Match Day Thread Hull City v Sunderland

[Drew]

Try this shot instead.

Still shots on this occasion are meaningless. You have to see the video to see the problem.

The refs initial positioning wasn’t great but it also wasn’t the problem. As a ref in the Championsip he should have been aware of the possibility the ball might be played to the player nearest him.

The pass doesn’t come from nowhere, there’s a second or two where it’s obvious where it’s going. Mehlem has every right to move towards where the ref is standing to receive the ball as it offers him more space. Whilst the ball is on its way, the ref first steps forward into the problem before getting out of the way. This stops Mehlem having as much time on the ball and Sunderland capitalise well. It’s the refs movement and awareness of his surroundings I have an issue with and not his initial position.

 

[CBeeeee]

Still shots on this occasion are meaningless. You have to see the video to see the problem.

The refs initial positioning wasn’t great but it also wasn’t the problem. As a ref in the Championsip he should have been aware of the possibility the ball might be played to the player nearest him.

The pass doesn’t come from nowhere, there’s a second or two where it’s obvious where it’s going. Mehlem has every right to move towards where the ref is standing to receive the ball as it offers him more space. Whilst the ball is on its way, the ref first steps forward into the problem before getting out of the way. This stops Mehlem having as much time on the ball and Sunderland capitalise well. It’s the refs movement and awareness of his surroundings I have an issue with and not his initial position.

The ref clearly interfered with our initial plans. But there you can see M had the ball under control with no immediate pressure, could see the player about to press, two options to play it sideways and maintain possession or even stick it in the box , shoot or even hoof to row Z. Can also see that we have inexplicably got every single player either in their box or within 10 yards. But no I'll try a fancy turn and lose it. That was 90% our own undoing that goal and blaming the ref is shifting focus from a stupid decision to attack like we are losing 1-0 in the last second plus another stupid decision by an individual player.

 

[Drew]

The ref clearly interfered with our initial plans. But there you can see M had the ball under control with no immediate pressure, could see the player about to press, two options to play it sideways and maintain possession or even stick it in the box , shoot or even hoof to row Z. Can also see that we have inexplicably got every single player either in their box or within 10 yards. But no I'll try a fancy turn and lose it. That was 90% our own undoing that goal and blaming the ref is shifting focus from a stupid decision to attack like we are losing 1-0 in the last second plus another stupid decision by an individual player.

But as football is a complicated game, all of these things can be true at once:

The ref shouldn’t be in the way.

Mehlem should deal with it better.

It was good play from Sunderland to sniff out the chance to pressurise.

The refs movement cut down how much time Mehlem had to control the ball and pass it on. The ref didn’t cause us to concede - that is true - but at the same time Sunderland probably don’t score if he’s not in the way.

 

[Kalman II]

Progression in football isn’t linear and having a manager who has managed in the EFL isn’t some guarantee of success. Coventry under Robins have gone from 5th in the 22/23 season, to 9th last season and are currently 21st and that’s with them maintaining a decent core of their squad without much overhaul. On balance, I think Walter is doing okay for his first season in English football.

 

[tigerrev]

There's a real acceptance of losing that has crept in amongst the fan base. It was okay today, but it's another defeat with 1 shot on target.

This squad is a lot better than the 14th, especially as it's a poorer division this year.

TW has been in post for nearly four months now. How long do we wait for the players to get used to how he wants to play and start putting together some decent results?

I remain far from convinced by Wally but think we need to give him at least until Xmas. Changing manager every 5 minutes rarely does a club any good. That said, if we are in the bottom 1/3rd of the table by Xmas I wouldn't be surprised if he got the boot

 

[Top_Tiger]

On balance, a draw would have been a fair result. Sunderland is a good team, but Norwich looks better IMO.

As far as the handball was concerned, this was certainly a red card and a free kick IMO.

As far as their goal is concerned, yes the ref effecting Mehlem's control of the ball, but I think the ref was standing there when the corner kick was taken, so Mehlem should have moved to a different position, away from where the ref was standing. So I think there is blame on both sides.

Also, what I cannot understand is why we don't have one defender further back, as we have been caught a few times now, whereby all 10 players come up for a corner, we should have a pacey player there just in case.

Hughes was the standout for me, was excellent all game, as was Jones. Midfield again was not dominant enough, particularly in the first half. Puerta did okay for his first game, but it did take him a while to get to grips with the pace.

Personally, I would like to see Zambrano & Puerta or Alzate, with Palmer ahead of them. Both Mehlem and Simon's are okay but don't affect the game enough IMO.

