We were the only team in the bottom seven to pick up points today (though Luton play tomorrow), and probably the least likely to have done so given everybody else's fixtures. It was a great win, but it was a statement performance from me. Between now and the 4th March, we need to be spending time at the stadium, shaking off whatever bullshit is stopping the lads from performing at home. Play a short friendly or something, if the pitch can handle it. They could make it free entry, give people a reason to go to the ground on a Saturday. Play the first XI vs the U21s. Or ask one of the Dutch or Belgian clubs to jump on the City Hopper and give us a game.
Did Pandur even have to make a proper save? I remember a couple of soft headers , but trying to remember a genuine good chance they created , Credit to the defensive effort
A home match against a Dutch team, you've just set an alarm off on Clough Road. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
If Barry’s injured, do we go 4-2-2-2 against Cardiff? We don’t really have a lot of touchline wingers fit and available. What we do have in abundance is central players, be it strikers, attacking midfielders and number 8s.
I'd say the one towards the end was probably a "proper save" it was one you'd expect any keeper to make but still needed to do it and push it out of danger
Sunderland were definitely on top for the start of the second half but to say we were all over the place would be a bit unfair I think. They had a couple of very good chances which they perhaps should have scored but on the whole we restricted them fairly well. The subs definitely made a difference and there came a time in the match where I did think it was going to finish at the current score. It was another solid away performance.
Don’t remember it, but I was getting distracted . was no dig at Pandur, just really unusual to win away and not need your keeper to have a top day. Shows how well the defence did
Why Lincoln came on and did more than a job. We've got Amrabat and is Kamara due back? I think he was just sick
Lincoln’s more of an attacking midfielder than a winger, apparently. We play very narrow in and out of possession anyway. We have lots of players whose instinct is to play centrally like Gelhardt, Lincoln, Crooks, Pedro, Joseph, Alzate, Puerta, Slater and Matazo. We have very few wingers who create width, stretch the opposition and play high and wide.
Have to disagree Gelhardt is great at providing width and Lincoln did fabulous when he came on. Why change formation when we've just won
The average positions/heat maps from the game/s say differently, as do my eyes. Gelhardt is not a touchline winger at all. He plays very narrow as a second striker almost.
That's because they also have to defend and need to tuck in when defending but provide width when we have the ball
They had 2 shots on target. We had 4. I seem to recall they were close to his chest. To be fair, he did look commanding against a lot of crosses coming in.