This is my retained team, with places I think need improving. Mignolet Bardsley, JOS, centre half, Rose Cattermole R Midfielder, C Midfielder, Johnson Striker, Fletcher Subs; Westwood, Cuellar, Gardener, Larsson, Sessegnon, Wickham and Mcclean It's time to make real changes and add proper top flight players to the team, as the current squad and team are simply not good enough.
Apart from a few games this season we have been piss poor mate all over the pitch. Yes some will point to our good defence which within a couple of games has gone to **** but, that is all irrelevant when we aren't scoring or competing in the middle. Heard Brown is out for the season so at least 1 CB is required for me I'd go for 2, then there is the CM where we have lost games before we have even kicked off so 1 holding and 1 attacking CM. Strikers are okay ish but, are being starved of service so will never get us the goals we need. I said in August and again last month that we need to spend big money on a total revamp of the team and, I'll stick with that the longer we leave it the more likely we will be looking up at the PL with envy again after playing Grimsby away on a Tuesday night. We need top young ish players in with a few years on them and not the quick fix aging crocks which we seem to have been buying since we came back to the PL. Hopefully MON has his sights set on some decent replacements in January and even better in August.
mine below. v. similar to cest, but slightly different formation.....and retention Mignolet Bardsley, JOS, centre half, Rose Cattermole, c. Midfielder R Midfielder, Sess, Johnson Fletcher Subs: Westwood, C. DEFENDER, STRIKER, Cuellar, Gardener, Larsson, Wickham, Mcclean, Colback Youth: Laing, Egan, Adam, Knott? out go Frazer, Vaughan, Saha, McFuckinuseless,
just gone a thread about how good we were two seasons ago and the next two windows are huge for us to get back up to having a team like that or better. for me we need to kepp Mignolet Fletcher Cattermole Wickham McClean Sessegnon Johnson for me all the rest if a good offer comes in for them then they are gone oh and sign Rose up
Gardner must be told he's a RB, that's one thing. We must get 2 CM's, that's the pressing area, we are dog **** there, there's no point playing 2 deep CM's if neither can influence a game. We need a deep lying player who can actually play, Miguel Veloso? Moussa Sissokho? anybody? I'd look at this as the key area, last night was worrying, Lucas bossed it without any effort. We need to spend proper money on a CB, I mean a proper class CB, £10million will likely get you a Lescott, a Samba, a Yang M'Biwa, Diego Lugano is available from PSG for £2million or so, this is a crisis area for me, we are pony apart from JOS, who is showing signs of age anyway.
McClean poolie are you on drugs or is there some sort of gas leak where you are? He has been gash for the later stages of last season and barring a few glimpses of what he was doing when playing well last season gash this season. I agree he has potential but, we don't have the time to bring that potential on unless we farm him out to the fizzy pop or we will end up in the fizzy pop in which case I see your point. Agree with keeping the rest though also think Bardsley is on his last legs injured more than playing lately so we'll need a RB as well, big rebuild needed again mate.
McClean has been very poor for the last few months but about 14months ago he was playing for our reserve team and we proably thought he would still be in our development squad now. we need to have better quality than McClean so we can take him out of the side for 4 or 5 games and bring him back fresh and firing. Our problem at the minute is there is no spine to the side look at all the successful teams Man Utd - Vidic/Ferdinad, Scholes/Keane, Yorke/Cole Madrid - Pepe/Ramos, Raul/Ronaldo Barca - Pique/Puyol Xavi/Iniesta Arsenal - Toure/Campbell, Keown/Adams, Veiera/Petit, Henry/Bergkamp you need a good spine to be successful we need to go out and spent 30m or so on 2 CB's and 2 CM's that are far better than anything we have
Gardener is slower than Alan Pardew is to knowing which players are being sold under him up the road. He makes a canny enough stand in full back but long term its a joke to consider him. Bardsley has yet to recover from injury and is desperate for some game time but on his day is 10 times the full back of Gardener, just as he is 10 times the midfielder of Bardsley. Its called playing players in the positions their talents dictate and used to be very popular when I was a lad. If Bardsley is gone now, then a new specialist right back is required not another stop gap disaster in waiting.
But Gardner is unquestionably a better RB than CM, he does not control midfield at all. If he won't play RB, and I agree we need a proper RB, then he should probably be moved on. We have a stack of players, Vaughan, Seb, Colback, Gardner, who cannot influence a game from CM, and that is what's killing us.
