Just my opinion and I'm no expert but bear with me and let me start with Man City yesterday in my reasoning in why all in the title are important to us. As well as we played yesterday I would suggest City played badly, below par, just off the boil by their standards, why, pressure. As good as Everton played on Tuesday we played badly, by our standards, same reason, pressure. The ability to handle pressure the way Man U can takes years to acquire and looking back, our journey started when Quinn came in and appointed Keane. In Keane we had a man who knew how to handle pressure, what he proved not to have was the ability to handle players. It was Keane who brought the pictures of Sunderland legends to the walls of the academy and dressing rooms, that gave new players a sense of our history and size. Keane brought in a raft of players who had a winning mentality, sadly many did not have the quality long term. What Keane lacked Bruce had, loads of management experience and his Man U background also gave him that ability to handle pressure. Bruce lifted the quality of players and love him or hate him it was Bruce who laid the foundations that took us from yo-yo club to established premier club. Bruce's downfall was something he could do little about, ability, he had reached the pinnacle of his and all the good work was slowly unravelling because panic set in, it was time for him to go. Whoever was our first choice, many it was MON, mine was Hughes, others it was Moyes, whoever it was we must now all agree that MON was the right choice and in him we see the blocks going in that will instil that ability to handle pressure. City showed us that its not all about how much we spend and the quality we have, important as they are, its that ability to handle pressure. That brings me to Tuesday night and why I understand the anger but suggest its anger we need to control, we the fans are also on that learning curve. Many said those words on Tuesday night, same old Sunderland, but are we? The reaction of MON was the reaction of a man who can handle pressure and was annoyed with himself for not being able to get his players to. The performance yesterday was not same old Sunderland, it was a performance of a team that had been managed since Tuesday in how to respond, how to move on, how to get back on track, how to be winners. We Sunderland fans are used to many Tuesdays with the odd yesterday thrown in, we need to adapt to may yesterdays with the odd Tuesday thrown in. It will take time and the introduction of new players, not a major rebuild but a slow evolving growth but in a few short months MON has convinced me that he is the final piece in the jigsaw that can take us on to that mystical next level. Now I may be wrong in every bit of what I have just written but its why I wont call Quinn, Keane or Bruce and why Tuesday, though disappointing was not a disaster, just one more step in the learning curve. Our next one takes place next Saturday, I have a good feeling that it could be an enjoyable one.
I agree Syd. In each manager since Quinn we have added something that every managers needs, but we started out with Keane who lacked experience but had the winning mentality. Every manager since we have added something else to that successful managerial checklist until we ended up with Sir Marty. It's the natural progression, and tbh when Drumaville took over we were never going to appoint Marty or Van Gaal or Hiddink. We started at the bottom and worked our way up. That being said, with regards to pressure - we as fans need to learn to cope with it aswell... ie not trying to put pressure on the players through chants/songs/banners etc if we do have a repeat of Tuesday. We need to control our expectations and not give in to the pressure of them. If fans can do this, and the players can do it aswell, why can't we be get to a point where we can be successful as Man U/Arsenal? Not immediately, but in time.
Syd that was quite an insightful post for a young'n. You have hidden depths. Summed up our recent history very well - and I hope that the SAFC curve continues onwards and upwards as you predict. Happy days KTF
Like you say syd being Sunderland fans we should expect days like Tuesday and yesterday no matter who the manager or players are we always have a good game somewhere deep inside the club. As for pressure on us fans that is all MONs fault he has built our expectations up to be able to beat a team like Everton and, not play like a bunch of no hopers. Everton got performance of the week for beating us on Tuesday and, while I thought they were poor we were even worse and the fact that beating us in what I thought was a crap game (no doubt Everton fans will disagree) shows how far we have come since that man left. For me Keane should have sorted his differences out with whoever his argument was (Short I heard) and stayed for at least another year and, we would have been a much better team when Bruce took over. Bruce was never going to be the manager we wanted his track record showed that (sackings, relegations and just binning it) but, he did bring the odd gem into the team. As for MON like you I wanted Hughes as I thought MON would have been out of the game far too long to make any sort of difference to where we were heading, back into the fizzy pop league. It's nice to be wrong now and again I suppose and MON has worked wonders with basically the same team that were taking us down a few short months ago. City were not off par mate I'd rather credit our lads for getting another point from them in what is a very tough place to go and win. To be honest I was gutted that we let them off the hook after being 3-1 up but, at the same time happy that we played so well.
I give our team immense credit Talc for yesterday, to a man they not only fought but showed real quality, however, I do believe the pressure on City and lack of it on us was a factor. When I say City were below par it was pressure and nerves that took them there, IMO. It's what makes you take that extra second to think rather than just flow. City need to learn how to handle it at their level and us at ours. It;s that pressure that I believe will see us win on Saturday, the spuds have it and our boys will want to give some pay back at home to us.
My opinion for what its worth is that we just didnt allow city to play to their full potential, in the same vein Everton did the same to us midweek. Why put a negative slant on what was a very good all round team performance Syd, shame on you.
Good post Syd although I feel that we ought not to forget Ricky Spragia for his efforts when we had another sinking ship post Keane. Not many people appear to hand him the credit he fully deserves IMO. Your post also highlights why it is very important to have a manager that is able to handle pressure. It's no coincidence that a team playing poor football often resonate the general demeanor of a nervous manager who doesn't know how to rise above or conceal his inner stress.
Yep both Keane and Bruce are no longer here because they ran out of steam but both did play their part, and Ricky
