Improve that form and it gets serious. The Championship never just plods along in a trudge to the end, teams have good and bad patches. Perhaps we've had ours and now we'll start to play as we know we can. RLB has been cautious but we're 15 points clear of seventh with 15 games to go, so play-offs virtually certain. There's no reason not to really go for it and take more chances ... ... things might about to become really interesting.
I'm rarely confident in the leadup to games (I won about £50 off the plymouth game being a draw...) but I've not seen anything to show that Luton are a decent side so I'll predict a win. I'd just like a good and routine one so we can see the younger lads get a run out as well. Its really hard to bed players in when the final 20 minutes of every game are life and death. My personal lineup would probably be: Patterson Hume Ballard Onien Cirkin Aleksic Neil Jobe Le Fee Mayenda Isidor I do think we'll probably line up similar to last game though. I would be surprised if we start Samed as I think we should take the game to them initially to capitalise on a low confidence. Bring him on at 60 minutes to shore things up.
That's the spirit, now you're talking. At home, it should be front foot pace and skill from the off, no respite until the games been made safe and then introduce your closers (Samed) from the bench. As we discussed on 09 lightbulb thread, it won't work against everyone and we might need to tweak that approach in certain away games but SOL needs to be a bearpit for opposing teams. It was like that for a few minutes at the end of the Watford game. Need it to be like that more regularly.
Gain 3 points with 5/6 games to go and we’re 2 points off in the run in we keep our bottle someone loses theirs. Anything can happen. Anyone writing this off now is silly this is the most interesting part of the season and we’re almost guaranteed a play off spot and a chance of promotion what a season man
Before Le Bris came in, my highest expectation was to be in a similar place to where Norwich are now, within striking distance of the Play Off places. This season has been fantastic and I for one, am enjoying the ride. If someone had said we'll only lose 4 of our first 31 games, I would have laughed at them.
I can't understand how anyone can be so miserable about our situation, this is the most excitement we've had since Wycombe at Wembley. If we'd started off badly and just won the last dozen games, to be sitting five points from an automatic place, people would be ecstatic. Some clearly aren't even particularly excited, fair enough but I wouldn't want to be them. A narrow win tomorrow and any kind of good result at Leeds would have interest rising ... ... beating Hull, Wednesday and Cardiff, by any means possible, would have the SOL bouncing on the night we play Preston in just four weeks. It can all happen and if it doesn't, at least we've had the fun of thinking it could.
Just looking at the Luton squad from their last game They lost some good players in the summer like Barkley and Ogbene but looking at who they’ve currently got playing, it’s crazy to think they were in the PL only last season.
We need to get at them right away, if we get an early goal (and don't sit back afterwards Luton could crumble. However if we start slowly again it will only result in Luton growing in confidence, I'm sure they have every belief they can get something based on our last couple of home games.
Apologies if already posted and appreciate it’s a condensed video of training but Seelt looks sharp some good clips of him defending well in the games at the end too
Could struggle to make the bench for the first team once fully fit. Hjelde will probably get the nod for balance, left footer…
You've got that dead right mate. It's horrendous to see teams like Plymouth and Watford start to enjoy the crowd, the stadium and the pitch ... ... once they become comfortable their confidence grows and they have more time to think. We need to get a lion among the wildebeests, scatter them and panic will set in ... ... and once that happens we can start to pick off the infirm, the injured and the young ones
I'm saying it now, Hjelde will eventually become a fixture for Sunderland ... ... I'll put a handy 'search' word* in this post so anyone can find it and mock me if I'm wrong. *Wildebeest
If we leave Wilson and Mayenda on the halfway line when they have corners surely they would have to leave 3 or 4 of their defenders to stop breakaway attacks. Their big central defenders might have to stay away from our area during corners. I think that’s better than pulling every one of our players back into our penalty area for corners and the keystone cops defending that often happens when we have no outlet.
I couldn't agree more. I hate it when Roberts and Isidor are brought back into our penalty area ... ... they're just not winning any headers are they?
Rhis will be a tough one as Luton will undoubtedly be physical (insert strong ref needed not that weak as piss one from Saturday). They have been woeful this season but did play well against us earlier. Hope we bounce back and get a good result against these think it may all hinge on starting team selection and tactics.
