Poyetry in Motion: credit where it’s due after Southampton draw?

Jake captures the Bard, with thanks to Owen Lennox
Jake captures the Bard, with thanks to Owen Lennox

Maybe the team deserve a bit of a bollocking after that appalling start but Gus Poyet continues the theme of praising his players, this time for a comeback after a highly capable Saints team came flying out of the box and looked winners after taking a two goal lead

Dear Colin,

I think that [the attitude of the players] is the most important thing and we need to be positive.

I know that the fans are probably thinking what was going on in the first half hour.

[It was] football, a team that has been struggling for a long, long time, they won three games in a row and now everybody expects them to go and win every single game.

I understand that, the positional play – the plan didn’t work, which I am responsible for, but then we were able to sort it out somehow, especially with the goal from Fabio [Borini], the half-time break and the substitutions.

We managed to get back in the game and got a point.

Jake: Why such a slow start? Gus: but credit to the players.
Jake: Why such a slow start? Gus: but credit to the players.

I know we want to win at home and we want to beat everybody and put seven wins together and just get away from the bottom, but it’s not that easy because the opposition plays in their own style and Southampton are a very difficult team to play against.

We couldn’t cope with them during the opening half hour, but then we gave a good 60 minutes; going forward, pressing, trying to score, the disallowed goal, then we score again and then we kept going.

We were willing for the win so let’s give credit to the players.

It’s always great to see the strikers and offensive players scoring. Fabio did it at the right time because it was looking really bad and Johnno is having an unbelievable run of goals so let’s hope we can keep them both fit to play the next few games.

If you’d have told me that we would go on a run and only lose one game in 10 when I got the job, considering the position that we were in and how difficult it was for us to get a point, I would probably have taken it, so it’s progress and let’s hope we can maintain this.

All the best,

Gus Poyet 

 


Join the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group – click anywhere along this line



And follow us on Twitter: @salutsunderland … click along this line

Click anywhere on this sentence for a glance at the home page – and highlights of all the most recent articles …

Jake flags the new feature allowing you to have your say on topic or off
Jake flags the new feature allowing you to have your say on topic or off

Fancy leaving a comment? Not sure what you have to say fits this post? Go to the new feature – https://safc.blog/2013/07/salut-sunderland-the-way-it-is/ – and say it there.

25 thoughts on “Poyetry in Motion: credit where it’s due after Southampton draw?”

  1. Regarding strikers, both Altidore and Fletcher always seem to be poor when starting and better when coming on as sub.
    I really don’t rate Gardner but i thought he was decent on Saturday. The big problem for me was what happened to Larsson. His ability may be limited but I would never previously have accused him of not trying. In fact, on a number of occasions he has absolutely run himself into the ground for us. On Saturday he jogged everywhere and was never in position to either defend or attack. We played with 10 until he went off so getting a point was probably a bonus. However, we need 6 wins at least before the end of the season and still have all of the top 8 to play, so Stoke and Hull at home become absolutely crucial and completely agree that anything less than 4 points and staying up will get harder

  2. I thought Altidore was poor actually. Second to every ball. But I also think S’ton’s centre backs were good. That Lovrens can certainly play.
    I’d like to see this Scocco in.

    Why not play Borini as lone front man with Giaccherini just off? Johnson on the right. That might work. Borini isn’t a target man however but has pace. I dunno, just a thought.

    • Certainly worth a try, it would be playing with eleven men for a start . Pointless having a target man if he puts in a non performance like JA did on Saturday, may aswell have an extra skill full , nippy player like Giacharini .

    • @ Ian SAfc

      I’ve also been thinking of an alternative striking strategy, and Borini looks about the best alternative. He is full of energy and has an eye for a goal. I wonder if he could operate in a similar way that Campbell at Cardiff does?

      We would of course have to change our way of playing, and instead of banging pointless high balls up to an isolated target [ which despite Gus’s playing philosophy, we still persist in doing ] our midfield players would need to start playing passes into the channels for a lighter quicker player to latch on to. We did, in fact, do this when we had Darren Bent up front.

      I’m not really sure where Fletcher fits in though. It seems to me that he is a poacher rather than a target man, and I have real doubts about his stamina [ as well as his motivation ]

      The problem about any discussion about delivery from midfield is that, apart from Ki, our midfield players simply don’t have the ability/vision to pick out danderous passes into forward areas, and that is why they resort to long high balls.

      Maybe the kid at Brighton could make a difference?

  3. We’ll Tim, Poyet doesn’t seem to agree with you, and I’m quite happy with the way he’s running the show these days, and his opinion holds a lot more weight than yours. So we’ll just agree to differ. And as he’ll be playing,I think it’s better to stay off his back, with a bit confidence, maybe he’ll start to get the goals.
    Chris altidore. (not really).

  4. “I think we all need to get off altidore’s back. Yes, he’s hardly a goal machine, but when he gets it, he does hold it up well and brings others in to play”

    Goal machine! Bloody hell! 🙂

    No he doesn’t. I don’t know what you are watching Chirs. Maybe you are some relation of his or something. He doesn’t do any of these things. He’s shit.

    I wouldn’t dare even sniff at what you are drinking mate.

    • I honestly thought someone must have slipped a tranquilliser into Altidore’s pre match drink, so inert was he. If we hadn’t previously wasted over £5 million on Graham we surely would send Atidore out on loan in this window,but that would make it three multimillion strikers out on loan, four in total with N’Diaye. Are we mad?

