I intimated in the preview yesterday, that I have a lot of time for Sunderland as a club, but I saw nothing to suggest that the team are at best nothing more than relegation candidates.
Which is what makes today’s result so annoying.
We had around 62% possession and created lots of chances, but were nowhere near as clinical as we need to be.
Indeed, I thought we should easily have had at least three goals in the first half alone and a more clinical team would have had five or six, overall, no problem.
So if I think Sunderland are going to seriously struggle this season, where does that leave us?
Well, Grealish and Traore were massively missed today and the fact that we’ve got them to come back is encouraging, so I’m not unduly worried.
If they’d played today, I suspect we’d have tonked Sunderland, as Hutton was given acres of space down the right, although I felt he never really took advantage of it. His passes weren’t incisive enough and I don’t remember him really taking players on.
Imagine Traore in the same situation and I could easily see us having scored at least another two today, probably of his own making, as Sunderland’s defence is as poor as it gets, I reckon.
That said, it’s not as though I thought Hutton had a bad game really. It just could have been better.
Which is a theme that runs through my assessment of the whole side really.
There are points to complain about though.
First was what I thought was very poor positioning by Guzan for the free kick.
I know it’s standard practice by goalkeepers to stand right on one side of the goal, but I’ve never seen the sense in it and surely a slightly more central position makes sense, as at least you have a chance of getting to the opposite post?
Then again, it was a peach of a free kick. But it just seems to me that Guzan seems prone to conceding from them.
He was pretty blameless for the second goal and the only other Sunderland chance I recall, was easily knocked over the top.
That second goal, which leads me onto the second complaint.
Just as I said in the preview, our defence still has me worried.
We always look like conceding and so it proved again, with us looking awful in about the only time they were really needed.
Clark went for the ball and made a mess of it, but even if Lens hadn’t taken the shot, they had a player on the back post in yards of room.
It just looked incredibly poor to me.
Of course, you might say we’re always likely to concede in this way with the way we play, but I just find it worrying and I certainly don’t think we’ll be able to rely on our defence when we play the better sides.
Other than those points, there’s not a lot to complain about, as the team performed okay and just as last week, I find it difficult to really find fault with anyone in particular, although your views of course will probably differ.
Sanchez played well, although he was still sloppy at times.
Gana was industrious and got stuck in.
Amavi went forward well, but also looked iffy in defence at times.
Richards looked solid overall and should have scored when it seemed more difficult to miss, although I’d take the argument that the ball was behind him.
Gestede maybe could have done better, but no overall complaints, as he doesn’t look up to speed yet.
Gil looked fairly good, although I suspect Sherwood won’t be happy with what seemed like a dive in the box.
Bacuna being taken off was the right call today, in my opinion. He got involved in the first half, but things just weren’t happening for him.
And then we come to Sinclair who totally justified himself in replacing the ill/dropped Gabby.
Would Gabby have got that second goal today? My money says not a chance.
And there’s the theme. We did okay, but not well enough against a side that we should have beaten easily.
Anyone I’ve not mentioned, well, they were neither good or bad in any noticeable way.
I find myself wondering how massive those two points might prove at the end of the season, even though I’m still hopeful that we won’t be needing them.
But we really need to start taking our chances much better than we currently are.
Which is why I still think Sherwood is, or ought to be, after a goalscorer (Austin, anyone?).
Repeating myself I know but I just do not rate Lescott at all, we have Senderos who is just as good, or bad and is 2 years younger.
We’ve officially ended our interest in Adebayor according to Talk Sport, phew!
I’d love to see another bid for Gayle go in, but Palace have sold Murray to Bournemouth so doubt they would want to lose 2 strikers in 1 day!
Agree he’s so error prone like Vlaar one clown for another
He imo was our final possible link forget Gayle LERNER wouldn’t cough a sufficient amount up
Why are my replies not landing where they should????this reply is for Domingo
i agree with you , Talksport reporting Norwich have offered £8m for Gayle and we are not going to beat that so its looking likely we will not be getting a new striker in.
its looking like sherwood had about £10m plus what he could raise through outgoing transfers.
have to say i think tim has done well with what he had to spend . most of his signings look pretty good . just a pity we could not get shot of n’zogbia.