Mons, none of the above leaving would bother me as all are at best average footballers and offer us nothing but the same old pile opf ****e we witnessed again last night. Cattermole, when he is back (and I hear he is already running freely again) is the anchor in midfield around which we need pace and creativity to be bought in. Sess would only be a sub in my team as he is more of an impact player than a 90 minute man. Fletcher needs better help and if this lad Guillaume Hoarau is the man (at 6ft 4 he will be a bloody handful) then so be it although I know bugger all about him. We need pace in the defence and pace in the middle and we don't have that currently in our squad so new faces are the ONLY answer. Playing players out of position to give them a game isn't the answer and we are doing that with Larsson, McClean, Gardener and Sess imo.
Not sure Bardsley is a right off yet mate but, he is cracking so why not try something really radical and look now for a RB while we still have a couple of seasons left in him.
Hoarau is not the man Cest, he is glacially slow and not a great finisher, he ain't got a great touch either, he's a massive no from me, massive. We need to gut the midfield for me, Seb, Gardner & Vaughan are not going to do anything to progress the club. Getting replacements of the right standard is gonna be tough for a bottom half team though. We know we simply aren't gonna play 4-4-2 so yes, we need to sign at least 2 CM's, we need a RB, and we need probably 2 CB's as well. Big ask in January!
Like I said mate I know bugger all about him and his record isnt exactly top class. I'm only looking at what the papers and other media are saying about oiur interest. I agree that our entire midfield need looking at and when I hear people say the likes of Milner are 'poor' players I could cry. They are exactly what we need here, good, quality midfielders that can graft AND create and not just one thing at a time.
Milner would be a fantastic signing mate, graft, skill, passing, he'd be superb. Just the wages barrier will **** us.
Sorry cest but Sessegnon is the most talented all around footballer Sunderland have had in my lifetime IMO - he stays and plays for me. He cannot be held accountable on his own for the entire team being ****e - there were 5 or 6 on the field in the first half that were as bad as or worse than him last night IMO. When we play well Sessegnon plays well so he stays in the first team. He would certainly strengthen our bench but him not being there would weaken our midfield. I don't think that the strengthening we need to do can be done in January - mainly because Jabuary prices are always massively inflated - little tweaks are all that we can do this month - things like Cahill would be a good move. Huddleston can certainly pass a ball and shoot from what I've seen of him. We've been linked with a few players and we know we need some strength - defence is particularly poor without O'Shea The rest I pretty much agree with you mate
Welll he better spend big to get me back there next season, this team should just survive. We look at this months fixtures WHU H Wigan a Swansea H at least 7 points are needed from them games, but if we lose at Bolton we need a new manager because we back to our shocking worst again, and the F A cup is all we have left in this rubbish season. I don't like to be frank but O Shea, Larrson, Colback, Killgannon, Cuellar are not good enough, and why has Brambell been dropped?.
We must be talking about a different player mate depending on how long your lifetime is? I'm sorry but Sess cant hold a candle to either the likes of Rowell, Marco, Schwarz, SKP, Allan Johnson, Summerbee or Arca for that matter for me and all those players contributed every game not when they could be arsed. Sess isnt a bad player but he isnt anywhere near one of the best I've seen? There are many more better but thats just my opinion. You say that when Sess plays well SAFC play well but how many times is that exactly? How many good games have you seen Sess have this season? 2? 3 at most. Our entire game plan revolves around his being the 2nd striker in this formation but he fails so many times to fulfill that role its become a real issue for us and is the major reason we are 4 points from the drop. Yes there are other failures and our midfield in general is woeful but they too are geared up to play this formation and its failing badly. If we ditched the 1 up front and played Wickham for instance and Fletcher as the second striker; with Larsson on the right, Johnson on the left and Sess and another in the middle (preferably Catts when fit) we would be far more effective as an attacking force imo and would see much better form the player himself. He just isn't a goal scorer and is struggling to fulfill a role he can never be. As a creative central midfielder with no target for goals he would probably score more. He isn't however indispensable at all.
Re: Centre backs. Youth , pace etc. Stick Louis Laing in. Cannot be any worse than any of the defence at the mo. I am sure with JOS as his mentor on the pitch he would do a good job and gain vital experience.
Good shout for me, sick of hearing about the 'potential' of these lads. Give them a ****ing game, we are ****!
