.............and all thoughts return to EPL action. 2 weeks off watching the lads is a lifetime for a NE football fan and with so much resting on the next 4 games, tomorrrow will be a nervous and a little exciting day for all concerned. Bruce has to get it right and has to deliver. Excuses can neither be made or accepted now and its results that we will be discussing not performances. I'm not interested in 'taking positives' out of another defeat or bore draw. I'm not interested in hearing that Larsson is suspended, as this is a team game and there are plenty of options available. I dont want to hear any excuses for not winning. I've had a belly full of those in the last 11 months. We just need wins, at any cost not draws and certainly not defeats. If we win tomorrow, we can look forward to the Wigan game next Saturday with some anticipation. If we draw then the pressure will ramp up for that game next week. If we lose I would expect a new man at the helm next weekend.
Larsson is a blow because we have no one who can take a set piece (how pathetic is that) Defence is doing really well, having played Chelsea, Pool, Utd, Arsenal and to some extent the Mags (well they are top 5) and not conceding to many. Forwards not to bad, I'm sure Bendtner, Wickham, (dare I say it) Sess will score goals given the service. Now thats the big problem for me, the service. Colback will never ever thread a defence spliting pass, but the ball on a plate, score a goal. Same for Catts. Elmo might do one half decent thing a game, Sess (playing where??) is a good player but is a tad to greedy and doesn't always take the right option. Vaughan, tidy but not that creative. Gardener. 10 goals last season, no idea where they came from. Be lucky to get 3 this (if he can get into the team of course) Fulham are a tidy unit but being at home it's up to us to take the game to them and be positive. Thats all I ask . Be freaking positive SB.
I have complete confidence that the Egyptian Beckham will save the day! I'm looking forward to seeing a cross float past the first man, or yet another stunning free-kick curling over the wall into the top corner! I remember Vaughan played wide left for Blackpool and the fans thought he was very poor in that position. Bearing in mind that we are short in strikers aswell as wingers (and we only have two players missing) we could see Sessegnon playing off Bendtner soon. I cannot help but wonder if Bruce is considering playing Vaughan on the left. A few poor performances on the left from 'Vaughany' could well justify Cattermole becoming the first choice central midfielder once again. Expect the unexpected as a genius is at work!
As we all know(at least I think we do) a central midfielder ideally would have vision, be able to set up attacking play, move the ball forward with pace and intelligent link play,score the odd goal or feed the ball through to wingers and forwards and therefore put the opposition under pressure which now and again would produce a goal. Our manager thinks we have two such players and breaks his freaking neck to get them into the side. I will be shocked if both are not in our side tomorrow.
Steve Bruce is hoping his side can rev up their assault on the Barclays Premier League in the busy period leading up to Christmas. Sunderland face six league clashes prior to the Boxing Day meeting with Everton and begin that sequence with a home game against Fulham tomorrow. The Black Cats have collected 10 points from their first 11 games having already faced away trips to Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal plus a home clash with Chelsea. Bruce admits his side are "three or four" points behind where he feels they should be but is looking to piece together a run of results in the run-up to the festive period and beyond. "Leading up to Christmas it's vital we pick up points," he said. "You look at December, right through to January and on paper those fixtures spell an easier three months than the three that we've just had. "It's important to capitalise on that. That's how I judge seasons, I take 10 games at a time - I knew it was going to be a difficult start and we're three or four points from where we'd like to be, but there's no reason why we can't go and make them up in the next 10 games Not one game at a time but ten?
The man is bricking it and clutching at any old piece of ****e to fob off reporters and fans alike. 3 or 4 points off where we should be? We certainly blew 8 points against the craas, Norwich and Swansea alone. I'd have expected at least (MIN) 5 points from the 9 on offer from those 3 games and we got 1. I wonder what excuses he is concocting for any failures from the next 4 games. An absolute minimum of 9 points from these next 4 should be expected. As a footnote - have Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool not played anyone else in this time? If he thought the forst 10 games were hard then he must be expecting us to sweep all away in the next 10. Problem is Spurs, Everton, City and Chelsea fall in that next 10 as well.
