We didnt turn up. Like at Burnley

Burnley have only lost 2 all season.
They are top of the league for a good reason - they`ve earned it.
On 29th of October we were 21st on goals scored.
On 22nd January we are 6th.
We`ve lost just three league games in 12 under Michael Carrick.
Perspective!
Perspective!
 
It wasn’t a penalty IMO but Sunderland were the better side and deserved to win. It was tight-ish throughout but we didn’t do enough. It was just one of those days.

I think it highlights the holes in our team. We are so, so desperate for some real quality and power in our midfield. We’re operating with the same two central midfielders week after week and I don’t think Howson is really what we need week in, week out. Surely we can’t go through yet another window without strengthening that area.

I thought Forss was poor, McGree was barely in it, Giles was nullified. You have to say that Mogga set them up to pin us in and it worked. Stewart was a right handful. Their little nippy forward players made way more impact on the game than ours did.

We just have to move on. We’ll be fine next week I’m sure. We’ve had our wings clipped, that’s all. We’re still a top half side chasing the playoffs. Nothing has changed.
 
It wasn’t a penalty IMO but Sunderland were the better side and deserved to win. It was tight-ish throughout but we didn’t do enough. It was just one of those days.

I think it highlights the holes in our team. We are so, so desperate for some real quality and power in our midfield. We’re operating with the same two central midfielders week after week and I don’t think Howson is really what we need week in, week out. Surely we can’t go through yet another window without strengthening that area.

I thought Forss was poor, McGree was barely in it, Giles was nullified. You have to say that Mogga set them up to pin us in and it worked. Stewart was a right handful. Their little nippy forward players made way more impact on the game than ours did.

We just have to move on. We’ll be fine next week I’m sure. We’ve had our wings clipped, that’s all. We’re still a top half side chasing the playoffs. Nothing has changed
Maybe teams will suss us out like they did with wilder after a honeymoon period. To me we still have a midfield which couldn't tackle a Sunday dinner we need to recruit a defensive mid asap.
 
I don't care we lost. It's not a derby to me.

In all seriousness, we were poor. But undoubtedly we will finish above them. Especially if Stewart moves on.
 
Maybe teams will suss us out like they did with wilder after a honeymoon period. To me we still have a midfield which couldn't tackle a Sunday dinner we need to recruit a defensive mid asap.
Not sure they’ll suss us out necessarily, but they will definitely target that area of our team. We have a few weaknesses and opponents will go for them. We do ideally need to strengthen in this window. That gap in the middle has been there since Grant had to stop.
 
Without Stewart up front they finish bottom half. I would fully expect a PL team to come in for him. They are skint and have no ambition
 
Without Stewart up front they finish bottom half. I would fully expect a PL team to come in for him. They are skint and have no ambition
I am not convinced he would be a success in the PL his biggest asset is his pace but that would be very much nullified and I don't think he has much else
 
I thought we were a bit sluggish in the first half and Sunderland were slightly better in that half. They had three really good chances that half, two were due to our poor defending. (Fry and Steffan). We had 1 - Forss shot that was parried just round a post. Obviously one good chance was not good enough. Giles who is normally a threat struggled to get forward in the first half.

At the start of the second half the ref really gifted them a penalty and sent one of our players off for an offence that is not normally a foul and was very debatable if in the area. Steffan saved the pen but the ball fell nicely for Sunderland to score on the rebound. Obviously with 10 men from the 49th minute made life more difficult, but we surprisingly created more chances with 10 men than 11 and possibly more chances than Sunderland. The challenge late in the game on Akpom looked more a pen than Fry's sending off. VAR may have helped us today whenh the ref appeared influenced by the large home support.

Over full game:

Sunderland goal attempts 17 with 6 on target
Boro goal attempts 14 with 6 on target

Different from the Burnley game on stats and refereeing. Sunderland looked a decent side but not in the same class as Burnley. They quickly closed us down in midfield and had pace down their wide positions when going forward. The Championshjip is very tight in the play off places with Sunderland only 1 point behind us. I think a lot of us got a bit carried away with our recent results. Our team still needs a bit of strengthening. Howson still make some decent contributions but he can't quite do what he did a few years ago. A few too many square pegs in round holes. For example Is Smith a full back, Is Forss a winger? Steffan always looks like he has one serious passing error in him, every game. Giles needs someone the double up with him when defending. I don't like it when he is left in 1 to 1 defending positions.

Crooks looked a bit lost as a forward today. His lack of pace did not help. With hindsight I would have played him as a sub or midfield and pushed Akpom or Forss further forward. Archer looked to have some pace when he came on that Crooks was missing. When Crooks came off after the sending off we looked more of a threat. The Gazette reporter did say before the game that he thought Crooks would be dropped for Archer to give us more pace going forward and that might have improved our threat from the beginning. Crooks looked the type of player that suited the Sunderland centre halves.

Reflecting back we need to address the first half underperformance.
 
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We just need to write this one off as a bad day at the office, don’t dwell on it, regroup and win against Watford on Saturday, which I am really confident about, based on our group of games under Carrick, we will finish above Sunderland in a play off spot, it is a marathon not a sprint, they were up for it today, we weren’t these things do happen occasionally.
 
I am not convinced he would be a success in the PL his biggest asset is his pace but that would be very much nullified and I don't think he has much else
Maybe, without him they are flirting with relegation and someone will take a chance on him. Their whole model is about doing it on the cheap. They will sell him first chance they get.

Funny like, our biggest gate of the season was boxing day, second biggest gate was Sunderland.

Sunderlands biggest gate of the season was boxing day and second? The TV game at 12 o'clock, against a team they don't care about. 😂😂
 
As I posted on the Carrick Out thread (that seems to have mysteriously disappeared for some reason) the other factor today was the state of the pitch - it was horrendous and suited their hoofball tactics but not our passing play

Having said that, we were still 5hite and deserved nothing - just one of those days
 
The officials decided the game today. The Fry/Stewart incident wasn't a penalty and probably wasn't a red card.

Chuba should have had a penalty.

But we were poor today and on the balance of play sunderland deserved the points. We really need to learn from this and move on.
 
It was a foul and red card he made no attempt to play the ball

Hardly touched him. Never a foul, he dived, he went down because he choose to not because of what Fry did. All irrelevant though, what's done is done.

Sunderland deserved the win. Stewart run us ragged. Shame for Sunderland he will be gone by next season.
 
I've watched quite a bit of Sunderland this season, thats probably as well as they've played. Obviously we contributed to our own downfall today.

If we'd played as well as we have most weeks under Carrick it's a comfortable victory for me. Their front four will cause teams problems but there's only Diallo with any real quality. Roberts and Clark look flashy but far to inconsistent and their end product is usually poor. Stewart's decision making is poor although his finishing is decent so he'll get a few.

Their defence is shocking though, real shame we couldn't put them under sustained pressure.
 
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