Thing is that the U21 league is at a level of the League 1 at best - Ryan Noble was prolific at U21 - now plays in non-league football and hardly ever gets a game. I don;t personally think that many of them will be able to make that step up - Watmore will but others - even Beadling, may not make it. You can;t give a team of kids a chance based on their reserve outings because it just isn;t good enough - they have to be integrated gradually (like with Watmore) and let them get used to the change in level. Watmore is certainly no better than Borini or Lens and Fletcher was excellent against West Ham - on that form Watmore wouldn;t get into the sde *(disclaimer - I am talking about one game not a list of games for Fletcher as he's been mainly absolute ****e for the rest of the last 18 months!) Might be worth Watmore replacing Lens on Saturday week and see where we go from there!
Agree but my post probs more heart driven - all we want is a winning team ' agree re Fletcher - we lost the League cup final cos of his tame slow witted attempt kicking the ball in front of Joe Hart - not consistent but may have been other injury issues we not aware of - see what happens at WBA
Sunderland AFC News And Banter Page: 5 mins · @mally1robbo Announcement expected tomorrow #SAFC #BigSam
If this is genuinely what you think then I'm afraid you're basing that on other people's opinions rather than those who have actually watched his style of play for themselves. You will be very, very disappointed if Big Sam does rock up and you are waiting for that style of football.
Maybe I should bave said Brits instead of English. Still think 8-ish sounds right. I can only see that number shrinking as well !
You basically need a manager who's good at getting results in the Premier League, with Championship quality players. Big Sam is pretty much the master of this. Say what you like about his style of play, but he's never had a side relegated, and has an impressive CV when it comes to keeping teams up. I'm sure you guys don't care about the style of play, aslong as you get out of the mess your currently in. It's all well and good trying to play open attacking football, but if you haven't got skilful enough players to do that, then the best way is to shut up shop and build from the back. If you employ any of your other targets then you'll be relegated by Xmas. But I think Big Sam gives you some hope
For Brits that'd be about right, and a few of them only just came into the Prem. Foreign route seems to be fashionable at the minute. I still think Pearson would do an exceptional job at any bottom half premier league club.
Oops thanks Marcus - i must still be traumatised - I honestly and I don't even rate CP that highly - as shot stopper fine - distribution - atrocious - time wasting - embarrasing - not really anybetter than Mannone who saved us under Poyet - but our management incompetence is the main concern ......
Well Big Sam not perfect but who is a perfect manager ? .......... exactly , so if it is big SA lets get behind him and let him on the Challenging Magical Mackem Rollercoaster ........... never boring
Sorry mate but I watched mannone against city in the cup and he cost us three of the 4 goals! He was OK under poyet but costel is ten times the keeper mannone is! Every keeper wastes time in positions as we were in Saturday! Adrian wasted time against city from the 31st minute ffs! Can't blame a keeper for aiming for the big lad if the big lad doesn't jump for the ball!!
My view on Big Sam: 1 - He'll sort out your players and give you the best chance of staying up. I'll go further than that, if you get him then I expect you to stay up. 2 - His reputation for a style of football is partly warranted (he genuinely did having us playing horrible football) but also a bit outdated. I saw a fair bit of good play from West Ham last year and his old Bolton side accommodated some great flair (Jay jay is about as talented a player to have played in the prem). He is a pragmatist and plays safe, adapting his selections and style to what he has available. He's under-rated by many and especially Newcastle fans as we saw the worst of him. If you did get relegated he would be the perfect manager to get you back up I think so I'd say he's a very good choice. 3 - Personally I dislike him. I find him to be a petty and dislikeable character. Point 3 doesn't change any of points 1 and 2 though.
That`s fair comment that like. Just out of curiosity, explain that bit about seeing the worst of him please. Not really interested in following your lot when he was there.
We played really restrained and cagey football, nothing flowing at all. A very defensive mentality based on trying to grind out dull results which the fans weren't happy with even when things started well (and things did actually start well as regards results). When results started to nose-dive we were lower-midtable and being served trash football which wasn't even getting results and he basically came out saying we should be happy - we actually had some half decent players as well (not much spectacular but some modicum of flair) - Glen Roeder had got more out of the team! He has been unlucky with sackings though. Blackburn were crazy/stupid to get rid of him when they did and I still think West Ham were wrong. We however just weren't a good fit for him (or vice versa).
That`s the bit I was wondering about. I don`t expect you to be bang up to date but, from what you`ve seen of our lot (assuming you`ve seen any of it of course) what would you honestly expect? Defensively ****e but showing promise at the sharp end, what do you reckon?
I think his first job after the success at Bolton was always likely to be a hiding to nothing and that's what he got with us. It was a good learning experience as he realised he could not use a one size fits all model. He's actually been very good for Blackburn and West Ham since, he did use attacking players and wingers last year at West Ham and over-achieved for most of the season. He seems to relish a backbone to a team and then some freedom up front but tailors it to suit his players. There's some stability in you defensive midfield (Catts/M'villa) with the promise of flair with three players (Lens/AJ/Ola/Borini/Defoe) playing behind a big man (Fletch). In my mind that is right up Sams street. He will drill you defence (he was very up stats and percentages when our manager hence why he used to sit up in the stands at first to get a feel for how each game was panning out - he is not the 'old school' dinosaur he is sometimes lazily portrayed as, he very up with using technology to get every extra percentage out of his team).
