John McCormick writes Pete Sixsmith found no positives in our performance at the Emirates today. I differ but only in that Catts didn’t get a red card and nor did Wes Brown, so both are available for next week. I was concerned to find Fletcher didn’t make the bench and hope we find a forward by the time I get to Wembley. But what of Gus? Did he take anything from the game? Here, in his post-match letter to M Salut, and maybe a couple of others, he gives us his view:
Dear Colin,
My emotions are running high after watching the game, I’m trying to not to make any decisions so soon after it.
It could be that we were second best, or it could be that on the day there were things that we simply weren’t good enough at – I think it’s a mixture of the two.
Arsenal were very good on the ball in the first 30 minutes and we couldn’t cope with them. We had a very bad day on the ball; we were very poor and we paid the price.
Maybe it’s a good time for it to happen, a week before the cup final; some people say if you have a good result before the game it can make you too confident and others say if you have a bad one it’s a wake-up call.
Everybody knows how good Arsenal are. We needed to be sharp, keep close to them, be good on the ball but we just didn’t do that today.
It was a bad day at the office. We weren’t good enough against a very good team, maybe it was nerves or something but it’s definitely given us something to think about.
We gave ourselves a difficult task to get back into the game in the second half and then we went and conceded from a set piece, which disappointed me.
The three players that came on deserve credit. They came on when we were 3-0 down away from home, I bet they were thinking ‘thanks for that gaffer’, but they did their jobs and then it was a great finish from [Emanuele] Giaccherini for our goal.
It’s good for him, as it’s been difficult for him not playing and now that goal will give him some pride ahead of the cup final.
I had an idea about how I wanted to play next week and which players I wanted to use – today’s game has put a few doubts in my mind.
It’s an important week for us now; the players are going to have to work very hard to get into the team.
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
- 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/s
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.
Wes Brown in, Johnson gets a rocket and goes back to his best, Fletcher returns fresh and fit with Cattermole again keeping Toure quiet. We will need to play the game of our lives and have the run of the green. City have not beat us away for a long time and lost in their last trip to Wembley. There is reason to believe and be confident. Hope it is a great day and we get it over with and get on with the real job, STAYING UP.
Given the choice I’d rather win a cup or two and go down than stay up and win nothing. Am I the only one who thinks that way?
Of course winning some silver and staying up too is the ultimate dream, but if we beat Palace, Norwich, West Brom, West Ham, Swansea and Cardiff those games will soon be consigned to the back of the memory bank. Win on Sunday and it’ll be at the forefront of our consciousness for ever.
Why else do we harp on about 73? I never hear fans going on in the same way about the glorious 17th place finish of 2013 or the 16th spot we got in 2009.
Ha’way The Lads!
Oh and the game I enjoyed most since 1973 was the 5-2 win away at Bury to clinch promotion in 1999. It’s not all grim for a fan in the lower division but even that was 15 years ago. Time I had something else to celebrate for 50 years of following the team.
Agree about Jozy. I know he has to feed on scraps but yesterday he added ‘lazy’ and ‘disinterested’ to his ‘hopeless in front of goal’ skillset. Borini works his socks off and is the best bet up front from the current options. Looks like a last minute reprieve for Larsson or Giaccherini.
Whatever Gus says I think most of us can guess at his team selection. I would bring in Larsson and play Borini up front. Surely Jozy cannot start?
Finally viewed the game. What were they doing , particularly in the first 1/2? To call them bottles of milk would be an insult to bottles of milk . We have to give 100% in the final then forget about cup football ,unless we’re actually playing a game on that day. We still have a decent chance of staying up but only if after Sunday we focus soley on the league.
At least cattermole and brown should ensure we aren’t as weak next Sunday, giaccherini may have given himself a chance to start ahead of altidore.
The final must have been on the lads minds today, they didn’t seem to realise there was a game going on !
Not sure next Sunday had anything to do with it. I think it just shows how far we (and the teams around us) are behind those at the top.
I’ll travel to Wembley more in hope than expectation.
My main hope is that we make it as tough as possible for them to beat us and play our best on the day, anything else a bonus.
We were poor yesterday though, as good as Arsenal can be we didn’t ‘get stuck in’ enough. Not wanting to get injured or sent off was quite possibly on a few minds.