I think we will see Millar back on Wednesday as Kamara didn't really do enough.

On to Burnley, we certainly need to take something from the game, as another defeat will start to affect confidence.

P.S. On a positive note, we did look much better defensively.

Walter won’t do this. He will constantly have Mehlem and whoever else pinned on their back line with a huge gap for the 6 to play in. The centre of the pitch is a complete waste of time for us most of the the game.

 

[gftiger]

I remain far from convinced by Wally but think we need to give him at least until Xmas. Changing manager every 5 minutes rarely does a club any good. That said, if we are in the bottom 1/3rd of the table by Xmas I wouldn't be surprised if he got the boot

We’re on course for 23 to 29 points at the Christmas break. Last season, that would have put us between 20th and 16th.

 

[tigerrev]

We’re on course for 23–29 points at the Christmas break. Last season, that would have put us between 20th and 16th.

If we have 29 or 30 points after say 23 games (half the season) then that's about as many as I would expect. I'm expecting us to get around 60 points all season and finish around 10th. I have seen nothing to suggest we will be better than that

 

[gftiger]

If we have 29 or 30 points after say 23 games (half the season) then that's about as many as I would expect. I'm expecting us to get around 60 points all season and finish around 10th. I have seen nothing to suggest we will be better than that

Completely agree.

 

[willyfog]

I think Walter needed to show yesterday that he isn’t a one trick pony. If we had played how we had so far this season, Sunderland would have picked us apart.

He didn’t, and Sunderland struggled. They are full of confidence but they just looked like mid-table fodder yesterday and that was down to us.

People have said that we sacrificed our attack to keep it tighter and to an extent that is true. But this was a much better balance and had Bedia scored or we had chosen better options in the final third than we would and perhaps should have scored a couple.

Despite the result, I think the performance made me think that perhaps Walter could be the right man for the job. I think how we fare in our next 4 should give us all the answers we need.

 

[balkan tiger]

This is the very definition of disaster class. We were well in the game and it was there for the taking until this suicidal and completely unnecessary no-man-back corner routine cost us for the 4th time this season in only 10 games. You couldn’t make it up.

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So why doesn't one of the players hang back a bit? OK it's Walters plan but the players are on the pitch, are they so indoctrinated in the plan that they can only move like chess pieces no matter what is happening on the pitch?
Also when taking the corner didn't our man see that our player was being marked by the referee but passed it to him anyway rather than doing something different.

 

[pierredelafranchesca]

The linos didn’t see anything at all, one of the useless twats just waited to see which way the ref pointed and flagged that way.

Madley’s ****e, always was, no way he deserves to be a Group 2 referee.

Mehlem should’ve done far better though, it was his error, rather than Madley’s position that cost us the goal.

Upon reflection, I actually think the handball call is waaaay worse than Madley's positioning for the goal, ultimately, the ball hasn't hit him so he can't stop the game and like you say Mehlem (who i'm still not sure about) could have done better and hell, when Puerta played the pass he could have seen the ref there and not passed it.....but that handball, the blind ****er is bang in line with it, it looked obvious from all the way over in South that it'd hit his hand, and whilst not a penalty, really should have been a red card.

 

[Off The Line]

This is not the first time that fans from other teams have been baffled by the reaction on here. We are improving, and I for one think that sooner or later things will begin to click on a more consistent basis, rather than going the other way.

 

[bradymk2]

Nevermind

Forgot bedia scored v qpr

 

[Chazz Rheinhold]

This is not the first time that fans from other teams have been baffled by the reaction on here. We are improving, and I for one think that sooner or later things will begin to click on a more consistent basis, rather than going the other way.

I’ve found opposition fans are always magnanimous when they win

 

[balkan tiger]

This is not the first time that fans from other teams have been baffled by the reaction on here. We are improving, and I for one think that sooner or later things will begin to click on a more consistent basis, rather than going the other way.

It's not like the league leaders (Allright second at the time) were peppering our goal with shots and the panda got mom again. They had one real good chance and took it. We had plenty of chances at the other end but couldn't make any of them count.
It's getting better.

 

[Off The Line]

I’ve found opposition fans are always magnanimous when they win

Or possibly just more honest in their appraisal.

 

[Off The Line]

The fan noise, on the other hand, is going backwards.

 

[Top_Tiger]

The fan noise, on the other hand, is going backwards.

It certainly did yesterday.

 

[tigerrev]

It certainly did yesterday.

There wasn't a lot to get excited about was there? No shots on target tells its own story