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nutty nigel

All those who think Sunderland are no-hopers...

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They''re at home to Swansea next week. Swansea are 21/20. Fill yer boots...

Yes they''re not Man City. But we didn''t have to just turn up. We still had to win the game. Other teams will go there and draw and lose!

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It''s not so much a question of Sunderland being "no hopers" Nutty, more about their specific approach on Saturday. As Ian Wright pointed out on MOTD, they failed to press, allowing us far too much time on the ball. We know we can play in those circumstances, but since other teams will have learned the lesson, we should beware reading too much into that one game. In that respect the performance against Palace was much more meaningful IMO.

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Let be honest here, we will face much sterner tests this season, Sunderland were pretty awful but I am pleased at our professional approach and we got the job done, if slightly annoyed at conceding a bit of a sloppy goal.

We played well, got our first win of the season, an away win no less and at a ground that has often been a difficult place for us to go to.

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We will lose plenty of those sterner tests too. I wonder if those who don''t give us full credit for our wins will give us blame for our losses. Every win in the PL is hard fought and precious.

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Ginja, did you go on Saturday ? Sunderland started on the offensive and cam at us in the first 10 minutes, when we started knocking the ball around with some great triangular passing they couldn''t keep up, we looked so confident right from the start, weathered that first "burst" and took control of the game, they played as well as they were allowed.

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[quote user="Lessingham Canary"]Ginja, did you go on Saturday ? Sunderland started on the offensive and cam at us in the first 10 minutes, when we started knocking the ball around with some great triangular passing they couldn''t keep up, we looked so confident right from the start, weathered that first "burst" and took control of the game, they played as well as they were allowed.[/quote]Have to agree with your view LC.I think Sunderland started ok, but as the game progressed we just kept on pressing and harrying and passing the ball and it knocked the heart out of them. Never gave them any time on the ball or sustained possession and when we scored they reverted back to type, a team with zero confidence or belief  and no game plan. Got in their faces, kept in their faces, top performance all round.

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There is no doubt that we totally controlled the game and thoroughly deserved the points with a superb display. However any suggestion that Sunderland were anything other than woeful is disingenuous. You don''t hold a squad crisis meeting after two games if things are only a little off track.

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[quote user="Crafty Canary"]There is no doubt that we totally controlled the game and thoroughly deserved the points with a superb display. However any suggestion that Sunderland were anything other than woeful is disingenuous. You don''t hold a squad crisis meeting after two games if things are only a little off track.[/quote]Im not saying that Sunderland were or are anything but a poor side, however ...........We used to be the team that teams in poor form came good against, want to break a poor run, then play Norwich.On Saturday we did not allow them to find any form, we put our foot on the back of their neck and held them down, something that we now do that we have`nt always done.

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I don''t think they are no hopers Nutty. But if they continue to play like that, they will be one team bellow us come the end of the season.

Defoe is possibly one of the best finishers the Premier League has seen. But he looked a shadow of his ability against us. Much of that was because we stifled the supply to him.

But I also agree that we won because we worked hard, fought hard and kept going at them. I suspect AN''s approach away from home may well catch a few teams out to begin with.

They probably saw the play off final and expected us to come away from home and sit back on the counter. We didn''t, we pushed them back and kept them there.

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I''m not denying what is a good performance from the team and some impressive individual performances as well. We totally deserved the win and I give full (proportional) credit to them for getting the job done, despite what nutty says.

But even Garth Crooks who put Whittaker in his team of the week said... "Let''s not kid ourselves, Sunderland were awful."

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Sunderland were very poor, we''re not kidding ourselves of that. We turned up, got the goals and did what was required with a good performance of our own. Sunderland have enough quality to win games, they are a Premier League side (currently at least).

At lot of self-belief can go a long way. Let''s just enjoy the win and the positivity that goes along with it. Whittaker played very well and scored a very good goal, to say he performed as the best right back in the Prem this weekend is fair telling from the highlights I''ve seen of other games.

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I don''t know why it''sdespite what nutty says..

Anyway, the reality as nutty sees it is that there are teams with similar ability to us in this league. Sunderland are one of them. When these teams play each other the team that performs best on the day will have in the points. Some of you also seem to think this but prefer to take the view that the team that performs worst on the day will lose the points. Long live the happy clappers...

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Sunderland could struggle throughout their season, if this dip continues over 5 - 10 games then I would feel they are on that spiral to the championship.

The fans are clearly ready to walk out of the stadium and have lost faith in their team at this early stage.

That is my point, it is early but nothing wrong with it.

When Blackburn went down, each month that Steve Kean stayed in the job I felt they were a team on the out. When Wigan went down the cup run helped their demise from the premiership. When Wolves went down again the off the field antics helped.

The more problems that Aston Villa, Sunderland and others have that are already fragile helps us.

