BFTG - Sunderland (H)

[YorkshireRoyal99]

A few things;

I have said this several times now, Joao is not a target man. He is not strong enough in the air, if thats the ball we are going to play as an out ball for the rest off the season then god help us. Batth wont have much easier game than last night.

Tom Ince was chasing and pressing by himself last night first half - either we do it as 4s and 5s or not at all, If he is the only one pressing that makes it so much easier to pass around him to create 2 on 1s across the team. He can turn around and shout and scream at everyone but ultimately it is him that is doing more harm. Add in Joao staying up as the 'target man' then the opposite fullback can just trot upfield stretching the play.

I am not sure why Hoilet starts over 2 recognised LBs.

Yeah we need players that are willing to do it. Joao can do it, but it relies on the midfield behind him to do it, as well as the wing backs, if that doesn't happen, it's completely disjointed and is probably the most contributing factor when we concede so many goals when we get beat, bar Blackpool.

I can understand why Hoilett is playing, as he's generally done well and I don't think Rahman is up to speed yet either, but he won't ever do if he isn't playing either. The whole point of having a larger squad to deal with games is so we can rotate, at least he got a decent 45 minutes which should serve him well.

Loum looked like he was really rushed back, he was nowhere near the pace of the game (like most of the team).

[Vision]

It is a good question from CR although I don’t understand the comment that Sunderland are a L1 side. They are a decent Championship side.

Against Blackburn we closed them down constantly and it worked. Yet after a ten day break the players were so lethargic last night. Is it purely motivational? Did Ince give them such a rocket after Rotherham that they went out to then prove a point v Blackburn?

I suspect Ince looked at Sunderland as a similar team to ‘Boro where we sat back and let them have the ball and aim to hit them on the break . Blackburn , we set traps high up the pitch and they fell into them .

Ince clearly expected Sunderland to play with 3 at the back and tried to relay to the players about 10 minutes in that they were actually playing 4-2-3-1. But let’s be honest up for 40 mins it was a game where we were dire but they never looked like scoring . Then at the moment we changed formation , they lost their only striker and suddenly developed a cutting edge . Game over in about 3 minutes .

I keep hearing people talk about playing on the “front foot” but never know what this means. Again with Blackburn we tried to win the ball back high up the pitch but in pretty much every other game , including the wins , we’ve sat back with the intention of hitting sides on the break . By definition I’d say that’s not playing on the front foot .

Bottom line of course is it’s all moot when you can’t string 2-3 passes together all game and don’t run with the opposition’s attackers.

Can’t escape the feeling that despite all the talk of an improved attitude and “ having our club back” we still fundamentally fall into the same bad habits and have ridden our luck a little to get 5 wins under our belt .

The good news is that Ince seems well aware of this and knows exactly where this squad stands in terms of realistic expectations .

We want to see more like Blackburn, not more like Middlesbrough that's why.

Results like Middlesbrough aren't sustainable longer term. It's very very unlikely to keep getting 1-0 wins over a season with under 40% possession and the game mostly being played in your half.

But that's the issue . People keep saying "one of those games" or "bad day at the office" but the reality is that the Blackburn game is the anomaly and the thumpings versus Rotherham, Sheff Utd & Sunderland are more the norm. Even against Blackburn we only had 35% possession so it's not solely a case of possession.

Perhaps Ince is concerned that with a small squad (or at least the parts of the squad he's willing to play) we just can't sustain that Blackburn level on a Saturday/midweek basis through the season. Perhaps there are only certain teams we see as being susceptible to this approach. I recall in the 7th place season under Pauno we pressed high in certain games against Blackburn away plus Brentford and Bournemouth at home. We ran out of steam at the end of all 3 of those games but fortunately we had enough of a lead against Blackburn & Bournemouth to see those games out.

Perhaps we can only do it against Teams beginning with "B"

[Zip]

I suspect Ince looked at Sunderland as a similar team to ‘Boro where we sat back and let them have the ball and aim to hit them on the break . Blackburn , we set traps high up the pitch and they fell into them .

Ince clearly expected Sunderland to play with 3 at the back and tried to relay to the players about 10 minutes in that they were actually playing 4-2-3-1. But let’s be honest up for 40 mins it was a game where we were dire but they never looked like scoring . Then at the moment we changed formation , they lost their only striker and suddenly developed a cutting edge . Game over in about 3 minutes .

I keep hearing people talk about playing on the “front foot” but never know what this means. Again with Blackburn we tried to win the ball back high up the pitch but in pretty much every other game , including the wins , we’ve sat back with the intention of hitting sides on the break . By definition I’d say that’s not playing on the front foot .

Bottom line of course is it’s all moot when you can’t string 2-3 passes together all game and don’t run with the opposition’s attackers.

Can’t escape the feeling that despite all the talk of an improved attitude and “ having our club back” we still fundamentally fall into the same bad habits and have ridden our luck a little to get 5 wins under our belt .

The good news is that Ince seems well aware of this and knows exactly where this squad stands in terms of realistic expectations .

We want to see more like Blackburn, not more like Middlesbrough that's why.

Results like Middlesbrough aren't sustainable longer term. It's very very unlikely to keep getting 1-0 wins over a season with under 40% possession and the game mostly being played in your half.

But that's the issue . People keep saying "one of those games" or "bad day at the office" but the reality is that the Blackburn game is the anomaly and the thumpings versus Rotherham, Sheff Utd & Sunderland are more the norm. Even against Blackburn we only had 35% possession so it's not solely a case of possession.

