Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v West Ham - Saturday 16th August 2025 - KO 15:00

What a day! Unreal from the lads but i tell you what, that goalie sumit else mind

like a claw machine

 

He has that quality, Xhaka, however I am going to say, controversially, he got whipped a good few times today. Was up against Paqueta though. At times I was surprised at how slow he was.

 

His role today was to stop Paqueta playing though, and yeah he may have gotten away from him a few times but can anyone argue that overall Xhaka nullified him?

 

The new centre back was class. Positioning really good

 

How great was that, effing superb second half.
But I said at half time in a cageyish game that we looked like a PL team. No panickers in this squad we looked like a genuine mid table side.
HTL
KTF

 

Probably not. He did the job. Just an observation watching him. He looked a bit slow and that was my worry. He got whipped a few times.

That said, he was quality elsewhere.

Diarra was the boy in the middle today, for me anyway.

 

Some nice touches and passes aswell, seemed really calm and controlled. Good first impressions!

 

As soon as he came on he was telling our lads where to go.

 

That's why I think Sadiki and Diarra are ideal partners for Xhaka, they cover so much ground and so quickly. Xhaka is the organiser, loved his communication today, just controlled everything but agree Diarra is a bit special isn't he.

 

He was always slow mate. Even when young he was never pacey at all.

I agree on Diarra. I adult could be an 89million sale that lad. Athletic as ****.

 

I thought Xhaka was quality mate he can’t have the beating of everyone but aye Diarra is the boy. Absolutely superb.

 

3 lads from last season who scored. Who needs the newbies eh .

 

And the 3 lads that scored in the plays offs

 

Thought Sadiki was insanely good myself. Just everywhere. Him and Diarra.

Perhaps a controversial opinion but I’m not sure we win that game without Alderete. Just felt like we took control the moment he came on. Gave us a stability and a solid base to work from.

 

All assisted by the new lads - like poetry in motion isn’t it.
Who says football isnt still full of romance.

 

That ball he put in for Mayenda 's goal - sheer perfection

 

Actually going to agree with you to a degree here mate. Lost the battle first half (against a brilliant player tbf). Thought we lost the whole midfield battle first half (even though I thought diarra was outstanding). Second half though, oof that second half, we stepped up big time.

long way to go, but we know:
1) we can compete
2) we can keep clean sheets
3) we can score goals
4) we can win

 

I thought for 20 minutes they found some space in between our lines and could have scored. The other 70 we matched or bettered them though. It wasn’t the whole first half. A definite spell.