Sterile domination

[king canary 8,917]

Possession all well and good if you don''t actually do anything with it.

Some random thoughts...

- Maddison was excellent today, a real bright spot.

- if you''re going to play short, intricate passing around the penalty box then you have to play Nelson over Jerome.

- Watkins has some good movement but looks utterly lightweight with his back to goal.

- Wildschut may be the most one dimensional player I''ve ever seen. If you want him to run with the ball then great but do anything else? Not a chance. Can''t cross, no vision and that shot he had ended up nearer the corner flag than the goal.

- Naismith was an absolute passanger.

- We need another centre back.

[Nexus_Canary 1,253]

Reed also a total bulldog and a good heir to the #4 shirt.

My greatest worry (oddly not a centre back) is we only have 3 strikers on our books.

Nelson will he stay or will he go?

Cameron "he works so hard" Jerome

and Watkins who is not impressing yet.

That''s a real worry for me as I don''t see who is going to get us the goals to reach the top 6 right now.

Jerome is not suited to possession football.

Naismith was woeful today as well, half the time we created our own pressure by not being fast enough with the ball or misplacing a pass.

[Buh 0]

Sterile domination

Talk dirty to me baby!

[lake district canary 4,875]

Can''t let the Naismith thing pass. He was involved in a lot of good things, particularly the first half.  Not quite so effective second half, but still had a decent game imo.

[Rogue Baboon 0]

In that first half we had 75% possession and only 1 shot on target, so not sure there was too much good to be involved in

Sterile domination is a great way of putting it

[Indy 3,492]

We were 3-0 down before he went off and only after that did we really go at them looking more threatening!

Naismith is part of the issue, a Ray Wilkins type, good on the ball, great at slowing the game and passing sidewards.

Maddison was by far the best midfielder today, once Wes came on and we went 4 at the back we looked like we could have won that game!

[Nexus_Canary 1,253]

Ok agreed perhaps first half for him was better.

Second half was a joke with him just being gobby and not really contributing. Wouldn''t have rated him today.

[Nexus_Canary 1,253]

[quote user="Indy"], great at slowing the game and passing sidewards.

[/quote]

I think that was the theme of today. Lots of nice little passes and one touches but then (like back in the Hoooootan era) we reach the pen box and look utterly bereft of ideas so pass back to the defence. Was very disheartening post 30mins.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Naismith!

A few years ago I downsized and moved house.

I had some lovely furniture which I took with me but it never really went with the new place; in essence it didn''t fit.

But, I stuck with it for years because I had paid a lot of money for it even though it affected the entire appearance and flow of my home.

Eventually, I had to sell it cheaply and bought less expensive, lower quality but entirely appropriate furniture which suits where I am and how I live now.

In retrospect, for my own benefit I should have cut my losses and accepted it wasn''t working years before.

[Nexus_Canary 1,253]

Agreed, move him on rather than attempt to make it work.

[Helsinki canary 312]

Wes should of been on in place of Naismith who was far too slow, Nelson instead of Watkins for me.

[Indy 3,492]

Agree Helsinki, for me you have to start Wes, Maddison and Oliviera on Wednesday, as for the back 4, drop Zimmer, bring in Pinto and go to a back four.

[Nexus_Canary 1,253]

Drop Roomman for Franke?

If you have to drop one of the 3 has to be Franke surely.

[Mello Yello 2,585]

I accept we as a club are in a titanic transition and colossal change.....But did many of us actually expect Sunderland to take 3 points off us - in the manner they were allowed to?.....

I for one didn''t........

[Nexus_Canary 1,253]

Yeh its a biter one to take.

I think the issue rather than the loss is the fact that we were out done by a truthfully bad team.

Interestingly our nice fluid European football was beaten by classic English bone headed gamesmanship and route one.

Ironic perhaps.

[Capt. Pants 5,145]

Very little creativity today. Maddison needs to play further forward and Jerome has to move around a lot more if we are to accomodate him in that system. Watkins started brightly but second half was out muscled and looks lightweight to be honest. We have nothing on the left hand side, Husband is a neat and tidy flat back four defender but was a passenger for much of the game and I can''t see where he fits in tbh. Early days but it''s fairly clear where improvements need to be made.

[Rogue Baboon 0]

I just think we were far too easy to play against. It was laboured, slow and predictable. Dominating possession by going sideways and backwards wont win games.

Sunderland didn''t have to do a lot other than sit in and wait for a chance to arise.