HarvSFC

Issue with Azaz is that he plays a position that many teams don't use, so you have to change the shape of your squad to cater towards him. Can't see him being any good as a central midfielder, or a winger. That said, I don't like this constant three centre-back formation. I think it's a big factor in why we've been largely crap this season for the most part and it was horrendous last season. It worked against Liverpool for the most part, but that's a game to deploy it because they'll look to attack us and there was more space for us to move into when we recovered the ball because Liverpool pushed numbers forward. As we've since, Championship teams will play defensively against us and we're easy to defend against in this setup as we don't have enough numbers in the attack. But, I just want to see a better performance than what we've seen in recent weeks and hopefully it does come against a poor Derby side.

I always thought JWP held us back a bit. We were very content with having him in the middle of the park and never looked to upgrade, or we couldn't afford to upgrade with him still in the squad. Similar to the goalkeeper position of recent years. Our best midfield of Schneiderlin, Wanyama and Davis, which should have and should be our ambitions to get back to that level, he wouldn't get in. Also seen with his two Premier League moves (West Ham and Notthingham Forest) that he hasn't shown to be anything more than a bog standard, possibly below average Premier League midfielder. And, apparently he doesn't even score free-kicks anymore.

Don't think any of our other forwards are capable of his goals tonight. Downs, Armstrong and Archer aren't able to generate the power and accuracy from distance for Stewart's second goal, while Armstrong and Archer hit his first goal at the defender or goalkeeper in a packed box and Downs wouldn't be able to anticipate the chance. I've had my doubts over Stewart, but he's now put his name firmly forward to be the starting striker for the club tonight. Just needs to stay injury free and keep transforming into Lambert.

Turned bad again after we took the lead, but a good three points. Need to go for the kill when leading, not sitting back. Attack best form of defence.

Well, that was lucky.

Wow. Ross Stewart's just Rickie Lambert'd that.

Fellows off, Fraser on. Will Still has to go for that. (Watch Fraser put in a 10/10 now, hopefully)

One word to sum up that first half - Shite. Sums up this season too, and pre-season was hardly encouraging. Not been good at all under Still.

I just want a manager who doesn't instruct the players to start every attack with multiple passes between the centre-backs. It doesn't achieve anything and more often than not we play ourselves into danger. Starting to wonder when I last enjoyed watching us over multiple games.

That's why you close down the goalkeeper, Onuachu. They got very lucky there.

Ramsdale left to sit on the Newcastle bench, Dibling left to sit on the Everton bench and Fernandes and KWP left to get another relegation in a far more toxic atmosphere.

The site is using Alan Nixon as their source. Can't all of a sudden make out that he's a reliable source when it fits some people's agenda.

Issue with the goal is how much time Ayling had out on the right to cross the ball in. No one putting pressure on him or closing him down. Professional footballers can place the ball where they want when they have time, need to be better there.

Why's he playing central and not hugging the touchline out wide on the left?

First of all, fair play to Still for making the decisions to drop those out of form. Two years ago Bazunu played no matter his form and only dropped out to injury, Smallbone played no matter his form, leaving superior players in Charles and Alcaraz with little opportunity, Stephens earned the nickname shoehorn as he was shoehorned in every game despite Bednarek and THB building up a partnership during his injury and Manning was playing every week despite Meghoma looking decent in the cups and Manning generally performing badly. It got tedious seeing the line-up every week and probably allowed for complacency to creep in with those in safe positions in the 11. This should hopefully see those who have dropped out now raising their performance level, only the wrong characters that you don't want throw their dummies out after being dropped. Look at Armstrong, he has played his way back into the side in the last three games and looks like he has a restored lease of life. Only change I'd have made to the 11 is Edwards out for Jelert, as Edwards didn't give us a lot going forward. Onto the match, Fellows has now found his feet here. Every time he had the ball he caused problems. Rinsed Targett every time and surprised it took 90 minutes for him to get booked for a foul on Jander. Fellows was my man of the match today, put in numerous dangerous balls and set up the Armstrong goal. We lacked forward quality when he came off. Wood and Quarshie good, athletic defenders. We didn't get bullied aerially, or for pace today. Jander class. Armstrong's back. Our most potent attacker again. Downside, I thought we were a bit slow with the ball for a lot of the match. We need to up the tempo and play faster and more direct. A lot of our attacks are being built up by passing it around the centre-backs slowly and then the opposition have a packed half, leaving little time or space, which means we aren't really testing the opposition goalkeeper still. We've shaken up a lot of the squad with changes, but we've cycled through all of our striker options, and still nobody's really making the position theirs yet. Stewart still disappointing, doesn't want to fight for the ball and just looks a bit gangly and lightweight. Did note that when we had a corner Middlesbrough left a man up the pitch, meaning we had to leave two back and there was one counter where they looked dangerous. When Middlesbrough had a corner, we had everyone back and Middlesbrough could pack the box with their players also. Something I know a lot have been calling to change for years now. Still a disappointing result and wins are a must now.

Thing is though, yeah we were bad, which I think we'd all have predicted. But, he made us record breakingly bad. Looking at the Premier League table now, Burnley on 4 points, Leeds on 7 and Sunderland on 8 after 5 games. It took Martin 10 games to get to 4 and he finished on 5 points after 16 games. A bit of fight was all we wanted last season, but his tactics didn't allow for it.

