Agree with this. He is still on a learning curve and he looks like he's starting to get to grips with it. That game last night (Burnley) will give him a massive selection problem for the weekend, be good to see how he handles it. Onwards and upwards.
Could that not still be a case of infiltration, say by some idiots showing off to each other, I can't believe anybody could be less than impressed with our start to the season, two draws and five wins is blistering for us, and exceptional by any standards. As a side note, what I liked about last night was the manner of that second half display, to be still playing football in the right spirit at 3-1 with 20 minutes to go against a side two leagues above us was as exceptional as it was unexpected. We were taking free kicks quickly and pushing as hard as we could to get a fourth goal, what a contrast to the cynical time wasting, blatant cheating and gamesmanship we suffer in our home games. This even more than the result gives me great pride in our club and its support, which is not lost on other fair minded supporters who still are in the majority imo.
Ross must be/have been out of his depth to some extent going from gates of 4000 to the beast that is the SoL but he's never been anything other than calm and confident in how he goes about it. I think the man has a lot of genuine confidence in himself and it seems like it's rubbing off on the team now that he's got his own players in and has had proper time with them. Everyone looks better this year than they did the last and that trend will probably continue.
I always thought JR was a proper football man, whose done it from a low level and has obviously learnt in his time with us. he's added decent players to an already good squad and although it's early days he doesn't seem to have his team sitting back and trying to see out games were pushing to add more goals rather than protect what we've got. happy with how he's doing so far.
I agree with all of this, the spirit now being shown by the whole squad is heartwarming, even Gooch who has had a lean time of it lately and looked less than pleased on being substituted on Saturday, bounced back against Burnley showing the right attitude, leading by example on the pitch, not in the media as is often the case. Long may it continue.
You could clearly tell that the buys last summer were just to get a squad together. I think it now clearly shows that they've all (players and manager) had a full season together and with a couple more of Jack's players this summer they are playing the way he wants. Thank Christ the 3 at the back seems to have gone.
After Wednesday's win, I find myself beginning to doubt JR, just a little bit, for the very first time. Hume, 09, Dobson and Baldwin - those are my guys, and my guys beat Burnley!
I wish it was, but you find that some actually know the usual suspects personally and they do profess to support Sunderland, but as I have said many times to them, support is probably the wrong word. They tend to use the term "happy clapper" to those of us who actually back the club..
I tend to use it for blinkered, ignorant posters with little or no football knowledge, who cried about structured criticism of Ross's tactics first few games. Can't recall if you were one or not .
Team selection: I'd play my guys, Ross plays 33 year olds and a turnover machine at centerback. If Hume and Dobson play this year, they could help us next year in the Championship. Not sure how much Ross's guys will help us next year.
But we won... The managers job is to select team and tactics that will win the game, which we did. How can you doubt him for doing his job and getting it right? Can you imagine if he played "your guys" and lost? Or would you have preferred that ?
I know. I still don't understand his original post? Was never going to play the same team from weekend. Played the reserves/squad and won. Whats the problem?
Whats taken you so long. we all have our favourite players in the squad and why not, it would be dull if it were not so. JR is doing a fine job so far this season imo, after, which it should be said, a very dodgy start, on top of a less than convincing end to last season and very poor pre-seson, which ended with no one able to guess who would be in and who would be out of the starting line up. But I think the team he decided on took most by surprise, and we were lucky to take 2 points from the first two games, instead of the 4 we needed. We all want stability and maintaining a 2 points a game ratio should keep him safe, even with new owners.
If these two maintain the standards shown against Burnley they will be Premiership players within three years, with or without us , hopefully with.
Blinkered, ignorant posters who understood that new players don't always hit the ground running and were willing to back these players and the manager through a difficult period you mean.. Yes: guilty as charged..
He's saying that the Burnley game proves that "his guys" should have been playing in the league (Dobson instead of Leadbitter, etc). Presumably the argument is that we could be top by now if they had been, which I can see to an extent, but JR gets paid the big bucks to make the big calls, and he sees these lads day in day out in training, so we just have to trust him. Doing a pretty good job so far to be fair.
No, it was the system, and of course Flanagan instead of Ozturk I was criticising Ross for, not any of the new players, you're not guilty at all, perhaps got the wrong end of the stick, just different opinions. There are a few hyper sensitive posters on here who don't debate how the team/manager has performed. I'll never believe it was a difficult period, Ross went with the wrong formation and picked the wrong players, it wasn't that hard to put right, you hardly need a coaching badge. Anyway, 3 points tomorrow, have a great weekend.
