I think you have to give Sunderland a lot of credit for their closing down and defending today. Also De Ridder has been just as good as anyone else in our side. Blatant scapegoating by some of you.
Being "as good as anyone else in our side" hasn't exactly been difficult today though. has it? we've been **** today.
Absolute dogshite. Without going overboard, if we continue to drop points at home to poor teams e.g. the ones around us, with these sort of dismal displays we will go down. First Wigan now Sunderland. A win against either Fulham or Stoke away is an absolute must otherwise come the end of Jan, looking at our fixtures, we will be in all sorts of trouble
Exactly my point, but it's really unfair to single out De Ridder. I was as confused as anyone when he came on, but he delivered our only decent cross of the game, made a couple of good runs and gave Gardner a hard time. And let's not forget he's not playing in his strongest position.
Shame the whole team was dreadful then! He had one great cross from a corner and that was about it. His free kick which barely came off the ground summed up that performance. The team should have not even bothered turning up today.
i wasn't one that singeled him out, however he should be no where near a premier league squad. 2 central defenders and a wide player are still a must for January.
Here come the moany bastards, yes we were **** today but we have improved big time. The 2 weeks off didn't help we looked rusty as hell, but we have 3 worse teams below us atm so that's all enjoy Christmas.
Looked quite poor and without many creative ideas, Sunderland's defensive shape and closing down was excellent, although I don't really remember them having one chance in the second half. I don't think the wet conditions suited our intricate play as we seemed to keep losing control. The stream I was watching the commentators kept pointing out how poor our delivery into the box was, and this was so true, Lambert was barely in the game because of this.
Disappointing, but Wigan lost and looks like both Reading and QPR will lose. Still out of bottom three at Xmas. Games like this could have gone either way...this was also true when we beat Reading. The defence is better and we will win games playing like this.
That wasn't great by any stretch, but conditions were horrible and we really got found out by a team of scrappers. We try and play this fluid football that when it doesn't work, or when we get closed down hard, we really struggle with. Hence why I think we have a chance against Fulham but will lose to Stoke. Disappointing, yes, but not the end of the world.
Conditions same for both teams, though - and though you can argue it harms our game the most, if good conditions are required for us to play well, we're screwed over the next few months. Have always thought that breaks and weeks off are completely over-rated. All that did for us is break our momentum. On the plus side, results went our way. You have got to feel for Reading!
First game of the season I've not either been at or watched, sounds like I didn't miss out on much. One question, as I don't particularly want to know about how **** we were at the moment, Schneiderlin's not injured, is he?
Gotta say I think the rain ****ed it as a spectacle, neither of us really played well, but it's a smashing 3 points for us. We'll both be well clear of danger, I'm certain of it. Credit the 2,400 fans who made that trek days before Christmas, it's that kinda thing that really ****s me off that we've been so **** for so long!
Has anyone actually mentioned we were with out are captain today that certainly made a difference, Mayuka was ok in what was his first start?.
