100%, that’s why I said possession not the end of the world but what wins games is creating chances and quality chances at that. With those big chances comes higher xG generally though, not potshots and wasted efforts from 25 yards out.
We’ll see where we are in May then. There’s a hell of a long way to go, I don’t believe we’ve got the squad to keep this up. We’ll see. We also lost at Watord, that was after Plymouth but never mind.
Nothing weird about it, I’m just pointing to the same data so many people have referred to over the last few seasons saying we deserved to be higher up the table because we were top of the pops in several “relevant” factors.
I don’t think Regis or the players are accepting anything. They always want to improve. What the fans accept is of no consequence just because you don’t like a few people saying our form is still decent.
I just don't understand the viewpoint that we are overachieving etc, I honestly think we could have won every game and you will still get people saying it, we are tactically very good and organised and that's why we are here. We have had two poor performances but so have other top teams in this league too. It's going to happen. It's like we have a kink for never giving ourselves credit. Top 6 has always been the aim for me and where we are right now is down to us and being clinical.
We are very good tactically and deserving of being at the top end of the table IMO but people can’t point to data when it favours us then dismiss it when it doesn’t. My own view on data is that it can be misleading and interpreted differently by others analysing it but I also do think teams who create loads of chances tend to do well and the data will even out eventually. So based on that, my “viewpoint” would be if come the end of the season our data is lingering around the same percentiles as it currently is I don’t think we’ll be in the top two. But I think we can improve and play a lot better than we’ve seen last few weeks. We’ve seen some brilliant, dominant home displays but things can definitely improve away.
We've lost 2 games and really should never have lost them. We were on top against Watford and Neil had a brain fart and against Plymouth Patterson spills a shot in injury time. U could argue we were lucky against Leeds but its swings and roundabouts. We are doing just fine
After those two defeats I'm not surprised we're being a bit cagey tbh ... ... these two 0-0 away draws have set us up perfectly for the home game on Saturday. Preston's current league position is irrelevant. They may be in the playoffs by the end of the season as they're only 7 points off now. People deriding our result are talking as if they're nailed on for the drop ffs. Once again we made the mistake of playing a team that also wanted to win.
https://not606.com/threads/sunderland-deepdale-6-11-2024.415139/#post-17952081 See you under the lights early next year
https://x.com/TheAdrianDurham/status/1854294498752201069 the word is out! wouldnt say he ran the game but it terms of ability arguably one of the best players on the pitch for someone just 17, the touch, confidence and control is stupendous. was waxing lyrical about it last night but how he received the ball on the half turn and just spun away, the pinged diag, the step over feint to shield the ball, the kid has all this tools at 17? stupendous natural talent
He’s our best talent by a country mile. People bang on about Jobe but Rigg is the boy. Serious potential
the two of them are exceptional and have different games when we signed browne in the summer i was thinking to myself how have we signed him, not to start him? Tenured championship midfielder, plenty legs, solid stats over the best part of a decade. Then Jobe and Rigg start the season, Jobe transformational over the summer and Rigg getting backed in centre mid and not shoe horned right wing and both keep their place on merit. The sky is the limit for both but if i had to pick, id pick rigg and thats no slight on jobe.
Jobe looks very special this season mind, his strength and gait, ability to turn and accelerate despite his frame, this is no slight on Rigg by the way, both could be international footballer if they do the right things. We're spoiled and it's all due to Speakman buying up the best prospects and pretending this is a game of Champ Man.
Even the best performing managers go stale eventually Agree with last night. Thought we were uncharacteristically shaky - particularly Mepham. Don't really agree about defensive disorganisation against Luton. We didn't really concede loads of chances which considering the sheer volume of set piece opportunities they had is no mean feat. We largely dealt with the lot of them. The Luton problem was more an issue of our ability to beat the press - and to be fair it was our persistence in doing that which led to both our goals.
