I've seen this conspiracy theory floating around quite a lot and for me it's a bit of a stretch. The simplest answer is most often correct - they're just not very good.
There is no excuse.. they are just not very good and we have been very lucky up till now. .4 2 4 did not work and Leadbitter has his pluses, speed is not one of them
I don’t believe that mate, the will is there from them both for sure. Will would be there from me too, but I’d get torn to shreds as well ha.
I think yesterday and against Burton just exposed our biggest weakness - our defence don't like pacey attackers. The same applies to most teams in this league really. We've seen that every one of our centre backs are capable of messing it up at some stage of the game. As many others have said loads of times on here the 4-4-2 formation is fine against poor teams but Burton and Coventry have players that can cause damage if given space - and they certainly took advantage. We have only lost 3 games and until yesterday we had one of the best goals against totals. I'm expecting Ross to revert to either a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 against an in form Doncaster. We just need to dust ourselves down and go again.
Player Ratings Jon McLaughlin, 6/10: Tough to place too much blame McLaughlin’s way seeing as he was beaten by four first-rate finishes and a close-range deflection. Luke O’Nien, 2/10: Appalling, it was O’Nien’s lack of concentration, awful passing and terrible attempted clearances that set the tone for a pitiful defensive performance. Tom Flanagan, 3/10: Somehow managed to top his awful showing against Burton, some effort. Jack Baldwin, 3/10: His mistakes for Coventry’s fourth and fifth goals were inexplicable, his first-half performance was poor as well. Bryan Oviedo, 6/10: Remarkably his teammates have been so awful since Oviedo’s return to the starting 11, that’s he’s been the best of a bad bunch defensively, seems to be building chemistry with Morgan too. Grant Leadbitter, 6/10: Produced some brilliant passes, but his lack of defensive awareness was badly exposed by Coventry’s smart frontline. Max Power, 6/10: Didn’t work next to Leadbitter neither offered enough defensive protection, hid did get on the scoresheet however. Lewis Morgan, 7/10: Rivaled Wyke as Sunderland’s most dangerous attacking weapon, used his technique, skill and pace to great effect. George Honeyman, 6/10: Pretty poor outside of his goal. Charlie Wyke, 7/10: Resurrected Sunderland with a goal and two assists leading the Wearside fight back. Will Grigg, 7/10: Much better than Tuesday linking play and back on the scoresheet as well. (SUB) Kazaiah Sterling, 6/10: His pace and energy caused problems for a tired City defence. (SUB) Aiden McGeady, 6/10: Showed his class in limited minutes. (SUB) Benji Kimpioka, n/a: Barely touched it, after being introduced late on. Man of the Match: Charlie Wyke https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/20...p-ss-poor-defending-costs-mackems-in-thriller
Official highlights: https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/2019/april/coventry-city/highlights-v-coventry-city
O'Nien had a mare at the start with some horrible passing but he grew into the game and was fine in the second half. 2/10 way too harsh.
Cattermole isn’t fast (understatement) but he reads a game well enough in this league to know where he needs to be. We defend better when he plays. Where there he communicates better with the defence or what I gave no idea but flanaghan and Baldwin are better defenders when he’s there. Might be the lack of confidence in power and Leadbitter I have no idea
Having watched the highlights it doesn't seem like theres any wonder we conceded loads. They looked incredibly exposed from centre mid and as soon as you get pacey players running at you with no second line of defence they have to step out of position. Shows how much we do miss Catts IMO.
Why on earth was he not brought on, he was so obvious a choice to replace Leadbitter. Two forward changes could still have been made if required. It rings of confusion to me.
I think Jack was caught between a rock and a hard place here. If as we were constantly chasing the game he brought on Cattermole to protect the CB's then it would reduce our attacking intent somewhat. By bringing on Sinclair and McGeady he went for it and his defence let him down. Don't forget we scored four goals and still managed to lose and for only the second time this season we conceded three or more goals which must have shocked Jack as it did us. I'm not blindly backing Jack but think this was an exceptional game and hope we don't slip up again this season.
Thinking about it again, JR was heavily criticised a week or two back for being too cautious and that we needed wins rather than draws. So it was a dammed if you do etc, against Coventry, and in the end it all boiled down to the result, and it could easily have gone either way tbh. OaU. Team or the supporters, I'm guessing both.
38 years. That’s quite remarkable bearing in mind all the relegations , bad seasons and rubbish teams in that time - you’d think that we would have been regularly trounced . There’s no getting away from our dreadful defensive performance this week , but thinking of this helps to put the day down to being one of those freak results . Forget it (apart from JR ) and move on
