Yesterday afternoon and all through the game we (the lads and I) could clearly see where our problem lies as a team. Its very straight forward and for us all to be saying the same thing means Its there for all to see. Why are we playing players out of position? Side should be as follows: GK:Mig LB:Rose CB:Roberto Carlo CB:Oshea RB:Bardo LW:AJ CM:Gardner CM:Honry Vaugheny RW:Seb CF:He scores when he wants CF:Saha This team is balanced, has bite with Gardner, craft with Vaughen and goals with Fletch. McClean is no premiership player... Sess needs to be dropped due to form Cat and Gardner can fight it out for the centre mid position. Why Oh why does MON not play this team????? If we Keep playing the way we are we will be in trouble. The only plus is we keep putting points on the board. We now have a nice run of games where if we don't start picking up point I will start to worry. Oh as a foot note, we were bloody lucky yesterday.......
We should have brought Saha on the second they took Ameobi off for Perch. Playing 4-5-1 against 10 men at home is criminal and we didn't deserve to win. Im a big Mon fan but many a manager would have won us that game
THE failure of Sunderland’s creative players to genuinely create in yesterday’s derby was glaring and something readily acknowledged by Martin O’Neill. But the Black Cats boss, frustrated by his men’s failure, also reiterated his support and the belief that they will come good once they get into the rhythm of regular fixtures which lie ahead. “The opposition made it difficult for our wingers,” he agreed after the 1-1 draw with Newcastle. “But they’re entitled to do that, you know – you expect the opposition to pressure you – and you have to find a way past that. “It was a tough old game – but I just think our creative players are just finding it a bit tough at this minute. “We just need those players to get back to what they’re capable of doing and we’ll look at that in the next few weeks. “But I have faith in the lads that they can come through it. “When you are a confidence player and things aren’t happening for you, it takes real character to try the same thing again, but you just have to keep going until it comes good again.” O’Neill admits it would have been nice to have had more points on the board by this stage, but insists he is not dismayed by the season so far. “Before today’s game we’ve had four away games and two at home – and they’ve been tough fixtures,” he mused. “We would have liked to have converted one or two of our draws into wins – the West Ham game, in particular, springs to mind. “But it has been tough. “Really tough.” Though it wasn’t a performance, or even a result, to savour, O’Neill said his first Wear-Tyne derby was an education. “It was a genuine experience for me,” he reflected. “The noise that greeted kick-off was awesome, but the noise that greeted our equalising goal, I seriously won’t forget in a hurry.”
The creative players are given the ball under pressure by about 3 defenders because the centre midfielders aren't creating any space on making runs. The creative problem lies in the inept central midfield we have. Colback the main offender. We need a central midfielder in Jan or to try Gardner/Vaughan/Meyler there next to Catts!
These comments for me means he never had a plan B if plan A (using his creative players) didn't come off. Very worrying he's happy just to let it ride and not action anything....
I picked this team myself on another thread and honestly can't see why MON doesn't even give it a try. Bardsley should be ready for Stoke, so will Catts, so i'm looking for changes for the next match.
Central midfield is a massive problem. Being blunt you are massively short of the required quality for the PL in there. It means the likes of Johnson, Sessegnon etc get ****e ball to work with. I don't think Gardner, Meyler, Colback, Larsson (who to be fair has proven on many occasions he's a right sided midfielder) or Vaughan are good enough in there. Cattermole although a bit rash has the raw materials to do the job. More than anything you need someone who can get their foot on the ball, pick passes and dictate a game. They all go in straight lines which means it is very easy for the oppo to defend against. You need someone like Cabaye who will pass/move and make people track him. It all creates space for the creative players like Johnson.
Isnt Bardo just coming back from injury? Which is why Gardner is being played at RB? Besides, Gardner is a decent RB. CM is his best position, but when Bardo is injured Gardner does a better job than I would have expected from him. I'd like to see Colback at LB again, Vaughn in the middle. Rose is a good LB, but Mcclean seems to play better with Colback behind him (or Ricco when he was still here). MON expects Sess to do a better job than he has been doing. 4-5-1 with Sess should work if he can get last seasons form back. Now if Bardo is fit and Catts available, then who do we drop? Gardner wont want to drop to the bench, Catts will replace Colback (I think thats what MON would do), so where does Gardner fit in? Drop AJ? Larsson? Sess?
CM is a massive concern, Quite like Meyler. Obviously MON doesn't. Gardener can do a job but to slow to support the front man. Catts, Colback lack vision and are what they are. Larsson does nothing in a game bar a couple of corners and free kicks (rubbish in CM) Vaughan. Average championship player. Johnson will come good, as will Mclean, as will Sess. (when gets to grips with passing instead of trying to beat six players every time)
Sad reality is that after Saha came on and after the goal we had a couple of chances and could've won the game - now that would've given Ronnie Biggs a run for his money in the grand scheme!
Disagree mate. GK, Mig. RB, Bardsley. LB, Colback. CM, Cuellar. CM, O'Shea. LW, Rose. RW, Johnson CM, Catts. CM, Gardner CF, Norman Stanley. CF, Saha.
Well to me Sess is never a striker (has as been proved this season), he needs to go back in midfield, we should start against Stoke with Fletcher and Whickam, Gardner, Catts, Vaughn, Johnson, Bardo, Cuellar, Titus, Rose. substitute Sess for Catts, O Shea for Bardo, Saha for Fletcher, give them about 20 mins each. Against the Boro (more important game) Same as Stoke line up but start , Bring on Saha for Whickham, Sebb for Catts and one for emergency cover.
Why is everyone keep selecting Johnson and saying he is creative. Erm, no he isn't he is at Sunderland for the money. End of.
I think Gardner will end up in midfield once Bardo is fit again. Its obvious to me we lack someone in the middle of the park who drives the team forward. Colback and Catts work hard but they are always going sideways or backwards. I think we have seen how under rated Larson is as a RW. He does not have blistering pace but he does create which is something Johnson has not done much of yet. As for Sess I don't know whats wrong with him, maybe the injury he had has had some sort of effect but I do think Saha should be given a run in the next few games. For me we should indeed go: Migg Bardo Carlos JOS Rose Larson Gardner Vaughan Johnson Fletch Saha Sess and McClean to come on and prove themselves.
I never said that Gardner was doing a bad job, on the contrary, he's did a great job at RB. My point was that while Bardo has been out and Catts, we have been weak as piss in the middle of the park. I would play Catts & Gardner in the middle, Catts holding and Gardner pushing on, Larsson on the right wing and Johnson on the left. Sess doesn't deserve to be in the team right now based on past performances, for whatever reason he isn't showing anything like his best form. But, i would play either him or Saha up front with Fletcher. 4-5-1 doesn't work, go 4-4-2 and stick with it. I certainly wouldn't drop Rose to accomodate Colback. Rose is a proper LB whereas Colback would always be makeshift, plus Danny Rose is better anyway, he's been our most consistent performer.
Still only 7 games in. There may yet be method in MON's "madness" and there's an awful lot of football to come. Whilst I can't disagree with what's been said on here (NMG's waffle excepted), we're not being beat while playing at about 50%, so we only need a tweak to start improving.
The reason our creative players ie johnson, mcclean and sess arent creating owt or playing well is because its really hard to get crosses in or run at defenders when they constantly have their backs to goal and are sitting too deep to get a decent cross in that our only striker can attack. so for that reason u have to question our tactics. we need to play them in behind the full backs so we csn run at the defenders and whip in sum dangerous crosses which we can attack. we also need sum1 from our c.mid to actually get into the box to support fletch in the box!
