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

To be fair to him his content and analysis is generally very good

 

Good morning form Piraeus, Greece!!!
First member of the family to arrive here since the old man 80 years ago to see off the Jormans.
By the way , fkn what a result. Had no Internet as we sailed from Santorini. Just catching up.

 

For me that result will be memorable because we have a lot of players who thought they might be good enough for Premier league football. They will now believe that which is massive and will breed confidence.
At this moment I am really happy that RLB has just extended his deal because another few of them performances and the vultures may well come calling.

 

What the **** are you on about you bellend

 

What ship you on?

 

Not much posting from @Smug in Boots. Can we debate how drunk he might have been yesterday on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being sh!tfaced.

I'm gonna say 11

On a side note we in the east stand aren’t always the loudest or the singers but I thought we were great yesterday. After Isadors goal I turned round to see the feller behind me yesssing with teeth clenched and fist pumping. WE ARE BACK!

 

Good morning all.
Some day yesterday mind.
The whole squad were excellent and RLB and his team got the tweaks and subs spot on.
Carlsberg did an opening day for a newly promoted team.
Absolutely electric in the ground as well. Loved it.

 

Think yesterday just epitomises Sunderland

All the dark times and we produce that on our return. Had me so emotional

our reach is massive, I had fans from all over the world and country yesterday coming up to me on holiday wishing us luck, never mind all the Sunderland fans asking what the score was who couldn’t get any signal!

whatever happens going forward we’ve got a team that’s going to fight for it. We can make a real go of this

haway the lads

 

My worry for yesterday was that the team would go straight out the blocks with the big crowd, new players wanting to impress and would loose their heads a bit which is obviously not RLB style and West Ham would pick us off.
I should have had more faith in Reggies coaching style as he got the whole game spot on. 30 odd% possession and 3 goals and a clean sheet is a recipe you can't ignore.
Have we ever had such an analytics coaching team at our club ever ?
Any news on Seelt injury?

 

Where’s access all areas, I need my fix

 

He said after the game the injury wasn’t serious

I thought he played really well yet Alderete was still a huge step up, that’s a compliment to both of them!

if were to sign another CB I’d like seelt to get a loan to play every game because he deserves it going to be a really good centre half

also the whole coaching staff is ridiculous, the level of coach we have now shows where we want to be

 

Sure RLB said it wasn’t bad, swore I seen him on the pitch at the end

 

I was just about to post this all it seemed time stood still for all 3 goals

 

Even our pre match warm up looked elite

 

Two decent presenters would be a help , I have always liked Shearer and Rooney but together as presenters URG .
On important matters , our first two strikers are fine if we play to their, strengths as we did yesterday. We have yet to see the back up but going by the quality brought in so far one more addition up front and at the back would be the perfect scenario, and almost guarantee our survival this season, which after all is what this season is still all about . But what a start that was, still buzzing tbh. OaU,

 

Havent watched MOTD since we got relegated and even then didnt really with in the Moyes years! After hearing its Shearer and Rooney as the pundits in there don't think I'll be watching much this season here as its two blokes who would love us to be saying he ****e we were each week and will be gutted if we play well (which is in line with what everyone say on here). Shearer is a mag so fair enough but Rooney got all precious at fans being fans the fat ****!

 

Yeah, they have paid the dosh for the big time coaches. You can see the difference in terms of prep. Whilst dodds and proc did well in the lower leagues, it's just a different ball game now.

Seelt did great I thought. Looked really comfortable. Whilst he needs to play, I think he is the first one to step in when injury or suspension is in place.

 

Don't believe you

 

Watched the game back and here's my final thoughts on it:

1st half we struggled to control the game and allowed West Ham i.e. Bowen to get into dangerous positions to drive at us. We still had some really nice moments in that half and I thought Diarra was class in that half at getting us forward. Ballards goal line clearance was really special, great awareness from him to drop back to clear it. Thought seelt got caught being too aggressive at times but he seemed to learn from this as the half went on. I would loan him out though, needs to play regularly to reach his potential.

2nd half was dominate though, we were very good both in and out of possession. Thought out of possession we were so good at letting West Ham play where we wanted them to play. We stopped them getting into pockets of space in front of our defence, brilliant by our CM 3 to block the space and our front 3 for know when to press them. Shows how impressive our coaching staff are that we had 7 new players in the starting line up (then Alderete to make it 8) yet they knew how to press as a team and when to do it.

In possession we got the runners go in behind, even though MOTD analysis was sh**e, Rooney did show a couple clips of how we dragged their back 3 wider - brilliantly tactical adjustment from RLB.
I felt we moved the ball quicker in the 2nd half, and West Ham couldn't cope with the pace we played at.

Having watched it back I'm changing my motm to Ballard, Diarra was my pick yesterday and he was still unreal but I thought Ballard set the tone with his defending - he was also good in possession.

The debuts were all so impressive, thought every single one of them showed they could be good PL players - and a few showed they could be very special

I said it yesterday but to have a CM 3 of Xhaka Sadiki and Diarra play the way they did is mental for a newly promoted side - we had Le Fee Rigg and Neil as back ups to that

I still feel we are a few players short from having a real quality team, I still looked at that bench and felt we needed some creativity in it. I also think we will bring in another CB to challenge Alderete and Ballard. I think we will see quite a few players move on as well - surely Huggins will be leaving if he didn't even make the bench and Roberts not getting on (2 CMs being brought on as wingers instead) could mean he will leave if we bring in a couple of forwards.

Still would like to see more patterns of play to open up defences as thought we still didn't create enough (mental to say that after scoring 3 goals)

The final point is on the fans, wow what an atmosphere - it was so loud through my TV and reminded me of the Reidy days where the place was usually rocking. We keep that up all season and teams will dread coming here - brilliant every single one of you that was there

Buzzing for next week, be a tough game against Burnley who will set up to frustrate us but what i love is how much pace and energy we have in this team - teams will not want to push too many players forward against us

 

Been looking at all the press for yesterday, places are beautifully positive about the team, the fans and the club.

Surprised to see Diarra widely rated as weakest performer (in numbers no report I’ve read suggesting he was poor)

What a day it was. The vibe pre match was absolutely stunning. Seeing young lads, mids like myself and the boys, and older lads all looking the same kind of excitement was amazing.

The stadium is like a new place and I feel like those murals and colours just lift the mood in there.

It wasn’t the bedlam of ‘121:59’ when the first went in but I do think the actual noise was similar. So loud. Was loud all game.

‘Wise Men Say’ didn’t bring me the feared waterworks I was expecting after being a bit of an emotional wreck in the morning. It just brought a feeling of ‘one love’ ‘we back’, pride and strength.

It was everything we hoped for and more.

To have the 3 lads who brought us up with goals in the playoffs be the 3 to start the engines on the season was fitting, was beautiful, felt written in the stars and symbolic.

Mayenda is off now, pre season is done, here is ‘game Mayenda’, Big Dan was imperious and that header was absolutely superb, Wilson, well that’s his favourite finish and one that many on here have been unmoved on all summer ‘Wilson will score goals’

I’m not over it, nor do I wish to be for a few days. Well done the fans. I include the returning ones that brought a max capacity, no area of the stadium didn’t play its part.

We are 7.9% to survival by my loose maths having played 2 and a bit % of games, we start ahead.

Thank you to all the lads, all the staff, to KLD, Speakman and Regis for yet another core memory.

A beautiful day.