Again, my hope is that Ba in that position was already mapped out by Dodds and Beale stuck with it and will hopefully start changing things up now. Got to hope that happens anyway. What I’m much more concerned about were his substitutions (or lack of) and timing of them. They’re all on him. And were poor.
Ba should not be allowed a 1st team number. He is as bad as that, go through the 90 mins and see how many times he loses control.
Silly errors yday too mind. 09 for the first goal. Once again, just wanting to play the player instead of using his loaf. Always tries to get to tight. Ekwah and Patterson both poor again for me yday. Ba should never be played through the middle. Impact sub , on the wing only.
Was thinking last night about the summer signings and unfortunately I don’t think it’s been a successful window, I always like to give players a chance to settle but out of the 10 or so signings I think only 3 can be classed as successful ish ! Jobe, Seelt and maybe Adil. I came away from the match yesterday feeling gutted but not surprised, the reactions of some of the support did surprise me yesterday one of the lads I go with left as soon as the 2nd went in which he’s never done. I text him afterwards and he said he just can’t believe the implosion over the last few weeks. People are forgetting the West Brom & Leeds performances I think, no way would I describe this as an implosion. He text this morning and changed his tune slightly but it looks like a lot of people felt the same way as him yesterday. We just need to get to January and rectify the striker situation and we could look a much better team.
I really don't understand the coaching staffs handling of certain players but reluctance to drop others. How can we expect any young player to develop into a good player if we either don't play them or are constantly changing their position? Young players especially need time to adapt, look at Ekwah in his first few games last season looked really poor but we played him through the mistakes and by the end of the season he looked very good, so why aren't we doing that this season? Rusyn is getting zero minutes despite missing maybe 2 clear chances, Mayenda is getting barely any minutes despite having nothing to go off, Aouchiche I thought was pretty good against West Brom but has seemingly been dropped, Seelt very good against Leeds has been dropped, Ba was good on the right when we were winning games earlier this season but was then dropped and has played 3 different positions since then. Last time we seen Jewi he was doing something we haven't done much this season when he was delivering a great cross for Riggs goal but seemingly isn't part of the first team picture now. How are these lads meant to develop into good players for us if we aren't allowing them to adapt and play through the mistakes? On the flip side, why are some players seemingly undroppable? Roberts looks great when he's 40 yards from goal but lacks any real quality when it comes to the final ball or finishing a chance, Ba was much more effective playing on the right. Burstow, who is not our player, was given an actual run of games, granted he got no service, but why can't we do the same for Rusyn or Mayenda? O'Nien, who I really like, just doesn't get dropped at all despite this season making the same error over and over again when he is wrestling the man he is marking on set pieces, he was lucky the ball hadn't been kicked yet yesterday and the yellow was the third time he was spoken to about it yesterday. He also looked hurt for the last maybe 20 minutes yesterday and didn't come off. My point is that if we are to succeed with this plan of signing youngsters they need to be allowed to play through the growing pains. It has worked yet we seemingly don't want to do it anymore so our promising youngsters will continue to stagnate as we mess them around.
First goal isn't O'Nien's fault. Ok he gets in a bit of a grapple, which may well be 50/50 shared with the other guy, but the two midfield players ahead of him let their runner go past him to leave him 1v2. After that it's general weak defending/good attacking. O'Nien's role in that goal was incidental and irrelevant.
If he was out of position it was because he'd seen a big space with two Coventry players about to attack it, shame nobody else did and nobody helped him out or tracked the runner. After that we had plenty of chances to prevent the goal.
We did but 09 not using his loaf and head locking and player then to get rolled causes the situation to develop into a dangerous one.
Him being 1v2 all on his lonesome was the dangerous situation. If he doesn't touch the guy it all pans out the same way. Could also well be the case that their guy has seen the runner and has initiated the grapple.
Really felt sorry for Ba yesterday, the kid was literally thrown under the bus. He should have scored, but he’s not a striker.
Great post. O nein needs dropped. (Probably get blocked off site for saying so). A back 3 of Seelt, Ballard, and Alese for me. We need to strengthen up at the back. If we aren't scoring we need to stop conceding. Ekwah hasn't looked the same since he came back from injury. Goalkeeper wise we need someone to come in and push Patto as no matter what he knows he's guaranteed to start. Rusyn ain't exactly a kid can't understand him not getting a run of games. Agree that Roberts is amazing to watch but offers nothing end product wise. I'd be tempted to give Benette a run of games on the right. Ba may not be a striker but literally anyone could have finished that chance yesterday, that goes in doubt we'd have lost.
The most Sunderland thing about yesterday. The only lad to come through with a little bit of credit does his knee
