After watching this afternoons game I have come to the conclusion that Altidore will never score again for Sunderland. He had one very good chance, put it past the keeper yet somehow the keeper STILL saved it! It was a phenomenal save (and this is certainly not a dig at Altidore)! I would actually love to see what this lad is capable of if he's confident. That one shot where we all thought he'd scored but somehow billy the fish saved the ****er!! Aaaarrrrrggghhhhhhh
Does anybody not think 1 game in the 4 weeks running up to this game for our regulars hasn't been enough playing time? We should have gone full strength against Hull imo.
I'm still baffled by Gus's team selection against Hull mate, we should have gone full tilt to win that game, can you imagine how much confidence would have been running through the players knowing they were going back to Wembley? they'd have been right up for a fight yesterday. Instead he played a weakened team and gave some fringe players a chance to prove themselves, that was the wrong game to do that and IMO is his first serious mistake since taking over.
Well i will say that against norwich i think jozy should play and i think his style and presence will be the correct pick imo as the two norwich centre backs are very weak and prone to a physical duel such as jozy.
10 more points and I think you'll be fine, so that's just 3 wins and a draw from a series of fixtures which include: Norwich (a) West Brom (h) West Ham (h) Cardiff (h) Swansea (h) Everton (h) If you can't win three of those (and I'm confident you can) then yes you are doomed but you would deserve to go down. The way I see it you have 3 major issues: 1)scoring - I agree with many that it is the players behind your strikers who look most dangerous. Altidore brings in players like Ki, Johnson, Borini and Giac; Fletch looks like a waste of a shirt at the moment. 2)Your fixtures are all against teams with something to play for. At this time of the season its often easier to play against teams like Newcastle (not that you had any trouble beating us twice...), Villa, etc as we gradually have less to play for. This means that irrespective of what you think of the calibre of their players you really don't have any easy fixtures. 3) Confidence - A few of those fixtures I'd back you to win are at the very end of the season, your players need to retain confidence even if you lose to Norwich as the run after that is tough for a few games but the final run in is nice.
its our inability to break down and score at home whats the biggest problem,palace highlighted this with ease in fact ,two shots on target in the game is the proof ,but football has the trick in throwing up results where not expected ,not just for us though
Do you not think we'll pick up points from the top teams like? It's where we've gained the most points? Liverpool A Spurs A Everton H Man C A Chelsea A Man U A I know it sounds demented but we've had most joy either away or against the top teams. If this season keeps being as weird as it has been then there's points in those fixtures bizarrely
hold on ,i agree,....... it will be our home games which will be our downfall , i say will ,it is already as a point of fact ,we look a more dangerous unit away thats for sure imo
sitting here watching the match and on the laptop my wife just pipped up, pity gerrard couldnt score from a spot kick against portugal shes english as opposed to me being a half bake
We've picked up 11 points against relegation rivals this season. Still a lot of them left to play as we know, we're not in the worst position to right some wrongs.
The Man City result was amazing but it was at home, the Everton (a) result was the real shocker as they have been very strong this season. I can see you getting something Everton(h) but those other away games I'm not confident you will. Though I guess it would be fair to expect at least one, maybe two draws from that lot - Man Utd and Spurs especially are candidates for points but Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea I can't see you getting anything at this stage of the season (especially as they will all be out of Europe).
Oh I agree fella, I was just drawing attention to the fact that this strange season has been far from predictable. I think we'll do enough, but I think we'll get points and drop points in unexpected fixtures.
