Convenient how people choose to ignore stats when it doesn't suit them. He was our fourth best rated player on the day, like it or not. Basically means they want to ignore everything good he does because the mistakes are the only things that matter to them.
Disagree. Think he carriers the ball really well and is good is close duels and is tenacious. But we are weak at set plays and he gets overconfident in his passing out. He could and should have gave away more pens this season. Matter of time before he was punished. I also think making him captain, has meant he is more unlikely to be dropped for other centre backs we brought into the club. I have no idea if they are better than 09. Maybe not. Who knows. Guess we will see now. Either way his own personal yellow at the end of the game was also incredibly rash and no need for it. Same as when he gave the pen away. It's not league one anymore. That stuff just doesn't work.
Doesn't. Those stats are very easily modified to ignore performance in game. The fact we have loads of possession, means he will have loads of touches. That's uncommon for centre backs so he will excel there. Just think he had a poor game yday.
I'm one of those who are not bothered if we go up - the Premier League is such a closed shop nowadays and taking god knows how long to check whether a goal should stand or not with VAR ruins the game for me. Don't get me wrong, I'll take going up and hope that we can build on what we've got and stay up. With the way things are at the club - playing good football at times, players seemingly playing for the shirt after some of the dross we've witnessed over the years, I look forward to watching games again even though I can't attend as much as I want. What's more important for me now is that I'm in love with the club again and only have eyes for Sunderland! The rest of football can plod on their merry way!!
I would stick with 4 at the back. Hume in the middle, probably with Seelt. Cirkin and Huggins full backs. The problem with 3 at the back is needing two wing backs and that blunts Clarke and Roberts (although for me I would like to see Ba in for Roberts for a bit). Hume is a goos talker and can help Seelt. If Seelt plays left side Cirkin is rock solid defensively. Birmingham look to play a 4231 which I think makes it difficult to play a back 3 because it can easily be an overload situation.
I really hope so. I think it’s not just getting used to each other but also coaching on the decision making. Cutting inside to a crowded box to shoot you either need to hit a worldie or it’s a block/miss. Saw plenty of those yesterday. A decent ball in the box can cause chaos with loose balls to pounce on.
It wasn't his passing or touches that scored him highly, not that they're irrelevant, but his defensive performance. Won the most aerial duels, and scored highly in tackles, interceptions, clearances. Was better than Ballard in every measurable way and he could easily have been penalised for the pen instead. But yeah let's **** on him because he missed one free kick. Remind me again how many free kicks Pritchard has scored lately? Or is that another instance of stats being irrelevant.
What did he do that was good? We had the ball all game the defence had barely anything to do and when they did he gave away a penalty. They had 2 shots on target all game and we only had 3 so I’m assuming he’s rated higher than the rest because they were hopeless rather than him having a good game. People need to look past him playing loads of passes every game he’s a CB that’s generally what they do, especially when teams let us pass the ball around on the half way line because we aren’t troubling them. He needs to be able to defend first and foremost.
Only one difference between us mate, I honestly don’t want to take it if it comes, I’ll take it when we are ready.
He had a higher rating than Huggins who won 100% of his aerial and ground duels (O’nien was 75% and 33%) whilst making as many recoveries and not getting booked.. whilst also not giving a penalty away and committing not a single foul to O’niens 4. Huggins had half as many passes as O’nien, less passes into final third, slightly lower accuracy. The passing is definitely helping his rating.
Yeah we're definitely guilty of not putting the ball into dangerous areas enough. I suppose it's understandable, the burden of scoring has been on our wingers and midfielders for a while now and they're having to adjust. I think Rusyn is the one who will be in the right place at the right time, Hemir has the instincts too but not the right attitude seemingly. Rusyn is keen as mustard.
I’d have taken a point before the game. The slightly negative slant is down to playing against 10 for an hour and not capitalising fully on it, plus losing both c.backs to suspension. It’s still a decent point though, when we were on a bit of an off day imo. Will be interesting the make up of the defence next week. Cirkin left, Huggins right with Hume moved central with. seelt would be my guess.
There’s been a couple folks from here hit the report button about him, as you know. Give him another chance though please, I just think he was drunk again last night.
Sounds like Huggins had a good game too, although he should maybe look to his captain for advice on his passing.
Personally I'd like you to mind your own business and f**k off ... ... this board runs better than anything you have your hand in.
