No, that's not dangerous at all is it?
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few
days you’ll know that Tadanari Lee has left the club and so has a bloke who
didn’t play a minute for the club. It
wasn;t that long ago that a Chief Exec leaving a football club would have
resulted in maybe one column in a newspaper and that would have been it. I preferred those days to be quite
honest. When I started this blog it was
in the wake of the Rupert Lowe, Michael Wilde, Pinnacle fiasco which nearly
brought the club down and I said right at the start that I wanted to write
about football and not about off-the-pitch stuff. By the time that Markus came riding into town
that had all got incredibly boring.
The difference between now and then is that now we are in a
good place, moving forwards and everyone with the club at heart wants it to
continue. In 2009 no one would have
cared if all our good players were being linked with Chelsea because we didn’t
have any and “World Class skills” or otherwise, Ryan Smith was not on Jose
Mourinho’s radar. So, The Don left on
Wednesday, Mauricio Pochettino said he was staying on Thursday and on the
Friday, Katharina Liebherr echoed the managers statement that no players would
be leaving in this transfer window.
Them’s the facts. The rest is
guesswork fed by agenda driven media outlets.
More interesting news this week is that Victor Wanyama is
back in training which by my reckoning, gives us the whole first team fit. Maybe today will be too soon for him but
it’ll be nice to have the big man back. The
trip to Sunderland must have seemed like a blessed relief for all to do with the
club despite BT Sport choosing this as their Saturday lunch time kick off, once
again proving that no one gives a fuck about fans who travel to away
games. The longest trip for any set of
away fans in the whole league and it’s moved to an early kick off. I’m guessing that this wasn’t one of BT
Sports’ ‘First Pick’ matches as I reckon that Chelsea v Man United on Sky might
just be a more attractive game that this one.
Since we’ve been back in the Premier League, Sunderland have
been an uninspiring, dull and mainly crap team but having said all that, we
haven’t beaten them and we managed to be the only team who they got a point off
of this season when Paolo di Fascist was in charge. He’s gone now and of course, been replaced by
our mate Gus Poyet who as we know, is an objectionable shitbag. Shitbag or not though, he has done well to
give Sunderland a more than decent chance of staying up as they would have been
dead and buried by now if Mussolini had stayed.
Our team news contained a few surprises in that Shaw, Sir
Rickie, J-Rod and Adam were all in the team and were not part of any meltdown
or house of cards and left the club in the last 3 days. Actually, the only minor surprise was Calum
Chambers being preferred to Nathaniel Clyne at right back. Sunderland, with a semi-final 2nd
leg coming up in three days had left out Fletcher (who is their best striker)
and picked Altidore who is not only their worst striker but the worst striker
in the entire league. He’s a wardrobe,
big, immobile, heavy and generally, not a footballer.
The start of the game involves us having loads of possession
and Sunderland letting us. It’s a
remarkable start for a team in the relegation zone who are at home. We pass it about for fun, no one closes us
down and then for once we actually turn our fast start into a goal as we have a
period of pressure around the edge of the box which ends with Morgan nodding
the ball down and J-Rod finds time to bring it down, tee himself up and smash
it past Mannone on the half volley to give us a 1-0 lead. A great finish it has to be said.
It’s my first exposure to the BT Sport experience and they
have a little inset in the corner of the screen which is a bit like one of
those cameras that they have in the monkey houses at Monkey World. It’s quite amusing as it’s showing Gus Poyet
pulling faces and jumping up and down.
He’s not happy and his mood is not improved when Cattermole loses the
ball in midfield because he can’t control it, J-Rod nicks it and sets off and
Cattermole just trashes him with a cynical kick at the back of his leg. Referee Chris Foy writes ‘useless apology for
a footballer’ in his notebook.
Mannone then joins in the general shambles for Sunderland by scuffing a kick out but his luck is in as
it’s fallen to Corky who tries a pot shot at the empty net and you know the
rest. The chances keep coming and we
have a shout for a penalty as Jose Fonte goes for the ball but John O’Shea
(surprise surprise) wrestles him to the ground.
Jose makes a meal of it which probably ensure he wouldn’t get it but who
am I trying to kid – referees don’t give those unless it’s Mark Twattenburg
against us in the last minute.
Luke Shaw is the next to try his luck as he cuts in from the
left. His cross flicks a defender and
nearly beats Mannone at the near post but it pings off the woodwork for a
corner. Another great chance comes a
minute later as more superb build up ends with Sir Rickie steps over a low ball
into the box and goes for Morgan’s return ball to him but the big man’s volley
really should have found the net rather than flashing a foot wide of the far
post.
Sunderland are getting battered and in their desire to be
different to Sky and show the full match day experience, BT Sport fill the
screen with a shot of a Sunderland fan who is not impressed with what he’s
seeing. They really could have done with
muting the microphones as he screamed “HE’S SHIT’ at the top of his voice. I don’t know if he was talking about Wes
Brown at that point but I expect he was soon after as Sir Rickie caught the
orange headed defender napping and pinched the ball of him. He played a simple ball to J-Rod who just had
Mannone to beat from the edge of the box but he sidefooted a really, really,
amazingly, abominable shite effort along the ground, just to the keepers
left. If BT Sport had had their fan cam
in my house, their coverage would have had to be abandoned. Fucking rubbish effort.
