Sunderland travel to Carrow Road to face Norwich in the Championship Last time out Sunderland lost at home to Stoke and Norwich beat Millwall away. After conceding a controversial first goal at the end of an even first half, Sunderland turned in a shocking second half performance, on a day when all the important decisions and events seemed to go against the home team. Patrick Roberts and Alex Pritchard return to face their former club. Aji Alese was replaced at half time with a thigh injury and will now miss the rest of the season. Lynden Gooch could be back in contention, Huggins is back training but Embleton, Stewart & Evans remain unavailable due to long term injury. A sell-out crowd that included Fifa president Gianni Infantino watched Millwall entertain Norwich as the Canaries came from behind to triumph at the Den. Norwich moved up to 6th place in the championship table on 55 points and are now 6 points ahead of the Black Cats with 11 games remaining. Tony Mowbray: "I wanted an explanation from the referee. I don't mind him flashing the yellow, but why isn't he able to have a discussion? "Why did they drop the ball at the keeper's feet when we had the ball six or seven seconds, or at least tell them to give the ball back? "It was ridiculous. It is hard for the team, the supporters, the club. It was difficult to foresee it coming, I would suggest. "It didn't feel like a normal Sunderland game where we are in control. Over recent games we have struggled to score enough goals to win football matches." "Aji was injured so he had to come off," Mowbray confirmed after the game. "That's disappointing and I'm not quite sure how bad that is going to be. With young Gelhardt I just think the confidence is low and I didn't want to expose him, I wanted to get Amad higher up the pitch because we've done that with relative success in the past.” David Wagner: "We conceded a very avoidable goal but how the group reacted was wonderful. We had the support from the stands and the energy on the grass as well and we scored three wonderful goals. "I think it was because of the togetherness and fighting spirit but we played some very decent football as well and deserved this win. "You've seen today how important set-pieces are and for us to score from two was great. "For 70, 75 minutes (Gabriel) Sara was the best player on the pitch. Defensively he played like a proper British football player in circumstances like this and with the ball he made so many good decisions and a wonderful goal as well - a goal which he deserved." Match Appointments: Referee: TIM ROBINSON Assistant Referees: Craig Taylor and Daniel Leach Fourth Official: Gavin Ward Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (3-5-2) Patterson, Hume, Batth, Ballard, Ekwah, O'Nien, Michut, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt. Subs: Bass, Neil, Ba, Gooch, Lihadji, Pritchard, Bennette Injured: Embleton, Stewart, Evans, Cirkin Norwich City (4-1-4-1) Gunn, Aarons, Hanley, Gibson, Giannoulis, McLean, Hernández, Sørensen, Gomes, Idah, Pukki Subs: Krul, Omobamidele, Marquinhos, McCallum, Tzolis, Núñez, Gibbs Injured: tbc Betting Odds: Sunderland 10/3 Norwich 5/6 Draw 5/2 Prutton Predicts: 2-1 My two pence: Well if ever there was a Sunderland way to welcome back a former manager, then that last game was it. I’ve already lodged that game into the deep recesses of file 13 and moved on. We need to regroup, get a few different players into the starting line-up and turn the corner on this mini slump. Norwich are a good footballing side who prefer to play rather than continually foul the opposition and waste time. I’m going for a 1-1 draw Live Stream: https://safc.com/news/team-news/live-video (Overseas fans only) Live on Sky Sports Football from 11:30 Ha’way the Lads
He's got to go with 3 CMs imo and sacrifice one of the attackers to try and get control of the game. I'd have Pritchard in there probably for Amad and bring him off the bench. I reckon a draw as well 1-1
Ekwah, Jewi, Lihadji and Ba got decent minutes for the 21s so I wouldn't be surprised to see 2 of the 4 start to freshen it up for an hour or so.
Don't know what to think about this one. Would be typical Sunderland to go there and wipe the floor with them, on the otherhand..... We've won our last two at their place convincingly and we could do that again which would cheer everyone up. It's my birthday weekend and that usually bodes badly where our results are concerned. HTL.
Think we need to freshen it up. Tough game but one I’m looking forward to. Me +5 heading down Saturday afternoon. Looking forward to a night out down there. 12pm KO the next day isn’t ideal
No doubt there’ll be a Norwich love-in on SKY, but it’s time to turn our fortunes around. 1-2 HAWAY Bart
Let's hope we get another terrible referee who gives us some ridiculous decisions for a change ... ... Norwich may be expecting a stroll in the park but they won't get one imo.
