Dear Colin,
It was a difficult game; very competitive with plenty of incident, but I think we played well. We needed to be strong and solid. Unfortunately we conceded a cheap goal, it was a strange free kick to say the least, but after that we didn’t give up. I’m very pleased with the players, they knew how important the game was and they played accordingly, it’s a point on the board.
We started the second half well and the substitutions changed the game; being in the stands gave me the opportunity to see things from a different point of view and we made different decisions because of that. Ricky [Alvarez], Connor [Wickham] and Patrick [van Aanholt] all did extremely well when they came on; it was a team effort today.
My staff also worked very hard and I’m pleased as I had to rely on them today, Tanno, Beas, Charlie and Antonio did very well.
Patrick made a great cross for our goal and after that it was all about the finish; if you compare the two goals ours had much more quality. I’d say it’s a well-earned point.
It was important that I went down to thank the fans at the final whistle. I thought they were magnificent. When we were losing one-nil they were the only fans in the ground making any noise. It didn’t sound like we were losing; you would have thought the home side were losing. Then after the goal we completely dominated the stands and the fans deserved to have that goal to celebrate.
Thanks for your support,
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 made-for-purpose feature – https://safc.blog/2013/07/salut-sunderland-the-way-it-is/ – and say it there
I would go further than this Dave. PVA can’t defend remove that demand on him and play him as a left winger. Free from defensive responsibilities he will be able to get forward without having to worry about getting back. He’s possibly the biggest threat we have on the left hand side because he is one of the few players we have with pace in any position.
Jones is permanently injured (as well as useless) so we are limited in the full back postions. I would consider putting Larsson back into the right back slot with Rev on the left. Given the absence of Giacci (who he”s loathe to pick anywhere and Johnson for who knows how long), then this would allow him to play Alvarez on the right (where he may prefer to play despite being a left footed player). It’s time to give Mandron, Watmore, Honeyman and Agnew a go, simply on the basis that persistence with Graham is nothing but the folly of a fool. Hard to imagine that Dumbledore could have been replaced with worse, but this is where we are.
I cannot believe Poyet wrote: ‘I think we played well.’
First half, I was wondering when I’d last seen them play worse (Southampton, probably).Improvement in the last quarter raised us to adequate
3 simple solutions. Won’t make them world beaters but will give them a chance to score.
1) Don’t play 3 defensive midfielders and Larsson (give Honeyman and Watmore a go, particularly in Cattermole’s 2 game absence. They cannot be worse than Bridcutt and Gomez)
2) Play fullbacks on the correct side so they at least carry a threat. It was a point I made after the West Brom game and I cannot believe that he went back to Vergini and Reveillere
3) Sit in the stands for at least the first half (as Peter Reid did) every game. He clearly has not been seeing things that everyone else in the ground sees (Gomez v QPR for example). If that is caused by being at ground level, rather than his inherent stubbornness, then fix it.
He picked a side to get a 0-0 and then had to change. Credit for changing early enough to make a difference but no credit at all for thinking that last nights game was one we should try and draw.
Good points Dave . Agree with all of them .Involving promising youngsters is a must if we’re going to break this cycle of signing , take your pick from , overage , overpriced , injury crocked ,average players . The quality of the squad worse than a few years ago and its telling that apart from cameos by Mannonne or Giacharini the Di Fanti/ Canio influx is now non existent . Poyet/ Congerton signings are better but not world beaters so we’ve improved slightly in that aspect but they’re not the quality of the pick of the last decade , Bardsley , Cattermole , Bent , Malbranque etc , I could go on . Poyet could certainly improve in he’s selection and tactics which are showing signs of panic and he could certainly benefit from watching a period of the match from the stands .
Bringing on van aanholt, Wickham and Alvarez changed the game, difficult to understand why they didn’t start as they are clearly the best option in their respective positions
Agreed , Poyet was looking for battlers yesterday , well it didnt work agsinst Bradford and it nearly went spectacularly wrong yesterday . Graham played he’s part and tried to fashion chances from scrap but the team was shapeless and unbalanced . The substitutions worked and we could have nicked it , but so could they . Solutions ? With this squad of players , no idea .