Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Saudi State FC - FA Cup 3rd Round – Saturday 6th January 2024 - KO 12:45

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We gave them the North Stand, our bar,
an own goal, an assist and a penalty

 

Nonsense.

 

Just having my first pint after the match…we were sat in the NW corner upper tier - had a great view of the game…
I hate to say it but they were so much better than we were man for man 1-11.
We complain about the forwards doing little but they didn’t get the ball in any areas to do anything. Playing out from the back when their press was too good for us and no chance with any long balls as Rusyn was a foot smaller than each of their defenders.
Our fans were class but we are clearly not Premiership ready…
The biggest positive for me was that none of our “stars” came out with a performance that would make any Prem team come up with an offer…
If we sneak a promotion we’ll be down the next season - couple of years yet for the squad to develop and we have half a chance.
I even met a mag after the game and he wasn’t too much of a ****…
HTL
FTM

 

Also saw the issue of playing Pritchard on the right, it leaves Hume totally on his own without any protection in front.

Today was an exception mind as we won’t face wingers like that in the league

 

So you're happy with the model and tranfer policy given we have not learnt from luton in May?

 

The absolute state of this knacker man.

 

I honestly think Dan Neil was impressive today, even though he had absolutely no help alongside him. He stood out for me.

 

Very tough game and it looked like they had 12 men at times.

Disappointed in the performance, even against a lot of quality. I hope it will be a big learning experience for the lads and bit of a reality check / reset so they see the levels that are required.

 

Exactly. Soon as I seen it I was gutted. No way I thought beale would be think enough to do it.

 

He was so isolated, marking two men at times so he couldn’t realistically pick up either.

 

we made it too easy for them kept giving them the ball but the goals were gifts own goal big mistake from Ekwah and giving a penalty away sad thing is we never catch them again

 

Know I'm not happy but I'm glad it's over. We got battered. You talk about subs but who the **** would have made a difference? It's so easy in hindsight to claim things could have been different if we'd done a or b but I can't see it. We went in 1.0 down and had limited them to.a few half chances and then within 30 seconds of restart we gift them a.goal. it's game over but we actually had 3 efforts on goal after that. Could have scored. We didn't but we actually played OK in second half. Maybe they took foot off gas but I'm.not sure what subs would have made a difference.
They were bigger, stronger, more athletic and much better than us today..simple as that

 

Ballard is the only player in our squad who I think will be able to step upto the premier league comfortably.

 

Still 9 games unbeaten against them in the league. **** them.

STID

 

I'm not disagreeing mate, different set up, different tactics might have changed the game but I don't think it would have changed the result.
Had we pressed harder, pressed higher we could have lost by a lot more.
I would have much preferred more fight and as I said the tactics I think were wrong.
I thought it was slightly nieve to think we could play our normal game and get something today.
A lot of people are criticising players about there performances. Jobe was not at the races today and neither was Clarke but I think that was down to playing against the quality of opposition.
I always remember Kevin Phillips being asked the difference in the 2 leagues, his reply was time, in the championship you control the ball and have 2 seconds to decide what to do with it and you probably get 6 chances per game, in the Premier League you might get 2 if you don't control it with one foot and strike it with the other you've lost it.
I think that's why some players looked so poor, Dan Neil got caught in possession more today than he has all season and I honestly think that is basically having nowhere near the amount of time on the ball as he's used to

 

Few opinions on today's game.

Starting at the end, A team that started the season in the Champions Leauge beat a championship team.

Build up of the game a total mess with the black Cats bar clart gave this game some extra attention.

The game its self, we looked shell shocked from the kick off. It was clear that after 10 minutes that's the best we could hope for was a clean sheet and a smash and grab. The laxy playing style of some of our player (not having a go, it's the way they play) May wash in the Championship, but against Premier league opposition, it doesn't. We had absolutely nothing up front. At times as I've said above, we failed to play the basics at times.it was like the players had never met before.As for the piss farting around at the back, well, what was all that about? Dan Burn has the turning circle of an oil tanker yet we never exploited that at all. Then to round it all off we gifted them all 3 goals.

I wouldn't say we were out classed, but at times it was like a training game for them.

The aftermath? I have no intention of hearing what any of the players have to say or the manager, not in a huffy way, just I know what we witnessed today. And just to add, and imo ofcourse,the whole full time back slapping and high fives between everyone at on the pitch needs saving for the tunnel.

 

Suggest everyone just moves on from today. Won’t be a reflection on our season.

But we are nowhere near ready for promotion.

 

Difficult to judge today because like it or not the opponents are a good team who have played champions league football this season.
However this game and the Preston game are starting to raise a few concerns for me. We are Noticeable slower with and a real lack of movement.
Hopefully Beale just needs time to get his ideas across and its not his tactics leading to this noticeable lack of urgency
Maybe an overreaction to today but frustrated we didn't ourselves justice.

 

We had Rigg or Aouchiche.
Ba made a difference though.

 

Completely agree there mate I said after 10 mins get Clarke on the right and let Pritchard play off the left. Pritchard will always cut in anyway and find pockets. Hell the best option would have been to play Bellingham off the left with Pritchard as a no 10 then swap Bellingham for Ba on 55/60 mins but it was so obvious to see that Clarke against Trippier was only going 1 way