Our youngest columnist by some margin, Keir Bradwell, quickly follows Pete Sixsmith back into action with the return of his man-by-man SAFC player ratings. You are at liberty to disagree …
West Brom 2 – 2 Sunderland: Player Ratings
Mannone – 6
Not at fault for the first goal, but wasn’t particularly commanding, nor much of a presence in the area. Not at his best, though I’m still very pleased he got the nod over Pantilimon in goal, something he deserved off the back of an excellent season last year.
Brown – 5
Moved out to right-back, Brown coped well with most things thrown at him, although wasn’t particularly inspiring. Popular with some but to me he was quite slow and offered nothing in attack.
O’Shea – 5
Did okay. Not exactly a huge presence but, on the whole, dealt with West Brom’s often lacklustre attack reasonably well.
Roberge – 4
Made the brainless decision to pull Anichebe’s shirt and hold him back – no matter how lightly – and thus gave away the penalty that got them back into the game. To be fair to him, he was thrown into this at extremely short notice, so it could’ve been more difficult to adjust to the game compared to the others.
Van Aanholt – 3
Bizarrely popular on Twitter, the “Dutch Dossena” was caught out of position constantly, completely at fault for their second goal and offered little going forward. Looked extremely weak on the ball, too. Occasionally did well, and created the second goal, but the worst player on the pitch for me.
Cattermole – 8
Scored a wonder-goal, often got hold of the ball and pushed it up-field when the others were too scared to get involved. A highly impressive performance from Catts, although we missed the long balls he pinged out wide last season. Not perfect, but the pick of the midfield.
Rodwell – 6
Was a bit disappointed, to be honest. I expected a lot more from our new signing, yet he was the worst of our midfield three, and subbed off for Gomez in the second half. Not terrible, far from it, but failed to make any sort of real impact.
Larsson – 7
Scored the goal that salvaged a point from the game, and his delivery from free-kicks was a lot better than it had been for a while. Seems to have carried on the form he had at the end of last season, today.
Johnson – 5
Produced nothing at all. Good in possession but had no final ball or goal scoring threat. Part of the reason that we looked so dire in attack for long spells of the game.
Fletcher – 6
The most dangerous of the strikers, scored a goal, although it was later disallowed. The only real threat up front, but was still off the pace for a lot of the time too, and was often slow or wasteful.
Wickham – 4
Poor. Huge physical presence, but did absolutely nothing all game. Perhaps he should be moved centrally, if Buckley is fully fit next week. Was great in pre-season but failed to follow those performances up with a goal or assist today.
The Substitutes:
Gomez – 5
All three substitutes came on late in the game, so there was little time for them to shine. Even so, Gomez did reasonably well without making much of a meaningful contribution.
Buckley – 6
Had even less time than Gomez to impress but made the most of it. Good in possession and won the ball a few times.
Altidore – 5
Can’t really judge a player on 10 minutes of football, but he did well when he had the ball.
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Not the first time I’ve disagreed with some of Keir’s ratings but I defend he’s right to express them with out resorting to abuse . Good to see a young lad whole heartedly following the Red n Whites and not one of the ‘big four ‘ or even worse that lot up the road !
Thank you!
Wouldn’t blame Roberge for the penalty at all, both he and the attacker are hands on each other and the forward goes down ridiculously easily, referee falls for it. Forward diving, foolish ref: if Roberge isn’t tight we have a go for giving too much space, not his fault in my opinion.
Surely he knows there’s a risk that’d happen? Grabbing onto him achieves nowt, can’t run that risk in this day and age.
Get off the boy’s back. As he said he’s 13, and is capable of producing thought provoking comment literally hours after the match. Whether you agree or disagree, this is some feat. Constructive criticism only please. At 13 my reading material was limited to The Beano.
Dennis the Menace…aka Catts
Not saying who is Minnie the Minx……Margaret Byrne perhaps
Good grief. Absolute decimation of the team! I disagreed with your comments massively on the defense! I have no idea what you said on anyone after Van Aanholt as it was clear that you are one of the negative fans that get on my t*ts!
???? thanks for the constructive criticism. I’ll take it on board.
FWIW, I’m consistently one of the more positive Sunderland fans out there. Held belief we’d stay up even at the Tottenham 5-1 game. I think we’ll finish top half, sign Borini and Poyet will carry on to have a very successful year. I’m 13 and can’t remember a relegation.
Perhaps you should carry on reading. I gave Cattermole and Larsson 8s.
That ???? was meant to be a thumbs up sign, dripped in sarcasm.
By the way Kier, shouldn’t you be in bed at 10 past 10?
Match of the Day was on in 20 mins, and it’s the first day of the season, and the holidays.
Decimation means one in ten is removed. It is clear that you are one of those who use words incorrectly and get on my t*ts.
The reviewer offered his opinion on this game. Nothing more. To leap to conclusions and then condemn him as negative is facile
Touche!
Actually I tend to agree. All the pre-season worries about PVA (quick going forward, not the best in defence) were in evidence here. The abandonment of his man gifted WBA a goal and nearly cost us the game. Will Buckley came on and looked very lively. I’m sure I remember Gomez misplacing the odd pass. But that’s the joy of opinions – especially those made in real time while simultaneously going through all the emotional ups and downs of supporting Sunderland – especially first game of the season.
I disagree with some of Keir’s marks. Van Aanholt’s part in the equaliser alone merited a couple more out of 10. Gomez cannot come on and help create the goal and get five when Buckley gets six.
But these are Keir’s ratings, not mine or anyone else’s. A reasoned response is better than just saying it’s poor or terrible.
I gave Buckley a six because I thought he gave the team something different to what we had on the pitch before, whereas Gomez picked up where Rodwell left off and sustained that rather than adding a different ‘dimension’, as it were.
Poor review.Watching a different game.
Details please
Terrible review!
Why?
Eloquent. Not saying they’re perfect, but that’s how I saw it. Many of you disagree but if you don’t like them, maybe you should give your thoughts too? “Terrible review” is a dazzling use of the English dictionary but why were my ratings terrible?
Also.
I’m entitled to an opinion, yes? Is that opinion terrible because you disagree with it?
Nope, not really.