Burnley are shipping goals and their luck was bound to run out ... ... the top team being absolutely hammered proves your point.
Mowbray has been forced to work with one hand, at least, tied behind his back. The risk of not strengthening the striking options and relying on a virtually untried Loanee has failed bigtime. I am though aware that effective strikers are hard to come by at any time. We, or most of us Fans, started off this Season hoping just to consolidate ourselves in this league. For most this meant mid table, for me upwards from fourth off bottom. Given all the circumstances, so far, I'd say Tony Mowbray has done as good a job as could be expected.
Has he been told to play that way though? He was last man and turned into trouble (not for the 1st time). Had the manager told him to retain possession at all costs? The easy thing would have been to just hoof it back up the field. Same goes for their penalty - dicking about at the back and panicky clearances has to stop. I get why they do it, but it doesn't have to be done every time
I can empathise with you, I cannot just sit there and watch us losing badly. If we are trying hard and giving it a go...okay, but Saturday... was dreadful. Dear old Eeyore, has come out and said he got selection wrong, which is true; but like a good manager he has also said that to give some cover and protection to the players.taking the blame himself. A common theme from the posters with thousands of hours of watching sunderland/football is that whilst the young players are undoubtedly talented they lack more experienced tougher team mates around them. A successful squad of players is always a blend of all sorts, with a playing style they all fit into. We are not there yet. January transfer window is important to TM to bring in players he reckons the team needs. Speakman has a job to do on that as well as getting Stewart to sign on, although that is looking less likely. You never know we might even score from a set piece soon!
If the poor home form continues then its inevitable that the crowd will turn, he has to improve the home form no ifs or buts. Yes he has had some bad luck with injuries but there is enough in that squad to get results at home against the likes of Cardiff, Blackpool & Preston. I never wanted him but it would be madness to get rid of him already, he has to be given a chance with a fully fit squad before I will make judgement. Hopefully after the world cup he has the players back to change our form.
Tactically I think there have been some issues in that we are constantly trying to play long diagonals to the wingers. The wingers on both sides always cut inside and there is very little overlap from the full backs(probably down to the fact we have no strikers) bit this has meant that our set up is now meant to be more defensive and less attacking, again understandable given recent injury problems but I hope Mowbray can guide them back to that team that pressed high with a vibrant attacking tempo because at the minute that seems to have disappeared.
One of the (many) depressing things when we were in the third division was seeing the teams that had been promoted come straight back down, or if they didn't they escaped by the skin of their teeth after a relegation battle all season. I feared a gulf between the third division and the Championship and bothered to look up how all the promoted teams did during the summer - the only ones to stay up comfortably were Coventry and Blackpool, both finished 16th. We were absolute ****e against Cardiff, we've been great in other games, it'll take time, and mid table would do nicely this season.
I'm happy with Mowbray, I like the way he has us playing (not when we have an off day and play ****e obviously) and I appreciate his willingness to play the kids and take risks. He also had us scoring without a striker on the pitch so credit for that too. The only real criticism I have is him not changing it at half time against Cardiff, when you're that bad and you get to half time level you thank your lucky stars and make changes, you don't have a word and send the same team out. Every manager makes mistakes though, it's not a habit of his. I reckon if Stewart hadn't been injured we'd be looking really comfortable and this wouldn't be a discussion we'd be having. Just that one player has been a big loss.
Parker on twitter, who isn’t always the most positive and used to regularly post on here, put on that Alex Neil had a 33% win ratio with a fully fit strike force available all season. Mowbray has a 30% With no strikers for the majority. So only a tiny difference with a lot more issues. Neil was roundly loved by just about every SAFC fan. Yet Mowbray seems to have those who want him gone, despite his record being almost identical. The SAFC “not bothered about the facts” scenario when things aren’t going great. The anti Mowbray lot also need to ask what they expected thus season from a newly promoted side!! Promotion? Play offs? Relegation struggle?? My guess is a lot of them would say the latter, but because we’ve had some absolutely superb games with scintillating football, they now expect play offs minimum and mid table mediocrity is not good enough. Reality check
The players were more to blame on Saturday. Yes the set up didn't work but that doesn't excuse endless misplaced passes ... ... when your keeper makes the most/best passes in a game you have a problem. Big crowds, big games and big expectations don't bother Patterson, it did some of the team imo.
i was as gutted and angry as anyone after cardiff, comfortably our worst performance so far of this season and i thought from the start that it was a mistake taking both evans and pritchard out for the same game, but we found out that for all their good work these young lads still need that vital bit of experience. T.M. was never going to be the fans ideal choice, let's be honest here, few would have him at the top of the list but as an 'in case we dont get who we want back up' he was a perfect choice...the fact is he is our manager and deserves our backing as well as the rest of the facts such as he has had to work without our two main strikers, it is not 'his squad', unable to get a regular back four, trying to give some players a break (we all saw how it affected us last season) and one thing no one can predict or avoid which was almost the entire team on the pitch having an off day. would i take our current position above what we have had recently of course i would, i would take your hands off...so in that respect i am a happy chap, i did not expect us to walk the league and i expected a few bad results and hopefully some unexpeacted good ones, i also feel the second half of the season will give a better return barring further injuries of course and adding to the squad rather than losing players. yes T.M. has made some mistakes but show me a manager who never does.
Well said Sam, and the other's that have a realistic view of what we can expect from our club. Never understood when we win the manager and team are the dogs gonads ie Wednesday, then they're worse than sh1te on Saturday and calling for the managers head. All clubs fans react in this way just seems to me we have more than our fair share of them. I despair at times.
Hard job at the best of times. He has had a centre forward fit for one full game. Had 4/5 very likely starters injured. We have played some great stuff and scored some excellent goals. We have only been walloped once by Burnley, and even then it was a fluke and a wonder goal. They had the breaks. We are okay I'd say. Nothing perfect and neither is TM and we were miles off it on Saturday. They were ready for us and we didn't handle it. But he knows what he's doing and we should be okay. Think I'd like to see quicker and more decisive subs at times, but he'll know who's ready. We'll see how we are at the end of the season. He's okay by me.
Played 13, won 4, drawn 4, lost 5. Points 16. Extrapolate that over a season and it's 57 points which would have finished 17th, 15th and 14th in the last 3 seasons. Even if some Sunderland fans think we should be finishing higher, that's not the kind of performance which is a sackable offence - and certainly not when you factor in the Stewart injury in particular. Yet some fans are talking about us being "cut adrift". They've lost all sense of perspective. Thankfully, they're significantly in the minority.
cheers, i do try not to expect too much and keep an open mind, we are a club in transition (to use a current 'buzzword')...we had to cut our cloth to suit while in div 3 and any future progress will be slow and steady rather than throw the cash at it and hope it works, we all went down that path and saw how badly it can turn out so i am happy with the current approach as long as the ends justify the means...whether i will still be around to enjoy it or to get pelters for trying to be more realistic only time will tell
