Match Day Thread Sunderland v Bolton Wanderers – Saturday 25th September 2021 - KO 15:00

Was a really close game. No idea how they didn't score mind. They were really decent.

Embo isn't a winger. Must play as a 10. Missed Gooch for me.

 

We had the most clean cut best chances and overall deserved (just) the win. As for Mcgeady yesterday ,he had his hands full supporting the defence as I think Boltons left were very dangerous and hardworking.

 

Embleton put up quite a good demonstration of what a difficult role Gooch performs.

I wouldn't call Gooch a winger either tbh, but he defends from the front and stretches their defence.

He also puts in a lot of crosses every game that seems to be overlooked ...

... we need more than Stewart coming into the box, Winchester does that more than some of our midfield.

 

Winchester is doing fine at full back, he looks far better there than he did in mid-field. In my opinion he thrives on space, he covers distance with ease, he did not get or make space playing central so why move him. Cirkin, Doyle Flanagan and Winchester are our base to build on its the three behind Stewart that need sorting imo.

 

I think LJ's original idea was that O'Nien was to supplement Embleton and Stewart as well as either McGeady/Gooch depending on who has the ball but since O'Nien is doing the defensive midfield role and arriving late into the box doesn't really seems to be Neil's game kinda negates that plan. You saw that when Evans came on, O'Nien got into the oppositions box a lot more. Another one of those headaches for LJ to sort out

 

I'm not actually advocating moving him. @Sunderpitt suggested a change to 442 so I was making suggestions as to how that could work.
Personally, while we're winning games, I don't see the need to change very much at all. Everyone is getting twitchy because we're not cantering to victories but I think we're going to have to accept that a few hard-fought one-nils is going to be the basis of our campaign.

 

Hmm, I know not all posters on here go to all home and away games. Personally I usually go to almost home games and the occasional away game.

I ask this, cos last season just watching the TV or listening on the radio did not IMHO give a good overview of the tactics/formation/player performance of the team as a whole.

Yeah against this you can get a poor view of a particular player if those around you have a down on him. But I am not usually that easily swayed.

One thing I did reckon from last season, that the players became used to a couple of formations. This was good cos it caused problems for the opposition in setting up to counter us.

I reckon atm most players are performing well, we just need to do two things now.


1 Which we all know, is convert more chances into goals, this will deprive the oxygen from the opposition. Its brilliant that Winnesta is scoring goals, but what does that say!

2 Towards the end of the game when we are defending a narrow lead, we try and 'park the bus'. Another way of looking at it, is what we need to do is to control midfield rather than the 18 yard box.

Over to you LJ.

 

Yeah I think we'll see quite a few wins being ground out. We're a lot better set up for it compared to last season.

Bigger and better (probably) keeper, better defence in every position, better defensive midfielders, better outlets upfront.

 

5 straight home wins are a vast improvement on our recent home seasons. You'd think it's hard to be critical but improvements can be made.

 

The object of the game is to win which we did. Let’s not overthink formations etc. To me with football the simpler you can keep it the better you will play.

 

You make some good points here.

LJ said he wanted two players for each position. For me, it should be Embleton OR Pritchard in Centre Midfield, with Gooch or Dajaku on the right hand side of the three.

Personally, I like the system we're playing, but I do agree that we may need Evans and 09 in deeper roles against the top teams, particularly away from home, but in a 4-2-3-1, rather than a rigid 4-4-2.

This side is still taking shape and some players like Huggins and Dajaku are still finding their feet, but we've seen how well Cirkin has improved as the weeks have gone by, so we need to give the other new players time to bed in.

I've no doubt that by mid-November we'll see just how good this squad really is.

 

Yes I agree generally heart and soul count for a lot.

However professional sport even in League 1, it is often a game of chess...

 

Think gooch may have made a difference to that. Amazing how he gets slated by so many but you don’t realise what he dies until he isn’t playing

 

You can see that Johnson is being cagey and keeping it tight, as he's repeated the team needs to gel while, at the same time, building momentum.

We'd be daft to go all out attack until we have things properly sorted but you can see that the players are getting the message. The move for Pritchard's big chance was sublime and could've been our goal of the season. I think we'll see more of that when the confidence increases. It depends on trust and that takes time.

What impressed me yesterday was how we slowed the game down after the goal and kept hold of the ball. I know it's tempting to go for the throat but we've cut our own trying that in the past.

 

My take on League One football is that it is more of a physical nature than a mental one. To me Chelsea v Man City would be more of the game of chess. Let’s hope we are playing chess with these teams soon

 

Absolutely this. I really don't understand the grief he gets. I understand frustration at times as he gets himself into such good positions and should do better sometimes but it's the fact he regularly gets into these positions. Someone said earlier in the thread he doesn't provide enough assists. As of last Saturday he had more goal contributions than anyone else in the league

 

Yes more big strong players in L1, pumping high balls forward, set pieces play.... however playing football, passing and running will usually beat them. It all depends i suppose who you recruit.

 

It was me that said Gooch and McGeady hadn't been chipping in with goals or assisting goals.

Gooch hasn't scored any goals. He has one assist. He's played 7 games.

McGeady has scored 2 pens. He has one assist. He's played 8 games.

Primarily their jobs in that position is to assist and score goals. Neither have done that, this season. I want us to be more concerned about that than to be concentrating on whether they're defending well, or not.

 

Just to mention, we did actually win the game, we're top with games in hand over most teams ...

... and a home game on Tuesday

 

To some extent I agree with this. Where you stand at kick off, or where it says you stood, on a piece of paper, is less important than what happens in the game. Even at much lower levels, there's no way you'd go in without a game plan though.