I Think MON will send them out and just say enjoy it. No pressure tonight on us with hopefully one or two of the lads trying to secure a berth against Everton next week. Could be a good game.
Well sorry but it matters to me, Win = 40 points, may not be going down anyway but it is the magic number win = Further ahead of the chasing pack Each place is worth £800,000 at the end of the season. 8th-15th = 8 places = £6.4 million = Pride = Better chance of attracting players in the summer. I want us to win, put Blackburn in their place, make a statement of intent, we want and will finish top 10 and let others worry about us, Not get beat, others think meh, and we limp over the line in 15th or worse place come May.
I don't think anyone is saying it's not important. All games are important. It's just less so. If MON needs to rest a few, it'll be tonight.
We have a squad, every player in the squad should be able to step into the 1st team at a moments notice and do a job, if they cant, they should not be in the squad. Resting players is fine, if they need a rest, resting them just for the sake of it, or because there is a bigger game in 2 weeks, is bollocks tbh. Lets go to win every game (even with a few changes) and btw he did say it was not important in the grand scheme of things. It IS.
£800k = 2 James McClean's - we wll need to strengthen in the summer and t looks a lot better finishing 8th than 15th in attracting new talent. Blackburn are really inconsistent and had a good result last time out so I fancy us to take it 3-1
Well I expect there to be pressure on every game, Blackburn are on a bit of a run and a win there will not be easy. The quicker we get to 40+ points the quicker we can relax and go for Everton. If we win the next two league games we would have 43 points and the cup run would be the icing on the cake. Wining is a habit, that is why Moyes was IMHO silly to play a weakened team against Liverpool. We go all out for a win, MoN will keep playing the same team unless someone is injured or particularly useless. The replacements coming in know they have to play well, that is how he picked the team at Villa, Celtic etc it will be no different for Sunderland. We have however come unstuck once lately the 4-0..we have to guard against that. We have to get the habit of playing our high intensity pressing game and breaking fast, that is what good teams do...
I've lost the fear of losing games of football and that is because I now anticipate that Sunderland will give any team a good game of football, win, lose or draw. Having the feeling of confidence irrespective of the ultimate outcome is a very special commodity for a football fan and this feeling needs to be savoured for every day it is with us. We have a fantastic man in Martin O'Neill to thank for providing us football fans with that special mentality that is rarer than Percy's "Pure nugget of green"...
It's all relative is all I'm saying. Is the pressure of tonight as great as our last game? No. Is the game tonight as important as the replay? No. This 40+ points thing and relax is meaningless this year. We are safe now even if we don't get another point that said however. I don't expect anyone at SAFC to relax.
I also asked whether it will 'REALLY matter?' That is not to say the game carries no importance whatsoever. Rather, that there is relatively little riding on this game for us. If you want to think this is the biggest game of the season BCS, thats fine. But as far as I'm concerned it is only 1 out 38 with only league position to play for (i.e, little chance of relegation or a European spot). I am yet to be convinced otherwise.
Spot on. We had no Sess, Catts and Richardson and beat Liverpool and drew away at Everton? In Vaughan, Meyler, Colback, Gardener we have excellent midfield; Campbell could play right wing and Wickham and Bendtner offer good forward cover. Kyriagos will be busting a gut to be part of this. One other point. Just have a look at the team we had out against the mega stars of man city back on New Years Day. It's as much about attitude as it is personnel. Ours are spot on these days.
Didn't mean to cause any bother, sorry. It seems the consensus is win or lose is fine but if we win it will be better than if we lose so a draw would be good but a win would be better however if we lose we will not be disheartened in any way but it would mean it is vital we win on Saturday to stop us getting into a losing streak with a big game coming up on Tuesday, that's next Tuesday not this.
Theres only a few points between us and 15th so its important that we keep focused on the league. Id take a point tonight though. I have a sneaky feeling it will be a 0-0 draw but one of those games that could turn out whoever scores first wins. I've grown to admire Steve Kean as the season has gone on and if/when he keeps Blackburn up id back him for manager of the year, no one has had to go through what he has and come out the other side. Blackburns home support has cost them in my opinion and if we can rile them, get under their skin and nick the opening goal we could be coming home with all 3 points
For me, our next game is always our most important, Everton in the Fa Cup is 7 days away, we have 2 games against 2 of the bottom 5, win both we can go 7th if other results go our way. If we get beat in both and they dont, we could be 15th and 4-5 points adrift, going into the FA Cup game. I know what I would rather have, and hopefully us winning will mean putting another nail into the coffin of Blackburn and QPR. and in the grand scheme of things football isnt important, but thats more personal **** that people go through, more than what people you have never met are going through imho.
My comment on the 'grand scheme'was intended to be in relation to the season, though this seems to have been misinterpreted. As for the scenario you would like to see, what happens if achieving those wins jeopardises the best chance we've had in many years of getting to Wembley. If given the choice a trip to Wembley or 7/8th in the PL is not a difficult decision.
I've been feeling this too. I'd be happy with a draw, because away to blackburn we've been woeful. However under MON? well we'll have to wait and see. A few tired legs are against is though.