The difference

[Nudga]

Between us and Sunderland, out of possession in the middle 3rd Sunderland sat back with plenty of players behind the ball.
As soon as it gets into their defensive 3rd,they were much much quicker at closing down than we were at the other end.
They played a 4231 and were quite happy to sit 10 players behind the ball.
Playing that system overloaded the midfield 5 to 3, leaving our front 3 isolated.
I think GM should have seen this early on and either matched their formation or gone with a wide 442 when in possession and a narrower shape when out of possession.
We didn't take care of the ball well enough when under pressure and also tried going over the top from deep positions far too often. Kanes passing range isn't that good yet to be firing long range missiles on the strikers toe.

Like I said last week, too early for this squad of players to go up. Some nous and some steel in midfield required for the next step up.

[Chris Black come back]

Kane very unlikely to be with us next season if we are in League One. Rowe also looking less than certain. This leaves just Whiteman and Crawford in midfield. Personally not convinced Crawford can dominate enough games and does not have consistency of Whiteman. We need another midfield metronome we can always slot in there.

[Copps is Magic]

Kane's, Copps' and Whiteman's passing today was off big time, but then again they appeared to be under instruction to pass it long more than we usually do. I don't know why, we've got technically gifted players, just be patient and play it round them.

Sunderland are just one of those teams with tall, athletic, no nonsense defenders and they defended us well to be honest.

[glosterred]

Whiteman was woeful in the first half, surprised he started to be honest. Copps wasn’t much better and seemed to lack energy. But our passing throughout the whole game was poor, very poor from all players


COYR

[redbrez]

Anyone think the players have gone back to last season's football ,playing more trying to control possession,  and it's more slow sidewards and back passing  , no one attacking with pace , and are passing has been shocking of late , what's happened to Blair using his pace ? Cannot  remember  the last time he tried running past a defender ?, feels like we have gone back to a fergie style football, but on a posotive where still good at home .

[dickos1]

Blair is playing right back which is why you’re not seeing him flying down the wing.
Today was slow and lots of passing sideways and backwards because of how we were set up and how they were set up.
We had no width and were outnumbered in the middle of the park

[Copps is Magic]

We had no width and were outnumbered in the middle of the park

Core blimey!

That sounds terminal.

[Nudga]

Anyone think the players have gone back to last season's football ,playing more trying to control possession,  and it's more slow sidewards and back passing  , no one attacking with pace , and are passing has been shocking of late , what's happened to Blair using his pace ? Cannot  remember  the last time he tried running past a defender ?, feels like we have gone back to a fergie style football, but on a posotive where still good at home .

I actually think we should have played it around more in our own half for the first 30 minutes to quiten them down and pull them out if their positions.
We got caught by playing it forward to early at times when there was nothing on

[Copps is Magic]

Anyone think the players have gone back to last season's football ,playing more trying to control possession,  and it's more slow sidewards and back passing  , no one attacking with pace , and are passing has been shocking of late , what's happened to Blair using his pace ? Cannot  remember  the last time he tried running past a defender ?, feels like we have gone back to a fergie style football, but on a posotive where still good at home .

I actually think we should have played it around more in our own half for the first 30 minutes to quiten them down and pull them out if their positions.
We got caught by playing it forward to early at times when there was nothing on

Correct.

[StocksArmy]

3 factors lost us that game or in fact had a massive take on it......

1. Team selection
2. Formation
3. The players

Thought on a whole we absolutely failed today from top to bottom. This was a game where we should have played with no fear and it was totally opposite. I dont know what was said in that dressing room and what the idea was to set up as we did but that was wrong from start to finish.

[since-1969]

I thought we played they we normally play when we go away ,lack lustre and poor in possession . We seldom go looking to turn teams over . Sunderland had a game plan and played to their strengths . Marquis had little or no service and key players Copps Whiteman were  not at their best. We have a good side but just not good enough .

[dickos1]

Anyone think the players have gone back to last season's football ,playing more trying to control possession,  and it's more slow sidewards and back passing  , no one attacking with pace , and are passing has been shocking of late , what's happened to Blair using his pace ? Cannot  remember  the last time he tried running past a defender ?, feels like we have gone back to a fergie style football, but on a posotive where still good at home .

I actually think we should have played it around more in our own half for the first 30 minutes to quiten them down and pull them out if their positions.
We got caught by playing it forward to early at times when there was nothing on

Problem was it wasn’t pulling them about though as they were just letting us have it in our own half. Which then meant there was nothing on further up the park,
We had no width, the only time we looked remotely dangerous was when we got Wilkes in over the top

[Nudga]

Anyone think the players have gone back to last season's football ,playing more trying to control possession,  and it's more slow sidewards and back passing  , no one attacking with pace , and are passing has been shocking of late , what's happened to Blair using his pace ? Cannot  remember  the last time he tried running past a defender ?, feels like we have gone back to a fergie style football, but on a posotive where still good at home .

I actually think we should have played it around more in our own half for the first 30 minutes to quiten them down and pull them out if their positions.
We got caught by playing it forward to early at times when there was nothing on

Problem was it wasn’t pulling them about though as they were just letting us have it in our own half. Which then meant there was nothing on further up the park,
We had no width, the only time we looked remotely dangerous was when we got Wilkes in over the top

Yes, they were letting us have it in our own half but they wouldn't have been able to do that for long periods at home.
I actually thought Sunderland had set up like the away team.
It was us that got jumpy and tried too many raking balls and lost possession easily.

[dickos1]

I think we were just tactically outdone, copps and wilks had two men on them straight away, they were making Kane and whiteman come far too deep to get the ball, and closed all the gaps between the lines which we usually use well.
We needed to change the system and bring some width into the game, this system was starting to struggle a few weeks ago and we were enforced into changing the system which brought 4 wins on the bounce so not sure we needed to go back to the system which was struggling