Is Gayle any good
dont think he is worth £8m , scored a fair few in the lower leagues but not enough in the premier league.
Well if Lescott is the last deal this window I find I’m still quite happy. We’ve had 12 new men in and a load of deadwood chopped off. I think it’s quite brave of Tim to basically create a new team, just hope it comes off.
Still been the most exciting window for yonks
UTV
We have 7 players on international duty next week, you just watch the injuries roll in, think we will have one more man to come in the next hour. A forward.
MATE a good percentage of our injuries seem to occur on the training field & not in actual game time,so it’s either our training regime has question marks or the playing surfaces at BH are well dodgy but yes I expect someones going to get nobbled on International duty.
Berbatov deal scratched over wage demands and confirmed we are no longer interested in Adebayor. Phew – doubly whammy avoided. If Norwich have offered £8m for Gayle then that’s stupid.
LOL I see berahinos made his feelings known on Twitter.SSN
IV a lot of respect for the way WBA handled this just like odemwhinger they won’t be bullied. Imagine Lerner doing that not a chance. Also Everton stood firm re Stones
agreed OOHAH fair play to WBA never thought id say that.Also levy is a total scum bucket cannot bare the man tight fisted B…..d trying to unsettle the player which he now has done but i am with WBA on this they stood there ground. Also fair play to Everton on the Stones affair
Agree Muzzvill Levy is a nightmare Spurs team looks crap now except for Kane and he’s struggling. So glad WBA and Everton stood up to them hope Letner takes a leaf out their book
Ilori to the villa back on . £1m loan fee according to a few websites ?
it seems paperwork was in before 6pm so we have until 8pm to finish this deal. also word is there is a option to buy in the deal so we can sign him permanently if he does well.
liverpool fans not happy
Is he any good never seen him play
he has not played a premier game for liverpool and was loaned out to granada then bordeaux . he has played 10 times for portugal u21. ( wonderful thing wikipedia )
seems he is highly regarded and has decent pace for a centerback and at 22 could be top defender . he turned down sunderland to come to us on loan. liverpool paid £7m for him so im hoping he does well if this deal goes through .
Sounds promising but Liverpool havnt got great CHs so why didn’t they keep him
Rodger’s is stupid, that’s why. He’s good, especially as back up, replacing Baker. Gives us added depth when someone gets injured as we know they will.
Fair enough il bow to ur superior knowledge as never seen him play sounds useful.
Agree with Andrew – it looks to me as if Rodgers doesn’t have much of a clue about transfers in general [-although I have read suggestions that he’s not actually had the final say about many of them in the last two seasons…]
Watched him in Spain a few times and he looks good, would love to sign him permanently. Think he’ll be better than Okore at least.
Rodgers doesn’t have the final say but he has a strong say in who is signed.
I think he turned down Sunderland as its to cold. Let hope we don’t play them in January
the one bit if good news from this window is united now know what its like to have a player tapped up and left unsettled
Disagree de gea will have to play well for them to get into euros
It’ll be interesting to see how deGea,Berahino,Stones, etc will fare between now and the next window; don’t believe their own clubs’ fans will be too impressed and I can imagine each of them needing time to settle back into the teams – if they get picked soon or at all.
Stones won’t have a hard time getting back into the team, the fans still like him and he still likes the club, but Chelsea came calling, etc.
Berahino hinted he won’t play again and I can’t see De Gea playing again either. If he does, then he will probably be professional about it but he’ll be pissed he didn’t get the move.
Berahino went public with a stupid tweet that even made the local TV news here this evening; he’s going to have to eat an awful lot of humble pie and grovell to his chairman if he wants to play in the next few weeks… [and Peace is known to be quite bloody-minded and stubborn when someone gets the wrong side of him]!
He’s an idiot Spurs won’t want him now either. He will be left in no mans land like the whinger
He doesn’t have a lot of competition for the Euros for Spain though. Reina’s well past it, Casillas, Valdes, Lopez are all 33+. Unless Kiko Casilla comes good, De Gea has 1st choice down easy.