Holmes_and_Watson

Aribo gets a pass there. He can't run. 🙂

Baz gets a hand to it...so of course it goes in. Tops off an all round horror performance right across the team.

Baz stays big and does well there. Another one where the suicide defence in front of him really doesn;t give him a chance.

A spell of possession there. Lots of safe passes. Fine. Moving it around. But not enough movement to creat a better pass. One or two better options missed. Yet, after that when we do pass it, we choose a much longer, riskier option that gets picked off easily. Just undermines what Martin must be trying to do?

Baz isn't the only one who gives the ball straight back. A sad thing is that we've not really shown we were in control, or capable for any part of this match. Seeing Martin's tactic struggle through lack of familiarity would be one thing. Or silly errors. But really not many poisives to take away from today. A couple of minutes in the first half. A couple after Fraser came on?

This is the big worry. By that I'm not panicking after a game like this. But longer term, his tactical approach has to be flexible enough to handle various teams and situations, as we're not going to always have it our own way. How we adapt and react to that, wihin his framework, will be key. We were found out today, and repeated the same errors for a lot of the game, while also failing to impose any of the good things Martin is trying to put into place. We all watched what happened under Ralph, where all the good things were unpicked when other teams adjusted to his approach and beat it. Our current coaches will have to learn how to prevent the recurring errors.

Bringing on Impact Joe at the right time. 🙂

Mara givign the ball away in defence to top off a bad day for him.

The expectation for the season, with our resources, is promotion. We started strong enough to look to the top 2. Martin will have to step up to achieve this as, as you say he just doens't have that track record. This is an excellent chance for him to step up to that level. He did say there were going to be off days, and this is definietely one of them. We will get better. But we can all see how Sunderland have dismantled his set up. Everyone will be lookign to do that. And he will have to adapt accordingly.

Annoying: When players recieve the ball in space and duck out of looking forward. Smallbone there, and there were a few in the first half. Allosw the opposition all the time they need to reset.

Fraser getting it in far, far more directly than any of the others. Game well gone though, sadly.

Martin's passing game is compeltely absent, with Sunderland winning a lot in the middle. We just did something a lot more direct, and Adams wasn;t far from getting on the end of it.

Did your telly throw it back?

He was central, and well palced for the incoming header. It wasn;t powered past him, and it was a comfortable height. He didn;t parry it right back into play, but got an angle on it. It wasn;t one he could really have parried away at an acute angle. But that, and the lack of power in his clearance made it easier for them to get the ball back in. So many other blunders in that one from others, I'd feel harsh in being too critical.

So many defensive errors there.

Oh sod...

I'd only done a bit of my post on rating the transfer window, and it's going to sound a little sour and based on this half, rather than what I'd typed 🙂 Some of that was based on my unfamiliarity with the players. But with Baz, we've seen plenty of games, and we're seeing the same errors all the time. The window did offer us a chance to bring in competition. But 1) we're desperately trying to push McCarthy out the door and 2) The SR dream is poisiton blind. If Tino and Lavia are worth bucketloads, why not a 'keeper of the same age. While numerous, affordable goalkeepers passed us by. Yes, he is not helped by plenty of errors elsewhere for a lot of the goals we concede. Yes, he's not helped by the tactics that leave massive gaps, and a defence pulled all over. The first was a deflection too. Lots of reasons, but it can;t be good when every shot on our goal, I expect to go in. There have been a few posts about Martin's tactics. One was a reminder of the fragility of playing a single style or tactic with gradual tweaks to it. Sunderland didn;t take a minute to suss it out, break it and score. Gaps we've already seen plenty of time this season. Like Baz, yes it's early days in the season. Yes, we've had a large player turnover, and yes, we're not playing any of our top two strikers. Yes, we'd expect to improve. But they are big gaps to fill. Midfield balance is off today, and we need an attacker. Martin will have been guted by that first 45 and no surprise to see Che and Fraser on. Yet, in the first seconds, Sunderland again exploit that massive gap at full back and get a chance in.

"Gavin Bazunu: Caught by the surprise element" "Gavin Bazunu: Caught out by a shot on target." more like. >sigh<

Sunderland knew exactly how to exploit Martin's tactic. In addition, we made it very easy for them. So, I don;t know if the midfield balance was always off, or it's because we've had to react. I think the former. But Chalres with Downes and 1 more attacking option would be the better balance. Stu too direct and runs with the ball. So far, Smallbone did well working with JWP, wo created lots of space for him to exploit. This set up doesn;t allow that. Also, we've got a disjointed front three for them to pass to. Mara hasn;t offered any link ups, Edozie's end product iffy anyway, and AA not getting much joy (and not in his best poisiton anyway). And another one goes in, just as I was typing that as usual opponents are stronger than us.

Baz: That looked like he had sight of that enough to parry it away. Instead, right back into danger. Hmmm.

Baz saves! Elsewhere, Dak has us sussed. Loads of space in the middle, but he knows where those spaces are going to be and pings it into them early.

Good that Edozie got into poisiton to intercept. Possibly AA in a better poistion. 2 mins laster, he takes someone on too deep. Had that gone to an opponent, we would have been racing back again.

we're having soe chances to get back into it. But Sunderland will be ready for us passing it around them, and waiting to pounce.

Free kick in deecent position... got a comfortable save...

Defence are just going through the motions. Taking some positions with no purpose and little reaction to the game. A lot coming down the flanks in the gaps left by our fullbacks being forward. That's Martin's tactic.