Perhaps Ince is concerned that with a small squad (or at least the parts of the squad he's willing to play) we just can't sustain that Blackburn level on a Saturday/midweek basis through the season. Perhaps there are only certain teams we see as being susceptible to this approach. I recall in the 7th place season under Pauno we pressed high in certain games against Blackburn away plus Brentford and Bournemouth at home. We ran out of steam at the end of all 3 of those games but fortunately we had enough of a lead against Blackburn & Bournemouth to see those games out.

Perhaps we can only do it against Teams beginning with "B"

Not sure we ran out of steam v Blackburn and Bournemouth as we ran out comfortable winners in both games. We did though against a very good Brentford team.

[Vision]

We want to see more like Blackburn, not more like Middlesbrough that's why.

Results like Middlesbrough aren't sustainable longer term. It's very very unlikely to keep getting 1-0 wins over a season with under 40% possession and the game mostly being played in your half.

But that's the issue . People keep saying "one of those games" or "bad day at the office" but the reality is that the Blackburn game is the anomaly and the thumpings versus Rotherham, Sheff Utd & Sunderland are more the norm. Even against Blackburn we only had 35% possession so it's not solely a case of possession.

Perhaps Ince is concerned that with a small squad (or at least the parts of the squad he's willing to play) we just can't sustain that Blackburn level on a Saturday/midweek basis through the season. Perhaps there are only certain teams we see as being susceptible to this approach. I recall in the 7th place season under Pauno we pressed high in certain games against Blackburn away plus Brentford and Bournemouth at home. We ran out of steam at the end of all 3 of those games but fortunately we had enough of a lead against Blackburn & Bournemouth to see those games out.

Perhaps we can only do it against Teams beginning with "B"

Not sure we ran out of steam v Blackburn and Bournemouth as we ran out comfortable winners in both games. We did though against a very good Brentford team.

Bournemouth had a couple of good chances at the end of that game. Blackburn was more a back and forth tbf as i recall.

I was convinced after that Bournemouth game that we would at the very least make the play offs . The best I'd seen us play in an age and against one of the best teams in the division.

We never got close to that level again.

[Zip]

But that's the issue . People keep saying "one of those games" or "bad day at the office" but the reality is that the Blackburn game is the anomaly and the thumpings versus Rotherham, Sheff Utd & Sunderland are more the norm. Even against Blackburn we only had 35% possession so it's not solely a case of possession.

Perhaps Ince is concerned that with a small squad (or at least the parts of the squad he's willing to play) we just can't sustain that Blackburn level on a Saturday/midweek basis through the season. Perhaps there are only certain teams we see as being susceptible to this approach. I recall in the 7th place season under Pauno we pressed high in certain games against Blackburn away plus Brentford and Bournemouth at home. We ran out of steam at the end of all 3 of those games but fortunately we had enough of a lead against Blackburn & Bournemouth to see those games out.

Perhaps we can only do it against Teams beginning with "B"

Not sure we ran out of steam v Blackburn and Bournemouth as we ran out comfortable winners in both games. We did though against a very good Brentford team.

Bournemouth had a couple of good chances at the end of that game. Blackburn was more a back and forth tbf as i recall.

I was convinced after that Bournemouth game that we would at the very least make the play offs . The best I'd seen us play in an age and against one of the best teams in the division.

We never got close to that level again.

The Bournemouth game was hilarious. My son had a bet on a Reading win by two goals. I think we were three up at half time. They pulled one back fairly late on which he was sort of happy about. We then had the ridiculous situation when he as a passionate Reading fan was shouting at the tv not wanting us to score a fourth in a counter attack really late on.

[Snowflake Royal]

I suspect Ince looked at Sunderland as a similar team to ‘Boro where we sat back and let them have the ball and aim to hit them on the break . Blackburn , we set traps high up the pitch and they fell into them .

Ince clearly expected Sunderland to play with 3 at the back and tried to relay to the players about 10 minutes in that they were actually playing 4-2-3-1. But let’s be honest up for 40 mins it was a game where we were dire but they never looked like scoring . Then at the moment we changed formation , they lost their only striker and suddenly developed a cutting edge . Game over in about 3 minutes .

I keep hearing people talk about playing on the “front foot” but never know what this means. Again with Blackburn we tried to win the ball back high up the pitch but in pretty much every other game , including the wins , we’ve sat back with the intention of hitting sides on the break . By definition I’d say that’s not playing on the front foot .

Bottom line of course is it’s all moot when you can’t string 2-3 passes together all game and don’t run with the opposition’s attackers.

Can’t escape the feeling that despite all the talk of an improved attitude and “ having our club back” we still fundamentally fall into the same bad habits and have ridden our luck a little to get 5 wins under our belt .

The good news is that Ince seems well aware of this and knows exactly where this squad stands in terms of realistic expectations .

We want to see more like Blackburn, not more like Middlesbrough that's why.

Results like Middlesbrough aren't sustainable longer term. It's very very unlikely to keep getting 1-0 wins over a season with under 40% possession and the game mostly being played in your half.

But that's the issue . People keep saying "one of those games" or "bad day at the office" but the reality is that the Blackburn game is the anomaly and the thumpings versus Rotherham, Sheff Utd & Sunderland are more the norm. Even against Blackburn we only had 35% possession so it's not solely a case of possession.

Perhaps Ince is concerned that with a small squad (or at least the parts of the squad he's willing to play) we just can't sustain that Blackburn level on a Saturday/midweek basis through the season. Perhaps there are only certain teams we see as being susceptible to this approach. I recall in the 7th place season under Pauno we pressed high in certain games against Blackburn away plus Brentford and Bournemouth at home. We ran out of steam at the end of all 3 of those games but fortunately we had enough of a lead against Blackburn & Bournemouth to see those games out.

Perhaps we can only do it against Teams beginning with "B"

Yeah that's the problem. We need to play forward more and have more of the ball and the results will stick around. Carry on as we are and we'll likely struggle.