so another season of building here might not be an issue for KLD. I can't say I like this, but if eventually it puts us in a position established in the premier league and profitable then it would be worth it. It is just that we fans operate on a shorter time frame and already have an additional few years in L1 over KLD and it hurts.
I think we could get promoted with the current keepers. I think we will win the league with a better keeper signed by the end of the month. Really positive as it stands either way as this team should only improve with a bit of luck and some more good results.
This squad just feels different. I can't explain what I mean but I'm sure you know what I mean. From top to bottom, confidence.
Wins breed confidence, match thread littered with whingers about Burge and Gooch but we're in league one and the club are attracting players who may well get us out of this league. Players make mistakes in this league and it's LJs job to ensure our players make less mistakes than the opposition and if he does so then we'll win more games than we lose. Why can't some fans be happy that we've won all three of our opening fixtures.
Just had a look at a couple of the SAFC fans Facebook forums, and you would think we had lost. All the players ****e especially Gooch and Burge seems to be the theme
