Off Topic Non-Sunderland games

Great goal from Salah

 

As much as I’m confident we’ll be just fine I’d rather the likes of Brentford weren’t picking up 3 points off Liverpool!

 

Confidence and psychology are strange things, especially in sport. Right now Kerkez looks like a park player, Van Dijk looks nervous as though he's never played with any of these before, Wirz is clearly struggling to fit in, all this seems to be spreading to the rest of the team.

If you believe you're going to win, you might not win every time but will do more often than not. If you believe you're going to lose, you find a way of making it happen. Stupid mistakes because of nerves, forcing play when you dont need to, being too slow. Put that together with the team balance being off and maybe some players going past their prime and you can see how it can go wrong very quickly. Right now Liverpool remind me of the way they did around the time Dalgleish left and Souness took over, fragile confidence, some key players off their best/in decline and a lack of direction.

 

PL has been brilliant so far this season

 

PL has been brilliant so far this season

 

Just watched motd. Sky said about ours and Newcastle that Newcastle were dominant?? Without 3 terrible Fulham errors, they score none! Bassey gives the ball away for the first and second, and the keeper was awful on the second too.

 

It'll be great watching 'the other games' today knowing we'll end the day in the top six at worst.

Even better we'll know any team going above us will have hurt one below us.

Wolves, Burnley and Forest will end the day below us, whatever happens, and could be in bigger trouble.

I'll enjoy it all.

 

If Wolves don’t win today I’d say they’re pretty much nailed on to be relegated unless something drastic happens. Would be 0/1 point from 3 matches against the promoted teams and they’ve got a tricky run coming up in which points will be at a premium.

 

This is brilliant....

 

Some cracking fixtures today

Hearts v Celtic at 12 is a big one.

 

Arnie Slot after the defeat at Brentford.

 

I have to say there’s some nonsense spoken about ‘new manager bounce’ despite the stats regularly disproving the theory. When the likes of Nuno, Dyche, etc are appointed people love saying, ‘That's them safe’.

The reality is that Wolves, West Ham and Forest have all recently sacked managers because they weren’t playing well. The reason they’re struggling is that they have unbalanced teams, have lost players and aren’t as good as they may believe.

Nuno may be a good manager but West Ham aren’t as good as the sum of their parts. Dyche is a good manager but he’s had previous failures and been sacked before.

These teams are playing catch up and, once the nerves set in, everything becomes more difficult …

… Sunderland, on the other hand, can look at the next game differently.

We can be a little more open knowing we have the ability and spirit to go behind but still win the game.

I’ll enjoy today, watching other people squirm

 

Completely agree, I watched the Leeds West Ham game on Friday, and Nuno's body language was all wrong. He already looks disinterested which is shocking. I actually think Forest will be OK. I think they have decent players and I actually rate Dyce. Wolves are just rank awful, they look like a team who needs to go down to regroup

 

Weirdly I actually want West Ham, a relegation rival, to win their next game. It’s against opposition who are competing with Sunderland at the top, despite currently being bottom half …

… if they lose at West Ham Sunderland could go 8 points clear of them with 10 games gone

There comes a point when we may think, ‘Well that’s half the season gone, they're involved in the cups and we’re still ahead of them’.

All we have to do is keep improving as we are, get Mundle, Diarra, etc available and it can really happen …

… I know you’re not supposed to say so and ‘jinx it’ but I’ve never had lucky underpants and don’t intend starting now.

 

Sounds like a cracking atmosphere atmosphere at Tynecastle for the Hearts Celtic game.
I really hope Hearts can win. It would be great for a team to break the monotony up there.

 

What a finish from the Celtic defender.

Wrong goal though

 

That Celtic defender just heard you

 

Hearts winning

 

Hearts lead after 8 mins. Schmeichel made a superb save then terrible defending from the follow up cross.

 

It was Sunday league style defending. No excuse for putting that in your own net and not clearing it.