|
Sunderland 0 - West Bromwich Albion 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 -
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. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All text, pictures and graphics are copyright of BOING unless otherwise stated For details regarding your personal information, please read our Privacy Policy |