Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Everton FC - Monday 3rd November 2025 - KO 20:00

Pure class. KLD.

 

My take was that Moyes whose team should have been 2 or 3 goals up at HT, completely capitulated once Xhaka's shot hit the back of the net.
Yes they had chances in the dying moments but by then the players had the same belief as their manager....none.
XGs and RLBs after match interviews in which they were so honest in our poor start is a breath of fresh air than the usual trying to avoid the obvious.
As for that VAR decision words fail me.

 

is it definite that Alderete will miss Arsenal?

 

They tire in games, and they have about £60m worth of gash centre forwards.

 

I thought the first 25 minutes we were too frantic. Almost like the players were up for it too much. Which led to misplaced passes, yellow cards etc

Every game the players learn and so does the manager. It's always great to see xhaka picking up on what went wrong and mentioning it after the game.

After those first 25, we were the dominant team. We deserved 3 points imo, and that without counting the ****ty var penalty decision

We are now nicely setup, and the next 5 games will define what position in the league is a reasonable expectation.

Arsenal at home, Fulham away, Bournemouth home, then 2 very difficult away games to man c and Liverpool. 5 or 6 points will be a good return. More than that and we're laughing.

Then the Derby. Which I never like to predict.

 

He’ll be really frustrated IMO. Hardly had a kick for a while now

 

That will be a good test for him.
How he reacts will determine his future. Knuckle down put the work in for himself, and the team and he will get his chance.
Sulk and he won't.
I was a little concerned when he turned out with the kids the other night and had several chances to play a team mate in but chose not to.
Hopefully he will learn, I think he will.

 

I honestly think his future will be from the wing or as a second striker in a two. He is one of my fav players but i've always thought he lacks the natural instincts and movements of a striker and I think Regis knows it. You can just about get away with it in the championship but not the PL as a striker. There's a reason multiple times last season and including the final he comes to life as soon as he is in a 2 and not the lone striker.

Isidor has been improving his all round game and we already know he has the right movements and runs and always gets a shot off from a half chance.

Brobbey is a out and out 9 so we know he has those instincts and movements (seen it at the 21s game midweek)

I think Mayenda's best attributes suit the wing, running from deep and at players rather than running in behind or getting onto the end of things. I suspect he will get more minutes and it'll be from the wing when AFCON hits

 

For the majority of my time supporting SAFC, if we went 1-0 down, that was it, we didnt win, we'd be lucky to get a draw. Even in our more 'successful' times, I cant remember it happening very often. If we were to win, we needed to score first.

 

It may well have contributed. I was in the Sheepfolds before the game and could feel it getting stronger and stronger leading up to kick off. Sitting in the Jimmy Montgomery stand it felt as though I had an almost constant strong breeze coming from my left hand side throughout the game. As Everton were kicking with the wind in the first half it might have helped them a bit.

 

I honestly think if Le Fees deflected shot goes in, we win pretty comfortably with at least one more goal scored. They reminded me of previous lads teams, especially Moyes' team, where their heads drop if things go against them. While they had a point to hold on for they could still scrap for it, but go behind and you could feel they'd either get desperate and chuck people forward to leave gaps or they'd retreat into themselves and invite pressure and not deal with it.

 

Arms in a natural position

 

reet, calmed down a bit...

i cant let that penalty call go though, first and foremost his hands were not in any 'natural position', then he basically reached out, the ref had a perfect view and should have blown for the penalty THEN let VAR take a look which is what any ref should do but to not even get it looked at was a complete disgrace.

pleased to see others feel traore had a decent game, i think he will become a main stay this season, his first 'attempt' turned into an air shot but he kept going and trying rather than hiding.

granit saying a bad training ground session turned into a bad first half tells me the lads will be fired up to put things right...and he will make damn sure lol.

good to hear KLD wants top 10 finish, not sure i am 'there' yet but this squad has every chance to change my mind...keep this up and we could be more or less 'safe' in half a season, then i think we will see RLB trying a few things out, so dont be too upset if we dont finish the season strong if that is the case, or prepare to be surprised if it goes well.

 

Honestly think we are a top winger or two away from being able to really push on

that'll be the priority in Jan I reckon

 

I thought it was a penalty in the ground but having seen it now I actually think I agree with the refs decision (unless my eyes are decieving me) looked like it comes off his knee/thigh onto his arm and that would negate the handball by the rules as i understand them.

 

Definitely, and another midfielder who can replicate diarras impact.

 

I have never felt so content with a draw at home against a mid table side. Having said that, its probably because we've just beat Wolves and Chelsea. It certainly always seemed slightly inconcievable to me (who has seen much more crazier things happen) that we would win last night. 3 on the bounce in the Prem as a promoted side? When we are already top half?!

The fact we should have had a penalty too! I do have a wonderful feeling we might get something vs Arsenal. I know its not far-fetched, but Arsenal's best side on their day could bowl us over by 3 or 4. They don't have their best players available however, Gyokeres could be missing too.

I do think Reg got it wrong. Selection, formation, tactics and then subs, little questionable decisions for me, which is easy said because we didn't win. I love Reg, I think hes won us points within games at times.

Even without those questions, we could have won mind.

 

My two pence worth...

I thought that the crowd was subdued to start with - there was something "off" before kick off and that wasn`t helped by the showing in the first 20/25 minutes (I`d have said slightly longer but I`m going to contradict XG!).

There were a few occasions when a few of ours (Sadiki sticks out in my mind but he wasn`t alone) went down too easily - didn`t feel very "Sunderland" when they did...

Their goal was a good strike but I was disappointed that nobody put a "proper tackle" in on him...

When we got going we looked sharp - lots of nice football, lots of control and we could (should?) have won...disappointed we didn`t get the penalty (it was a clear handball from where I was sat); disappointed Nordi (?) didn`t do better with his header (but with a boot in the face maybe excusable!) and disappointed that Pickford somehow made a save after he`d gone down for the shot from Le Fee`s shot and that we didn`t get a decent chance from the goal line scramble in the first half...

All in all happy enough with a point but it could have been more...

Thinking back to the thread post the Wolves game and most/many were saying 5 or 6 points from the next 5 games would be decent...we have 4 after 2 of those 5...decent start to that block of games...

 

i always feel 10 games will give a decent chance to look at the players and i have to say none have given me any concerns, i am happy for any one of them to come in and do a job, talbi and adingra have taken a while to look settled but both have improved plus mundle to come back yet, so right now i am not looking too far into january.

i am pretty sure the recruitment team will already have some players lined up but i do agree, the wings have not really delivered on a regular basis, not saying they are useless, far from it but i would like to see more from them.

 

Everton fans were decent first half, poor second. Like their team, then.