As the title says sod it, I wasn't going to post about the Liverpool game but.... We have been making excuses for OUR team for weeks now. Quinn going on about attendances has covered up a lot of bad performances. When people come on here or other forums, voicing legitimate concerns about our players or tactics they are shouted down. Well bollocks start shouting! We were ****e against a ****e Liverpool team. Suarez looks a canny player but a cheating little get too. Carol could turn into the best English forward we have seen for many a year. Kuyt's work rate and stamina are unbelievable. (Why the hell can't our players put that effort in?) Mingolet made a couple of good saves but his overall game was crap, Suarez should never have scored, dreadful keeping. Gordon is twice the keeper he is. Henderson is NOT a central midfielder, do we need to play him wearing blinkers so he actually looks forward? Wasn't it him passing the ball backwards that caused Muntari to over stretch to stop it going to a Liverpool player? Cattermole came on and actually made an effort, FFS he ran past Hendo to the other side of the pitch to try to stop a Liverpool attack. Hendo was still standing 40 yards away in the same position. If he wasn't a Sunderland lad we wouldn't be saying give him time! How much time does he need? Ferdinand was doing well, even looked to try and carry the ball out a couple of times looked around saw no support and ended up just having to lay the ball off. Where the hells the tactics, the pass and move, the effing effort? Sometimes it looks as if our players are **** scared to move from their position to support the attack. Our set plays are dismal at best, every other team practices set plays do we not? Sometimes we look like a Sunday league team who just lob the ball in and hope for the best. You can have the best strikers in the world, if you don't supply the bullets there's no way they can score. We have to start passing and moving, not just passing the ball and then stand and watch what happens. Tactics are down to Bruce, it is time he started sorting this out before it's too late. He made some very strange decisions yesterday. It's no good bleating about a penalty that shouldn't have been, over the 90 minutes we were second best to a very average team. If we hadn't had the good early start to the season we would be in the mire right now. And we would have had another season of arse clenching end of season games. We have a very good squad at the moment that should be more than capable of stabilising us top ten, injuries apart, the ones that do get on the pitch should be putting a hell of a lot more effort in.
mate and agree with all you have said, particularly your points about set pieces and tactics! Yesterday was just appauling in front of a full house and being shown live around the world! I'm a big fan of Mig, but the second goal? What was he thinking? They must all do better, including coaches and manager!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice piece MR. For me, this is the hard part: "the ones that do get on the pitch should be putting a hell of a lot more effort in." Up to Bruce now, leadership needed, and needed badly.
Dorset I honestly always try to look at the positives in Sunderland (after 40 odd years following them that is sometimes all there is to look at) but there were very few yesterday. I have seen some terrible teams that took a tonking from the opposition, that have been cheered off by the crowd to a man at Roker Park. Not for skill, not for flair, but for EFFORT! We have a very good team, but we need to stop this wrapping them in cotton wool mentality. Where we are not allowed to criticize them, everyone of them is earning a fortune to do something I would do for free!
I've never been a knocker of Hendos, but I fail to see what everyone else seems to see in him. If he's England class then the England team are ****e. He rarely makes a forward pass, mostly always goes sideways, can't head a ball to save his life and the reason he got hurt yesterday was cos he bottled a 50/50. You can't even say he runs for 90 minutes cos he's always knackered after 75, we may as well play Steed or Bolo. Stick him on the bench.
Look how well we played when we beat Chelsea mate. Then look at yesterday, a game I honestly expected to win against a poor Liverpool. It's no good one or two players putting in a full shift they all have too. I'm used to the ups and downs of supporting Sunderland but after Chelsea I was expecting us to kick on. I keep on about passing and moving, ie making yourself available for a return ball. We just don't seem to do it, unless pressurised into it. Come on it's not that hard to do to take a couple of steps to one side of the opposition to make yourself available. Our midfield seems lately to sit on top of our defenders, who sit on top of our keeper, then if there's a break on, there's no one to pass the ball out to and it's hoofed up field. FFS the likes of Vidic and Rio are usually standing in the semi circle on the halfway line. We are lucky if Henderson is that high up the pitch. (No this isn't a total rant against Henderson being CM, Richardson is worse playing there. ) This is all tactics and that's down to the manager, lets go out to win, not to, just not get beat. We have some very good flair players now who are being restrained by the way the team is being set up.
