I know the Sunderland fans like to come out with the old "it'll be a different game 11vs11" and we'll be getting it this week, so I've got a question. Have they seen our record against teams with reduced numbers? Taking the game as starting when the opposition had their players sent off (our goals always first): Sunderland 2-0 Man U 0-0 (to be fair, 90th minute red card) Palace 0-1 (yes, we lost 1-0 and the goal came after they had a man sent off) Sunderland 0-0 (1-0 win overall, but we were ****ing **** that second half) Cardiff 0-1 (2-2 overall, but we managed to lose the vs 10 men bit despite it being a stoppage time penalty awarded to us) Derby 0-0 (89th minute again, and we were 2-1 up) Watford 0-0 (65th minute, 1-1 overall) Leicester 0-0 (57th minute in a 2-1 loss) Leicester 2-1 (29th minute penalty as a result of the card, so 1-1 on play) So in the last 9 games we've had opponents sent off (going back to December 2011) we've managed to: lose 2 of them from the point of the red card draw 2 of them despite having 25 minutes or more against reduced men and not winning the game overall draw another 1 of them despite being against 9 men win only 2 of them, and Leicester you could argue it was a draw from the point of the red card since the penalty was awarded whilst it was 11vs11 score in just 2 of the games. I'll take it as 2 from 7 (excluding the Derby win and the Man U game due to short time) but it's still ****e
It is probably a function of teams going into defensive mode after the red card. We havent exactly been a goal scoring team lately even a man up if they sit and defend it might actually be harder for us to score than in a traditional 11 v 11 game.
You can't reason with the Sunland lot so why bother. Very interesting post though. With the exception of the Man Citehs, Barca, Real Madrid of this world all teams will go defensive until the last 5/10 mins of the game
When we played Sunlun with 9 men we were awful, looked clueless and won 1-0 With 10 men we totally bossed them and won 2-0 If the soppy ****s manage to keep 11 players on the pitch, it stands to reason, that we'll be sensational and win 3-0 Predicting football scores is a piece of piss.
Sunderland have been a different side in the cup games. Could it be because there are no points to lose in their strive for survival? We've beaten them twice albeit both times with their side reduced and we won't have Jelly and Long so I just can't see it personally. This would be the best chance we have ever had in making it to the final for the first time in our history and at 75 I doubt I will see another chance. I have seen us make the Premier League though (twice even) and this would be the icing on the cake. More so if we won the bloody thing.
All of them where when we had **** strikers though, apart from the recent Sunderland win which coincidentally was our most convincing performance against reduced numbers. Let them think what they want, there's no guarantee they'll keep 11 on the field anyway and it's hardly our fault we've only played 45 mins against them with 11 men all season - which we won 1-0 of course!
