Interesting little comparison this for SAFC: Season 2009/2010 Finishing Position: 13th Overall Total: W 11 D 11 L 16 F 48 A 56 Pts 44 Home Record: W 9 D 7 L 3 F 32 A 19 Pts 34 Away Record: W 2 D 4 L 13 F 16 A 37 Pts 10 Top Scorers: Bent 24 (only one worth mentioning really!!!) 1st half of season: W 6 D 4 L 9 F 26 A 29 2nd half of season: W 5 D 7 L 7 F 22 A 27 Clean Sheets: 7 Failed to score in 12 games Finishing Position: 10th (Better by 3 places) Overall Total: W 12 D 11 L 15 F 45 A 56 Pts 47 Won one more and Lost one less - scored less and conceded the same Home Record: W 7 D 5 L 7 F 25 A 27 Pts 26 Away Record: W 5 D 6 L 8 F 20 A 29 Pts 21 Home record is not a patch on last season but away record is streets ahead Top Scorers: Gyan 10 Bent 8 Welbeck 6 Richardson 4 1st half of season: W 6 D 9 L 4 F 21 A 20 2nd half of season: W 6 D 2 L 11 F 24 A 36 1st Half of the season a significant improvement 2nd half wasn't as bad as we all thought (thanks to a good january more than anything though) Clean Sheets: 13 - Massive imnprovement at the back (and majority in the 1st half of the season) Failed to score in 12 games - exactly the same I know it doesn't paint the whole picture and we needed another striker and probably defender or 2 but all in all we got what most of us wanted out of the season. We won 3 from our last 5 which is pretty good all in all although the 2 losses were at a wimper but the season statistics between the last 2 seasons are quite interesting I thought!! All in all - if you'd offered me this position at the start of the season I'd have been happy - if you'd offered me it at Christmas I'd have said no - and if you'd offered it to me about 6 weeks ago (before the Wigan game) I'd have absolutely snapped your hand off!! Remember that win and West Brom's equalliser on the final day means an extra 3 or 4m in prize money for final league positions
The things that could of been if Bent stayed and Welbeck stayed fit, that would have meant another 12 goals at least and who knows where we would have finished! I fear we will never have a better forward line than Bent, Gyan, Welbeck & Campbell for a long time
IBWT - I sort of agree but think our downfall was more due to the poor defence than the lack of attacking. If the forwards don't score we can still gain a point if the defence plays well - if the defence is rubbish then we can't gain anything if we need to score 3 or 4 every game to win (as we always conceded 2 or 3 goals except against Arsenal!!)
True marcus, in recent weeks our defending has been god awful, West Brom and Wolves at home spring to mind. Either way you look at it though we have improved and a 10th place finish is nothign to be sniffed at. We have to build on this now and continue to finish in the top ten for the next few seasons
Thats the difference between the european side and us, they can draw games when it looks like they are going to lose as we did in the first half of the season.
Some interesting stats, but here is some more that shows just how different the 2 seasons have been. Everyone has said this season that A poor Man utd team has won a poor league, i have to disagree. I think this has been one of the best seasons in premiership history because the league has been so competative, the difference between the top 4 and the rest has closed considerably. last season it took 86 points to win the league this year it 77. if we take the top 8 as a bench mark for teams to try and break into, we were 17 points of 8th last season, this year only 2. but the point that best illustrates how competative the league was and shows just how much the points were shared is to look at the bottom 3. last season the bottom 3 had a combined 79 points this season the bottom 3 finished with a total of 111 that is a vast difference, so to anyone who says we scraped 10th in a poor league I say we finished 10th in the most competative league ever.
When we were 3-0 up at West Ham, it was good enough to put us in 13th place - exactly where we were last season. What put us into tenth - and therefore an "improved" position - was West Brom's late goal. The only improvement I can see at all is that Newcastle screwed up.
Very good reply and nice op, the top three can only have so many good players and there are still hundreds out there who want to play in the premiership, so i can only see it getting tighter in years to come, even if the top 3 buy the best stars from other teams there will still be lots left.
Good analysis and I conclude that we will be able to tighten up defencively but a huge question mark hangs over our goalscoring ability. I think we have been among the lowest scorers in the premiership even when we had Bent. Two decent strikers and a positive goal difference next season could see us potentially moving up another two or three places. Ah if only it was that simple but this is Sunderland so there is bound to be drama and anguish.
Pretty much, yeah. It was a 20 minute lapse of concentration on our part which dramatically re-shuffled the final standings. Not many mackems would ever admit that though.
i agree it will be difficult for us to get or equal that forward line but we must start soon and again we will have to build with the right players been bought and its not going to be easy lets hope we can get the right players first time
