Match Day Thread Sunderland v Oldham Athletic – Wednesday 1st December 2021 - KO 19:00

What marks would we give the manager/coach,
a, for the team he picked and b, for the timing of his substitutions ?
I would give him 4 and 3. Oldham were better in both shape and motivation and they don't have a coach/manager
LJ has shown little faith in the U23's since his arrival so maybe he should have taken the day off and sat in the stands.
I may have too much faith in our U23's as has been suggested, but that is a lot more constructive than having none, and I know which Will I would prefer between Harris and Grigg.

 

I think this just highlights the difference between u23s football and first team football.

 

Just heard Arby X, post match piece.

He speaks well, pizzed off they did not win, reckons a couple of months before he is match fit.

I thought he played okay, but even from the stream I could see he was rusty.

If we learnt anything from last nights display, it was very few of the under 23s were busting a gut to get on the 1st team.

Younger and to a certain extent Arby were the pick of the bunch.

Kimpioka and Harris hardly had a pass or kick particularly in the 2nd half, so hard to judge them.

 

I don’t know much about tactics and formations but to me one thing stood out as glaringly obvious last night and it’s the same for the first team.

Opposing teams now all know to get the ball out to our right and left corner area because there is usually about 150 square yards with nobody there.
If our wingers such as Dajaku, McGeady, Gooch and any others had so much space with no opposition they could keep sending in crosses all night.

I’ve noticed this happening and it coincides with our poor run.
Can’t Johnson and all our coaching staff not see this?
I reckon just about all on here see this happening.
How many times must the opposition send a ball into our empty left back area for one of them to put in a cross before our coaches see the need to do something about it?

 

#prayforadefensivecoach

 

Really

 

Yep

 

Most of us wanted to play the second team,and be out of the competition, so we got the result we wanted I suppose

 

Probably not but it shows the lack of depth we have overall because with the injury list we have every season you would have thought they would be ready if we need to dip in now and again to shore up our first team squad. But on that showing god help us if we need to. It seems we have a bare bones squad of players for the third or fourth season in a row now. KLD needs to invest in January in proven quality. Not at L1 level at Championship level. Sick of being outworked, outfought and outwitted by teams of plodders who love nothing more than to bring their best performance of the season to Sunderland and watch us struggle to cope with them.

It's like watching a cup tie against lower league opposition every week and we are the shock losers most of the time.

 

I would have liked to see a better performance from LJ tbh. roll on the next three games and see what we get.

 

Not arsed. Bigger fish to fry this year.

 

I agree regarding being out of this cup, it's the manner of the defeat that pisses me off. The problem is we are like this week in week out playing ****e scraping a few results losing a few others so although we have bigger fish to fry, the oil isn't hot and those fish will come out really ****ty tasting come May.

 

Or be fried by.

 

pre-season i noted we struggled to deal with balls into the box, since then many have pointed out that we look weak in our right and left back slots...teams look to get wide and put balls into the box so we have to presume they have also noted those facts so why does it not appear to have been worked on?

right now, this is my one real gripe with LJ as teams and tactics are his call and while we were playing some decent passing football early season he seems to lose this ability within the team if he tries to be more cautious, i think we have the players to get at teams more than we do and if we are going to let goals in then ffs get out and outscore them...he can be excused the odd late/wrong sub or two or a slight change in starting 11 even the odd experiment or two as many a time while it all looks good on paper when put into practice the other team can make a big difference to how it all pans out, but apparently not working on the defensive side cannot be ignored.

 

He's never going to make it as a pro imo.....i've watched him for years and he has not improved one bit. in decision making, tactical positioning or awareness.

 

I'd bring him on as an impact sub, noticed last night as he was leaving the pitch he's retained his edgey side, we need a hard man through the spine of the team, he could offer us a bit of steel and aggression up front.

 

We were beaten by the football leagues second worst team .. effectively by their second team it appears ... and worse still, at home. Does anyone think that is acceptable ? Losing is becoming a habit ... blame the players ? Or blame the management who select them, train them and should be getting the best out of them by organisation and motivation .. I blame the bosses.

 

The fact that hardly any of our fans turned up shows that it was not a priority for most people. I suspect that we didn’t want to progress any further in this competition.

 

Edit wrong thread