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Sunderland Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

thinktank

Hmmm...
Sep 28, 2004
45,893
68,893
Bad things:

The first half bored my cock off. Played too many safe/high percentage balls and no dynamism.

I'm hoping to god that the more the players get to know each other, the less they will play so friggin safe - sideways, back, sideways, back.... Mercy.

That was a horrible experience.

Good things:

Second half was a huge improvement.

We now know Capoue can definitely fill in at CB if needed.

Defoe linked up properly-ish for the first time I can ever remember.

We made loads of chances and should have had 4 today.

More angled and reversed balls were played and players running off players and anticipating more.

Townsend on the left is obviously the way forward. He was on 2 mins and set up a chance that should have been finished.

Confidence was sky high on the final whistle and team spirit looks good and the players obviously love AVB.

3 points behind second place.

Walker set the tone a good few times with searing runs deep into the oppo's half...was pleased with him today.

---------

Long way still to go for this team but there are some good signs emerging...green shoots.

Let's see if we can carry the good things over into the next game.

I'm still not hot on a lot of the play I'm seeing, but it's obvious we're gonna take a good while to gel properly with this group of players.

Oh, and Paulinho needs a rest.
 
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Wardy

Well-Known Member
Nov 13, 2008
1,015
820
If dembele can play like that every game we'd be winning every week. Totally unplayable yesterday!
 

CrazyHeart

Well-Known Member
Oct 26, 2013
3,702
4,288
If Dirty Harry watched the game, he'd also comment on Defoe...

"I know what you're thinking, punk... did he fire six shots, or only five? In all these misses I lost count myself..."
 

parj

NDombelly ate all the pies
Jul 27, 2003
3,586
5,861
It's also the case that Defoe has been hopelessly isolated in earlier matches, for same reason as Soldado - we have been playing the ball forward so sluggishly that we never deliver any crosses or through balls for either of them to attack. Defoe played well today, but that was partly because he benefited, after the first turgid half-hour, from Lennon, Holtby, Walker and others getting the ball through and behind the defence for the first time in ... well ... months.



It wasn't obvious at full speed, but the defender (was it Ki?) got a toe on it. Defoe was in line with where the ball was headed until it was deflected.

This here is what the soldado haters don't understand. We sign player who scored 95% of his goals inside box so we stop crossing the ball. All of sudden we start doing that but defoe is on the pitch. Its amazing how much better a striker looks when he has service.
 

teok

Well-Known Member
Aug 11, 2011
10,836
33,607
Just watching motd I recorded. When they went ahead it really had that feel of "not again".

Then when pauli equalised:

intense-soccer-fan-gif.gif
 

Gambler

Well-Known Member
Jan 5, 2006
846
528
Difficult to listen to Alan Parry though. I don't know if anyone earlier in the thread noticed but some his his commentary was inaccurate and embarrassing. At one point he mentioned that we hadn't won a game from behind all season. Queue Yiddos shouting 'Fulham away you £&%! ' up and down the land.

Yep spotted that, he obviously didn't see the Fulham game.

He also said our equaliser was an own goal at first.
 

bomberH

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2005
28,454
168,207
Last season we accumulated 72 points. This season we have 27 points from 15 matches, which corresponds to 68.4 points over 38 matches.

So not quite.

Sky said we're only one point down from last season. Though it is Sky, so who knows. But if true, the point is that we're heading the same way and it's not like we've gone massively backwards (bar the odd 6-0...)
 

davidmatzdorf

Front Page Gadfly
Jun 7, 2004
18,106
45,030
Whether we have fewer points after 15 games is not the correct stat to answer the original point, which I think suggested that we were 'on pace' for the same points total. We aren't. We're 'on pace' for 68.4 points, based on points per game - that's the best way to extrapolate a seasonal total from a partly completed schedule, because our first 15 matches last season were against a totally different array of teams home and away.

If you compare our results this season against the same fixtures last season (substituting promoted teams for relegated teams), we had two fewer points last season at this stage.
 

bomberH

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2005
28,454
168,207
Ok.... However you look at it, if we're 2 points off last season after 15 matches, we're not far off repeating last season's total. So we're doing well considering last season was our record tally.
 

Gaz_Gammon

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2005
16,047
18,013
I think we had less points after 15 matches last season.


Did we play Cardiff, Palace and Hull by this time last season?........eeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr NO.

Hopeless stat to judge a team on, actual points this season tells everything you need to know.
 

Ribble

Well-Known Member
Apr 13, 2011
3,504
4,776
Did we play Cardiff, Palace and Hull by this time last season?........eeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr NO.

Hopeless stat to judge a team on, actual points this season tells everything you need to know.

No but we had played Reading, QPR and Wigan. We lost to Wigan too.
 

Gaz_Gammon

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2005
16,047
18,013
No but we had played Reading, QPR and Wigan. We lost to Wigan too.


That my friend its why it's an irrelevant stat. Too many permutations (home and away games) promoted sides or even sides that have spent ............say..........100 million on upgrades.
 

cheeseman

Well-Known Member
Oct 10, 2004
3,754
910
That my friend its why it's an irrelevant stat. Too many permutations (home and away games) promoted sides or even sides that have spent ............say..........100 million on upgrades.

The "that my friend [sic]" bullshit is getting annoying. It isn't making you sound more intelligent, you know? Especially with the missing punctuation. Remember, you don't even know the meaning of the word "irony".
 

Bennys LOL

Active Member
Aug 18, 2012
617
738
That is a fucking awful team. Fuck off AVB. Don't care if I get negs for this

Sandro, Soldado, Lamela, Chiriches?


This had 11 agrees and one disagree .. funny reading through the match thread the day after, shows how WRONG and pathetic all the armchair managers are really lol.
 
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