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RTG Sunderland Message Boards
I'd been looking forward to yesterday. My local match. I think I actually prefer Wigan away. At least I've seen us win there - twice!
Yesterday's capitulation was absolutely shambolic from start to finish. As soon as they lobbed The Hoff for the first one I thought, "Ah shit, here we go".
Many of their goals were training ground tap-ins. I got to see Victoria Plumbing score a magnificent diving header into his own net and thought, that'll do me.
I never normally leave even a fraction earlier than the whistle, but I've paid my money, I can leave when I want. Frankly, I'd seen enough at half time, but I was optimistic for a magnificent turnaround in the 2nd half
I have no idea what was said at half time. Whatever it was, either they weren't listening or it didn't work.
As you can imagine, there were a lot of issues yesterday, but I've tried to narrow it down to 3.
1. We have no leader on the pitch.
There is no talismanic player or Captain leading from the front (not necessarily a striker - figure of speech). I saw no encouragement of each other or a drive to be better. They were a team of individuals.
2. No muscle. We got bullied off the ball far too easily. It's all well and good bringing in whippy little things from Premier League clubs or whatever, but surely by now we've realised that in this league you need some cloggers. We need someone who can shrug off a challenge and keep the ball, not be knocked off it. The amount of times fans near me complained for a foul when it was, in the main, a test of strength which we failed. That said there were also numerous fouls which the ref also spectacularly failed to see. Some of the lines calls were also bizarre, but that's the standard we're at. We need to play it to our advantage.
Our lot need to bulk up a bit and fight for the ball. There were some instance. I think Roberts had a great little run towards the end, but it fizzled out. It was a flash of skill in an otherwise dreadful game.
3. Only play out from the back if you're actually good at it. We spent more time going backwards than we did forwards yesterday. I'm no fan of "hoof ball", but when we couldn't play it through their midfield, something tactically has to change.
Problem of hoofing it is, who is there to get it? Only Rosco, who couldn't have been more isolated if they tried to pass it to him at the top of Winter Hill.
That's my first match I've been able to get to since Wigan away in September. I was expecting a bit of an improvement, but what I saw was a complete and total collapse.
In a rare event, I'm actually managing 2 games in 2 weeks. I'll be at the SoL for the first time in 6 years I think.
I can't wait to get back and I only hope the lads learn from this and come out swinging against Donny. They need to. If they don't, I can see the fans turning very, quickly.
I won't go into the crowd bother. I've said a bit on other threads.