I think there is a bit of nuance though and we can't just be making knee jerk reactions. The last three defeats were boro down to 10 men and lost our most influential player. Leicester City last night, we played well and gave them a really proper game. Okay stoke was **** and we were poor. We are doing loads right, let's not forget that. Lack of striker is clearly the big issue and has been since January. But we aren't miles away
Honestly believe it would have been a different story had Dan not been (incorrectly) sent off against Boro. We would have beaten Boro and Stoke with him in the team. Last night we held our own against a team full of premiership players. Had we taken our glaring chances it could have been a totally different result. I still don’t understand TM’s method of not playing a striker mind.
Just seen someone say our strikers collectively have only had 13 shots this season. While Burstow and Hemir don't look great surely they need more service? In pre season the connection between Pritchard and Hemir was good but how many minutes have they been on the pitch together in the season? What was the point in chasing Rusyn for most of the summer for it to get to basically November and he's barely played. Baffling.
Mighty be wrong but the idea that players have forgotten how to play with a striker doesn't add up to me like.
Its the ****test excuse what exactly does he have to be able to say? I mean would Messi be sitting on the bench because he can’t understand Neil’s accent? Rusyn is fit and looked good in the little spells he’s had, he’s also one of the oldest players in the squad but yet a 16/17 year old in kid in rigg is seen as a better option! Baffling
[QUOTE="Sour Patch, post: 17076563, member: 1051256"]But how can you say it wouldn't be beneficial? You can't sit here and tell me Mowbray will take us up so what is the point in him staying? Absolutely pointless.[/QUOTE] I didn't. Please read the first line of my post again. Only from those Fans, who despite all evidence to the contrary, think that a change of Manager is always beneficial. Some time ago I went through our Managerial changes from around mid 80's to date, (at that time. I can't be bothered to do it again, anyone interested enough can do it for themselves, but about a third were a success, of sorts, another third made little or no difference and the rest were unmitigated disasters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sunderland_A.F.C._managers
It's not a meltdown, I'd say it's healthy debate. When you lose 3 games in a row and the same mistakes are being repeated then I think it's perfectly natural topic to discuss
I still feel more positive than negative ATM and agree that there are some issues to be resolved, I get when people say we cant always blame the Ref but big decisions change games. I thought we put in a good shift last night and still think the team will grow and improve as this season continues. I do however think we should be having a look at Seelt and Triantis as they may have more to offer than 09 in a defensive respect however 09 is normally very good a distributing the ball from the back. Its easy to look for faults, I thought Ekwah was poor defensively again last night as was a bit off the pace but I expect him to have gained a bit more match fitness and to be firing on all cylinder's on Saturday. I thought Ballard also looked a little uncomfortable at times but still put a shift in. PR first touch was sublime the whole game but his end product was missing. Even the MOTM Patterson gave the ball away twice that I can recall with poor passes when under very little pressure Like I said easy to find fault if you look hard enough I just think there were a lot of positives to look at as well
Was returning from injury like. Surely Seelt is worth a run in the team given how weak we are at high balls and set pieces
heard loads of people saying this not just you “we need to learn how to play with a striker etc” that’s just mental! They might be kids but they will have played in teams there whole life with a striker and just because we had to do it for half a season means they now have to learn.
My take on it all is if you buy players to either replace or compliment the players already in the team why not play them? I agree that they need to understand the way we play and that it takes time to settle at the club, especially if they are from foreign climes but surely they weren't bought just to make up the numbers on the bench
Being scared of change because it hasn't worked in the past is really backward thinking. The decision makers at the club now had nothing to do with these appointments so what relevance does this have? Mowbray is fine, will probably have us between 6th-12th, but we can definitely upgrade.
He looks a huge threat getting on the end of corners at the other end of the pitch too on the clips I’ve seen of him too, admittedly at a lower standard mind
Got to agree with getting Seelt onto the pitch, we have conceded too easily from set pieces recently so getting a unit on the pitch might help, Lukes passing was poor last night putting us under pressure numerous times. Also 100% need either Hemir or Rusyn on the pitch, I reckon we would have seen a goal by now for either of those if they had the minutes Burstow has!
I said after 20 minutes last night “what exactly does he bring to the side?” I’m sat here still looking for the answer! Think he had one cracking touch and lay off. Nothing else. I won’t do what some around me do at the game and simply slate the lad. Don’t mind speaking on here but he’ll get my full support if he plays. I’d be sending him back in January. Earlier if I had the chance!
They also spent £30m close season. Much like the mags in the premier league, they bought their way to their league position (along with holding on to some good premier league players). Pretty sure Mowbray would be top of the league with that squad, or even Phil Parkinson! I saw a lot more than “willing to play the youngsters” last season. I saw one of the best footballing seasons I have watched as a fan. That’s not just “willing to play”, that’s tactics and man management. Jack Clarke flopped everywhere else he’s been. He’s now one of the hottest prospects. That’s in no small part down to Mowbray. I wonder if the questions would be asked now if we’d finished mid table last season? Like every SAFC fan would’ve been delighted to at the start. If we were in a “let’s see if we can push fir the play offs” which is, realistically after promotion and losing our manager, a pretty ambitious ask. Victims of our own success I suppose
