Sessegnon’s drinking spree and Altodore’s hamstring provided both Ji and Wickham with the opportunity to silence their doubters at Selhurst Park. This and another poor first half performance saw an early return to action for Steven Fletcher. He scored of course, but to no avail. As is usual Peter Sixsmith sums up our day in only 7 words….“Oh dear” says Jake – or words to that effect
(2013-2014)
August 31 2013 Crystal Palace (1) 3 SAFC (0) 1
Nowhere near good enough for this league
August 27 2013 Capital One Cup 2nd Round: SAFC (0) 4 MK Dons (1) 2
Outplayed, outclassed, somehow got out of jail
August 24 2013 Southampton (0) 1 SAFC (1) 1
The point was better than the performance
August 17 2013 SAFC (0) 0 Fulham (0) 1 Ultimately little difference from previous two seasons
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.
13 thoughts on “Sixer’s Sevens Crystal Palace 3 SAFC 1: no honours at the Palace”
It’s our worst Prem start in the last 5 years. September is tough. We’re in trouble. PDC has to get an unexpected win against a top team. Antidote and Fletch will cause trouble if they can only be supported….hmmmmm
The fact that we turned down 4 million for Ji makes you tear your hair out.Coupled with practically giving Frazier Campbell away and paying 5 million for Graham it just beggers belief. You can’t tell me N’Diaye or even Cattermole could have done better yesterday. I’ll reserve judgement till 10 games in but I’ll be honest, I’m worried.
To be fair to PDC he had nothing to do with the selling of Campbell or the purchase of Graham. Not sure he had any control on allowing Graham to go out on loan but he has said it was his decision to retain Ji. It was also his decision to start with him twice in the past week. The manager has obviously learned something and that is to substitute Ji at half time rather than three minutes into the second half.
To be honest, although Graham hasn’t scored for us in my opinion he would provide more than Ji. The club may have been better off in playing terms accepting the offer for the Korean and keeping the Geordie but I suspect that finances have more to do with that than footballing ability.
If I was Ellis Short I’d be asking the coaching staff why so many new players have been brought in but only three of them started. Giacherinni looks good, but what has he actually produced yet? I haven’t seen Diakite live so don’t want to comment too much but I’m not 100% sure he is as immense as some would have us believe.
Last week Mark Lawrenson said “Sunderland will get relegated and Di Canio will be gone by Christmas.” I dismissed his comments at the time but he may prove to be more astute than I give him credit for.
Agree, I’m not blaming PDC for getting rid of Campbell or buying Graham, it’s a succession of bad decisions by our managers since Keane that have set us on this tail spin. Keeping Ji is a bad decision as is loaning out N’Diaye and on the face of it freezing out Cattermole .
O’Shea being sent off may be a blessing in disguise – lets see Roberge and Diakite together Diakite was immense yesterday – O;Shea as a liability – I feel nervous when he plays
A central midfield of Larson and Vaughan is nowhere near good enough – too slow and lightweight . Fletcher scored a fantastic goal , we were in the ascendecy , then O’Shea;s comical defending spoiled it all ,
As for Ji – the best I can say on tha is I’d rather play with 10 men
Diakite & Wes Brown would be my pairing, but can we ever get Brown fit?
Absolutely useless. Good teams have a spine. Westwood is too small and timid. O’Shea prone to give away free kicks in and around the box. Central midfield ? If Cabral isn’t strong enough to survive against Southampton and Palace , a bad buy. Wickham doesn’t look Premier quality, and as for Ji , well , as a Palace mate who was at Southampton with me last week said , “is he a footballer”
If Cattermole is seen to be our saviour then things must be looking desperate!
They are
I think he (PDC) needs to get Cattermole fit and onboard. He is the answer to all these leaking goals.
I have been away on holiday in the Phillipines for the last 3 weeks, and we were mostly in the jungle, I only had internet for a short period near the end and I was dismayed to see the results we have had so far.
As we lost this game today I was driving jet lagged “South” from the north east and home to the midlands.
Music for Sunderland: “The Stranglers – Something Better Change”. I feel Lee Cattermole is perhaps the only person on the playing staff to bring that about.
Watched the game at work & on phone at start of 2nd half. Was there some problem with our Korean striker? I think he has been treated pretty poorly this week and may be on the way out. As may be Gardner.
Yes, we were light in midfield. Vaughn you might not have noticed he was playing until the end of the 1st half. Ji was too timid (as I’ve said all along). Celustka seems to be fitting in well though. He always looks solid.
