Not sure if anyone has picked up on this, but didn't have any real attacking options on the bench. I know we played with three of our reconized forwards in Sagbo, Aluko and Graham. We had three defenders on the bench. Bruce, Rosenior and McShane. Surely we didn't need this much cover? Especially as Figueroa and McShane can cover all a cross the defence.
Just mentioned this in the match thread. In all honesty, Bruce shouldn't have been in the squad and a striker should have been in his place. That's not me bashing him, he's just a worse defender than McShane and we didn't need 3 defenders on the bench.
Mentioned on the match thread. Crazy to have bruce jnr on the bench and no striker, or dudgeon even for better balance. Brucie did say he wanted to reward the players that got us promoted. Only explanation...other than the nepotism charge.
I don't like to mention nepotism considering how good Brucey has been, but I think he was on the bench for only one reason.
I think the idea that he's just picking his son out of nepotism is ridiculous, but there really is no obvious reason why you'd do it. Surely it's either him or McShane? In what possible scenario would we have needed both of them but not a striker or anyone left-sided?
I have a feeling there may just be another striker in before the end of the window, and Fryatt, Proscwitz or both will join Mclean and Stewart out on loan elsewhere. Think Bruce might be in there simply for his versatility and ability to graft. If we went 1 up and were looking to see out the last 10 minutes you could put him on as an extra defensive midfielder to see the game out. Also, if someone got injured in the back-line he can do a job almost anywhere.
We had no strikers on the bench simply because we have none who could remotely play at this level. I will expect Steve Bruce to exercise his loan options and bring a couple in as Graham and Sagbo might as well have sat on the bench all the match for what use they were but, to be fair, they were up against a 300 million quid Chelsea side who are joint favourites for the title. I talked to a lot of Sunderland fans on their boards and they all (to a man) agreed that Graham was (in a word) useless and (surprisingly to me) so was Connor Wickham. We did well yesterday after we survived the initial bombardment and McGreggor got over his nerves - terrible start for him but all credit to the bloke he recovered his composure and saved us from an absolute drubbing. Encouraging performance in all but we are STILL firing blanks up front.
I think Bruce is useful to have on the bench. I don't believe he has the quality to start games for us - but he has the determination to help us see out games.
My issue is that in the Premier League, you can't rely on just determination alone, you need ability to back it up. Weird how a lot of people are calling for Koren to be dropped and yet we're considering the possibility of Bruce making an appearance. He didn't need to be on the bench; we could've had Proschwitz or Fryatt in there as Figueroa can play CB and we had McShane on the bench too. I didn't think Boyd did that badly when he came on, but we need a game changer to come on if things aren't going our way. Chelsea had a bench full of them and we had none. It came across that once again, Bruce was just trying to find a place for him in the team. I'm not saying we'd have won had we a different bench, but it certainly would've given us better options. There's no room for sentiment anymore; the players on the bench need to be good enough to come on and make a positive difference and I don't think Bruce would do that.
Nah, he's nowhere near good enough, if he comes on to see out games your assuming a midfield role and he's simply not good enough in the premiership for that, he should not have been on that bench since mcshane was Meyler had a bad game but i think he'll come good, 37 games to go (seems a lack of games, usually it'd be 45)
I would always expect to see GK, 2 defenders, 2/3 mid & 1/2 strikers on the bench. I still think Fryatt can get in there if he plays like he did 2 seasons ago. Although not sure if SB will give him a chance, certainly should have been on the bench, maybe he's not giving it all in training.
I don't think it was negative at all, we had Aluko, Sagbo, Graham, Brady, Koren, all on the pitch who can all happily play up top or in behind.
