we dont seem to have any partnerships, they mostly play as individuals fighting there loan battles , the communication amongst the players seems poor ,we dont look like a team just a group of individuals. when things go wrong look at how much finger wagging goes on" it is your fault not mine !" when things are tough and you have the cohesion of been a part of a team your are not just playing for yourself. when you are a group of individuals heads drop quicker and your confidence goes. if you look at any game this season you will see examples of players looking isolated, losing the ball or been caught out because no one warned them.or been reluctant to shoot due to low confidence. Luton just did things simply they had a midfield general number 4, they had off the ball movement an communicated,they had a plan they stuck to it
Team comes with consistency. Unfortunately we have had a bit of chopping and changing across quite a bit of the squad.
true but how often have we seen us conceding goals from a combination of errors and players not communicating with each other all basic stuff that should have been sorted out in the training ground.
We are definitely not in a good place at the moment with basic individual errors killing us even when our overall play is reasonably good. Ricketts has to find his best team quickly and play them until the end of the season in a settled formation if we are to stay up. I do not see any leadership coming from Sadler on the field when we are struggling and he should hand over the captain's, armband to Grant, who at least has charisma.
yes it is a strange one with Saddler last season immense and this season a shadow of his former self, personally think your suggestion of grant is what we need definitely a lack of leadership on the field.
I read a post from a Sunderland supporter the other day bemoaning the fact that in his opinion they had the best squad of players in this league and they shouldn't be here. Leaving the second bit aside, the first about class of player is probably true to a great extent and perhaps so it should be given resources. But, there has never been a squad of players who were head and shoulders above the rest who, if they cannot be a team, will do well or as well as they should. You can have a whole squad of the best but they have to gel and if they don't do that fully then you will not get the results you expect. Sunderland have had a whole load of drawn games where perhaps they should have won and their league position reflects the lack of team work. I remember the Argyle team of some years back now who ended up with the highest points total record for promotion as champions. Not one recognised star player in the squad at all but the togetherness on and off the pitch was there for all Janners to see. If they were out and about in the town there was always a group of them. They played together on and off the pitch. Trying to find that mix is so so difficult and sometimes is a matter of luck for a manager. However, you do need a semblance of it if you are going to do anything.
When Chelsea first started to benefit from Russian investment they bought loads of great footballers and it just did not work. Fernando Torres was one of the big money signings and he scored only 20 times in 120 games.
i know mentioning Hurst name provokes mixed reactions and i am not advocating his return but he came in got the defence organised and got them playing like a team. In his brief spell in charge Coyne managed it unfortunately Askey failed to do it and so far neither has Rickets.
I would have Hurst back in a flash - we need a team that is fit and works hard for ninety plus minutes and does the basics (especially defending) properly. Unfortunately we cannot do any of these at the moment, The Burton game is a must-win. I cannot see us staying up if we lose again tomorrow.
we cant afford for a gap to develop between us and the bottom teams. if we lose it will be a big concern a draw really is not enough as we face Peterborough next who have not done so well recently and will wont to maintain a chance of a play off place.
A decent and confident win would do club and supporter a world of good at the moment! Fingers crossed for today and looking forward to see some of the newer players shine.
unfortunately only whalley shined ,what dire football one tactic lump it up it was depressing to watch
The defence looked more solid in the middle though I would prefer Haynes and Sears as the wingbacks as they are more athletic. We played very little passing football in midfield with Grant sitting too deep and, as you say Zen, only Whalley looking as if he really cared. Whoever was up front were feeding off scraps with hardly any decent crosses to attack and poor balls lumped up to them from the back. We missed Laurent as you always get a good workrate from him. I am sure the lads all do care but we are such a disjointed team with Ricketts not sure of either his starting eleven or of the formation he wants to play. A decent crowd again today who had very little to cheer and I suspect the worm is about to turn if we witness any more limp performances like that. I am going to Peterborough in the hope of seeing an improvement but we are running out of games to get the five wins minimum that we will need to avoid relegation.
our current average is 3 points out of a possible 15 way short of what we need and we have not won in 9 games., Rickets just does not have a clue.we are bottom of the form team table.
i said at the time of his appointment that we needed an experienced assistant, the continued clueless performances with his dogmatic use of the long ball, the slide down the table to me just show we have an inexperienced manager who is completely out of his depth. 12 games in under rickets he has only managed one win out of a possible 36 points we have managed a feeble 9. that is why are bottom of the form table and why we are occupying a relegation place.
Long ball is not and never has been a solution. The defenders and players such as Grant were regularly just hoofing if up the field yesterday and no one was collecting the ball. There was sometimes time to bring the ball down and play it out across the ground by passing it to another player. This passing happened less and less as the match progressed. Panic and disorganisation. We've been here before with Mellon and a few other managers. Even with Hurst, when it got to the last thirty minutes we'd sit back and try to absorb pressure but end up in panic hoofing up the field. Players like Grant are better than this, as are the other older players. I bet Williams didn't play like that at Man Utd either. It needs coordination and that takes Ricketts and Co. But it also means whoever is captain needs to be biasing everyone and not blaming them.
As we have potentially Okenabirhie and/or Cambell up front who are ball to feet players. Why set up to have them alone up front with a roaming Whalley sat just behind them, and then hoof long balls? When Payne came on he looked stranded as the full backs/wingers weren't doing that job reliably.
it is not a coincidence that since Rickets has taken charge and as he has implemented the long ball tactic ,Ferjiri's goals have virtually dried up.the long ball virtually sidelines the forwards.
another performance against Plymouth were i listen to another poor half, so many games have been lost through town failing to work as a team.
I couldn't go last night due to a dose of horrible bug but my party of mates did and gave me a comprehensive report. Apparently we should have been a minimum of 3 up in the first half. We dominated and Shrews weren't very good at all. We only managed one and that nearly came back to haunt. Second half we apparently changed formation and not for the better. The Plymouth team went from dominating to not being able to do a thing and we let the Shrews back into it. The goal, even if it was a penalty, was apparently inevitable. For around 20 minutes we were ragged and it looked like you might even score again. Then we reverted to the original formation and all was well in the house. We came back into it again and you went backwards. In the end we just about deserved the points. The wind and weather were not very good and it was freezing. That's about all I can tell you from a first hand account relayed to me.