Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Watford FC – Saturday 8th February 2025 - KO 12:30

[Nads]

And this is the point mate.. those points are irrelevant if we go and drop points against the poor teams. It comes down to how many points we accumulate at the end of the season not who we accumulate them against.

And of course it’s not always the same game against different opponents but they’re still dreadful away and have lost 7 of their last 10 in total. They weren’t a good team at all we were just ****e. It’s dropped points no matter you look at it. If we’re accepting of dropping points against mid table teams at home who are we actually looking at as teams we should comfortably beat?

They are 3 points off the playoffs mate, are you suggestion we should be walking over these teams?

Teams have bad runs and come out of it. They clearly aren’t a bad side or they’d not be 3 points off 6th in such a competitive league.

To be there after losing 7 in 10 also shows they must have been incredibly strong earlier in the season. Again, form changes.

It can’t be one and not the other. They played well, they were physical and in their 8 and 10 had a bit of class.

I’m disappointed in the result and the showing but had we drawn with Boro would have been sound, theyre 2 points behind them.

Always seems we need to darken the picture. We are in a race we never expected to be in, we have a smaller less experienced squad than the other 3 yet here we are.

Sheff United got battered at home by Hull couple weeks back. We beat Hull.

Games are played on the day, today we were poor, and they were up for it and much improved.

It’s not that deep.

 

[LBW]

Tried too hard to impress but will be fine when he calms down

Looks petrified to me, sense of panic from him when he gets the ball. Clearly lacking in confidence, can tell he’s not used to 40,000 demanding a result. Today for me we would have won that with Jobe on the pitch, his power and drive was lacking massively, too many off the boil and like you alluded to earlier after the boro game you would think they would be itching to get on the pitch and play

 

[Nads]

Looks petrified to me, sense of panic from him when he gets the ball. Clearly lacking in confidence, can tell he’s not used to 40,000 demanding a result. Today for me we would have won that with Jobe on the pitch, his power and drive was lacking massively, too many off the boil and like you alluded to earlier after the boro game you would think they would be itching to get on the pitch and play

Aye Jobe a massive miss, especially with their physicality.

 

[WorkyTicketFTM]

So, by that logic, is the Sheff Utd win against us irrelevant because they lost 3-0 at home to Hull?

They’ve still only accumulated 3 points from 2 home games.. Sheff Utd have lost 3 of their 4 matches against the other top 4 teams yet they’re 5 points ahead of us so I think that answers your question. Do you think their fans sat there after getting pumped 3-0 and said oh never mind it’s alright Burnley drew with Pompey..?

 

[Prehab26]

Looks petrified to me, sense of panic from him when he gets the ball. Clearly lacking in confidence, can tell he’s not used to 40,000 demanding a result. Today for me we would have won that with Jobe on the pitch, his power and drive was lacking massively, too many off the boil and like you alluded to earlier after the boro game you would think they would be itching to get on the pitch and play

.agree on both. We lacked presence massively today. For all Samed is a CL player I still argue Ekwah would have done that job today

 

[Nads]

.agree on both. We lacked presence massively today. For all Samed is a CL player I still argue Ekwah would have done that job today

Yeah Samed is very tidy, but anyone can do that job. We simply don’t need that kind of player.

When Dan is in the were he provides forward momentum as well, Samed doesn’t do that.

He would probably be a very decent player for a lower half PL side protecting the back 4, not for an attack minded promotion chaser.

 

[WorkyTicketFTM]

They are 3 points off the playoffs mate, are you suggestion we should be walking over these teams?

Teams have bad runs and come out of it. They clearly aren’t a bad side or they’d not be 3 points off 6th in such a competitive league.

To be there after losing 7 in 10 also shows they must have been incredibly strong earlier in the season. Again, form changes.

It can’t be one and not the other. They played well, they were physical and in their 8 and 10 had a bit of class.

I’m disappointed in the result and the showing but had we drawn with Boro would have been sound, theyre 2 points behind them.

Always seems we need to darken the picture. We are in a race we never expected to be in, we have a smaller less experienced squad than the other 3 yet here we are.

Sheff United got battered at home by Hull couple weeks back. We beat Hull.

Games are played on the day, today we were poor, and they were up for it and much improved.

It’s not that deep.

They’re 3 points off play offs after a fairly decent start but they’ve been shocking for the last few months. They’re 2 points above Millwall in 14th who have a game in hand. If we want to go up we simply have to beat teams who’ve lost 2/3rds of their away games when they come to the SoL.

For some reason our fans love bigging us up (rightly so) when we play well against better teams then act like we shouldn’t be beating teams that are evidently worse than us when we drop points to try and soften the blow. We’ve proven how good we are and we should be walking over teams who’ve already been hammered away from home by the likes of Luton, Preston and QPR not to mention the better teams in the league.

And you’re bang on games are played on the day and all people are saying is that today wasn’t good enough. Its going to be a slog to the end of the season but if we’re chasing automatics and somehow not expecting to beat mid table clubs I’m struggling to think who our fans think we should be beating.

 

[Pure River Slut]

Tried too hard to impress but will be fine when he calms down

Important he gets minutes now in case we need him. Le Bris is level headed and thinks long term instead of just now. It’s important we play the long game

 

[Nads]

They’re 3 points off play offs after a fairly decent start but they’ve been shocking for the last few months. They’re 2 points above Millwall in 14th who have a game in hand. If we want to go up we simply have to beat teams who’ve lost 2/3rds of their away games when they come to the SoL.

