Well that was my first game of the season, Hibs away and I posted on Friday saying how excited I was, I may never go to Scotland again. I had no bother with the fans or the Hibs staff but the police are so intent on stopping trouble that they put me in the mood to start it, soaking wet, 10 mile trek(exaggerated for effect) back to car to avoid trouble, did not see any and locked out in the rain until 2 oâclock. Anyway, now that moan is over, my first chance to see the boys, was it good? TBH I left with my high expectation turned into dissopointed. I know its a friendly the week before the big kick of, nobody wants to get injured so its 90% effort, but. Goalkeeper. Mig had little to do so no worries there. Back 4 Bardo stared RB, moved to LB before being replaced. Solid for me but must start LB because he is the best we have there. Anton was OK for me but may be RB for kick off, subject to OâShea being ready. BROWN, any doubters, donât. his class and confidence shone out and he wanted the ball to his feet from the keeper to play it out. Very impressed. Richardson, I love Richardson and so want him to succeed. He tries hard but just fails for me, not a LB and the only place I have seen him shine is in the role Sess has. Midfield Catts and Gardner had good games to me, happy with both. Larssen was very good on the right and at set pieces and did OK on the left. Must start RW for me. Now our problem, LW, we know it, Bruce knows it and Colback proved beyond doubt he ainât the answer.Everytime he moved inside he was good, out wide he looked lost. The man who impressed me the most was Vaughn in his 30 minute spell and I would play him LW at the moment, not ideal but maybe best we have, get someone signed up Bruce. Attack Sess,Sess,Sess... a class, no, a few classes above anyone else out there but he spent a lot of time on the LW because he could see the problem, and he was very good there. Gyan, looked like he was not that bothered to me, hope he is saving himself for next week. Ji, against Hartlepool looked good. Against Hibs looked a little out of depth. Against Liverpool, bench please. Wickham, 18 and raw and was Like Ji but not that good so a future prospect yes but on what I saw, Prem quality, not at the moment. Conclusion and its just my opinion. We need to sort the back 4 and need both Brown and OâShea in with Bardo so its that last spot that will decide formation, sort it and stick to it and we will be fine. Midfield is looking good apart from that one spot, LW, and I hope Bruce and Quinn are working flat out to solve it. If they do we will have a very good season, if they donât we could come unstuck a few times. I would be very tempted to play Sess on the left with a Bellamy type behind Gyan. Iâm sure others who saw the game will not agree with everything I have written but thatâs fine, thatâs football.
I think one of our main problems this season, will again be round pegs in square holes, Sess's best position is behind the striker but he may end up on the left wing as (it seems) we simply do not have the personnel who can perform (week on week) on the left. If Sess does go the left we reduce our goal threat drastically as neither Dong or Whickham have the experience (yet) to do a job as second striker alongside Gyan. So that leaves Vaughan, Colback or Richardson on the left, (I wouldn't play Larsson there as we need him on the right). Richardson wouldn't even get a look as he's ****e. Colback's best position is central midfield (as Syd mentioned in his views of the game) Vaughan has played on the left previously but for us hasn't looked too comfortable there. I would have thought by now, we would have pretty much known our first choice 11, but again a lack of a left midfielder may come back to bite us on the arse as we have to make do. True, the window hasn't shut yet but it's difficult to get someone in who can play on the left and integrate themselves into the team quickly. It's nearly time for the new season to kick off, and one of the two biggest games of our season is nearly upon us and yet we're still in limbo without a left winger.
Says he will never go again because we did not score, welcome to being a Sunderland fan, he will be at the derby. Wickham looked a mile away from a premier player. That would be Mr Ji Dong Wan
I hope that the team simply was told to play within themselves in a vain hope of fooling the liverpool spies.The performance was dire, im sure we will have a solid and packed midfield against liverpool with five in the middle with sess on the left (when liv have the ball and supporting b jet when we have it)with gyan on for 65 mins as a lone striker followed by ji for the last 25 .Im sure any attacks we will make will be down the right with Larson unfortunately putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea but when you have only one basket what can you do. We are crying out for creativity in the middle if we can get the ball to sesss just outside the penalty area then we have some hope but can we if we cannot! sess is going to get pissed off and may be off to better pastures because on recent performances he is a cut above what we have got .I think Brucies plan for away games is the only option given the personell at present,but to watch aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh dross..... and if plan A fails, it will be put the big lad on and hit and hope! Ji looked ok wickham looked a little lost (little time and room to impress) Brown looked confident,Ferdinand was as usual walking a tightrope(one step from the abbyss)and bramble looked lost in the warm up. on this performance we are going to huff and puff and the only good news is that down premiership avenue only the 5 big houses on the top of the hill are made of brick!
So how was Gyan? Not getting good revues elsewhere. Unfit, fat, lazy are just a few words being associated with him by others.
less of the old I dont think he was fat, unfit or lazy. To me he was simply giving 90% and more intrested in not being injured, he needs to do a lot better next weekend.
The older and wiser i get.... i realise how foolish i am!Fortunately in the land of the imbecile's the foolish man is king. As for Gyan in my opinion He is not a naturally fit individual and needs to be tuned perfectly for him to perform i think the margin between a magic performance and the mediocre is very small in his case .If you watched him in practice before the hibs game you would realise he is a long way off from being in the "zone", probably two to three weeks more training.But even at this stage he is still very unpredictable and defenders do not like this............
This is the worrying part....... Although a great player, he is NOT a prolific striker, and will not score bags of goals, (hence we need someone to help him). There is way way to much expectation on him, and it aint gonna happen, we need him in that "zone" all the time scoring or providing ammunition for some-one else. At the moment, he is in a no win situation, fantastic players need help, it's a team sport. Gyan is gonna need back-up. simple.
