Indeed, I hope this does serve as a wake up call. Defense is concerning, and I hope Taylor helps to shore it up. Odd selection, and no urgency and no aggression.
Very well played Sunderland. Very well played Tony Mowbray. Russell - this one is on you mate. Lots to think about.
Sorry, what the ****? Just logged in from holiday and wish I never bothered. Missed today’s game as I was up the top of a mountain without signal… might go back up
That was just awful, all over the park we were entirely terrible. No one comes out of that with any credit whatsoever.
Need to play two DMs. Charles and Downes. I like Smallbone, but he never has been a DM. If we play just one DM against Leicester, it's going to get ugly again.
100%. Charles is a better player than Smallbone. If it’s a choice between the two, it should be Charles every time.
I saw pretty much what I expected to see. He really is so, so bad. I'd be terminating his loan on 1 January.
How is it that the transfer window is actually more fun than the actual season of football games? Second year in a row.
I was really confused when he eventually brought Charles on, he was playing him at RB. Really odd one today from Russell, when he's got so much right in terms of subs previously. We were horrid before without a DM shield, and horrid again today without one. Needs to work that out sharpish, and it's not a hard one either.
So that was absolutely pathetic. But these games do happen from time to time, hopefully a bit of an awakening for the side and might provoke a reaction. It hasn’t been a bad start to the season overall and this will keep us on our toes. I think Russell Martin was out managed by Mowbray today for a start, Sunderland were set up well against our game plan. Bazunu had a poor day, not aided by an extremely poor debut from Holgate and full backs way too far forward. Forwards were played in the wrong positions. The positive to this is that I think this is far from our settled line up, I expect we will look very different against Leicester. Russell Martin also appears to take in the lessons from games, rather than gloss them over. International break at the right time for us I reckon.
Slight comfort is we are 5 points ahead of where Burnley were at the same stage last season. I think that’s what the commentator said anyway. They also lost 5-2 to Sheff Utd early on. Lot of work to do though.
