Had a bit of a set to with someone on Saturday who said "That's the worst sunderland side I've ever seen" - my retort to him was "have you only been watching them for the last 10 years" and he said he'd been going longer than I've been alive. Anyone else heard people say this? Anyone else seriously think this? I watched them home and away when we amassed 15 points! We were far far worse than we have been this season. I watched the 6 league games of ours and we easily could have taken something from all of them (I'm talking about the first half v Everton as, if we'd scored, could've been a different game - or maybe not as Saturday shows) Man CIty, Spurs, Boro could (I know) easily have ended up as draws. Palace and Southamton could easily have been wins. It's not all bad - you all know I'm a positive person and always look for the good side of things. From Saturday, obviously we got 2 goals up, Cattermole and N'Dong had decent games. Januzaj in fits and starts - not sure he's the answer but he has undoubted ability. I'll put the match thread up tomorrow for this weekend One other positive - we don;t have to play in August or September until 2017!!!!! (straws....clutching)
"he said he'd been going longer than I've been alive. Anyone else heard people say this?" Yes, heard that plenty. Now I`m the one who gets to say it.
For me the performance on Saturday was not as bad as people have been suggesting - three bad mistakes cost us but I thought we put some good moves together second half. I have seen a lot worse performances in my time. - tin hat on
It's a million miles away from our worst side. If you were to take our actual worst side and put them in the prem as it is now we'd be getting absolutely slaughtered. It'd be a massacre.
Obviously its not the worst I've ever seen, but its the most disillusioned I've ever been. Totally bored by the same ****e happening every season. Losing doesnt leave me with that slightly awful feeling in the pit of my stomach anymore. I just shrug my shoulders and have a chuckle to myself now. If what happened at the weekend happened 5-10 years ago I would have been devastated. Not anymore. Every season drains that little bit more of interest in SAFC, and football in general, out of me.
Given the positive vibes at the end of last season, the way this season has started is a real kick in the balls. Its not just Allardyce leaving; we could have capitalised on the momentum he gave us with or without him and we've spectacularly failed to do so.
Pointless looking back on close shaves and thinking 'they could have been wins' because ultimately you lost them. On another day City could have put 8 past you so these games could have all gone worse. For me, it's about the last game, looking what happened, what went wrong and doing something about it, that's the only reason Moyes really made me dislike him, he never seemed to learn. When you're 2-0 up at home against Palace, you have to shut them out, there's no excuses at all for losing that game.
Agree but I was using it to make a point that this is in no way the worst we've ever been - Lawrie McCunt, Howard Wilkinson, Mick McCarthy all far worse than this - worse football and worse to watch and never coule we say "we were unlucky not to get something" as we basically weren't! This season we have been. As for the "when you are 2-0 up" comment - I can;t find anything to say about that to disagree with you - had we been playing City or United or Liverpool and that had happened you just say "Oh well" but it's Crystal Palace FFS!!
We get it as well mate, it's incredible the lengths some people will go to, to make their point controversial.
Not really though - If you are against a top team who play badly but suddenly turn it on and come back from 0-2 to win 3-2 then you hold your hands up - if you gift a poor side (and they were no better than us on the day) 3 goals it pisses me offf. (Not speaking for anyone else though but I can imagine it annoyed a few - have seen pictures of broken seats)
Certainly not the worst I have seen....too many times we have been worse....not just in this century . What was awful about Saturday was that we were 2-0 up and lost 2-3... We were poor the 1st half but Defoe was given change and he took it...we were better the 2nd half and could have scored more than 1. However the defending...I am not sure Moyes should criticise players publicly...behind closed doors is another matter. But you can bet your bottom dollar that since the Everton debacle, not cutting out crosses and missing headers in our own penalty area, we will have practised defending against them endlessly on the training pitch...yet a overpaid bunch of so called professional just ignored all that and were abject and pathetic.. Pardew even rubbed it in when he said that Sunderland players mentally lost it when Palace scored their 1st goal quickly after we scored our 2nd.
But they didn't on Saturday - we beat ourselves and were as good as them for the entire game - having good players doesn't make them a good team
Marcus, I was going to start a thread entitled 85 minutes, which was saying something similar to you. If our matches,had ended after 85 minutes this season we would be four points better off, be up to 15th in the league, and had won our first game before the end of Sept, then most on here would be quite happy. There are fine margins between success and failure in this league and at the minute unless we start seeing games out then this struggle will continue. DM has to sort his back four out, get the fullbacks to stop the crosses coming in and the centre halves to get their heads on those that do come into our box, its not that difficult but it has to be sorted NOW. We are scoring goals and play well in patches we just have to do it for 90 minutes.
Not the worst by a long way. This is our longest run in the top division since the war, the new players need some time to get to know each other. Moyes needs to work on re-building the team spirit that we seem to have lost from the end of last season and removing the defensive mistakes, a bit like Sam's first few months with us. The defending for the last goal was a joke though, the players seemed to be lined up defending the zone with no one marking or even watching Benteke. I still think we can turn this around, a few changes and hopefully we can get a few ugly wins.
