Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Cardiff City FC– Sunday 24th September 2023 - KO 15:00

Bah. Still Wednesday are there for the taking. We’ll have too much for them.

 

We werent bad today and we werent at our best, we were just ok!!

Thought hume was really poor today and didnt look himself at all - probably the number of games hes played so far.

Id need to watch the goal back but 1st glance was it was poor from o9, focuses on holding the player rather than watching the ball.

Huggins played well, got forward well and solid defensively

Neil was unreal 1st half, he was still ok 2nd half but felt he was isolated too much defensively

Pritchard does loads of nice things around the box but i want to see him getting in the box n across defenders more

Jobe was good and im surpriswd he came off as we started to lose a bit of control when he came off

Clarke was poor in the 2nd half, needs to move the ball quicker at times and not always look to beat his opponent

Burstow wasnt great but hes still new so will take time to adapt to how we play

Adil looks a player, think he will be starting games soon - looks technically really good n his movement was intelligent in the final 3rd

Im so undecided about roberts these days, no doubt when he is on it hes unreal and a joy to watch but he isnt a goal threat for me and feel he tries to do too much by himself

Rusyn not on long enough to truly judge but some nice touches when he was on

Disappointing result especially when we were the better team but we move on and hopefully win on Friday night

 

thought we looked very tired and leggy from the start, but we still had enough to win it. Relied on the Clarke routine too much, and left Ba on for too long when he was running into blind alleys. We do much better against teams who come to attack us, so today was always going to be a struggle. I'm sure most of the top teams in this league will have an off day, so we need to give these lads a rest then get ready for friday. We'll be fine.

 

I think he hasnt been as good as he was last year. Today wasnt great and to make two mistakes so late is probably fatigue. I dont think this stepping into midfield when we have it is helping him. I dont think he is suited to that and it is perhaps making him overthink. There is a good player there though, he will come back.

 

Just not our day. Fair play to Cardiff, there will be games this season where we will do to others what happened to us today. Could have been 2/3 down at Blackburn but we rode it out and won.

On to Sheffield Wednesday

 

I can only think the stats showed his fatigue levels were dangerous. He was everywhere again and maybe 3 games in a week for him was pushing him into the so called red zone

 

Sickening that result, only one team came to play football today! Footballs the loser today

 

Pritchard should have score in the first half Ba did nowt put pass the ball sidewards or backwards Pritchard should have scored Cardiff know who to beat us lad, that was terrible but they do it at home 41,000+ again just frig off if they don't want to play here. Soton game a one off.

 

So why not freshen it up? Said before the game why play the same team 3 games in a row when you absolutely have very good options on the bench and squad.

 

TBF we had more attempts on goal when he went off, we needed a shock to the system and it almost came off ...

... we're not getting players one on one through the middle, I think Rusyn will change that.

 

We had a striker on all game and they both had to drop deep to even get a touch of the ball. If you look at the highlights of that game and watch all of the times, our striker is between the penalty spot and 6 yard box, but not once do they look to create chances for them.

We need to be better at getting them into the game. We've got 4 strikers now and so far the ones on the pitch have been feeding on scraps.

 

Neil was so good first half it was brilliant. I think Jobe helps by having a second ball winner in there and then Neil is freed up a bit more to dictate tempo. Jobe off means Neil plays differently and to me there were a couple of misplaced passes from him which werent happening first half. His workrate today was excellent and I suspect he is another that will be in need of a radox tonight.

 

I can see Hume eventually losing his place to Pembele if he’s as good as he’s supposed to be. An important few weeks coming up. Hopefully our new signings will get up to speed quickly and hopefully with players returning from injury, our starting line up could look quite different in a few weeks time

 

Bloody weird game that, the team that came to timewaste their way to a 0-0 somehow got all 3 points. One of the most undeserved wins I've seen.

On the positive side Neil was excellent especially in the first half and I reckon he was unlucky not to score, they put in a couple of good blocks I think. Adil is clearly very talented and looks to have end product too. Exciting player.

 

If we get Cirkin fit for a sustained period, then Huggins could claim Hume's place if he performs like he did today. That's what's so good about our squad - the competition for places is unreal.

Edit - completely forgot about Pembele, but it just highlights the point I've just made.

 

Agreed, he is so vital to us

Def looked like a few tired legs today, need to freshen the team up on friday imo

 

Counter attacking is the easiest way of stealing 3 points in this league and the last 20 mins are vital, we are too slow in making substitutions , to compound that by making the wrong ones lost us this game imo, not Hume or O/9, both of whom have been instrumental in getting us to where we are, which is much higher than I thought possible tbh. I dont underestimate Sheffield Wednesday either, but its a chance to bounce back , lets take it.

 

Not sure mate. I might have been tempted to play Rigg in this one myself with Neil, as he has that ability to open it up.

 

I can’t be the only one that thought we should freshen it up a bit today? Tony likes to say he picks his teams on who we are playing right? We’ve played the same team and same players against 3 very different teams.

 

Pembele will be 1st choice rb if he plays to his potential, especially home games as he will give us another attacking threat

So pleased huggins is getting a run of games tho as theres def a player there