For some reason our fans love bigging us up (rightly so) when we play well against better teams then act like we shouldn’t be beating teams that are evidently worse than us when we drop points to try and soften the blow. We’ve proven how good we are and we should be walking over teams who’ve already been hammered away from home by the likes of Luton, Preston and QPR not to mention the better teams in the league.

And you’re bang on games are played on the day and all people are saying is that today wasn’t good enough. Its going to be a slog to the end of the season but if we’re chasing automatics and somehow not expecting to beat mid table clubs I’m struggling to think who our fans think we should be beating.

I’m not disputing these are games we should be looking to win mate, that’s clear.

What I’m disputing is folk saying because we didn’t beat them, and the others did, that’s some kind of gauge for the season.

We will have a whole extra dimension or 3 when Mundle or Tommy return and then we likely start putting games away better.

We are in the fight, and for every poor result we can calm out 2-3 good ones, hence the points haul.

 

[Smug in Boots]

They’ve still only accumulated 3 points from 2 home games.. Sheff Utd have lost 3 of their 4 matches against the other top 4 teams yet they’re 5 points ahead of us so I think that answers your question. Do you think their fans sat there after getting pumped 3-0 and said oh never mind it’s alright Burnley drew with Pompey..?

No, they’ll think ‘Well it could’ve been worse’ which it could …

… exactly what we’re doing.

Or should we all be really angry and shout on the internet?

There’s absolutely no difference because we're not on the pitch.

Being ‘angrier than thou’ means nowt.

 

[WorkyTicketFTM]

I’m not disputing these are games we should be looking to win mate, that’s clear.

What I’m disputing is folk saying because we didn’t beat them, and the others did, that’s some kind of gauge for the season.

We will have a whole extra dimension or 3 when Mundle or Tommy return and then we likely start putting games away better.

We are in the fight, and for every poor result we can calm out 2-3 good ones, hence the points haul.

Aye I think getting a natural winger back is essential. Wouldn’t mind someone different on the right either

He wasn’t great today like especially his set pieces which is ironic because we scored from 2 of them but contrary to what people are saying about him being poor in the middle today I actually thought we looked much better once ELF went into the middle and Dan dropped deeper.. We were still struggling to create a bit but we regained control from a team that were all over our midfield first half and that’s not easy to do. Much more of the ball, much more passing and moving.

 

[Nads]

Aye I think getting a natural winger back is essential. Wouldn’t mind someone different on the right either

He wasn’t great today like especially his set pieces which is ironic because we scored from 2 of them but contrary to what people are saying about him being poor in the middle today I actually thought we looked much better once ELF went into the middle and Dan dropped deeper.. We were still struggling to create a bit but we regained control from a team that were all over our midfield first half and that’s not easy to do. Much more of the ball, much more passing and moving.

I think when he went central, the balls he was trying are a pointer to a much bigger picture with wingers back.

He only had Wilson to try and hit, when he has 3 options to aim at he will be an absolute nuclear weapon in th e centre.

 

[WorkyTicketFTM]

I think when he went central, the balls he was trying are a pointer to a much bigger picture with wingers back.

He only had Wilson to try and hit, when he has 3 options to aim at he will be an absolute nuclear weapon in th e centre.

Defo mate. Can’t help but think that chance where Roberts got the ball in acres of space and ran the length of their half just to lose it would’ve been in the back of the net if it was Mundle too.

 

[Smug in Boots]

.agree on both. We lacked presence massively today. For all Samed is a CL player I still argue Ekwah would have done that job today

To be fair I remember you calling Ekwah the soft underbelly, bottling tackles and wasting the ball …

… whatever the case hes not here any more.

 

[Nads]

Defo mate. Can’t help but think that chance where Roberts got the ball in acres of space and ran the length of their half just to lose it would’ve been in the back of the net if it was Mundle too.

Aye. I genuinely think if Mundle doesn’t get injured we have 5-7 extra points.

May be that him being relatively fresh for the run in is a difference maker, depending on how he comes back.

 

[ab65]

My view is that RLB repeated his team selection error from Plymouth in selecting Samed to start.

Hugely disappointing to get in front and then giving two needless goals away either side of HT. Poor decision making from Cirkin for the first and sloppy play between Rigg and Roberts for the second. Brilliant strike from their No 10 who worked his ticket the entire game but was also the best player on the pitch.

Glad that we got the equaliser and then need better finishing to take either of the two great chances to win it.

Sloppy play and inability to take enough of our really good chances over the course of season looks as if it will cost us automatics.

Very disappointing again today.

Hoping for a better team selection, performance and result on Wednesday night.

 

[7Mackem78]

Only just logging in here today, so apologies if this has already been said.

Samed looks a good and tidy on the ball, but he slows our play down. We are much better when hitting people quickly on the break.

I do wonder how the game would have turned out with Enzo in the middle and shoehorning Mayenda on the left. Not generally a fan of players playing out of position, but Enzo isn't best there either.

 

[Prehab26]

To be fair I remember you calling Ekwah the soft underbelly, bottling tackles and wasting the ball …

… whatever the case hes not here any more.

He might be next year. It was just a comparison. Not sure there is much difference TBF

 

[Smug in Boots]

He might be next year. It was just a comparison. Not sure there is much difference TBF

Comparison to what?

 

[Nads]

Could argue Ekwah got forward and had a dig on him.