Mart happy and I think he sees Bendy as a challange

Martin O’Neill gets a kick out of Sunderland progress
Martin O'Neill.
By Graeme Anderson
Published on Thursday 22 December 2011 11:30


MARTIN O’Neill’s first challenge to his players on taking over at Sunderland was to lift the club to a position where they had as many points as games played.


“The bare minimum,” he called it.

Last night, they achieved it with victory over Queens Park Rangers in his third game in charge – though they left it heart-stoppingly late to do so.

For the new Sunderland boss, it was a satisfactory moment.

“We’ve won two out of the three games now and that’s encouraging,” he reflected in a brief Press conference after last night’s win.

“I think the players are still getting to know me, but I think that in the three games we’ve had so far, I can have no complaints about the spirit and attitude the players have shown.”

Among the players showing a good attitude was Nicklas Bendtner, who not only hit the woodwork early on before grabbing an early goal but was also sprinting into the penalty area in the 93rd minute to support a Stephane Sessegnon run.

“Nicklas is a fine player in the making,” said O’Neill (pictured right). “I accept that you could probably still talk about him having potential – he’s still only 23.

“But there’s a cause at Sunderland and we’re asking him to commit himself to that cause.

“And I thought he was excellent on the night.

“He looked a player.”

O’Neill was asked whether he’d enjoyed the game and he pointed out that he’d enjoyed the result rather than the see-saw fortunes of the match itself.

“It had crossed my mind we’d thrown it away at 2-2,” he confessed. “It was back on a knife edge.

“But scoring the third goal made the night delightful for us because the points are of paramount importance.

“The performance was great for the most part, but we lost concentration midway through the second half before we regained it.

“We had chances to win at 2-2, but the QPR keeper made two great saves and the possibility was there that we might not have got it.

“But we were very positive in trying to get the winning goal and the two forwards were great.

“Sessegnon, in particular, was outstanding and it was great that both of them got goals.”

 

Questions...Wondering....

Will MoN try to keep him.....

Will he want to stay?

Ilike this new fella..a lot.

 

I think MON is sending out a clear message, do the job and you can stay, whatever he is doing it worked last night

 

I thought it was a cracking game...

Bendtner scored, a minute later Ricco went close...

Bendtner got the ball smacked in his face, could have gone anywhere..

Bendtner hit the post...etc etc etc...

The lad could have potential if he pulls his finger out....But in MoN we trust.

 

I'm still convinced 3 or 4 of these players figure in the long term but its obviously quite canny to get them on side quickly for the remainder of the campaign.

I don't think this so called £20m spoken of in recent days is correct. There will be 1 or 2 in imo (a striker and an established left winger) and maybe 1 or 2 out on loan - McClean and Noble imo to get some championship experience.

The big changes will be in the summer imo not next month. This window is to ensure EPL status maintained with relative ease. I'd like to see the lad Mon will know from Celtic, McCreary be bought from Russia and Andy Johnson from Fulham. £12m the pair?

 

Good points Cest.

The unknown though is the MON factor. New managers tend to start well so the thing I'm looking forward to is how much better performance will he get out of the current riff raff? My feeling is quite a bit as history would suggest his teams play to a structure which players are expected to fit into. When things aren’t going according to plan he has the knowledge to change things around & AGAIN demanding that those whom are on the pitch play to it. Players only need to know two things. What to do when they have the ball & what to do when they don't. If each member of the team does these two simple things then anything is possible.

 

I dont think the team has much 'riff raff' and to be fair Steve Bruce has done a good job in the transfer market, the reason he has lost his job for me is a) tactics and b) having the bollocks to try something new. I think if we could bring into our team two or three new players we could easily get back into top half. Every game tells me more though and im sure ill have a better idea after the Everton game which im almost wetting my pants in excitement about!!!

Even more important, every week and every game gives MON a better idea of a) what we are capable of and b)what we need to improve

 

Syd if MoN cant fire up Bendtner, nobody can, and the road back to London is the A1.