Sunderland Fall to Hull....Again

Article by e-Sunderland Correspondent Ben Mummery

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Well well, that wasn’t very good now was it!

Three games against Hull, three embarrassing defeats – but at least we managed to keep eleven lads on the field this time!

Before we start, let me get this out of the way – Andrea Dossena is not a footballer. I’m not sure what he is, but he’s not a footballer and I’d like him to kindly go away thank you very much, please leave.

There’s no getting around it, last weekend's performance against Hull City in the FA Cup Quarter Final was nothing short of awful. To a man, the Sunderland players were simply not at the races. The game itself was awful to boot, with a considerable lack of quality on both teams, as disappointing as that is to say!

Equally annoying, was the fact that Roy Keane’s half time comments were spot on, both teams were rubbish, and the game did not reflect the standard of a match played between two Premier League teams. In fact, it’s probably about right to suggest that the standard of the match was about the same standard of ITV’s coverage of the game, and the inevitable switch over to BBC to watch the Rugby came all to prematurely for my liking.

Gus Poyet’s selection of the starting eleven certainly raised some eyebrows, however I myself had no particular reservations. One eye would definitely have been on the Palace game this Saturday, and with six changes in his team, Poyet did roll the dice a little bit. That said, no manager wants his team to be beaten, and the gaffer will almost certainly have said to his players that this was their chance to have their moment in the spotlight while he rested the likes of Johnson, Borini, Brown etc. This was a real opportunity for players like Vergini, Giaccherinni, Scocco, to put their stamp on a game and get the fans really talking about them. Instead, many feel they let the club down a little bit with some lackluster football. There’s no doubting the ability of Giaccherinni, but he seems to just be a little off the Premier League standard, and needs to have more of an impact on games, especially given the talent he clearly possesses.

I will also resist the temptation to have a pop at Lee Cattermole. He had a mare yesterday, and two awful pieces of football lead to 2 goals for Hull, but he still slogs his guts out every time he pulls a shirt on, and his efforts are never in any doubt. It’s fair, I believe, to say that there was only Cattermole and Bardsley who looked up for a fight yesterday, which is a very disappointing observation, but an observation none the less.

There has been a real lack of quality attacking options at Sunderland in my eyes, since Darren Bent left us. Steven Fletcher’s eleven goals last season aside, we seem to have been unable to tie down a real quality front man for quite some time, and with the Scotsman not firing this season, the goal drought seems to have continued. Fabio Borini has been a star player no doubt, but has played most of his games in the wide left position. Should we be able to stay in the premier league this season, it’s clear to all Sunderland fans that we need to go into the market, and pay good money for a striker who can find us fifteen to twenty goals a season again. 

And that, is what it’s all about now – staying up. There are no more cup competitions to blame for “distracting” our league form, and one hundred percent of the remaining football this season must be aimed at our survival. There can be no more substandard selections from Poyet, and no more substandard performances, as well as a real push to score goals, something we haven’t done a huge amount of so far this season. This means this weekend’s Crystal Palace game is now enormous, these three points could potentially save our season, as much as getting back to winning ways could potentially give the players the reminder that they need of how good they can be. I’d like to see a Cup Final-esque performance in every single match from now until the last kick of the ball in May, and nothing else will do if we are to stay up. One thing is for certain, if we play like we did at the KC, I’ll be watching a lot more rugby next season!

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