Some teams also stop putting performances in once they've cemented a play-off place, but the automatics are too far ahead. Sunderland went into the play-offs last season on the back of five straight defeats, scoring one goal and one win in seven, scoring two goals over those seven matches. Leeds the year before, one win in their last six. At least with the current set-up there's a bit of jeopardy if your form drops off too much with there only being 4 play-off spots, but another two spots could devalue the competition for teams who are lucky enough to catch those on the beach at the back end of the season.

With Still's interview, it's a positive surely? Very high standards. A tight 2-1 defeat against Liverpool with a cheap goal given away, not good enough for him. Makes a difference from the low standards that have been set over the years with many of our most recent manager's talking up and praising the players for a 2-1 defeat. Hopefully it motivates the players to strive to be better, rather than patting each other on the back and going through the motions.

Gave a good account of ourselves after some dire performances in the league. There should be some selection decisions to be made now. Quarshie played well tonight. Wood looked fine too. We've been struggling aerially massively at the back and both of those correct that weakness. Stephens and THB need to earn their place back in the squad now. But, the former probably gets in by default due to the stupid decision to retain him as captain. Flynn Downes played well tonight. I've been very critical of Armstrong as well lately, but he took his goal well at the weekend and looked lively tonight, possibly would have scored tonight against a weaker goalkeeper than Mamardashvili. A similar team on Saturday, replacing Edwards with a more attacking player wouldn't be a bad thing. But, we've all seen this plenty of times over the last few years. A good performance against a big six team and then a poor performance the following game. Don't let this be another.

We looked fine for 40 minutes. Scienza shocking header, just get it on target and ask the question of the covering defender, rather than trying to find the side netting. Their goal also very poor. Don't play football around your own six yard box! We aren't Barcelona. Although, another example of our playing out of the back leading to a forced mistake by pressing from the opposition. If our players could learn to press teams playing out of the back that would be good. We lose this, but not as embarrassing as I thought it would be earlier.

A lot of people say the Premier League isn't fun, but that's because we've been mismanaged leading to crapness for a few years now. The Premier League was good between 2012-2017. High quality players playing for the club and it felt like we were building something before it all went to pot. Smaller sized clubs like Bournemouth and Brighton have had good times up there for a number of years now as well. Get it right off the pitch and we can be a competitive Premier League side again, mixing with the big boys. Unfortunately, under SR the off the pitch stuff is the failure that leads to the dross on the pitch.

Sunderland definitely showing our lot up a lot. Went up through the play-offs with a team that on paper looked weaker than our play-off winning team. Then they sold Jobe Bellingham. But, after that they made numerous signings around the £20m mark. They even signed one player for £30m, smashing our transfer record. Got a decent goalkeeper from Holland as well for £11.5m, so they do exist, you just need a good scouting team. Granit Xhaka was a smart buy for their Premier League experienced signing too. They also made eight of their signings before August. Giving their new signings a pre-season. While, when we went up we were signing Adam Lallana, Charlie Taylor and Ryan Fraser on frees, Nathan Wood and Ronnie Edwards for small fees and Sugawara and Brereton-Diaz weren't that much either, while Cameron Archer was hardly an ambitious signing. We were haggling over fees for Liam Delap, Matt O'Riley and Fabio Carvalho, while Sunderland were a lot more aggressive in the market. Identified a talent and signed him.

Goztepe are definitely getting the better end of the deal here, sitting second in the Turkish top flight after six games and behind Galatasaray. They get filtered players through us that would otherwise be too good for them and outside of their budget. While, we don't get the same players coming to us that are too good for the Championship, or outside of our budget. We have a strict sell before we buy and wage cap budget which has created this team of underperformers. While the players we do sign are often projects and have no impact on our starting eleven, they weaken it even and bloat out the squad.

There was absolutely nothing stopping the club from loaning a new number one this summer after loaning out Ramsdale, one of our two good players from last season. Yet, we replaced him with a third choice on loan, because he's a good character to have around the dressing room. Surely, McCarthy already covered that criteria? This is the same club that went into the Premier League season with McCarthy as number one and Lumley as number two while Bazunu recovered from injury. It then became apparent that was a big fuck up and they panic bought Ramsdale in the last days of the transfer window. Unfortunately, our poor start to the league season didn't get the board to act in the goalkeeper department this summer. Looking at the free agent list for a Boruc like signing and there isn't a lot available, but Forster (shudder), Rui Patricio and Guaita are there to cover for a season and then reassess a new long-term number one in the summer.

I was slightly concerned when Still didn't arrive with his coaching staff (his brothers), that he had his good record with in France. There have definitely been cases in the past of manager's being elevated by their staff and struggling with others after the old lot move on. Paul Ince with Ray Mathias and Wayne Rooney with Liam Rosenior spring to mind. It's why a lot of the successful managers are so loyal to their staff. Hard to say what influences coaches have. But, Carl Martin has been here throughout our recent poor history. Adam Lallana has been elevated above his experience and qualifications based on his name. He should be earning his stripes like Andrew Surman is. While Paul Trollope isn't really a big enough name nor does he have much big club experience, to make up for Still's shortcomings in those regards either. Things have to get better.