Sunderland 0 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Date: Saturday 21st February 2015 
Competition: Barclays Premier League
Sunderland:
5.6
WBA:
5.3
Foster 6.1, Dawson 5.8, McAuley 6.1, Lescott 5.9, Brunt 5.8, Morrison 5.8 (Baird, 73 4.7), Fletcher 5.2, Yacob 5.9, Gardner 5.8 (McManaman, 87 4.7), Ideye 5.5, Berahino 5.3
Unused subs: Myhill, Wisdom, Olsson, Mulumbu, Sessegnon
Manager: Tony Pulis 5.3
Referee: Mike Jones (Chester) 5.5
Attendance: 40,943   Home Fans 5.8   Away Fans 6.0

Brendan Clegg:

Not a lot to report on because nothing really happened.

Very disappointed that the team that was so good against West Ham was changed. It made us weaker.

On the face of it a point away from home is always a good result but it was the absolute maximum we played for. And Sunderland were there for the taking - like Burnley one of our remaining 'winnable' games. I hope we don't come to regret these lost 4 points.

We sat deep, we had not Sess or Macca to cause them problems on the break, Saido was done from behind disgracefully by Cattermole early on and was immobile and ineffective from then on, leaving Ideye totally isolated.

We offered pretty much zilch going forward and Yacob and Fletcher in the centre surrounded ground and possession to keep it tight. Gone was the aggressive high press and high tempo from West Ham and Swansea. Is this an away thing? Should fans not bother traveling to away games anymore if our sole objective is to destroy the game and draw nil-nil. It costs a lot for that - we've done the same for the last 3 games and got 3 points. If we'd gone for it in all 3 games or at least Burnley and today would we be worse or better off?

Why didn't we at least go for it a bit - keep the same team who offered up our best performance in years? Or would we only do that if we conceded? Subbing Morrison who was playing on the wing (and must have had a knock surely?) for Baird (Baird!) when we had Sess, McManaman and Mulumbu on the bench said everything.

Thou shall not question Tony Putin.

Not even worth rating individual players so in general -

  • Foster was solid enough but had little to do.
  • The back 4 did very well aerially and overall although we had a couple of lucky escapes.
  • In midfield Mozza and Gardner put lots of effort in but seemed to be pressing on their own so often wasted energy. Yacob was solid and tackled well. Fletcher showed his quality at times but only really when the ball was within a few feet of him and flitted badly in and out of the game. For all his qualities I maintain Morrison is a much better, quicker,fitter and direct option here.
  • Up front Saido started brightly but was clearly injured and should really have been taken off and we just ended up with Ideye on his own no support, nobody up pressing with him and with Brown and O'Shea comfortably exposing his limited touch and reading of the ball by pushing up tight on him and taking the ball off him for most of the game. That's possibly a bit harsh but they knew he had to try and hold it up to wait for support rather than turn and run at them so they played to that aggressively.

Overall we were not poor - we defended well and worked hard but just showed no ambition for anything other than a nil-nil and gave Sunderland far more respect than they deserved.

Puts a bit of pressure on the upcoming next couple of games which will not be easy. I still think we need 3 wins (or 9 points), possibly in the next 8 games with our run-in. That said, as with the Burnley game if we play like that and our opponents cant beat us you wouldn't expect them to finish above us.