If we were looking at someone else?

If we were looking in at another club that could offer the following, what would we think of that club?


Entering their 6th season in the top flight

Spent upwards of £26m in the summer bringing in 2 top players and 3 or 4 free signings and loans.

Financially stable boardroom and set up, owned by a very successful, classy and rich man, who has his heart in the club not just his wallet.

Played 8
Won 1
Drawn 6
Lost 1

9 points from only 3 home games and 5 away games

Main striker in the top 2 or 3 for the golden boot

Played Arsenal (a), Man City (a); and Liverpool (h) and a local derby at home amongst our steady start and all this whilst having not played well once all season, or indeed had a full squad to choose from.

Into the last 16 of the first cup competition we have entered (with complete ease it should be said) and playing at home for the honour of a second cup quarter final inside 6 months...

Can boast the likes of full international capped players Simon Mignolet, Adam Johnson, Stephane Sessegnon, Steven Fletcher, Seb Larsson & John O'Shea in its ranks.

6th highest home attendance average in the league (despite playing less games) of 42,398

Had Martin O'Neill as their manager (for only 11 months)

....and who still had a game in hand (at home) which would make that club top 10 after 9 games


Would we say that club are doing well or ****e? I'd love to support that club....... hang on a minute there?


Perspective lads.....perspective.

 

Well said. Things aren't as bleak as the doom mongers make out. Just need to turn a few more draws into wins and the picture would be a whole lot better. We're very difficult to beat without playing particularly well - so far !

 

If we had only just clung on another minute at West Ham and played and won our game in hand v Reading, we could realistically be sitting 7th or 8th and only 1 point behind Arsenal going into this weekends games and a mere 3 points off the top 4? We just need a little change of fortune and a lot more from the under currently performing players such as AJ, Sess, McClean and Co and we will be flying imo. That will come as they are excellent footballers and form is temporary whereas class is permanent.

I really despair at some of the pathetic comments being made here these last few days

 

All if's & but's though isn't it?

How'd you feel if we lose tonight & Saturday?

 

But that's football Billy? We could have played brilliant free flowing football and still been the same position or worse?

My point is that to read some of the comments this last few days you would think we were rooted at the bottom of the league after 3 years of the O'Neill regime and with no decent players or prospects?

We are a million miles from that and once the manager can recruit all the players he needs to set us up the way he wants we will be a real force. You didnt really think that after 11 months we would be Man Utd did you? Really?

 

Cest, it's the way we're playing & setting teams up that's starting to piss me off.
Totally negative tactics, sitting so deep even when in front, that we've problems just getting up to the half way line.
Sitting back even against ten men. We've been more than a trifle lucky more than once this season.

Now I've not once called for MON's head & of course he needs more time but I do not hold him above reproach either.
I for one am starting to question his tactics & team selections.

Yes, some of our so called better players have been **** but who's job is it to kick their arses and/or put an arm around them & get them motivated.
Christ almighty mate, if some of us were performing so **** at our jobs, well, you know the same as I do what would happen.

People keep saying that they will come good but how long do we give them?
The way we are playing at the moment, I'm not certain we would beat Reading, they looked quite good on Saturday & attacked at will as opposed to having no will to attack.

And I'd imagine Boro will fancy their chances tonight.

I want the same as you do but we need to change things around.

I've witnessed far too many false dawns, I just hope I'm not about to see another one.

And no, I don't expect we'll ever be a Man Utd. Not in my lifetime.

 

Don't really think anyone is spouting doom and gloom. they are just not happy with the way the team are performing, next to no shots on target. These are the guys (not me 'cos I'm abroad) who pay their money week in week out. Surely they should be able to express their frustrations without being branded pathetic!
I don't normally say much on here, leave it to you lot as you know more about the present game than I do, and after following Sunderland for as long as I can remember (almost 67 now), I have to say I am a little frustrated, still glass half full, but as I said on another thread the beer is going a bit flat. Of course a win tonight will be great, a win against Villa will be fantastic, and will defo put some sparkle back in the glass.
But don't knock folk for their views, after all "it's all about opinions"

 

We have always had a large section of fans who will turn against our team/management as soon as things are not going too well, which I believe has been a major contributory factor in our relative failure over the years..

