Just seems a feeble excuse...how many games did some of the other teams play? LEE CATTERMOLE admits Sunderland were battling against fatigue as they limped over the seasonâs finishing line. Sunderland ended their campaign with an eight-game winless Premier League run, with Martin OâNeillâs men failing to muster a victory since crashing out of the FA Cup to Everton on March 27. That slump cost Sunderland any chance of finishing in the top half of the table after they had been riding high in eighth spot prior to the cup exit. But skipper Cattermole blames tired legs for the change in Sunderlandâs fortunes after OâNeillâs appointment initially saw the Wearsiders rocket away from the relegation zone. Seven of Sunderlandâs squad â Michael Turner, Phil Bardsley, Simon Mignolet, Seb Larsson, Craig Gardner, James McClean and Stephane Sessegnon â missed just 10 games between them since the start of February, with OâNeill reluctant to introduce those on the fringes. Cattermole told the Echo: âI honestly donât think we took our foot off the gas or anything like that, which people do think. You want to win every game. âBut we had such a big effort to pull ourselves out of the position we were in. âIf you look at the players who have played, itâs only been the same 13 or 14 lads. âThereâs a lot of tired players in there, especially after the FA Cup with the replays against Middlesbrough and Everton. âIt does take its toll, not only physically, but mentally. âWe got safe a lot quicker than we thought and it might have been a big weight off our shoulders. âOverall, I think weâve done brilliant since the turn of the year.â Cattermole blames a run of five draws from the final eight games for Sunderlandâs inability to achieve a second successive top half finish. That meagre total put paid to Sunderlandâs pre-season goal of finishing in the top 10, with OâNeillâs men ultimately finishing below newly-promoted duo Norwich and Swansea in the Premier League pecking order. âWe got ourselves in such a good position and we were looking at getting to Wembley in the FA Cup as well,â added the midfielder. âBut we lost that game and then we had a couple of games where we could have kicked on and maybe looked at an eighth finish. That was still on the cards if weâd beaten Fulham. âBut weâve ended up drawing games we think we were capable of winning and it slipped away from us.â
Not the comments i want to hear from our captain especially when he never played for the ful season anyway So the extra games we would play if we got into Europe would see us relegated ?
Need a captain who motivates the team to win every game, not make excuses as to why they didnt win think captaincy will no longer be his
I wish our team should shut up making excuses, they love talking the talk. It was the same for all other 19 premier league teams so its no excuse at all, Everton for example played more cup games than us and had a really strong end to the season. Hopefully all the deadwood goes in the summer and I wouldn't lose any sleep if Catts is one of them
You/we don't know how much that surge after MON arrived took out of the players. The lacklustre defeat to Everton and maybe the adrenaline was just gone. The players themselves admit that MON gets into their heads in a good way, maybe he psychologically wrung all he could out of them in that post Blackburn run of games. Not saying this is the case but it's something to be considered.
Pathetic excuse considering we had 7 days between matches towards the end of the season. Basically most of them couldnt be arsed anymore once we got over 40 points. Some of them players should try doing 7x12 hour shifts like im doing at the moment for a fraction of what they earn!
Not making excuses for them but maybe pushing yourself beyond your limits and over exceeding for 90mins and running over 10K might take it out of you. I've never done it so I really don't know seven days to recover or not!!
sensible post redan. Catts was fantastic for our run after MON joined. He was a massive reason we took 4 points from City and outplayed the likes of de jong and Barry. Some fans are very short sighted and have very short memories about players. On top form and fully fit he is a top player and very important to us
i'd agree with that too, after o'neill came in we had almost title winning form for a while, with a squad of players who are mid-table quality, and we achieved that with a bit of luck but mostly because we were out-working the opposition. disappointing, but with o'neill bringing in players with a bit more quality, the likes of cattermole and maclean won't have to run themselves into the ground as much...
