Good defensive start to the season. Bruce knows how to construct a defence as we all seen throughout the first half of the season. Just then we had bent to win us the games then. It's not all bad even if it looks that way after we lost to the mags. Were in for strikers and if we get one then surely the season is looking positive. Oh wait Bruce was a mag fan when he grew up, so was colback. He needs to be paid off! Theres a long way to go and its not all bad. Chelsea next, should be a breeze after beating them 5 4 on aggregate last season.
Defensive is the word, against Swansea, Newcastle and Brighton! I'm sorry mate, I honestly believe we have a better and stronger side than those teams.
I suspect Chelsea will turn you over however things are not as bad as you all seem to think. You will probably scrape top 10 this season again (my prediction is 9th for you) which I am sure you will all agree would be a good season. Get a striker (Gyan looks like a second striker more so than a main one) and drop Sess to the left(he is a damn fine player) and maybe get in another quality CB as I am not convinced by Anton and you will do well
As long as it's a comfortable 9th I can live with that. Totally agree about Sess, makes me less worried about the left side. A striker definitely and hopefully played with two up against similar specced teams. Defensively we are pretty solid plus plenty of midfielders we have strength in depth now. As for Anton he is improving the more game time he gets. (Plus he has now realised row Z is a viable option when defending )
I have to disagree MR. Sides who play defensively dont create the ammount of chances that we've been creating. Once we start sticking them in the onion bag we should be flying!....KTF
We usually give the big teams a good game so I'm not counting us out of a shock just yet! It's the type of mental thing we'd do. Doom and gloom lose to Brighton and then go on to beat Chelsea... As for your Anton comments, he has been our most consistent performer this season. He has had his critics last year before and does occasionally look a bit clumsy but the experienced head of Brown has really brought out the best in him. He deserves his place atm I'd still like to think anywhere from 7th downwards is possible. We've looked good at the back and created chances, once we start taking them you'll see the best of us and we'll push up the league. However the longer we are waiting for the goals to flow, the harder it will get. 4 points from Chelsea and Norwich will set us straight...
Love it if we turned Chelsea again. TBH, I'd rather be playing them than the Manchester teams right now.
I know what you're saying mate I just want us to be more positive. We actually have the players now to put up a canny attacking show. Against Swansea we were sitting too deep, first half the commentator actually said he couldn't believe we looked as though we were set up to sit in and counter on the break. By the way this isn't me being knowledgeable after the fact, as i was posting the same time as the match was played and was saying the same then. I think when that shot hit the woodwork I said at the time we were inviting them on. Individual flair players creating chances forcing us forward was what happened. Yes Sess I'm talking about you, I want to have your babies.
I quite agree Sid. But with Bruce having had a long distinguished career at Man U, you would have thought that a little of what SAF has, would of rubbed off on him. Do you ever see Man U playing defensive, do you ****. Yesterdays game was a fine example, the game was effectively over at half time, yet they come out all guns blazing and end up scoring 8. Its no co-incidence that they get so many late goals to either save or win a games. What I and probably all Sunderland supporters want is a team that goes out and sheds blood for the cause if need be. How many times last season were we leading only to conceed in the last few minutes to lose points. Bruce needs to realise that the best form of defence is attack. If you have the ball in the opponents half of the field they are not going to score.
Your best chance playing defensively is a draw a solid defence is no use whatsoever if you aren't scoring goals.
Uh, shouldn't you lot have ambitions to beat Swansea? They're the prime relegation candidate coming up through playoffs and you consider a 0-0 draw a successstory? Gee. We're 7 points out of 9 and Im miffed, we shoulda really beat easily.
