Sick to death after today. The icing on the cake for a purely appalling winter both for myself and for Sunderland. What's to say about the match? We were comfortable and organised against a team in a similar position in the league who were intent on playing for a point from the off. Whoopie ****ing do! **** as per, slow out the box, as per. Moved the ball to slowly, as per. Our attacking players more interesting in halting our advancement and knocking the ball back, as per. No balance as per, no width as per. ****ing appalling as per. All the while Defoe making these exceptional runs completely bypassed by a team of players who couldn't play a forward ball on the deck if their family's lives depended on it. WBA came for a point and took it so easily shame on them for not having a go at us. They couldn't have done worse than a point so thank our lucky stars they didn't have a go. Me? I'd like to shut myself in a room and seal it.
Defoe must be frustrated as Feck. Hes far more ahead in ability and thinking than any of our lot. I'm sure this week's pay of 80k will calm him down abit though.
I saw loads of positives today..We dominated a team, who many thought would walk all over us, from start to finish and were unlucky not to win..
Thats true but in the big area of the pitch no where near the goal area ,teams will quite happily let you have it there all day because its no threat due to lack of creativity from the home side ,that was stroll for wba to get a point imo.
We had loads of possession yes but did nowt with it at all. I thought it would be tougher but it came apparent quickly they only came for a point. It was down to us as the home team to take the win for ourselves but we didn't even look like creating chances let alone scoring. Over 60% of the possession and two shots on target just isn't good enough mate. We were solid at the back against a team with no interest in taking the game to us what so ever. No positives here for me mate. I see a decent squad on paper, we should be see more. Instead it's just another damp squib.
Little or no creativity in the last third and strikers who can`t strike. It`s been that way for 2 seasons and more. If Gus can`t do anything about it it`s his fault. If he hasn`t been allowed to do anything about it`s the boards fault. It sure as **** isn`t our fault.
The squad we have should be playing better than they are. It's not the perfect squad but if the players play the way they can and are managed properly we'd be a comfortable midtable team. The board have done their job. They haven't been reckless but they have given us a perfectly acceptable premier league team. Depends which way you look at it as to who is to blame but it's either Gus, the players, or refs. In my eyes it's Gus at fault at this moment in time.
Vast improvement on the QPR game and we gained a point on a few teams. Not good but it's a point. At this moment in time I will be satisfied with survival again. Hoping we were past this stage of annual relegation battle but hey ho this is SAFC and we are born to suffer.
Agreed pops but It's so much more than that, it's the imbalance. A right back(Rev) at left back, a centre back at rightback(santi), We've got ACM playing on the Right(Alvarez) We've got an inside right playing as a left winger(AJ) and front two partnership who didn't get within 15 yards of each other the whole game. A top class striker looking for balls from deep that nobody is capable of providing. It's just a frankenteam, no balance, no width and nobody is being played to their strengths. It's a car crash mate.
That`s where it is. Right there. Love him or hate him, Pulis uses the best a player has got. No trying to do something the player can`t do. Just does what the player does best. Not complicated and not pretty but it works. We have enough to beat WBA but didn`t. Nothing at the sharp end. He`s had time to sort it and hasn`t. Graham, Altidore, Wickham, Fletcher. One down three to go. Pissed off me like.
Better, but it's a cheap victory. A million miles from progression put it that way. Plus you have to remember Gus had a head start this season. He's had 7 more games to play with than he had last season. We were on one point when he took over back then. 13/14 please log in to view this image 14/15 please log in to view this image
Only 1 point better off!! That's shocking. 9 years now in the Prem and every one of them I can remember we've been in a relegation scrap. We should be a comftable mid table team at least by now!
Teesside, this is what really pisses me off the fact that we have been in the premier league for this long and we still have not achieved even mid table stability,whilst teams who have come up after us e.g Stoke,Swansea,West Ham,Southampton etc have all achieved relative stability and have all made good progress,whilst we have stagnated and gone backwards in that time.Could it be that we have had too many managerial changes,maybe but then again Swansea and Southampton have had a a number of changes during their respective rises through from league one.The main difference is that their changes have almost been seamless in respect of not effecting the overall ethos within their clubs.Whereas every change we have had has resulted in a complete change in direction of the running of the club and hence the lack of progress. Dont know what the answer is but maybe a complete rethink of how the club is run from top down.Interested to hear other peoples views on this
But this is our longest run of years in the top division since the sixties isn't it?! This is a ****ing hard league to stay in lads. People who say this is the worst they've seen are nuts. Or too young to have seen Hardyman, Flo and Butcher.
West ham aside look at how much those teams you mentioned have spent compared to us. We've squandered millions and we still only have one natural left back, no attacking midfielder and only recently signed the natural goal scorer we've needed for years.