It should be about 4-0 but it’s only 1-0 and then thank God,
the second goal arrived. Adam Lallana
swung over a corner and Dejan Lovren got in front of Wes Orange Head and volley
across Mannone and into the far corner to make it 2-0. Come on! If this is a meltdown and a
collapsing house of cards then let’s have some more of it.
I spoke too soon of course because Sunderland mounted an
attack for the first time through Adam Johnson who cut inside onto his left
foot and curled in a cross which floated over our centre halves and Borini stole
in, took a touch and scuffed it past King Artur who got a touch but not enough
to keep it out. For Fucks Sake. Borini had been the only Sunderland player
who had looked even remotely interested in the opening half an hour. Another fucking loan player, this time from Liverpool . How the
fuck are we only 2-1 in front?
We’re straight back on the attack and Lallana fashions a
chance which is blocked and J-Rod can’t get the rebound on target. The most surprising development of the first
half was when Altidore controlled a ball and laid it off to one of his own
players. There were ironic cheers from
the Mackem faithful which doesn’t help but you can understand it as he really
is shit. As the half wound down there
was another incident worth mentioning as the ball ran into the technical
area. It was a Sunderland throw and
Mauricio just handed the ball to Bardsley so he could get on with it. Reverse that for a minute and imagine what
Poyet would have done.
We have a final chance to re-establish the two goal lead as
Cattermole again does what he does best and fouls Steven Davis nowhere near the
ball. It’s right of centre and about 30
yards out and Sir Rickie’s effort is well hit and going in but Mannone gets
across well enough to keep it out. Half
time and it is quite staggering that we are only one in front. There is no way that Sunderland can possibly
be as bad in the second half.
Predictably we don’t start the second half too well and we
are grateful to Larsson for butchering a chnce when he messed up a simple ball
into the path of Johnson. Sunderland
look woeful at the back when we get on the attack though and Shaw is allowed to
run the entire length of the pitch before hitting a shot at Mannone which the
swallows up easily enough. It’s end to
end stuff now and Sunderland win a free kick,
Bardsley takes it quickly and Borini fires wide. Chris Foy then pisses us all off by allowing
them another go as he wasn’t ready, the tosser.
They cocked it up – tough shit!
We’re still looking decent going forward though and a move started
by Chambers ends with the right back hammering in a shot from distance but once
again it’s straight at Mannone and he saves easily. Another fast paced passing moves sees the
ball travel in between the front three and J-Rod again fails to test Mannone
with another daisy cutter from the edge of the box.
There’s more simple save practice for the keeper as Jose
heads straight at him from a corner and the Shaw shoots straight at him after a
move which was started by Chambers barging over a Sunderland
player. Poyet has seen enough and
replaces the ponderous Larsson and Cattermole with Colback and Gardner who
would at least add some running and effort.
Sunderland nearly equalized straight
away as Borini fastened on to a through ball and slotted under King Artur but
the flag was up before I started swearing.
Altidore then forgets he’s a footballer which is understandable and
decides he’s an all in wrestler and he wraps his arms around Chambers and
throws him to the ground.
And then it happened as Chambers got caught upfield and Ki
charged forward and the ball was easily worked across to Johnson who took on
Shaw on the outside who didn’t get tight enough and then lashed it at the near
top corner. King Artur really should
have saved it but he got a dose of the chocolate wrists and allowed it to find
the near top corner. I had a massive
deflating feeling of “we’re going to fucking lose this now”. It was like the Villa home game all over again.
Mauricio decided what was needed was Gaston Ramirez who he
surprisingly brought on without taking Corky off. Instead it was Lallana who departed. Cue more Sunderland pressure as Gardner got a
shot away from the edge of the box which The King did well to save before
distinguishing himself once more as the corner broker to Fletcher (who had come
on for the useless American lump) and a star jump block averted the
danger. Oh shit, something else has gone
wrong as Artur is limping and Super Kelvin Davis (as no one up here who
remembers his one season and 120 goals conceded for Sunderland calls him) is
warming up.
Ki, who has already been booked then does a Cattermole and
loses the ball with poor control and grabs Gaston and spins him round. Gaston keeps going but surely when this move
ends, the ref is going to go back and give Ki a second yellow. On goes Gaston past Brown and when he’s right
on the edge of the box and about to shoot, Brown tackles him and absolutely
poleaxes him. Surely that’s a foul and a
red card isn’t it ref? Oh no, on we go
and Sunderland break whilst Gaston is stricken in the penalty area. The ball goes wide right, Dejan slides in too
try and clear and loses it to Gardner who he tries to hack over but succeeds
only in injuring himself. Carnage. Two stretchers later and Yoshida and JWP are
on. Firstly, Brown does get a touch on
the ball but he’s landed high on Gaston’s ankle and it really looks like a
broken leg from the replay. It’s a
fucking dangerous tackle however you look at it and in a day and age where pretty
much everything is given, I can’t believe the ref has left it, the fucking
clown. Dejan has done himself I’m afraid
but if the ref does his job and either gives the free kick or stops the game
because there’s a bad injury then the second injury doesn’t happen. Needless to say, Ki didn’t get a second
yellow.