The whole team passed sideways or to a Liverpool player yesterday after the first half hour or so we were scared to receive the ball in case we had to do something with it. As MackemsRule says stop wrapping these players in cotton wool and accepting crap like that from them. I'd like to think that we all understand about injuries and suspensions and this ludicrous 25 man squad rule but, for the players to bin it after 30 minutes is a disgrace. SB needs to gee them up and get them playing for the rest of the season. I was worried that this would happen and our season would fizzle out after such a bright start looks like it'll happen now.
Just listened to match highlights on the radio on the way home from work. Steve Bruce was delighted with the turnout and thought the atmosphere was "fantastic" ??! .... Think he was at a different game to myself, I thought it was mute at best! I think the Echo sums up yesterdays performance pretty well when it says "Carroll never did anything to suggest he is Britain's most expensive player. But he still proved to be more of a threat than Sunderland's lame attack". Just seemed completely devoid of any attacking ideas yesterday. Yes, Liverpool are experienced and defended well, however to not have tested their keeper until around the 80th minute is a disgrace. Injuries or no injuries how hard can it be to take a shot from time to time?! I'd rather see a half decent shot than watch many of our attacks fizzle out down the wings.
MW it hurts to have to say these things about any team member especially a local lad. I also think you're being generous with the 75 minutes, theres been games where he looks like he is gasping after 30 minutes. I have smoked since I was 8 years old, drank since 14, worked 40 hour plus working weeks of hard manual labour. I still managed to play squash, badminton, five a side, flat out 100%, one after the other straight from work week nights. Straight into the bar in the leisure centre all of us throwing back the pints and smoking. Then a hard hungover 90 minutes of full effort on a Saturday or Sunday football. (All effort as I had very little skill) I was doing that coz I loved the game, these lot are being paid a fortune. I'm old enough to have seen Colin Todd in his pomp, and was still proud as owt watching him play for other teams. I never ever saw him give less than 100%
iv been shouted down about hendo god knows how many times even going back the original 606 hes got potential as a WINGER not a CM he played 1 forward pass yesterday its simply not good enough to warrant a starting place
Couldn't agree more, but you're not allowed to say anything against Henderson on this site without being vilified and abused. He showed a lot of promise at one time but something has happened to him and he can't cut it at this level any more. Nobody would be happier than me to see him return to his former skillful self.
Are we going to end the season just relieved that we have survived? We do need to see more effort and if we don't then as a Club we should be ready to be ruthless and weild the axe where ever it is needed, playing or managerial. Lack of skill is one thing lack of effort is unacceptable. Over to you Ellis.
Great article that I agree with...not that that means a lot!!!We promised a lot but the side is not delivering the goods now.Get shot of Malbranque...his legs have gone and he has no pace.Time for SB and his coaches to earn their corn,and get the team playing again.
I fully agree MR, I suppose i was being a bit generous. I really fail to see how he can get a game ahead of Steed or Bolo, OK, so Bolo is carrying an injury but when all fully fit those two have bags more skill and commitment than Henderson. He just didn't offer anything yesterday, Stevie Gerrard must have been gutted he wasn't playing, he'd have had a field day. I've just watched the match again on Sky and Catts can clearly be seen trying to gee Henderson up. **** me, he's 20, he shouldn't need any encouragement.
I have constantly defended Henderson from the knockers on here, but I can't bring myself to do it anymore. The lad is definately not suited to the central midfield role. He was running around flapping his arms like Mr Bean yesterday and was totally ineffective. SB must stop playing him in the middle, it's the right wing or the bench for him from now on IMO. I have not been impressed with Muntari either thus far, and can't see him getting a permanent deal with us on current form. Like many of you, I am struggling to understand which is Sess' best position. I'm not convinced of his qualities as a winger, so that leaves the attacking midfield role, but he gets knocked off the ball too easily for my liking, so needs to man up if he's going to be a success in the EPL.
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