Pure Poyetry on the Manchester City defeat: a simple recognition of reality

When you are beaten as comprehensively as at the Stadium of Light last night, there is no point in looking for excuses. Man City were much, much too good for us. Gus Poyet saw that and knows his job is to avoid demoralisation affecting the approach to another tough task, Liverpool away on Saturday. Here’s his post-match e-mail to Monsieur Salut and thousands more …

Dear Colin,

It was a very difficult game, especially after all of the effort we put in on Saturday.

I decided not to change too many players and we started well in the first 20 minutes of the game, but it was tough and overall they were better than us.

Sometimes you cannot complain too much – they were quicker and they were better technically.

To have a chance against the top teams you need to be spot on and perhaps they need to be a little under par.

Today was a little bit of the opposite because some of the City players found themselves in good form and we were not the best that we can be.

The idea is to keep believing in what we do. We are going to have to refresh the team ahead of the Liverpool game because there are a few heavy legs.

Saturday is going to be interesting; I’m looking forward to the game.

Thanks for your support,

Gus Poyet

And this is how M Salut saw it at ESPN: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/sunderland?cc=5739

Extract:

This was an encounter between one team assembled with unlimited resources and another possessing the qualities and limitations of journeymen … It would be far too easy to conclude that the outstanding Sergio Aguero, scorer of two and maker of another of City’s goals, was the man who made the difference. This was a dominant team effort that needed no more than the impertinence of Sunderland taking the lead to turn City’s swagger into goals..