“If the performance was poor from minute one, I’d have accepted that as a potential criticism, but we were at it on Saturday."

[phillips10]

Wey it literally was like. Managed a single shot in League 1 in what was a miserable first half from both sides. Did anything happen?

It was one of the worst performances you’ve ever seen? Really?

I was at Ipswich and it was nowhere near as bad as that like.

 

[robcal]

When do we ever create chances anyway? Regardless of whether it comes to a shot or not?

You're missing the point. I'm saying that just using shots on target isn't everything when it comes to evaluating a team's performance. It's just being used as a stick to hit people with. Reminds me of when we lost to the mags on corners according to Lee Ryder...

 

[PtangYang kiperbang]

The reason he never learns or does anything about any of our glaringly obvious short-comings, is that he is up to his neck in denial. And I don’t mean he’s gone wading in Egypt.

 

[Bacchus]

That first half was one of the worst 45 minutes of football I've watched in the flesh. Christ, if that's us 'at it' then fold the club.

Nah, I can't have that, there was a game in Ipswich!!

 

[chopsfc007]

and if he said how shite we were people would moan hes like moyes

 

[wigwams]

We were playing well enough up till they scored though. Fairly even game knocking it about quite well imo. Very toothless mind and I don't agree at all with his defensive set up. Their 1st wasn't a free kick and was very poor from the keeper too. Neither team deserved up till that point. We didn't really do much at all to look like we were getting back into. The last half an hour was as shambolic and ill disciplined as I can remember for a long time.

 

[chuckyroll]

and if he said how shite we were people would moan hes like moyes

Hes definitely on a par

 

[The Cabbage]

I'm sure something was said just before he came here about how he encouraged St Mirren to shoot at the earliest opportunity. Even against Wimbledon in the first half, despite all of our possession the only chance we had came from a mistake their centre back made. Fortunately we scored.

Yeah, I honestly don’t know why things are different here. He came to the club with an ethos that said, we’re gonna go all out to create chances and it will occasionally mean we get a drubbing. At Safc it’s been the complete opposite. If I put my tin hat on a little bit, it suggests that he has been shafted with the players who’ve been brought in by the club and feels this turgid grind is the only way that he can eke out the points needed to go up.

 

[naughtynose]

I'm beginning to really dislike the fella tbh.

 

[Bacchus]

You're missing the point. I'm saying that just using shots on target isn't everything when it comes to evaluating a team's performance. It's just being used as a stick to hit people with. Reminds me of when we lost to the mags on corners according to Lee Ryder...

Well said marra

 

[zebediah]

First half I thought we were very unlucky to be 1-0 down.

What worried me later is realising we created virtually nowt, even when we're playing really well we'll create around 3 good chance tops.
When we're playing bad we'll create maybe 1.
Add the inability to keep a clean sheet and you see why the play-offs loom for us as it stands.

 

[bernardbresslaw]

I can't agree with that. Ipswich was a horrendous performance. Saturday was average at worst.

Yep Ipswich was much worse for me anarl. Horrific.

 

[thecloughywobble]

I hoyed this up on Hank's daily thread two days agan:

Here are some stray thoughts, following my (re-)reading of "Luck" by the former England cricketer, Ed Smith & various pieces in the Racing Post (notably by Kevin Pullein). I stress that they do not apply expressly (if at arl) to yistada's debacle which (as others - notably @viccarlton & @Horley Chorley - hev arlriddy said) is best forgotten.

Every sport has an element of chance. A lucky basket (!) in basketball is worth ~ a fortieth of the team's likely total score. A lucky point in tennis is worth ~ a hundredth of all the total number of points won by the victor.

Football is at the opposite end of the spectrum, a goal having the highest value of any sporting currency. This means that luck is a far greater force in football than in other sports. As a rule of thumb, the higher the number in a sport's scoreline, the higher the probability the score was determined by ability than luck, and vice-versa. That also goes some way to explaining why it's so difficult to predict the outcome of football matches (and, possibly, why we love it so much?!) because the relative paucity of goals provides an endless supply of upsets. The fewer the goals (or points) the greater the uncertainty, and the greater the uncertainty, the more justified hope there is for underdogs & outsiders. That is quite possibly why it is the most popular game in the world.

Picture a cartoon depicting two sports commentators. One says: "A weighted random number generator just produced a new batch of numbers." The other replies: "Let's use them to build narratives!"

We arl come up with other explanations for things that really just happened by chance. The other explanations sound better, but they are wrang.

Much in football depends on which shots gan in. There is little rhyme or reason to which ones do. Goals in football are a randomly distributed function of attempts. Dull, but true.

We move on, hopefully with renewed vigour & mare than our fair share of luck!

 

[Deleted member 43563]

Very poor performance but the "we have to move on "bit is correct. Managers and players can't dwell on it

 

[SAFC Wilks]

We were poor.

2 week break from that game until our next league game. No use pissing our pants over it. Get the players mindset on Accrington away as opposed to worrying about that Peterborough performance.

 

[Deleted User 18963]

Load of shite. No intensity, press or attempt to get in forward positions through actual build up play. Talking out of his arse. Needs to step it up.

 

[Deleted member 13050]

Fair or absolute nonsense? Strange to be 'at it' and have 1 shot on target.

"sometimes you have days where it hinges on key moments and that’s what happened"

I think people have to accept that interviews by people involved with football clubs are there to provide sound bites and quotes for the media and won’t necessarily reflect what the person saying actually thinks.

I can't agree with that. Ipswich was a horrendous performance. Saturday was average at worst.

I thought Saturday was worse because people literally chucked the towel in.

 

[The Cabbage]

You're missing the point. I'm saying that just using shots on target isn't everything when it comes to evaluating a team's performance. It's just being used as a stick to hit people with. Reminds me of when we lost to the mags on corners according to Lee Ryder...

Shots on target aren’t the be all and end all but do tell us something. Shot volume does too. Better, more dominant teams have more shots. Scoring high on xG is important also as it’s a measure of chance quality. When Sunderland score poorly on all of these measures, it all adds up to a real problem - and our inability (or unwillingness) to do something about it since it became obvious last autumn, is the reason we failed last year - and will probably do the same this season.

 

[Black Cat Gypsy]

The first 10mins were even and then Peterborough got a foot hold on the game and looked the most likely to create something. After their it was all one way traffic. Peterborough won comfortably. It was all too easy for them.

 

[Botchie]

Yeah, I honestly don’t know why things are different here. He came to the club with an ethos that said, we’re gonna go all out to create chances and it will occasionally mean we get a drubbing. At Safc it’s been the complete opposite. If I put my tin hat on a little bit, it suggests that he has been shafted with the players who’ve been brought in by the club and feels this turgid grind is the only way that he can eke out the points needed to go up.

I've been saying this since the end of the January window. A lot of managers would have been kicking the chairman's door in, or playing the game using the press. His naivety, on and off the pitch, could end up being his downfall.