captainchris

Well everyone seems to want to go with the same team..... Not sure yet if the two - come four up front is working. Personally, for team balance I would put Davis in for Osvaldo or possibly Rickie and revert to one up front. No way at the moment that Rimirez is up to the first team so it's Davis for me who provides balance to the team.

Made up hypothetical nonsense and not worth discussing.....at this point in time...

An agenda is when you object to those with an opinion having the right to it if it doesn't fit with your 'agenda'

Well said. I find it peculiar that people expect to go in a football forum and read no opinions. Very odd.... There are lots of happy clappies on here who seem shocked whenever a player receives even the slightest critism....hello it's a forum - you get both sides of the story here .....

On a more positive note for Gaston.... If some of us think he is quite a way short of the first team right now where does that leave poor Guly Du Prado one would venture??? The poor fella was so so out of it.... He really needs to be playing in a lower division now... Oh, I almost forgot we were actually playing a lower league team, who by the way I thougt were a half decent passing side and probably deserved a goal...

Yes fair comment.... Although had you watched a live match coverage it would have been probably more obvious of players with the ball losing possession ....

An interesting point but not sure how on earth you could know that.... Also bizarrely Gaston doesn't even play 'often' so what difference would attending 'often' make to fans opinions? These days there are good live streams and TV coverage anyway for every game so really, is there much difference in what the opinions are worth whether being there or not....... I think you have a red herring there.... I would say its more a case of there are fans who watch matches overall and look at scorelines and goal Scorers and there are fans who watch games below the surface too. Some fans look at a few highlights some look at the whole match brick by brick. A 'highlight' fan will praise Gaston and a brick by brick fan may have different ideas..... One thing I would say is that the analogy that some are drawing of Gaston to Le Tiss is a very very long way wide of the mark.

Your the sad one mate. You only ever come on here to criticise posters and don't have comments to make on the games or the team - that's what football forums are for you know - football opinions not your miserable psyco analysis of posters... Just for your information I love football but that doesn't stop me watching a game for good things and those that in my opinion could be different. Try watching a game more thoroughly yourself and then we can hear your opinion and call you sad ...... Otherwise use a forum that has nothing to do with football and leave people to discuss football matters in peace and keep your cheap personal vindictive opinions on posters to yourself.

A very accurate summary of Gaston. He either lost possession or gave the ball away so many times. we were counting at one stage first half and eight of ten times he had possession he lost it! A good goal yes and a nice through ball for Lee but really other than that he was quite quite poor...

Well just back from the game...... We were pretty average and Bristol City could well have nicked a couple of goals second half. Feel the result papers over a few cracks. Ok it was our second string but one or two have aspirations to be first choice in the first team. Gaston for me was poor. Watch him closely he gives away possession or gets caught in possession continuously and just doesn't perform like a 12m player should. Nowhere near a first team place at the moment. Fox - never been a fan but tonight was half decent though still insists on allowing his man to put a cross in without engaging him. Why? Has Guly had his last chance tonight? Almost feel for him but tonight he was truly well off the pace and just looks - to be blunt not good enough. Surely it's time to say enough is enough for him. Lee looked pretty good and had some pace and but for a very good save could have scored. Considering his lack of game time he looked sharp and showed he offers a different dimension. More game time could see him as an impact sub for the first team. Chambers had a good game and could well make it as we have seen this year. JWP a good game as did Davies but this brings me to MP who I thought allowed the midfield to drop far too deep second half inviting them on to us for quite a period. This symptom happens often to us. From what i have seen, when we have the ball we have too many players rushing too far forward leaving us short in midfield. When we don't have the ball we drop very deep at times inviting attacks and forget to press. This happened lots in the second half and could have cost us dearly. Indeed the midfield were far too close to the back four tonight quite a lot of the time when we were not in possession giving City lots of room to pass it around in our half and create danger. The result suggests an easy win but City had some decent chances and could have easily knocked one or two in...

Worst player on the pitch Rimirez ! Terrible given the ball 80% of the touches he's had . 12m my ass !!!

That very harsh too ...

Best post of the week

Errrrrr like ! .........

By the way Rimirez us not the answer. It's a question of the tactics and positional way you operate. However as long as you have the extra midfield man whether it be Davis Rimirez or whoever and drop the idea of two centre forwards then we can get back to playing our style of football again. The problem now is we are light on numbers in midfield have no control or outlet there and keep giving the possession away.

Well nearly right but sinse Osvaldo has been in the team - as the article says, we are playing with a front four and they are far too advanced. This means we cannot control the area we are trying to play through i.e the central area, the front four are too far away...... We must change the tactics back to one central midfielder deeper and the two slightly wider midfielders deeper until we have built the attack. Playing two centre forwards and two advanced inside forwards is wrecking our style and flow. If you insist on playing like that you cannot play possession football you have to go long....

Agree, see my post in the post match thread...page 4 Four players essentially out of the game for long periods as they were too far advanced........ If MP can't see this and correct it then this is a concern.

The problem is not necessarily personnel as tactics. We have far too many players too far advanced, this gives us a headache when trying to play out of defence as every one is too far apart, too far away and too easily marked and closed down. Osvaldo was often too far up the pitch. He needs to come and get involved in the build up and make the ground up to get into box. The first half in particular he was not involved in the game and almost a 'goal hanger'. However the, what amounted to 'front four' were not involved in the game first half and consequently we struggled to create and control the game. Second half was better but as one or two have said SRL and Osvaldo may not work though this does go against my statement that it's not necessarily personnel I must admit. Defence looks pretty good which was probably our weak point last year however not sure we have improved elsewhere despite high spending. Have we bought players and changed our setup to accomodate them when we would have been better to keep the system and put new in players within the existing shape. At the moment definately fear against good opposition we could get overun with too many players out of the game right up the pitch.

Don't forget Shilts let it under his body too....

Very good call though still a question mark if SRL and Osvaldo can play together. However if not in a two up front there is a chance..... Not Rimirez is going to make it to be honest....

Whilst I respect your opinion I am not 'mental' thankyou ! Please try to put your point across without resorting to such derogatory remarks which are entirely uncalled for and unnecessary. I realise you have your own opinion so just stick to that!

Surely though we are not pressing like we first did when Ponch came in - the pressing has waned ....

100% correct - we are too narrow and have not yet played like last year when we were closing down and that actually stopped happening about five games from the end of last season. IF WE DONT CLOSE DOWN we will not beat teams as they are all doing it now - except us. We have stopped winning the ball in the opposition half which means we are ponderously building from deep with no pace. We have not scored in open play and are unlikely to very soon unless we up the effort put in further up the pitch. This is the only way our narrow system can work. So there needs to be quite a radical change in the future games or our ponderous play will be of little threat...... Whilst tinkering with personnel is one thing, the tactics need enforcing properly. On a separate issue some our signings do seem to be very worrying with Rimirez being top of my list for concern at 12.5m if it was my money.....AL must be worth zillions as he is a far better player.

There are far too many people on here who are from the USA and have little irony. Look my point is - I agree with the original poster. I am not thick like you. The attendance was low and there are reasons. I find that I agree with people on this that it is often thought that the games are sell outs when they are not.... If you think that is wrong then more fool you because that is not is a solution to the issue. Please feel free to bring your solution to the issue or shut up!

100% agree. Lambert was continually an outlet and a real menace to Sunderland....