 

Well, you'd think so.

OK then Reg, who's actually said on here that they are against him?

 

Balls.

 

That's basically what I was trying to say but you put it so more eloquently than I could, .

 

I have a way with words.

 

I agree with some of the frustration regarding tactics etc, but still have total belief that MON is perfect for the job

 

I agree with this totally.

My point is that there are so many willing to readily criticise one of the games most successful managers after he has been here less than 11 months? He has only started to build his regime here and Johnson and Fletcher have been excellent additions. If thats the calibre of player we are now after then bring it on imo.

Yes the football isn't Barcelona and yes we have ridden our luck on occasions but we have also been very unlucky too imo with postponed games due to extreme weather, late goals conceded in games at West Ham and at home to Liverpool, injuries to key players like Johnson, Brown and Bardsley and the loss of form of those players we hoped much better of.

The fact is we are still a work in progress and MoN will take 18 months to really put his stamp on the club. In the meantime, 2 quarter finals in 6 months would be a canny improvement over recent years and comfortable mid table mediocrity something of an unknown for the older followers. We have been poor but then that means we can only get better surely? Teams like the lot up the road have ridden their luck already this season with flukey deflections and offside goals, handballs etc and maybe when our luck turns theirs will too (and there are others in that league also).

If we are bottom 6 come May and played ****e all season then we can all have a moan but 8 games into the season (3 home games and 5 away) its ridiculous and bloody pathetic to start moaning already when we are within touching distance of top 8 and a game in hand- hence I agree with MR that it has always been that we are not happy as a set of fans sometimes unless we are moaning and twisting about **** all.

We are a far better prospect under MoN than we have been under any of the previous dozen managers over the past 30 years imo.

 

Agreed totallys Cest - Would people rather we'd played well and lost 4 or 5 games 3-2 or 4-3 = scored loads and coneceded loads?

I would like to watch attractive, attacking football but we have only been beaten in any competition by Man City this season and ahve played less home games than anyone in the league. I'm not too unhappy at the moment

 

I wouldn't say that club is ****e but equally I wouldn't say they are doing well, what I would ask is why has this club only 1 outfield scorer in the league, why has it only has 12 shots on targets in 8 games, where is the flair and imagination going to come from. What does the manager ( who I think is in the top 5-6 in the prem) keep picking a player who hasn't performed in any league game his season and is very reluctant to take him off. Is it because he thinks he has no one better to come on ?? If we don't ask questions and just accept what is happening does that mean we care more ?? Don't think so , it is because we care that we ask these questions, myself and dozens on here expected better than what we are seeing at the moment and if our expectations are not being met , we should ask questions. They amount of supporters I have read or heard calling for MONs head is so minimal it is not an argument worth going down. But to question MON about team selections and plan B or lack of it shows we care and only want better for our team.

 

Cest in missing the point completely shocker.

You have less shots on target than any team in the top 5 European leagues. The next worst has about 25 more than you. No one has complained about the results. You keep saying "wait till our attacking players start to fire" well the whole point is that people believe the current set up is never going to allow that to be possible, and they have based that judgement on evidence, rather than a blind faith. They want MON to change his tactics, not for him to leave.
They are the facts, as oppose to the story of people wanting MON out and being angry with the results that you seem desperate to persuade everyone to believe.

 

Can anyone point to a game that we should have won or at least deserved it by being the better team?

 

Tit **** bell end mag in opinion offer that wouldn't matter if his was the only one on here shocker?

 

This is the thing though. We have been awful at times and have fewest shots blah! blah! blah! but we are also comfortably mid table despite playing ****e and missfiring in several departments.

We have a top class keeper that has more clean sheets than Joe Hart (who has a much better team to protect him); a defence that is difficult to break and score against; some classy players that are not performing and its not the tactics or the style as the likes of Sess and McCLean revelled in this formation last season; a top striker who is in the top 2 or 3 strikers currently in the EPL and we have the likes of Bardsley and Brown still to come back and play their part. Vaughan is getting back to his best and Gardener will soon be able to revert back to his best position too.

We can only get better and yet whilst being poor we are more than holding our own and competing.