Six minutes of injury time are added and you can tell the
ref knows he’s fucked up from the next decision when JWP gets given a free kick
for nothing. We waste the free kick,
survive one last Sunderland corner and that’s that. On the way from the ground to the airport,
the team coach must have ran over 13 black cats. Ironic considering who we were playing.
The only way this game could have been any more annoying is
if we’d managed to lose. From the moment
I stopped celebrating Dejan’s goal, my mood just got darker and darker as we
missed chance after chance and let Sunderland off the hook. Then at the end we got the double injury blow
and I was boiling over. A lot of this of
course is our own fault but it’s another game where we really didn’t get the
rub of the green from the referee or from whoever was handing out good fortune.
For half an hour we were brilliant and managed to turn our dominance into goals
and at 2-0 we were cruising. A minute
later we were not cruising because we’d let Sunderland score with their first
attack. From then until Sunderland’s
equalizer we missed chance after chance to kill it off and then looked more
likely to lose it as we collectively seemed to get knackered at the end. It has to be said that Poyet’s changes in midfield
stopped Corky having the freedom of the park and it was amore even game from
then on in.
I’d have taken a draw at the start though so at least we
have that positive to take out of it.
Mauricio seemed philosophical about the result and more worried about
the injuries as you would be when one player leaves needing oxygen and the other
has his foot bent at 90 degrees to his shin.
In today’s climate I cannot believe that Brown wasn’t
penalised for the tackle on Gaston. Yes
he’s just about won the ball but he’s wiped Gaston out as his foot has landed
on Gaston’s ankle. Apologists have said
that it was only a one footed challenge etc and that’s true but it’s a high
one. If it was along the ground like
it’s supposed to be then he doesn’t land on the ankle does he? How is that tackle not dangerous? So, we have two bad injuries and true to
form, Poyet is moaning that it robbed his team of momentum. What an odious shit he is. For no other reason other than him, I really
hope Sunderland get relegated. I’ve got
nothing against the fans or the club but I want Poyet to fail and fail
horribly. I will even be supporting Man
United in the League Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg. I bet Sunderland get through.
The wasteful finishing does my head in. J-Rod scored a great goal and spent the rest
of the game reverting to type and giving the keeper practice. The worst miss was the one where Sir Rickie had
robbed Brown and teed it up on a plate and he just shat it straight to the
keeper. Sir Rickie should have scored
with the volley after the 1-2 and there were so many other efforts that just
gave Mannone catching practice. The
stats will say he made 15 saves or whatever but how easy was it for him? The other key point was conceding from
Sunderland’s first attack when we were still celebrating our second goal. Half time at 2-0 and they would never have
come back. There were some good
performances from Jack Cork in particular which will make it interesting when
Big Vic returns. The big man will and
should walk straight back into the side and you have to think that it will be
Corky who drops out but I’d make a case for him to play further forward as an
option for Steven Davis or JWP. Luke
Shaw and Calum Chambers were unplayable at times but both full backs however
let themselves down a bit on the second goal as Chambers was caught miles
upfield as they broke and Shaw didn’t get near Johnson as he shot. To be honest, Clyne would be at right back in
my team every time at the moment as he’s a better defender and Danny Fox...
nah.
The front three of Sir Rickie, Adam and J-Rod all played
well I thought aside from the aforementioned poor finishing. Some of the link up play was excellent and on
another day we would have scored 6. I
find it quite depressing to read all the stuff slagging off Sir Rickie in
particular as it seems like a bad 20 minutes at the end of the game when the
whole team is struggling is enough to undo 100 goals over four years in the
eyes of many. Does the fault lie with
the big man though? The whole point of a squad is to have players to come in
when they are needed. The player who
should come in when Sir Rickie is struggling and maybe needs a rest is The
Argie-Italian Rock ‘n’ Roll Pirate but since he first appeared – he’s been
available for less than half the games due to injury and bollock kicking. He needs to start contributing and all will
be better off for it.
Post match we had more media speculation along the lines of
Katharina wants to sell the club, Cortese Chinese Wang Consortium to buy it,
Katharina to appoint new CEO from Newcastle / Liverpool or more likely,
Blackburn. Luke Shaw is still off to
Chelsea and Sir Rickie is still off to West Ham. I guess this will all continue for ages and
certainly until our next game which is at home to Yeovil in the FA Cup on
Saturday. The fifth round beckons if we
do a professional job. Let’s go to work.
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