Johnson had pretty much another no-show, and Wickham didn’t trouble the CP defence.
Only positive is that Fletch is back!
Thought despite all that went before after Fletcher scored there was only one team who would win it and that would be us.Que kamikaze defending ,O’Shea committing a desperate, stupid tackle and game over , We had momentum up to then but don’t let that deflect away from the panic defending , useless forwards ( bar Fletcher) and the lightweight midfield .Hope this gells soon or we all know what might be coming.
It’s our worst Prem start in the last 5 years. September is tough. We’re in trouble. PDC has to get an unexpected win against a top team. Antidote and Fletch will cause trouble if they can only be supported….hmmmmm
The fact that we turned down 4 million for Ji makes you tear your hair out.Coupled with practically giving Frazier Campbell away and paying 5 million for Graham it just beggers belief. You can’t tell me N’Diaye or even Cattermole could have done better yesterday. I’ll reserve judgement till 10 games in but I’ll be honest, I’m worried.
To be fair to PDC he had nothing to do with the selling of Campbell or the purchase of Graham. Not sure he had any control on allowing Graham to go out on loan but he has said it was his decision to retain Ji. It was also his decision to start with him twice in the past week. The manager has obviously learned something and that is to substitute Ji at half time rather than three minutes into the second half.
To be honest, although Graham hasn’t scored for us in my opinion he would provide more than Ji. The club may have been better off in playing terms accepting the offer for the Korean and keeping the Geordie but I suspect that finances have more to do with that than footballing ability.
If I was Ellis Short I’d be asking the coaching staff why so many new players have been brought in but only three of them started. Giacherinni looks good, but what has he actually produced yet? I haven’t seen Diakite live so don’t want to comment too much but I’m not 100% sure he is as immense as some would have us believe.
Last week Mark Lawrenson said “Sunderland will get relegated and Di Canio will be gone by Christmas.” I dismissed his comments at the time but he may prove to be more astute than I give him credit for.
Agree, I’m not blaming PDC for getting rid of Campbell or buying Graham, it’s a succession of bad decisions by our managers since Keane that have set us on this tail spin. Keeping Ji is a bad decision as is loaning out N’Diaye and on the face of it freezing out Cattermole .
O’Shea being sent off may be a blessing in disguise – lets see Roberge and Diakite together Diakite was immense yesterday – O;Shea as a liability – I feel nervous when he plays
A central midfield of Larson and Vaughan is nowhere near good enough – too slow and lightweight . Fletcher scored a fantastic goal , we were in the ascendecy , then O’Shea;s comical defending spoiled it all ,
As for Ji – the best I can say on tha is I’d rather play with 10 men
Diakite & Wes Brown would be my pairing, but can we ever get Brown fit?
Absolutely useless. Good teams have a spine. Westwood is too small and timid. O’Shea prone to give away free kicks in and around the box. Central midfield ? If Cabral isn’t strong enough to survive against Southampton and Palace , a bad buy. Wickham doesn’t look Premier quality, and as for Ji , well , as a Palace mate who was at Southampton with me last week said , “is he a footballer”
If Cattermole is seen to be our saviour then things must be looking desperate!
They are
I think he (PDC) needs to get Cattermole fit and onboard. He is the answer to all these leaking goals.
I have been away on holiday in the Phillipines for the last 3 weeks, and we were mostly in the jungle, I only had internet for a short period near the end and I was dismayed to see the results we have had so far.
As we lost this game today I was driving jet lagged “South” from the north east and home to the midlands.
Music for Sunderland: “The Stranglers – Something Better Change”. I feel Lee Cattermole is perhaps the only person on the playing staff to bring that about.
Watched the game at work & on phone at start of 2nd half. Was there some problem with our Korean striker? I think he has been treated pretty poorly this week and may be on the way out. As may be Gardner.
Yes, we were light in midfield. Vaughn you might not have noticed he was playing until the end of the 1st half. Ji was too timid (as I’ve said all along). Celustka seems to be fitting in well though. He always looks solid.
Johnson had pretty much another no-show, and Wickham didn’t trouble the CP defence.
Only positive is that Fletch is back!
Thought despite all that went before after Fletcher scored there was only one team who would win it and that would be us.Que kamikaze defending ,O’Shea committing a desperate, stupid tackle and game over , We had momentum up to then but don’t let that deflect away from the panic defending , useless forwards ( bar Fletcher) and the lightweight midfield .Hope this gells soon or we all know what might be coming.