captainchris

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....

Hello Mr Angry person who doesn't 'read' posts. I quite plainly do not offer or employ excuses I offer comment to back up a previous post. Those that bury heads in sand will continue to complain that every person old enough to walk doesn't go to St Mary's every single time the doors are open. Please offer arguments for or against with evidence to back up your rather drab rude replies but do try to resist replying to posts you haven't bothered to read properly.

Very good points. The biggest for me is the lack of information coming from the club. The marketing is truely appalling and has been for a while now. Being a casual visitor I am one that would be there more often if I didn't think it's always going to be sold out. Ticket info on the web site is hard to find or was the last time I wasted 30mins if my life trawling it... After all mostly unless you pay you can't access the site either which is a very strange marketing parody. I would guess with far better communication from the club on ticket availability there would less empty seats....

Have to agree with this comment. We only play through the D. I think there is a lot of 'hype' on here about how 'well' we played when effect Sunderland were quite comfortable until a set piece undid them. Our open play was not that threatening and quite predictable. As we now don't have wide men at all unless you include AL and JR Then how do we change the flow the game? How do we get in behind? Summary: Good possession, Osvaldo looks classy, A draw was a bit fortunate in the end based on how the game went - not the possession we had... We need a pacey wide man to have an impact. Jay Rod struggled and just looks a bit short in this league.....

Sunderland know we are playing through the D all the game and it's relatively easy to defend...... And predictable.... These are games where we need a wide alternative and we have none.

Did Rimirez go off again? Anonymous or what!

Not sure if we are not giving away some midfield comfort with Rimirez on... Rodriquez off would have been better...

Underrated in my opinion.....

Fox was clearly as carp last year as he was the year before so last year was no freak of bad luck......

B, C, D. 'A' is not remotely an option...

Great news a far better player than Wellbeck anyway....