Sunderland boss Gus Poyet has revealed he offered defender John O'Shea a private explanation after leaving him out of the Black Cats' 5-1 defeat at Tottenham. Despite O'Shea being an integral figure for much of the campaign to date, Poyet chose to opt for Carlos Cuellar at centre-back alongside Wes Brown for the Premier League clash at White Hart Lane on Monday night - a decision which raised a few eyebrows pre-match. However, Poyet stated he felt he owed it to O'Shea give him the reasons for being left out of the team. "Because of the type of person he is, and the type of professional he is, he deserved an explanation," Poyet told the Shields Gazette. "I don't do that every week. "Every time I make a change, I don't call the player to tell him, believe me. "I've got no problem telling him if he wants to know, but I can't call a player in every time I make a change. "But John deserved an explanation because of who he is, and how we need him." Poyet insisted that the decision to relegate his captain to the bench was not in reaction to the home defeat to West Ham, and it was simply a matter of picking a team he felt suitable to compete at White Hart Lane. "People think I woke up in the morning, had a dream and thought I'd change John, and replace him with Carlos Cuellar," Poyet added. "But it's not like that. There are reasons, there are different games. It's not just a reaction. "Then after the game, you realise whether you were right or wrong. "I think Carlos did well, and was probably the best of the three defenders." The only thing i get from this is... Why on earth did he talk Cuellar off if he was the better of the 3...? I really dont rate Cuellar but even in this game I would have to admit the other 2 were having a mare in comparison
Because of the type of player he is he doesn't explain to all players. Well we all know the 'type of player' he is both on and off the field, apparently.
Poyet said year's ago he hated managers what change there teams all the time & now he is one of them managers changing the team all the time what a manager we got here lads.
Cuellar was probably took off due to lack of match fitness. But I agree he was our best defender and probably only bettered overall by Cattermole.
He was mate but looked like he was going to fall over every time he had the ball at his feet. Alonso went missing, Bardsley couldnt/wouldnt close a cross down, Vergini can pass but not sure he can defend and Brown had a night off. All in all...sh!te.
Dont really understand all of the oshea bashing that happens on here. Yeah he has made a few mistakes but him and brown have both been a success for us on the whole. Brown was caught sleeping for the first two goals on Monday. We may have went on and won that game without those two goals at the time they were scored yet brown is innocent of all blame. Oshea was raped by Carroll against West Ham but name a centre half who wouldn't be. At least oshea had the balls to take responsibility for him. The main problem at the moment seems to be that Poyet has lost the plot. In continuing to play wing backs a formation that went badly out of fashion in the mid 90's he seems totally lost of all ideas. He needs to grow some balls and stick to his guns of the 4 2 3 1 formation that was working well for us and got us to Wembley. Oh well yeah and drop bridcutt and vergini and please keep scocco away from the squad for the rest of this season he is dog ****. Team for me would be Mannone Bardsley Oshea Brown Alonso Ki Catts Johnson Giaccherini Borini Altidore I know a lot of folk on here have very bad opinions of Altidore but for me we are a better team when he plays. At leaat he can hold the ball up and with those 3 behind him I think we could really hurt teams. Draws are no good to us now only wins will do. Time to roll our sleeves up and be brave. If we are to go down lets go down fighting not just accepting our fate.