19 Nov, 15:00 SunderlandvFulham D 26 Nov, 15:00 SunderlandvWigan Athletic W December 4 Dec, 16:00 Wolverhampton WanderersvSunderland L 11 Dec, 13:30 SunderlandvBlackburn Rovers W 18 Dec, 15:00 Tottenham HotspurvSunderland L 21 Dec, 20:00 Queens Park RangersvSunderland D 26 Dec, 15:00 SunderlandvEverton D January 1 Jan, 15:00 SunderlandvManchester City L 3 Jan, 19:45 Wigan AthleticvSunderland D 14 Jan, 15:00 ChelseavSunderland L Can't see many more than 11 points.
Given you claim we should be 12 points ahead of our current position, and that puts us into 4-5th, do you think we are a top 4 club?
Forgive me for my poor math skills but I thought Cestria said that on paper we could/should of picked up an additional 8 points? That would have us on 18 points in 8th position. Do I think the club is capable of 8th position, yes I do, but unlikely with Bruce at the helm.
Does anybody know when we last 2 consecutive league home games?, our record is terrible but Fulham and Wigan are poorer this season, and we want to avenge that 3-0 defeat by Fulham from last season. Fulham h 2-1 Wigan h 1-0 Wolves a 1-1 Blackburn h 2-1 Spurs a 0-1 QPR a 1-1 Everton h 1-1 Man c h 1-3 Wigan a 2-1 Chelsea a 0-2.
Hands up I totally misread Cest's post - the question still stands. 8th I think is reasonable. How about 9th after Saturday?
9th will be great and taken at face value it sounds good. We could be atleast 4 points off relegation assuming we actually beat Fulham and Bolton fail to pick up a point at West Brom. All if's and buts. Heres the problem... the league is very tight and all of the clubs that are currently outside of the top 8 are one or two games from being in a relegation position. Failing to pick up points against the likes of Swansea and Norwich has left us in this battle of always being 1 or 2 games from a relegation position. We ought to have been sitting quite comfortable with a good 16 points at this stage of the season AND expecting 8 points from the next 4 games however that isn't the case. We have 10 points and now pressure is applied to the next four games. Assuming we do well in the next four games some fans may be able to convince themselves that we are a top half club, just before the difficult fixtures commence once again.
Not fot the forst tiem Siddal you dived in wothnout reading my post. What I actually said was that I did expect we would beat the mags; and at least draw against Swansea and Norwich. 5 points should have been a min out of those 3 games and would have had us on 15 points after 11 games. Its not brilliant but 8th/9th would be far better looking than 6th bottom and 2 points off relegation and would have been more acceptable. Throw a win at Brighton as well for good measure and our season would be improved. Small margins I accept but massive gaps in Bruces ability to deliver them. To be honest, I go into every new season expecting us to win every home game apart from the obvious Arsenal, Chelsea, Utd and City. There will be other hard games of course and we wont win every game but I expect us to go out and at least to try and win them. At home to the craas and away to Swansea and Norwich, we didnt even give ourselves a chance with the team selection we put out there on the day. Its Bruces pig headed stubborness that has cost us this season and he should pay for that mistake with his job imo. Playing players out of postion, no strikers, por recruitment of left sided players etc etc. In answer to your question siddall, I dont even consider us to be a top 10 challenging side under Bruce, let alone a top 5 or 6 one but we certainly are a relegation threatened one under him for sure.
Clockstand - are you really me? Lol Your thoughts and opinions mirror mine 100% and we certainly seem to be reading the current situation exactly the same. I dont hate Bruce and wish things could be different but I have no comfidence that he has what it takes to firstly realise the mess we are in and secondly to act on it positively. Anything other than a win tomorrow and I'll be a very unhappy chappy tomorrow night so get ready on these message boards for WW3. Lol
First time youve not read them or never again to read them again. Lol Divvent worry kidda, we may well all be happy and smilling tomorrow night. Then again, we may be all at each others throats. Lol
I prefer to open my bottle of Midleton very rare on a night of celebration however from time to time... I would be very upset if it is opened tommorow upon the back of a defeat to Fulham!
