Sunderland fan here, now that hes back with us i was just wondering what your thoughts are on him? Hes looked lively this pre-season for us, but due to lack of game time yous will probably know more about him than we do? Goodluck for the season ahead. Its nice to see one of our academy players Mumba has found his home with yous. We should never have sold him. Top lad and a top player.
He didn’t get a lot of game time for us but from what I saw, his energy and enthusiasm stand out. Very good at breaking up play and carrying the ball at the opposition. He isn’t a dirty player but he did have an uncanny knack of getting booked for over-enthusiastic tackles. Had he been in the starting 11 from the first game of the season, he’d have been suspended before the leaves were off the trees for sure. And again by Christmas. Within our little group on this forum, Sensible was our only season ticket holder last year. He may be in a better position to comment.
I will say some of the bookings looked a bit harsh but then, we all think that when it’s one of ours that gets carded don’t we?
You have pretty much summed it up notdistant. A bit of a worry if he was to play a whole 90 minutes given his ability to get a yellow but also you are right that he isn't dirty. Hard and enthusiastic probably is a better fit. I do think that Refs sometimes do a bit of homework on teams and maybe he was one who got marked out a bit unfairly at times. I saw a lot worse tackles get nothing last season than some he got booked for. However, generally I liked him as a player and you could rely on him to get involved. He was a good carrier of the ball and started a number of attacks by taking players on and going past. Think he deserves his chance in the Championship although not sure he would aspire to a Prem opportunity. Basically good all round player with bags of go in him and if he could just calm himself down a bit would do well.
From memory, I think the telling thing about Matete is that most (all?) of his bookings came not when he was trying to take the ball from an opponent but when he had the ball and they tried to take it off him. You hit it on the head - over enthusiasm. Nevertheless, a card is a card and you can’t collect them at the rate he did.
How would Leeds United's defender Norman (bite your legs) Hunter get on in todays game.....yellow in 10mins and red in 20mins. Once bitten by Hunter and you wouldn't need to pretend you were hurt as you picked yourself up....or the stretcher bearers did as they carried you off.
