Most of our team tonight looked a yard short compared to them I thought Spence was ok and a safe LB who was more dangerous than any of our so called superstar front 4. Summerville took too long and wrong choices, James was hardly in it and should have been swapped at HT, Rutter was nowhere near his best and was bullied a bit tonight, Piroe missing, Ampadu not great at anything tonight, Kamara did his job except when it came to passing. Changes should have been made much earlier, it was shoddy from FARKE for me
Not a popular opinion I’m sure, but I’m getting bored of rutter. seems to create half a yard then take too long to cross/shoot. Does that backing in and rolling defenders thing but usually ends up on his arse looking at the ref. Has some great touches, some great assists… but too inconsistent still for me. If we’re going to play him as a 9 he needs to hold the ball up better. Do the simple things more often and do them better. Not knee-jerking here… knew this would be a tough game… just don’t think rutter is matching the fan’s hype after a couple of eye-catching displays earlier in the season
Agree with milky on Rutter in that sometimes he should do what's best for the team and just hold the ball up instead of always looking for the sublime. Not saying he shouldn't ever do that that but at times tonight we needed a stronger centre forward and he wasn't it. However we didn't lose because of Rutter, we lost because collectively on the night we weren't good enough.
don’t disagree with the last para… think their caretaker manager deserves some props… I was expecting a basketball game tonight but he set them up to stifle us and make it a pretty dull game… and did it successfully.
Good news is by the time the play offs come around we'll be better than tonight. That said though serious questions have to be asked about whether we have the right approach away from home because this was a performance and result that a lot of us were half expecting.
Swansea gave us a good game and were the better team for good parts of the game, so were Boro and Blackburn, Sunderland were by far the better team and deserved the win, Farke ****ed up yet again tonight he doesn't seem to have a plan B, I'm losing patience with him.
every team has an off day and Sunderland only just finished a run of crap, that's why Mowbray got the boot, they had some good chances and Sensio's free kick to the corner was a peach, now just wait and see what Santy brings this window
It’s the passing between Meslier, Rodon and Struijk that’s baffling me. Every game we do it, I’d love to see a statistic of how many minutes we killed doing this. Fine if you are winning. These games where we have 60%+ possession, a large chunk has to be between these three with sideway and backward passes. When a team is sitting deep, like Sunderland were, and thinking okay do your little thing at the back, we’ll just wait then the word needs to get out it’s pointless. Throw ins, I don’t remember an attacking one, every time it’s towards are own half. Gray took one level with their box, he took it long towards the half way line, two passes later it was with Meslier. I just don’t see the point in that.
My point on a bit of rotation may have livened up a jaded performance because some of that from James, Rutter, Gray, Ampadu, Kamara and Piroe was chalk and cheese on how they’ve been performing. Ampadu form has been sloppy for the last 3 games, Rutter wasn’t fantastic at the weekend and maybe had a chance to put Piroe at 9 for a change. Farke says we will need all our players when the games pile up, well we needed them last night
Our possession stats always look great but most of it is this, Gray and Ampadu's first look isn't forward, it's back. There appears to be a disconnect between the front four and the rest of the team and Piroe doesn't appear to be the answer, not that he had the ball last night as it always went back. A Farke issue that he needs to change. I would think that that is it for autos now, we've been saying that the top two will slip up but they are not doing. When we play I still have not seen a team as good as us in this league but any team playing us just needs to look at this and the Stoke performance and hope it's another off night for our players for the answer.
Before kick off, the commentator said we are 4 points ahead of where Burnley were this time last season. Last night won’t define the season, I’ve not given up hope on top two, consecutive away games to Blackburn and Sunderland was always going to be tricky. The next three games could be season defining, Norwich won’t be an easy task for Ipswich then they have us and Leicester. We need to win the next three, the top 6 look the best in the division, apart from what order, I can’t see anyone else breaking into it
Correct but he’s become the new firpo. Bash him at all times regardless what he does. That should have been 3-0 last night
The goal was one of those things… Archie should have stepped up but he had 2 guys to keep an eye on… could mes have come out earlier and beaten Bellingham to it? Maybe at a push but I wouldn’t blame him. He made a great save yesterday from the corner - not sure what the other good save was. Think people are concerned he doesn’t really command his box. Not his biggest fan but didn’t see much to criticise him with yesterday. The probs were elsewhere on the pitch
Think my question to all on here is, given the number of games he’s played, plus two seasons playing in the Premier League has he gotten any better than when he first came in?