Sunderland did look pretty awful and for me I can see them as a team ready to slide very quickly.

We of course played some good stuff and lets hope we only get better in time and that we bring in some quality to lift us even higher. Perfect reaction from the Palace game.

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Sunderland did play poorly but it must have been how good we played as well, in fact against Crystal Palace I would also say that overall we were the better side. I''m feeling confident about this season !

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Both of what you say is true though, I prefer to see things from both sides, we were good and they were bad, both contributed to the result that is the reality.

Lets also not forget as well that on some days the best team does not always win...

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I watched the game live, I''ve watched it again here...

http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/2015/08/15/sunderland-vs-norwich-city-highlights-full-match/

So how can anyone say they didn''t press Norwich?

They did, we were just to good for them

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It must always be remembered that if Norwich City lose it''s because they are cr*p and if Norwich City win it''s because the opposition are cr*p.

Come on ........ just for a change give a little credit where it is due!

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[quote user="Ginja"]Both of what you say is true though, I prefer to see things from both sides, we were good and they were bad, both contributed to the result that is the reality.

Lets also not forget as well that on some days the best team does not always win...[/quote]

If you have any coaching badges you''ll know that there are two key phases in football - when your team has the ball, when the opposition has the ball.

Now, you can dominate a game and have the lions share of the posession but still lose if you don''t/can''t deal with the opposition when they have the ball even if it''s for as little as 30% of the game.

The same goes the other way in that if you can limit the opposition but fail to keep control of the ball for any length of time . . .

For me, against Sunderland we were better in both aspecta of the game. Sunderland did look dangerous at times but couldn''t capatalise on it. Defensively, when we had the ball they seemed to struggle with the pace and creativity we had.

In short, we didn''t allow them to play and when we had the ball we used it to great effect. The key for me is that when they were on the ropes we didn''t allow them the space or time to get back into the game!

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Jeez, there really is no point trying to have a reasoned and balanced opinion on here is there...

Fine, I give in, it was a performance worthy of a champions league place, Sunderland just couldn''t handle us, they did their best but we were just too good for them.

I''m sure the emergency meeting the club had the next meeting was on a completely unrelated matter

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[quote user="SwindonCanary"]Sunderland did play poorly but it must have been how good we played as well, in fact against Crystal Palace I would also say that overall we were the better side. I''m feeling confident about this season ! [/quote]

I''m not sure about us being overall the better side against Palace Swindon, but you sum up pretty much how I view the first two games and the confidence generated for the season ahead.

#OTBC -- that''s "On The Ball City" (for Fletcher & Savage''s benefit) :-)

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CarrowCanary wrote: "So how can anyone say they didn''t press Norwich? They did, we were just too good for them"

"Pressing" for me means pressurising the player in possession in such a way as to minimise his chances of retaining possession for his team. You don''t do that through getting one-on-one with the player, as Sunderland seemed content to do most of the time. Just compare how differently we and Sunderland went about it. When one of our players challenged for the ball, more often than not there was at least one and very often two other Norwich players in close attendance to win possession back. That''s AN''s way and we''ve done it well in both the matches played.

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You have to feel sorry for the Sunderland fans though. This is their 9th straight season in the Prem and with 40,000+ attendance every week it still doesn''t look like they''ve got bugger all to show for it.

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Thanks for the link CarrowCanary. Out all day at a family do, so I couldn''t even listen in. Decent quality video - & even the ad breaks weren''t too long to be annoying.

Extremely interesting to watch. My conclusions might upset a few people here, so I''ll keep them to myself.

I will say that I think we''ll survive as we are. I''ll also say that Sunderland are not dead & buried yet - obvious I know, but fans & pundits do get too easily carried away.

And I do think that Tettey is our most underrated player. He''s pivotal in midfield. He rarely missed a tackle on Saturday - & if he didn''t win it, he disrupted them so they couldn''t do much with the ball either - providing excellent defensive cover, & his passing is exactly what I want to see, i.e. to make sure it goes to a team-mate in a better position than he is. Got to cut down on the yellow cards though.

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The Norwich of old played well against the top teams and dropped points in the easy games.

Really happy to see Alex Neil has done away with sloppy performances for the most part against lesser teams. (let''s forget about the Wigan game :P)

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[quote user="Ginja"]Jeez, there really is no point trying to have a reasoned and balanced opinion on here is there...

Fine, I give in, it was a performance worthy of a champions league place, Sunderland just couldn''t handle us, they did their best but we were just too good for them.

I''m sure the emergency meeting the club had the next meeting was on a completely unrelated matter[/quote]

?

Over-reaction me thinks.

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We played very well and got the result we deserved.

I don''t hear to many saying Man City only won yesterday because Chelsea were crap. Chelsea looked poor because they were beaten by a superior side on the day... just as we made Sunderland look poor on Saturday.

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