He'll get goals off his knees, shins, arse and tap ins. And I don't particularly care tbh, they all count, from what I've seen from him he is a 'right place, right time' kind of player. Very good signing imo. (I know it's early days.)
Not selected Pembele Lad's played in champions league and can't get on the bench, sounds like a good problem
Oops, I reckon Southampton have dropped a bollock. I couldn't believe what a mess Southampton were and how they looked so tactically inept. I'd not taken in all the hype about Martin, and his fabulous possession based football, and was a bit surprised he was given this job. He reminds me of Gary Monk who was endlessly praised but vanished up his own hyperbole. So I had a look at his stats to find he lost more games than he won with MKD and was only equal at Swansea. He's going to have to massively improve on that to be promoted and I just don't see it ... ... Southampton will be active in the next window but, after seeing who they've just brought in, I doubt they'll want Martin to be the one in control ... ... they have money so won't hesitate to pay him off if they're struggling. I'll give him 'til Christmas.
Sunderland are renowned for their long periods of passing the ball ... ... our first pass, on Saturday, was a hoof half the length of the pitch. Nowt wrong with plan B
If he doesn’t have a plan B where’s Stewart going to fit in, they couldn’t bring Armstrong into the game with all that possession and Stewart’s strength was closing down defenders quickly, but you’ve got nearly 70% of the ball so I just down see how they can play to his strengths even if they can get him match fit.
I was pleasantly surprised that we left a man up top at a corner - a proper bug bear of mine when we bring everyone back to defend and no outlet to make a quick break. Hopefully we do this more often now!
Another thing I like about O/9 is his ability to hit that 20 to 30 yard killer pass . It takes nerve but with Clarke , Bennette and Ba latching latching onto them its a massive game changer.
Just watched some of this back and 1.35.20 is the thing that has got me quite a bit excited - I missed this at the time. Chris Rigg gets the ball in midfield under pressure from two players and immediately turns away from both of them, and then holds one off with strength before getting the ball away. Its sublime. He's some talent. He's come so far already since that 15 year old in January. He looks like he's put on a stone of muscle.
I was being Ironic mate, he played it perfectly. Very perceptive mate. That's part of what I was driving at with my comments about who he's brought in. I really don't get the purchase of Stewart, you can't deny our style and passing are better without him in the team. Southampton will, as you say, have to substantially change the way they play ... ... and don't get me started on Adam Armstrong as captain
Riggs header was immense, even Don Goodman said how difficult a header that was for him to generate power onto. Mind still think the keeper flapped at it as he did for goals 1&3. Someone mentioned elsewhere about home grown players have any of you seen such joy both on and off the pitch at him scoring, even if you took the age thing away you’d have got the same response imo.
I said the other day that we need a long run in the FA Cup and would have a good chance of a final ... ... cup games are about being brave and taking chances. Might not be a popular idea but I'd sacrifice promotion for Wembley.
Understand where you are coming from, but I think we need promotion to keep the majority of this team together
Another thought about Stewart if they’re plan is to use they’re possession for tap ins after 20 passes then surly with Armstrong and now Adams still at the club why spend £10m. We restricted them to shots outside the box on Saturday and they weren’t very good at that, however they did win they’re fair share of headers from corners etc. He’s got to change his mindset when playing Stewart but happily that’s not our problem any more so I’ll leave it there.
I think what’s not to be missed from Saturday is you could see they had a lot of good players and a lot about them. They did threaten at times and we defended very well when they did, barely been mentioned the second clean sheet in a row. Mowbray nailed him/them tactically. It’s not like many teams in the league can match ours on the break, few will tear them up like that.
