Michael* Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 You always expect criticism after a defeat, although the sheer volume of it was a bit surprising on Wednesday night. Losing to the Premier League champions isn’t going to horrifically damage our season - it would have been nice to have continued our little streak of home wins against them, but realistically, that was never going to last. Highly dubious decision to include Coates, though. He was thrown in at the deep end and unfortunately it showed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Back to back wins for Lambert's lambchops, Dortmund off the bottom of the register and Liverpool out of the Champions League: thanks Santa! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Brendan completely out Brendan-ed himself the other night, removing his only recognised striker when he needed two goals in 45 minutes. David Moyes reached similar levels of self-parody in the game against Fulham (blasting 80-odd crosses in the general direction of the opposition box), and only lasted a couple of months afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Mignolet? More like Me-no-play! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Barkley, Bale, Cahill, Johnson, Carroll. Bloody British players, always diving! :persuazn: Some of our fans have unbelievably short memories. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until I'm proven wrong, we're much improved since last year. Granted, ten draws in sixteen games is too many, but six of them have been against top ten sides (three against the current top four). Poyet has been successful in turning defeats into draws, the acid test will be in the second half of the season when he attempts to turn draws into wins. We've played the majority of the better teams at home already, which means we can focus on beating the teams around us. Starting now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Last sixteen of the Gazprom Chumbawumba League draw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Cool, a repeat of the '97 final. Arsenal's prayers well and truly answered there, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Some of our fans have unbelievably short memories. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until I'm proven wrong, we're much improved since last year. Granted, ten draws in sixteen games is too many, but six of them have been against top ten sides (three against the current top four). Poyet has been successful in turning defeats into draws, the acid test will be in the second half of the season when he attempts to turn draws into wins. We've played the majority of the better teams at home already, which means we can focus on beating the teams around us. Starting now.Perhaps it's perception over reality but Sunderland's record against the fellow strugglers last season seemed curiously poor. A Hail Mary win like at Chelsea and point that should've been three at City were tremendous efforts that ultimately proved telling but I don't know if I'd bet the proverbial whatever on them beating Burnley at home. That being said, I'd be surprised if they ended up deep in the relegation picture this time out and though I'm skeptical of Poyet I agree that a year of incremental improvement is lot better than being a fiasco, as was so recently the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Perhaps it's perception over reality but Sunderland's record against the fellow strugglers last season seemed curiously poor. A Hail Mary win like at Chelsea and point that should've been three at City were tremendous efforts that ultimately proved telling but I don't know if I'd bet the proverbial whatever on them beating Burnley at home. That being said, I'd be surprised if they ended up deep in the relegation picture this time out and though I'm skeptical of Poyet I agree that a year of incremental improvement is lot better than being a fiasco, as was so recently the case.Our late surge to safety, while stunning, was such a freak occurence that I'm almost tempted to strike it from the record. I always think back to last season's home defeat to West Ham, the last in a long line of 'do or die’ games that we failed to make any impact in. Poyet was a man at the end of his tether afterwards, the team wasn’t good enough and he'd tried too many different combinations of players and formations. But, whether by design or sheer dumb luck, he and his staff managed to create that platform in the end, and they appear to have worked fairly sensibly over the summer in order to build on it and just generally calm things down a bit. By no means has it been scintillating stuff, but compared to that dire game against West Ham, I'll take it. The tipping point will yet again come in January when we have to act quickly to bring in reinforcements who can hit the ground running. We've paid the price for backing managers to the hilt financially so many times before, only to be let down by under-performance and complacency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 What license does Phil Neville have to commentate on Bundesliga games? The same one Marco Reus has to drive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 A duel on the patio between Roy Keane and TC23? Like their respective contributions to Aston Villa, how pointless! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 D'oh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 A deservedly miserable end to an unfathomably bad four and a half months for BVB. Maybe everyone's just so busy in their heads planning their respective departures to 'greater' pursuits next summer that they forgot about the meantime. Lewandowski never did that and let me tell you, none of these guys are fit to tie big Robert's laces. A lot of reputations are dying in the dust right now, not least JK who has the mother of all winter breaks ahead. Any well wisher who wants to romanticise this as some inevitable 'Dortmund being Dortmund' charming, lovable decline I urge to wake up pretty quickly. Meanwhile a certain elderly Dutch turkey necked weirdo with a bad dye job rolled into town and failed to comprehend what even El Moyesy grasped implicitly: beat Aston Villa like the feeble beasts we are for you are Yanited and that is what Yanited do. Not even Magna Carta is as fundamental to British life as us losing this game is, it's like observing traffic lights, you don't even think about it, you just quietly observe and move on. But not this time, not even a referee with subjective leanings could dishearten Lambo's lions. Having said that, indicative of how rubbish he is was the fact that we looked far more menacing after the Agbonlahor farce. Every supporter I've spoken to said we shouldn't even appeal the red because we'd be better off without him, though that's presumably based on the assumption that Chuck "Le Crap" N'Zogbia doesn't replace him. D'oh!If I were a Sunderland supporter I'd frame a copy of Pardew's contract over the mantel piece. A minimum of four points every season for eight years? Yes please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 I for one would be quite happy if Agbonlahor were to sit it out on Sunday, he almost always seems to score against us. The good news for 'Pardiola' is that he's the first Newcastle manager to survive four straight defeats in the derby game. The bad news for him is that it's because that's never happened before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 I for one would be quite happy if Agbonlahor were to sit it out on Sunday, he almost always seems to score against us. Walked right into that one, didn't I? A bit like Steven Taylor last weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 Taxi for Neil "no eyebrows, no job" Warnock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 Steve 'Tenth Yer Know' Bruce must have won more games against us in the past year than he won for us in his final year as our manager, and the fact that Hull are by far and away the worst side seen at the SoL this season just makes it all the more galling. If it hadn’t been for a truly abysmal display by ourselves (and to a lesser extent, referee Andre Marriner) they would have been there for the taking after the first minute. Instead, the players slipped all-too-easily back into complacency mode, succeeding only in killing our post-derby day buzz stone dead. Get it together please, Gus. Taxi for Neil "no eyebrows, no job" Warnock. I pray this doesn't mean the Neil Warnock media machine kicks into gear and he'll be back on my TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 Oh Paul, how many more utterly rancid performances does Lardo N'Zogbia have to put in before you realise that Jack Grealish, though very raw, is light years more likely to help us score some goals? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael* Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 We'd not won in our last six Premier League meetings with Villa and to be honest, I wasn't expecting an alteration to those stats today, particularly after the whole Boxing Day fiasco. Another away point and a clean sheet are of course welcome, but our nasty habit of rushing our final ball late on in games came close to costing us even that. 'Twas a battling performance by the home side after the slightly iffy red card, the lad Grealish looks very handy indeed. We started 2014 in 20th place and have ended it in 14th. That represents progress, ask anyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Just £9.99! Warning: disc may stench of small time nothingness! Hard to believe this giant of the global game currently don't have a manager! Does anyone know where I can order the Best Of Pepe Mel Boxset?! Alan Irvine, we hardly knew ye; Tim Sherwood, let us reacquaint ourselves with thee! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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