After a spirited, second half performance against Arsenal with most fans slightly encouraged by what they had seen and what might of been if that goal had stood, for Paolo to come back onto the pitch after full time, to be clapped by the fans and embarrassingly by the club to play that music, a week later he has gone and the point of view from what seems a large majority of the fans has changed. 1point from 5games tells the story for SAFC but is it already a season of what could of been? Somehow snatching defeat from the jaws of what should of been victory on the opening day after gifting Fulham a goal, to be followed up by conceding a nothing free kick late on the week after against Southampton which resulted in the side leaving St Mary's with 1point instead of 3. These things are common for Sunderland, the start has mirrored last season's in some ways and the Southampton game definitely gave me flash backs of West Ham away but is it all as bad as we think it is or can we get ourselves out of this mess? Now do not get me wrong conceding 9goals in 3games is bad enough without us unfortunately not forgetting two of those 3 being absolutely shocking away from home but is this a time for the club 6 games (5league + 1 cup) in to push the panic button and scrap everything we have tried to do this summer with regards to changing things at the club on the football side? I think not. The new manager may that be Gus Poyet or Roberto Di Matteo who seem the favourites at the minute do they have the worst squad in the premier league to work with or the second, third, fourth or fifth worst squad to work with? I think not but it is not that simple, they need to get the players mind on the job, confident in their own ability as well as the managers plans, get that monkey off their back by picking up the first win of the season and looking to climb the premier league table. I have been to all the home games this season and my opinion is we have a decent squad. Altidore might not of scored yet but looks decent, Mavrias looks like he is going to go on and be a very good player for the club, Celustka for me is mr reliable and has IMO been our best and most consistent player this season, Ki looks tidy on the ball and Cabral was the best player on the park against Fulham the problem for me is/was Paolo's tactic's were wrong. Talk of playing 2 in central midfield was always going to be a problem for us. With most teams nowadays playing the three in the middle of the park how were we going to dominate long enough periods of games to provide the front 2 enough chances to score especially when we are not blessed with the best group of central midfielders. That has resulted on Altidore, Sessegnon and Fletcher having very little to feed on in the opening 5games and is no coincidence that we have only scored 2goals from open play this term and the new manager must change this. As Charlie Nicholas said on Saturday before the game, " Sunderland are not that far away from actually getting out of this mess and having a decent season here, its just tweaking one or two things to get it all right and working" and IMO he is right. If the new manager can come in make us hard to beat and play in a way that is gunna give us a chance in games I think we will be fine this season. Keep the Faith!
Good post poolie. I just hope to god we don't get Pulis, McClaren, McLeish or McCoist. I really wanted it to work with PDC I loved his energy but he just could not keep his mouth shut with the media. he should never had slagged off the players in public it should have been done behind closed doors.
We have a good squad of players, much better than last years apart from Mig (Westie is still a top keeper imo) & Rose, but there was something there that wasn't right. Ultimately Short must have thought it was PDC, and I am in some way inclined to agree with him. I liked PDC, i liked what he was wanting to do, and really wanted him to succeed. I do think he should have have let the players know what he told us, but have done 90% of it in private, in the dressing room. That was his downfall imo. If he'd kept his mouth shut, it might have been a different story. Whoever we get in, has a decent squad of players to use, and we should certainly be alot better than Palace, Hull, Cardiff, etc.