RTB Here's hoping for a bounce-back after last week's debacle. So yes I voted win. Will TM put the same team out, or will he change tactics, formation and players?
Listening to that whopper from Norwich on the WTF podcast and it feels like we are playing 2008 Barcelona.
If he puts the same team out, I'm driving down to Norwich to stick the nut on him. FWIW I think we will pad out the midfield with 2 of Roberts. Gelhardt and Amad dropping out
Well a very difficult game to predict. Current form would suggest comfortable home win but I have a feeling the lads will be hurt by the criticism of last weekend and will hopefully put on a good performance. Team needs to change and Mowbray needs to be ruthless with his selection. Can't make this one due to wedding anniversary when she cottoned on to a weekend away in Norfolk. I'll take a point. Keep the faith lads and lasses.
Who knows? Not sure that Clarke playing centre forward is a good idea he is a excellent winger or wingback, and does not head the ball that often. Alese could be worth a try,? Basically fcuk knows and TM will probably try something we haven't thought of.
Norwich focus a lot on wing play - getting crosses in for Pukki/Sargent etc so I'd be tempted to change the shape to counter that Patterson Ballard Batth O'Nien Hume Neil Ekwah Clarke Roberts Amad Pritchard My main worry there is the left side and how Clarke doesn't track his runners, so would be tempted to go more defensive and play Alese there
Great thread again RTB . I've no idea what team Tony will put out tbh, but hoping for all our sakes, he gets it right this time. OaU
BY HARRISON BERGERON PLAY-OFFS NEVER ON MOWBRAY'S MIND https://www.a-love-supreme.com/single-post/play-offs-never-on-mowbray-s-mind Tony Mowbray is keen to temper expectations for this season and claims anything above mid-table will be a bonus, after a significant form drop-off in recent weeks. LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS “To be honest, the play offs have never been on my mind. We may have built an expectation within the fan base that they could be, but when I came in, my job was to solidify the team, to try and polish up the young players, give them game time and opportunities to help the team to grow and get ready to survive outside of League One." MID TABLE THE AIM “I think anything above mid table will be a bonus for our team. That’s the aim; there is no huge expectation from me on the team, other than to work as hard as you can every day and try and make the supporters proud of what they are watching.” YOUNG TEAM “I think the team is inexperienced in the Championship. It is a young team and age doesn’t matter if you have played 200 games, but we haven’t got any players who have played a lot of games in the Championship." PUNCHING ABOVE OUR WEIGHT "I think we are doing extraordinary well; punching above our weights in my mind. Any football season is based off of the expectation of that season and as I keep saying, the club came out of League One, suffered in League One for four or five years, and there is no reason that as a huge club you come in and steamroll the Championship." NOT ONLY SUNDERLAND "There is lots of teams that have come down from the Premier League with high salary football players with big stadiums and big crowds, so it is not only Sunderland that have a huge stadium with fantastic support. And yes, you suffer defeats on any given day." KEEP GROWING "Manchester United just lost by seven goals and they won a cup last week. For me, this club should be a growing project. We have to grow out of League One and establish ourselves in the Championship, keep growing, investing and bringing in better players as we go along." JOURNEY “That is the journey the club is on at the moment; establishing themselves in the Championship, keeping on growing and developing the young players and buying good players as well, and the future will look pretty bright because the support here is amazing. Home and away they are incredible – they deserve a team on the pitch that can get back to the Premier League in the next few years.” BAD RESULTS AROUND THE CORNER “I try not to celebrate on the pitch fist pumping with the fans slapping the badge and saying how great we are because I know just around the corner, we could lose 5-1 at home." CONSISTENCY “The people and supporters know there is a consistency about trying to get better every week. Every now and then a poor performance comes along, but I hope the people who watch us every week see a team that is improving and getting better and giving ourselves a chance to win football matches." 5-1 HUMILIATION "When a day like last Saturday comes along (a 5-1 home defeat to Stoke), we do break it down and look at it and find reasons and I’ll take the blame for it. We’ll have some better days as we’ve had some great ones this year already.”
Sorry but although he makes some good points there is no excuse for getting trounced 1-5 at home by a team several places below in the league. I would have preferred him to just admit he got it wrong rather than tell us we have no ambition other than mid table this season. I am still angry at last week I expect a reaction from all the players and staff. We need to beef up the midfield and stop trying to be the nicest team in the league. I am not confident and will refrain from making a prediction, long run I am confident the club is on the right tracks and is well ran but we really have missed an opportunity this season.
