With 14 games to go, where can we finish this season? I'e got us down for 19 points target and a 48 point haul this season, which imo will give us a good top 10 finish. We have a defensive stubborness that makes us difficult to break down and now we have another striking option to give us more threat. We need to get Catts back fit and Rose and Cuellar and a full strength squad will be a strong unit imo. 4 wins 7 draws 4 defeats Reading V Sunderland 3 Sunderland V Arsenal 1 West Brom V Sunderland 1 Sunderland V Fulham 3 QPR V Sunderland 1 Sunderland V Norwich 3 Sunderland V Man Utd 0 Chelsea V Sunderland 0 Newcastle V Sunderland 1 Sunderland V Everton 1 Aston Villa V Sunderland 1 Sunderland V Stoke 1 Sunderland V Southampton 3 Tottenham V Sunderland 0 Its only a guessing game of course but I've tried to be realistic and if we can start with 3 tomorrow against a Reading team that has riden its luck a bit in the last 3 or 4 games, then 32 points by 5pm tomorrow will be very welcome.
48 points is a top ten finish? Crickey! Slender margins between top ten and relegation then Yeah I wouldn't disagree with too many of your predictions. Maybe tomorrow and WBA are a bit optimistic IMO
Reading cant keep scoring 2 goals in the last 2 mins of games and I think we will hit them on the break tomorrow and win. WBA will be effected by this Odemwinge affair and a split camp. They have not been as powerful in the last few weeks and they havent strengthened this window.
I think we will hit 50 points at least. 21 from 42 is possible with a decent run. 6 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses. Probable losses to Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton & Spurs. All other games it should be poss to accumulate a good few points
Given a run with a settled team and bed the new guys in gradually and I see a more than happy finish. The only fairy dust I want this season is a Graham hat-trick at Newcastle.
Reading V Sunderland 3 Sunderland V Arsenal 0 West Brom V Sunderland 3 Sunderland V Fulham 1 QPR V Sunderland 0 Sunderland V Norwich 3 Sunderland V Man Utd 1 Chelsea V Sunderland 0 Newcastle V Sunderland 0 Sunderland V Everton 3 Aston Villa V Sunderland 3 Sunderland V Stoke 3 Sunderland V Southampton 1 Tottenham V Sunderland 0 I've factored in some shock results and the obligatory derby loss 21 points, 50 overall, about 9th place, bearing in mind around 53 points has historically claimed 8th place. Given your fixtures you've actually got a good platform
still think the squad is still a bit weak, cannot wait till the summer to see who we get I think we will finish 11-13
12th - 15th for me. Remember last season when we had nowt to play for? I'm worried the same may happen and MON is known for his teams falling away at the end and having a **** April.
Football has an odd way of finding a way to kick you. Last season, without a genuine goalscorer in their side, everyone was insistent that Sunderland needed a top striker who could be a reliable source of regular goals. This season, Steven Fletcher has been every inch that man, yet the criticisms have turned to the Black Cats being too reliant on the Scotsman. Clearly, it is an assertion with which Martin O’Neill agrees, and he went out and made Swansea’s Danny Graham a deadline day addition to his squad to prove it. Initially it seemed that Graham could have been targeted to provide some depth to Sunderland’s striker ranks and some proven and reliable cover for Fletcher, but O’Neill seems to have dispelled that suggestion. “I think Danny can fit in and score a few goals for us,” the Northern Irishman told the official website after the deal was completed. “We want to be less reliant on Steven Fletcher scoring the goals. I think Danny will alleviate the load; that’s my expectation and I think he feels the same. “I’ve got a fairly decent idea in my head about how we’ll use Danny,” he insisted. “As the players get to know him and he gets to know them, there’ll be a number of formations we’ll be able to use.” Talking up a new signing can always be expected to some degree, but those very much appear to be the words of a man with a plan. The old chestnut of 4-4-2 is an option, of course. It always is, despite being something of a relic in the modern game. I am not sure that is the answer O’Neill will seek to how best utilize Fletcher and Graham in the same team, however, and I don’t say that out of any doubts over the players’ potential to form a traditional strike partnership. Where the doubts arrive are over the creative attacking players at O’Neill’s disposal. For starters, for all Adam Johnson’s natural ability, there must be considerable questions over his suitability to play on either side of a flat midfield four. In days gone by he would have been fine, but is he really equipped to go chasing a modern marauding full back around the pitch for 90 minutes? Would you even want him to? There are far better uses for his talent. Stephane Sessegnon provides an even more perplexing puzzle for, well, just about anyone. The Benin international is clearly a richly talented attacking player who is capable of hurting just about anyone on his day. The opposition’s half is the only place you would want to see him, though. He has never shown any kind of inclination whatsoever that he is willing to do the muckier side of the game, and that is something he would have to do whilst occupying a wide position in a 4-4-2. So with Sessegnon and Johnson looking like they would not be able to adapt to a system that includes a traditional front-two, I would suggest that the answer could well lie in tweaking Steven Fletcher’s role in Sunderland’s current 4-2-3-1 system and dropping him a little deeper to operate just behind a lone striker. That may sound crazy to some. After all, why tweak something that clearly works just to accommodate something that might not? It’s a fair question, but I don’t see it as accommodating anything. Quite the contrary. I think it could also actually enhance Fletcher’s contribution. After his arrival in the summer, the former Wolves man has gone on to comprehensively dispel any reputation he might have had for being a target man kind of forward. He is tall and thrives on crosses, but he has proven himself to be a touch and movement player. He can gather a ball and distribute it to the flanks incredibly well, and his chances tend to come from guile and the timing of his runs more than any physical attribute like pace or strength. Fletcher is obviously never going to be what would be regarded as a classic number ten. He isn’t going to ghost pass people and produce some creative genius to unlock a defence, but there is more than one way to skin a cat. He certainly has the intelligence and decision-making to succeed in a slightly deeper role. It would allow him to pick up the ball under less pressure and able to turn much more easily rather than being asked to battle it out with defenders with his back to goal for scraps. It would also allow him the luxury of ghosting into the box late with centre backs preoccupied and being allowed to finish under less pressure, so I am not too sure his goal output would necessarily suffer. Ultimately, only O’Neill himself knows how he plans on utilizing both strikers, but perhaps he dropped a major clue by saying: “I saw Graham from afar last season when he played very well in a system which seemed to suit him”. If he intends to replicate the same system, then it would suggest the use of two players to play either side of him who carry the ball and one behind him who can take advantage of the space that front three open up in the penalty box. At Swansea, those players were Scott Sinclair, Lloyd Dyer, and Gylfi Sigurdsson (and in the early part of this season, Michu). There is no reason in the world why they can’t be Stephane Sessegnon, Adam Johnson, and Steven Fletcher at Sunderland.
I'm sure all Graham wants now is a shirt, a number and a chance to play. I'd make him the focal point of the attack with Fletcher off him. Fletcher is a terrific footballer and would play the sessegnon role far better and far more deadly in front of goal. With Johnson on the left, Larsson on the right and Sessegnon and Cattermole/NDiaye in the middle we will have a decent attacking set up. Get Rose in and JOS alongside anyone and our defence is solid. If none of that works, we then have our golden nugget in goal. The MIG. Add another 2 or 3 key signings in the summer and we will see the Martin O' Neill plan unfold for real.
i hope he goes with (in due course) Mig Gards, Jos, Titi/Mangane, Rose N'Diaye Catts Sess Fletch AJ Danny given our season hasn't even really started i hope we can sustain a high level of footie til the end of season and finish very strongly
