He’s five yards from the ball by the time Mehlem is tackled. As frustrating as it may be, the goal isn’t his fault. Plus, as I say, he did exactly the same in Hull’s favour in the first half.
So the ref shows Tim a yellow at the final whistle then apparently calls him into his room after the match and apologises for his mistake. Couldn’t make it up.
Agree with most of it but I wouldn't say they looked better than us. We looked way more solid at the back but nowt going forward. We were bossing the 2nd half and then fkd up with a bit of help from the referee. Conceding goals from our corners is what we used to do in the premier league. Not acceptable against championship standard teams. This performance was the most 'Rosenioresque' I have seen this season. Mehlem needs hooking. He cannot control a ball played out to him by Pandur and they are back on the attack (at least twice) and the goal was his fault. And he doesn't chase back. Not good enough to be starting. Like the look of Puerta and Hughes. Millar? I'm not sure. Still not sure about this style of play and can see the owner getting rid before Xmas if things don't improve. He must have thought he was watching a game from last season at times today. Another fixture where I am glad I stayed home and watched on tv. Wondering if I will be arsed to make the effort at some point this season (maybe if the clowns finish the improvements on the M1). I for one am not excited when matchday comes around. Think this season when reflected upon will be judged another **** up.
Similar to Sheff United, that wasn't a bad performance on the whole, we matched them, didn't give let them create much and had plenty of promising breaks ourselves. But also like the Sheff United game, they just seemed smarter, more physical and more clinical than us, they seemed to know what it took to beat us and did it, and it meant that yet again, we lost at home and had to watch another away crowd having a wonderful time at our stadium. We've conceded twice from our own short corners, but we've also scored twice from them. So it's high risk and high reward. My biggest problem with our performance today was the several counter attacks we had in the first half, 3 vs 2 or similar, and not getting a single shot on target from any of them. Those breaks should've led to goals. This has been a problem for a long time, I keep going on about it but it keeps happening. We cannot be so wasteful and later wonder why we lose games. In the first half Sunderland had the control of the ball and we played on the break, to great effect in some ways but wastefully in the final phase every time. As soon as we had a spell of pressure and control, Sunderland broke once and scored. We have to learn to be clinical like that. Hughes looked the real deal. Puerta looked promising. Kamara has real quality but he needs to add fight to his game. Same with our front three in general to be honest. Bedia completely lost his head in the first half, I was half expecting him to nut someone and get sent off. Walter puts a lot of faith in him, he needs to be better than that.
I strongly suspect Sunderland would feel equally hard done to had Hull scored directly from it. Sunderland were not screwed over by a handball decision that everyone in the ground, including the Sunderland supporters saw except the officials. They bottled it and Sunderland were very much favoured by the refereeing today. If you are arguing that this game was well and fairly officiated you are deluded.
If your wingers can’t find a man or your attackers can’t move or don’t move to give the guy with the ball an option then you are stuck - usually with fully marked players . We broke a fair few times in the first half and failed to pick a man out - inexperience or nouse lacking - recruitment or coaching take your pick .
Whatever it is I'm thoroughly sick of it. With the right access and enough time you could make a montage of all the promising breaks we've failed to score from over the last year or so and it'd make for comical viewing. I don't understand why it isn't talked about more or why it's so hard to resolve, regardless of the manager, the system and seemingly the personnel too.
The pre match warm up is pas cross and shoot , but they get on the pitch and don’t . A pundit the other day said that Ipswich are suffering because they have champ players who need or use two touches too much . Prem teams do it less - we need to pass and move one touch ‘5 a side ‘ footie then we might be dangerous
Spot on mate. Number of moments we ****ed up in the first half was crazy, no one who wants to do it themself need abit more arrogance
Well, if you looked at my few posts you’d see I’m not, I’ve said you’re right to feel aggrieved that the handball wasn’t suitably penalised at the end of the first half. The incident for the goal though wasn’t favourable treatment for Sunderland as evidence by fact that the same incident played out in Hull’s favour in the first half.
Yeah, the final touch, pass or shot has been ****ing dreadful not only this season but several seasons under multiple managers. I really don’t get the reaction on here as if it was some Walter disasterclass. A lot of people, myself included, said we needed to tighten up after Norwich and maybe play a bit deeper against stronger teams and Walter set them up to do exactly that today. First half, we didn’t play as high a line as we usually do and let Sunderland knock the ball about but as soon as we won it back we attempted quick counter-attacks and we created quite a few 3v2 situations on the break but the final ball was shocking. Just crap individual decision-making by the likes of Bedia, Kamara and Mehlem in particular.
It’s a funny old game, thought we were excellent first half, we should’ve capitalised on the countless counter attacks we formed from our shape. They should’ve been down to 10 on the stroke of HT too, Walter has his issues but he clearly has seen the recent issues with openess and he’s addressed it. Hope we can get that statement win on Wednesday
