This game is made for balls in behind for Long, there's lots of space in behind their fullbacks, I don't think we are going to pass them to death - they're too organised and we lack the cutting edge. Our best chances have been balls through in behind to Austin
Worried that Sunderland forwards look more likely to score their only chance than our forwards score with half a dozen. Defoe and Borini would be decent buys.
We were really quick and direct for the first 15 minutes. Now we're back to moving the ball slowly, giving Sunderland the chance to pounce on passes and come back at us, and they're cutting through midfield with ease. We should have been up early, but we're lucky not to be trailing now.
Okay, if we get any more of that I'm going to start to seriously wonder about Puel. Abysmal. Brainless. Shapeless. Gutless. A steaming turd of a half. We should be losing. Horrific. Uggh. Just horrific.
Pretty woeful, being bossed at home so fat by a average Sunderland side isn't encouraging, shame really because we started brightly.
Exactly what I predicted and expected so far, & that unfortunately does not bode well for the second half.
Started off brightly but something changed, not sure what. I'd bring Long on for Redmond as Nathan will get himself a second yellow the way he's going. Change Romeu for Clasie too.
This. It looked great for the first few minutes because Austin was up front. Once he started assuming his defensive duties twenty yards into our half on the wing, we slowed down and Sunderland started to take control.
Our start was quite good but we don't look as solid at the back as we have in recent seasons and we don't look any more dangerous either. Puzzling.
Few boo's I heard then at the first half whistle. Bit early for all of that but I'm praying Puel has a change of heart and drops the diamond formation. It's all too messy, no cohesiveness, doesn't feel slick like it used to with terrible ball retention after the 30 minute mark.
Seriously depressing. I can't get over the way we just dropped our intensity nd let them boss the last 20 minutes. Second to every second ball. No guile. Can't keep the ball. What is the strategy???
Definitely not the fault of the diamond today. The defense is completely disorganized, and it's keeping us pinned back. We would still be playing the same back four in a 4-2-3-1. Fonte and Cedric would still be getting beat.
There's no link up play between forwards and midfielders, as they are having to cover so much ground they are inevitably nowhere near each other when we do get the ball
From following here and the live text it's gone exactly how I expected so far. Don't see us winning this one.
