The Road Ahead

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The worrying thing about this fixture list for me is the relative dearth of six-pointers. There are some, of course, West Brom v Villa, etc. But the teams below us are playing the majority of their games against clubs outside of the relegation mix. And that's not good for us.

The fact is, Sunderland are in free-fall at the moment. We've lost five of our last seven home games, and can't remember what the word 'goal' even means. A few weeks ago, Myrtle wrote that the teams below us can't all catch us up, and I agreed. There were simply too many of them. But that's not the case any more. If Fulham beat Blackpool and we lose at Eastlands tomorrow, we will be twelfth, i.e. there will be just six teams and six points between us and relegation! And a lot of them showed what they can do yesterday - Wigan v 'Spurs, Birmingham v Bolton, Villa at Everton, Blackburn at Arsenal and West Brom v Liverpool. Even one of those who lost - West Ham - were 2-0 up on Man. U. at one stage. O.k., they won't do that every week. But they can do it, and we can't. It doesn't matter if you're playing Barcelona or Blyth Spartans, you cannot win a game without scoring a goal - it's not rocket science, is it?

I really, really don't like that fixture list. If we don't do something about this goal drought soon - and very soon! - six of those clubs CAN catch us up the way it's stacked! The way we're playing, I frankly will be surprised if we don't end this season in the bottom six. The worst of it is, I hope it's only the bottom six. Hope I'm wrong, but our performances since February don't suggest I am.

The dream's over, I'm afraid.
 
Lots of good points above and I sort of agree with most, still have the dream and still think we will end top 10 but no longer sure what that dream is based on. The games ahead worry me because we are never comfortable when playing the so called lesser clubs and need to get used to the fact they are no longer lesser.
Putting all of the above together my gut feeling says its not skill, ability, quality, injuries any longer that we miss, its passion and desire. Thats what those lesser players in those lesser teams are showing week in week out. Its what Ghana showed against England, question is have we got it?
 
cyprussydsafc said:
Lots of good points above and I sort of agree with most, still have the dream and still think we will end top 10 but no longer sure what that dream is based on. The games ahead worry me because we are never comfortable when playing the so called lesser clubs and need to get used to the fact they are no longer lesser.
Putting all of the above together my gut feeling says its not skill, ability, quality, injuries any longer that we miss, its passion and desire. Thats what those lesser players in those lesser teams are showing week in week out. Its what Ghana showed against England, question is have we got it?
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Agree mate but we have that passion & desire back in the form of Cattermole, i fully expect him to drive us on to the end of the season, especially at home which is where the majority of our remaining points will come from.
 
Catts will get booked inside 10 minutes which means SB either takes him off at half time or waits to see if he gets sent off again, that is why he has lost his bite and why we are getting overrun in the middle. SB needs to look at other options in the centre young Jordan is not a CM so put him where he can do some damage (figuratively speaking) on the RW.
 
After todays game, 3 of the next 4 games are at home against teams we would normally expect to get no worse than a draw.

I reckon we will win at least one of them and draw another, which would give us 42 points (not including the 3 we'll get today).

I genuinely cannot see us going down with 42points.

Though if we do lose today and get beat in the 1st of those 3 home games - we will be in the scrap at the bottom.


Personally - I reckon we will win 3 and draw 1 of our home games, and win 1 and draw 1 of our away games = 52 points and 7th-9th and top NE Club for the third year in a row.

Lol Bart
 
mackemwelder said:
Agree mate but we have that passion & desire back in the form of Cattermole, i fully expect him to drive us on to the end of the season, especially at home which is where the majority of our remaining points will come from.
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we have the passion back in catts, but thats not good enough, we need to see some passion in more players, no doubting we have some skillful players but we seem to have lost the desire and heads drop easy.

todays game should be easy to get up for, in a game wer'e expected to lose they should be all out to prove everyone wrong,
but what about the remaining games, when we face battling teams, who's gonna stand up and be counted and show pride to wear the red and white?

be nice to see jordan getting stuck in and not sherk out of tackles, but we need some bottle out there.
we have the players to win a lot of the remaining games, now they have to step up and show us what safc means to them.
im even prepared to eat my words on muntari if he justs has a go

they should feel priveledged to wear the red and white, and the whole worlds watching them
 
Hear what your saying Commachio but from what i've seen when Catts is playing and leading the team like he does, he tends to get a response form the rest of the players. Only problem is he only does it in short bursts.
 
With welder here, Catts does gee up the lads and gets a response but as said only in fits and bursts. When he picks up his inevitable first yellow he tries to calm it right down to his credit but this does affect the lads. Again it's nothing against Catts some of the bookings he gets are for reputation only but, SB needs to try something different with him. I'm not sure what maybe push him further up the pitch as he does have a good shot on him (due a goal as well) that would mean having Muntari cover at the back which may give him the kick up the backside to get going as well.
 
Catts is absolutely the man that keeps the lads going, drives us on, keeps heads up and demands response on the pitch, that's why he's captain.

Usually if Catts is out Turner takes the armband, as he's second in line, vocal, tough, fearless and committed, he'll be back soon as well.

I can't fancy us today, and i'm an eternal optimst, but go down? Are you people actually insane?

We'll win at least 3 of our remaining games, if we go down, i will buy you all a car.
 
BruceysBeak said:
Catts is absolutely the man that keeps the lads going, drives us on, keeps heads up and demands response on the pitch, that's why he's captain.

Usually if Catts is out Turner takes the armband, as he's second in line, vocal, tough, fearless and committed, he'll be back soon as well.

I can't fancy us today, and i'm an eternal optimst, but go down? Are you people actually insane?

We'll win at least 3 of our remaining games, if we go down, i will buy you all a car.
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I was one of the idiots saying we will go down but if we do can I have an Aston Martin DB9s Please?
 
master-simpson said:
After todays game, 3 of the next 4 games are at home against teams we would normally expect to get no worse than a draw.

I reckon we will win at least one of them and draw another, which would give us 42 points (not including the 3 we'll get today).

I genuinely cannot see us going down with 42points.

Though if we do lose today and get beat in the 1st of those 3 home games - we will be in the scrap at the bottom.


Personally - I reckon we will win 3 and draw 1 of our home games, and win 1 and draw 1 of our away games = 52 points and 7th-9th and top NE Club for the third year in a row.

Lol Bart
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Well I hope you're right. But, with respect, may I ask how you see us winning a game without scoring a goal? And, if you see us scoring a goal, may I ask which member of the opposition you see scoring an own-goal for us? Because you can count on one thing - without Darren Bent, Sunderland will not score goals. You don't have to like that - just look at the last month's score-sheets.
 
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