That looks like one hell of a team and its not too early to see it start , maybe TM will stick with experience but its a great option .
Wtf is going on at Wigan. I swear they were doing well. Now their Twitter is basically every single tweet wanting their manager sacked. And not really constructive thinking ever - just pure outrage. I’ve never seen a fanbase turn so quickly. And as a Sunderland fan that’s quite something
i like this but I do think mowbray will stick to his plan of not starting simms before World Cup. Hope I’m wrong
Kind of fascinating seeing him develop, how he's taking all the training on board and gradually turning into a different more well rounded player. Really pleased for him and for what he can give the club.
There lots of posters on here with better football knowledge than me..so It seems to me teams can get at our back 4 too easily. When we get a recognised RB, it would be interesting to try 2 defensive CMs in front of the said back 4. 2 from 09, Ba and Matete. We could then play one creative midfielder, Neil or Michut (Pritchard)? 2 or one strikers or one or two wingers (Clarke atm) I say this cos our defending is at times very poor.
I don't agree that he's clearly not a midfielder, he could do a job there breaking up play and spreading it around. However given the amount of talent we've got in CM he might as well forget it, got some players there like.
Pritchard has gone from hardly playing for 2-3 years to playing twice a week for us for 18 months - it’s no wonder he’s blowing. World Cup can’t come soon enough for him. And I’d hazard a guess that if Stewart or simms had been fit he’d have got more rest as we could have gone for more wide play rather than intricate stuff
Our main RB just got 90mins the other night against the mags. Mowbray will have Huggins straight in when fit imo. Him and Roberts would be bloody hard to stop on that right hand side, one overlapping outside and Roberts cutting in.
First half our defence had to work overtime as the midfield never got to grips and a better team may well have put us to the sword tonight. Simms introduction and the midfield changes completely altered the game but two things pissed me off tonite, the number of free kicks we give away more through carelessness than bad fouling and the number of mis passes is ridiculous, yes the conditions were atrocious first half but it was the same for both teams. Delighted with the win, a second goal earlier would have made for a more relaxed final 15 minutes mind.
Amad is obsessed with hitting the keepers near post, can't remember him ever going across the keeper, but as long as they keep going in who gives a duck. PS Just watched the video above and he DOES go across the keeper, I don't know what I'm talking about.
rudoni was the biggest threat by far i reckon, good job he only had a good first ten minutes then tried again near the end...mind those first ten minutes i think we can thank onien, he got some great blocks and tackles in probably our 'most worked' player of the first half. we still being careless with our passing though, as others have mentioned against a better team we could easily have shipped a goal or two, while i cant remember a truly dangerous shot from them if they had their shooting boots on they may have nicked a couple from our own mistakes. i was laughing before the onien slide, the ref let the game go as if trying to allow them time for a late equaliser so when we got that break away there was no way he could blow, not too bad from the officials but i did feel some of the tackles on our lads went unpunished while they got free kicks for similar...at least it never cost us this time. since bailey has come back in, batth has had quieter games, i was hoping he could keep up his recent work load with bailey adding to it but it is more like bailey has taken the 'lead role' with batth as back up, or maybe he has just not been needed as much...patto looked more assured tonight so must be just the way i see things i thought he had been looking a bit nervous lately.