GUS Poyet has set his players the challenge of winning FIVE more games this season in order to save their Premier League skins. Many top managers are reluctant to create press by setting their squad points targets, but the Uruguayan says Sunderland should be good enough to win five of their last 12 games, which would give them 39 points and almost certainly save the club from relegation. âWeâve done alright so far,â said Poyet, who took charge in October when Sunderland had just one point on the board, after seven matches. âWeâve got 23 points from 19 games and if we had done that over the course of the whole season, we would be comfortably safe. âSo we have improved over the course of the season, and that give us hope that we can win five out of our last 12 games. âI have been told we might stay up with 33 or 34 points, but thatâs not what Iâm interested in â I want those five wins for us to get to 39 points. âIf we can do that, Iâm happy to analyse myself and feel that Iâve done a decent job. âI came in when we were rock bottom of the Premier League, with one point from seven games, and 39 points I would see as an excellent return â I would have snapped your hands off for it when I first arrived.â Sunderland have relegation six-pointers this weekend and next â Crystal Palace come to the Stadium of Light tomorrow and the Black Cats take on Norwich at Carrow Road next Saturday. Both opponents have had stuttering, indifferent form, but Poyet says Sunderland must not rely on relegation rivals blowing up in the home straight. âWe need to make sure we do it under our own steam, to make sure we are not looking to blame anyone else for what happens,â he said. âWe want only to concentrate on these 12 Barclays Premier league games. âGames are starting to run down, but we should still have more than enough to get out of the bottom three. âEverything is set up for us now. âWe are out of the cups, so we have no distractions and we can concentrate on the one thing that we need to do now â which is winning Premier League games. âI have it clear now where we stand. âI donât plan to go with anything new or experimental. âI know what works best with the squad of players that we have and so it will just be more of the same. âI believe five wins from the last 12 games will be enough to keep us up and that is my aim.â Sunderland have a fully fit squad for tomorrowâs game, with only goalkeeper Keiren Westwood on the long-term injured list.
Tomorrow IS the most important game of our season, would love to be going but this weekend will be expensive with the guitar show at Rainton Meadows on Sunday so have to miss the match. Just hope the fear factor doesn't kick in 'cos if we play to our our strengths we should win this one comfortably
Me too! Said on another thread that I honestly think a loss would be the first nail in our relegation coffin! A Draw wouldn't be massively awful but still wouldbn't be great. A win would be massive for us.
39 points is a BIG BIG ask! I don't like to see managers publicly identifying point targets. It just puts more pressure on the players if they're getting behind on the tally.
What is it with all these excuses for players? saying that the pressure on Them From GP and the crowd will harm theirerformances. it does my ****en head in. If I was paid 40k a week and the company I worked for put a little pressure on me and I kept failing then I'd expect to be sacked. Why would the company invest so heavily in me and when the pressure is on & I repeatedly fail at work (sol)
Spot on pal. I get pissed off when other sunderland fans say we put to much pressure on our players at home games. if they can't handle it then f**k off to a small club like hull or wigan.
It's not an excuse, it's just the reality of the competitive game. You'd have to have your head up your ass not to be aware that psychology is a massive part of any sport. Players of every type of sport talking about the pressures of the game. And as for getting the sack. You're right anyone in most walks of life would be sacked for doing a **** job. But professional sportsman aren't "normal" employees. They're items on a Balance Sheet and not so "sackable".
Your relegation isn't going to be decided tomorrow one way or the other but you have to feel that if you can't secure wins at home against the likes of Villa, Norwich and Palace it makes your remaining fixtures look less hopeful. Win the winnable games you have left and you are home and dry, you aren't in a bad position (not a good one obviously) as its not like you have to get results against teams clearly better than you - you just have to turns narrow loses and draws into wins against teams no better (or much worse) than yourselves. Very achievable - not easy though.
If we can't beat Palace at home,we don't deserve to stop up!I have every confidence that we will stop up,and a win tomorrow will start the positive ball rolling.Come on lads,get a win and get out of the bottom three!
I just think that some of our players and fans use 'pressure' as an excuse that's all. You know all clubs from all over the world have sports psychologists to deal with the so called pressures lol the only difference for me is most players are overpaid and still can play **** wk in wk out. Definitely no head up my ass mate just that word pressure frustrates me of late when it comes to safc.