  5. They would be deserving of credit had they not stood around like dustbins for the first half hour Joan. The crowd got restless because they failed to close Southampton down and made them look better than they actually were, as per the second half.

    It was one of the most pitiful displays in the first half that most of us have witnessed, but only started playing when two goals down as per Cardiff. It’s a strange mentality and one that needs to be shaken off.

  6. I think we all need to get off altidore’s back. Yes, he’s hardly a goal machine, but when he gets it, he does hold it up well and brings others in to play. The trouble is, he isn’t actually getting the ball very often. And you can say the same for Fletcher as well.

  7. Southampton looked a very good side, and from the start were playing in the way that we’re aiming for under Poyet. They were quick, their passing was excellent, and it knocked our players off their stride. It’s not that they weren’t trying, it took them time to adjust. Sections of the crowd booing when Saints’ 2nd goal went in can’t have helped. Credit to the players for getting back into the game.

  8. Is Johnson the new Suarez, he scores wins penalties, takes cracking freekicks and never talks. He has been a revelation recently long may it continue

  9. The crowd are restless because for all our improvement in form we’re still bottom ( joint ) and we haven’t won at home in the league for what seems like an age. An impressive comeback yesterday after an atrocious start and I hate to single out anyone for criticism ,but what precisely does Altidore offer the team? It’s like starting each game with ten men, utterly ineffectual! Colback must start against United and either get Wickham back or sign another striker , preferably both .

    • I’m looking forward to Altidore scoring. I’ve heard his planned celebration involves whipping off his shirt to reveal a “Free Nelson Mandela” t-shirt!

  10. We tried our away tactics today, sit back and wait for the counter attack and we were caught off-guard. Thet kept the ball and everything they tried worked after the second I was fearful of a hiding. We came back and worked hard to grind out a draw. Last week at Fulham we defended well for the first 20 minutes when they came at us and they couldn’t break us down. Yesterday Southampton were very impressive

  11. Ian said “We need a crowd thats vocal.” We need a team that can give the team something to be vocal about though.

    That first half hour was more deserving of a riot than any form of encouragement from the stands. Give the crowd just a little bit to shout and shout they will.

    • Its a vicious circle. It has to be broken. The more the crowd are frustrated, the more it transmits to nervousness on the pitch, and the more the crowd are frustrated etc etc.
      We need the crowd to be the 12th man and the players will get a boost from that.

  12. I thought S’ton looked very slick today. They are a very good team. If you’d offered my 1 point at half time I’d have bitten your hand off.

    I think the crowd have a huge role to play at the SOL. They were quiet today and a little nervous. We need a crowd thats vocal.
    Borini, very good, as was Johnno. Ki was OK but not to his usual very high standards. When I saw Gardner coming on, I groaned a bit bit he did OK.
    Colback should have started in place of Larsson.
    And Fletch should have been starting in place of the ineffective Altidore. He was just second to every ball.

    We resorted to a lot of long-balling today, rather than passing from the back.

  13. There clearly isn’t anything between Cattermole’s ears Geoff as the challenge after 10 mins to collect yet another card was inexplicably senseless. The only explanation is that it was Cattermole involved.

    Gus is talking about the fans expecting us to win every game and that is starting to sound like Bruce. What we do expect is some level of commitment and effort. The first 30 minutes was unacceptably witless and gutless. How a team that won 4-1 away last week can have a collective mind set to start like that is beyond me. We should have been up and at them right from the whistle. We weren’t.

    • Thing is that only applies to robots that don’t run out of fuel. If we’d upped them and atted them right from the start then they’d have done to us what we did to them. Get into oxygen debt early on and you pay for it later

      • Any fit athlete within a team should be able to repay oxygen debt by the team’s adoption of strategies to enable recovery. E.g. hold the ball, make space, require the opposition to work while defenders/attackers recover. These strategies suit a team which is in the lead, and we never were.

        So’ton got ahead and could use this strategy, and made us work hard. It’s to our credit we got back into the game and earned a point. But how close was it in terms of chances created? How much did it knacker us for next Wednesday? (is the semi why Fletch didn’t start, but we also need Borini ready to run midweek)

        If we had been 2-0 up after 30 minutes and then held on ’til half time I doubt whether So’ton would have been able to come back to us, and vice versa. Borini’s goal was a life-saver but we put Wednesday’s game at risk by having to chase the game.

      • Oxygen debt builds up lactic acid in the muscles. That takes far longer to clear than the duration of a football game.

      • Maybe a couple of hours, less if there’s a warm-down on bikes after the game. But it’s intensive (anaerobic) activity which builds up the lactate in the first place and So’ton were able to slow their pace and therefore oxidise more lactate (i.e. repay more of their oxygen debt) during the first half hour, although it could be argued SAFC didn’t do anything intensive in the first 30 minutes.

        However, it’s not lactic acid which causes soreness in the days after a game. That’s more likely to be a result of muscle tissue damage caused by asymmetric extension/contractions. So having to chase the game will have made SAFC more knackered before Wednesday’s game.

  14. Catts gained one of the cheapest yellow cards I have ever seen and was odds on not to complete the 97 mins. Surprised he lasted as long as he did. Wtf???

  15. Very impressed with Southampton, their cohesion and ball retention was fantastic, we chased leather the whole of the first half and we got a draw, we worked hard for but I’m not sure we deserved a point. Our home form is becoming worrying and the fans need to get behind the team not berate them, what ever we are we don’t give in and that is positive

Comments are closed.

Next Post