The most important thing i cannot grasp is the total lack of fight /fire throughout the team in the current situation we are in league wise,secondly the total lack of spirit shown from the sidelines by the management throughout the match, looked like rabbits caught in the headlights. get some desire back and we might escape once again
Pissed me right off to watch a total lack of desire which ran right through the team yesterday, maybe Fletcher showed some character but that's about it. I can stomach defeat, I can stomach bad refereeing decisions to a point, I can stomach bad luck, but what I can't stomach is a lack of desire and guts. ****ing overpaid ****ers the lot of them.
Connor Whickham in the week said '' the players are not concerned with thoughts of relegation''. The spirit and effort yesterday I think put a different slant on his meaning. Should read ............thoughts of relegation because we'll still get paid huge wads of money whatever division''
Pretty much so, they obviously don't give a flying **** if it does happen. Defoe is probably thinking, ****ing hell, i've cocked up coming here. Giacc is probably thinking, mama mia where the fook is Rotherham and Brentford, i so miss my mama, i wanna go home.
At least you all can't blame altidore LOL now Defoe knows what its like playing for sunderland now. I was there yesterday and stu you are right because there wasn't no fight or **** all from them players. I left when the 4 goal went in and can't believe some people stayed to the end LOL what sad fans they are. I bet the clap the players off.
The margins in elite sport are really fine and a failure to appreciate that sometimes distorts the significance of results. Modern football is awash with hyperbole and every fixture now seems to carry a faux-significance – look at the way managers are now assessed, for example: an Arsene Wenger or a Jose Mourinho can move between lavish praise and stinging criticism within the space of a week and nobody ever seems to be judged on more than their last game. Gus Poyet is different, though. His situation at Sunderland isn’t troubling purely because of the results he’s overseen or the position in the table his side occupies, but because of how they’re actually playing the game. Losing 4-0 at home to Aston Villa is humiliating, whatever the circumstances. Yesterday was more than just a thumping, though, it was a non-contest – and that’s why Poyet’s position is under-threat. There was a moment in that game which was very revealing. Mid-way through the first-half, the match was stopped so that Liam Bridcutt could receive treatment for an injury. While that happened, Poyet called some of his key players – Jermain Defoe, Jack Rodwell, Sebastian Larsson, Steven Fletcher and Patrick van Aanholt – to the touchline in an attempt to re-organise the side. Re-watch that moment and look at the faces of those players – and, actually, look at the various on-pitch interactions that occurred between different Sunderland players over the course of that first-half. This team is in chaos. Individual mistakes are always a side’s most visible failings, but it’s Sunderland’s failure to do the basics even remotely well that makes them so vulnerable. The goals in yesterday’s game were a really good example of that: with the exception of the first, how many of them were completely avoidable? Three? Even the second, which superficially could be attributed to John O’Shea, showed them at their collective worst. Gabby Agbonlahor is very quick and there was always a possibility of him getting behind the Irishman? Where was the contingency for that? Surely there has to be an allowance in the defensive structure for that happening? There wasn’t. One long ball from Ciaran Clark, one missed clearance, one clear run on-goal. Aston Villa are an improving side, but it looked at times like they were playing against a youth team at the Stadium of Light. Sometimes when a group of players are performing poorly it’s possible to see what they’re trying to achieve, but that’s not the case here. Poyet’s players don’t seem to have a proper understanding of their individual roles and their football has no obvious shape – if you didn’t know better, you could be forgiven for thinking that they’ve been built to fail. Steven Fletcher is one of the smartest forwards in the division and he’s extremely good in the air. Yet he spent most of the game on the left hand side. Jermain Defoe is an excellent finisher who thrives off second-ball service. Yet he’s continually isolated and asked to perform a targetman function that, because of his size and skill-set, he is no way equipped to perform. It’s easy to dismiss these kind of results as the product of a lack of effort or desire or any number of absent cliched qualities, but yesterday was just one big tactical confusion. The possession had no purpose, the pressing was comically non-existent, and the players didn’t seem to have any belief in what they’d been asked to do. You can’t completely separate the team from their manager and there are legitimate criticism to be made about how some of the individuals performed, but – and this comes from the dug-out – this is a very confused football team. Sack Poyet or don’t, but something has to change http://thepremierleagueowl.com/sunderland-are-just-a-confused-mess-of-a-football-team/
Picture this , your confidence is low, even if you've been talking the talk, You turn up in the Dressing room, Gus comes in and delivers his team and team talk and you're stood there thinking, there's still players out of position everywhere, there's no change to tactics. Do you A. feel more confident and ready to rip your opponent to shreds? or B. Do you fill with dread as you step out onto the pitch? At the moment imo we're beaten before we even kick off.
