Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Saudi State FC - FA Cup 3rd Round – Saturday 6th January 2024 - KO 12:45

If I said that then I apologise, but the same formation , does not mean the same players and my eleven had Seelt starting not Jobe , we lost our way yesterday playing too openly, no blame on the players at all , the blame lay off the field not on it.

 

Then by the same token, Pritchard should’ve had 2 as 2 of longstaffs were pot shots from 20 yards.which he blazed over. (Pritchard produced save and hit the bar) One tough chance which came quickly to him, so I suppose they created that. The 2 pot shots were also down to our clearances not them creating anything. How many saves did Patterson have to make? I’m not talking “shots on target” here, I mean proper saves. They were rubbish in the final third. Really poor.

I thought the Isak one looked a foul, not seen it back but it also looked a lot like Bournemouth’s third yesterday which wasn’t given (and an awful lot like what happened 5 or 6 times to Rusyn without us getting a FK).

 

or the entire squad celebrating knocking out a championship side full of youngsters with a team photo on the pitch. You don't see the big boys doing Sunday league stuff like that.

 

Great post. A lot to dissect in here.

 

Very good assessment mate, anybody who has a ounce of football knowledge in their brain and witnessed the game,especially in the ground,could see the difference in all aspects of football,we just didn’t have the SQUAD to do anything about yesterday’s result,they are on a different level

 

They look big, powerful and athletic against other premier league teams too. That’s what they’ve intentionally recruited towards, it’s their ‘identity’ under Howe at least. It’s at the expense of more technically adept players but it’s very effective.

They’ve been very good at nullifying good teams in the top league and stopping them from playing and they weren’t far off their best yesterday. That’s why I can’t relate to anyone calling Beale inept and calling for his head off the back of yesterday’s match. Declaring all our players (Neil, Clarke, Jobe etc) as ‘****e’ and ‘not good enough’ and wanting us to completely abandon our approach and model as a result.

 

Quite

 

Yep. I couldn't believe how small time it was.

It's not a derby any more, but when it was, the wins to savour were the ones where you didn't expect to get anything from it or when it was too close to call. In recent history that tends to have been us outperforming to win.

You wouldn't see Liverpool going on like that at Tranmere, for example, or Man United at Salford. They'd show a bit of class in a completely expected victory.

 

That was my frustration, that we kept trying.

It’s not a fluke that people play in the Premier League. I played in a league over in Marbella and the odd ex pro would turn up in teams and you couldn’t get near them, like literally insane the levels. We had a lad who’d been a Feyenoord youth player (one of my best pals to this day), he never got near their first team and he absolutely ran rings round us, more so kid was crazy strong.

Used to see him holding people off and such, don’t get me wrong he’s 6 3 and naturally built cos he does landscaping and decking in the heat, but ran into him hard in training once to try take him off the ball and I may as well have ran into a wall, he was solid as a rock was crazy.

That’s every player in the PL. You can see the physical shape they are in they are monsters.

Probably why of the promoted 3 Luton, who are the least talented but most physical ( helps that their manager is really decent despite the lack of credit he gets) are making the best fist of it.

They have big athletic lads who are ‘learning on the job’ in the PL and getting some joy.

 

Fully agreed mate.

I despise Gordon and everything he stands for and did to Everton, but **** me the levels between him and ours.

You can’t deny the lads a ****ing player.

 

Just faced the highlights and my days that deflected Ekwah shot that was actually a stunning save.

They might have shot the bed if that went in. Margins man.

 

Like yourself I was wondering if I had missed the cup presentation - sorry I forgot they don’t win trophies . Only explanation I could think of was that it was pure relief on actually beating us after such a long time but I have NEVER seen something like this before either watching SAFC or even on TV .Fair play they deserved their win and were due a celebration but that was way over the top.

 

And Anthony Gordon making sarcastic comments at a player who was in a northern Irish league 3 years ago!

He’s on my list of “hope someone breaks his leg” players

 

Yep. Him and Bruno both are. And I despise them both! But you have to hold your hands up and say they’ve bought some cracking players

 

Hate the **** but that’s standard footy banter. Gordon was a youth player 3 years ago.

 

Aye definitely. That's why I was annoyed with Hume yday. Was out of position loads and instead of trancing, was just trying to snap instead. That's why I said he played ass. Not an ass player of course. Been very good for us. Think the occasion got to him .

 

Some fan you are, you had a dig at people like me who according to you can’t have the same feelings for the club as you do because we were born outside of Sunderland.

I remained in my seat until the bitter end 30 yards from Newcastle fans just so I could clap every one of our players off the pitch and you leave in a fit of pique when their second goal went in on 46 minutes.

You are right, I don’t have the same feelings for the club as you do, I don’t have the contempt for them that you constantly display on here and Twitter, I don’t have the childlike expectations that you do. I love Sunderland AFC and have done so for over 60 years. You constantly dig out the club, management and players with your ignorant diatribe. Some of the comments you make demonstrate that you have never played competitive sport in your life and yet you pontificate about how the game should be played ffs.

 

As this thread has now become diverse I'll use it to pose a question related to Newcastle and us.

I know some would like KLD to go so I wondered who wouldn't be acceptable if he sold.

Not just individuals like Ashley, I'm talking countries like Saudi, Russia, China, etc.

Or would anything be acceptable providing they pump in millions without mortgaging the club.

 

Well said

 

I wouldn’t want to be state owned. I wouldn’t want anyone involved in energy markets or anything that abuses people either.

No billionaire is clean sadly, I’m sure ours isn’t, but there’s levels in it.

Jim Radcliffe would have been canny and there was talk he looked, briefly, before he bought Nice.