What a Difference a Week Makes for Sunderland!
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Article by Ben Mummery
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Every manager likes to build their own squad, playing matches with the previous regime’s players must be infuriating, knowing that you didn’t select these guys and that deep down, if you’re honest, some of them you wouldn’t have in your reserve team! Big Sam has had his first opportunity to bring in players that he feels fit his mold, and for the first time last night against Man City, we saw a glimpse of the type of player he feels is good enough for Sunderland.
One week ago I had us down. Relegated, doomed to the Championship! With our league position looking more and more hopeless, only managing to muster a draw against fellow strugglers Bournemouth was the final straw for me, that was it! We looked wanting in every department, but most of all, the “bottle” department. We looked bereft of ideas, creativity, passion, but most of all fight. We sat off Bournemouth and let them play onto us as was their want. They had the lion’s share of the ball, the territory, and almost took all three points were it not for Patrick van Aanholt’s strike late in the first half saving our blushes.
Then came the issue of our January transfer window activity.
In one sense, we had a very good window, with Allardyce managing to cut adrift a good deal of deadwood from the club. Bridcutt, Buckley, Graham, Fletcher, Coates all moving on from the first team. Other fringe players went out on loan and the gaffer felt the need to ship out Costel Pantilimon to Watford. Thinning out the herd was almost certainly a very good move from Allardyce, as it freshens up the atmosphere at the club. We don’t know the particulars about the attitudes of individuals, but it’s seemingly fairly obvious that a change of faces and personnel brings with it a new aura at training every day, and hopefully serves to re-focus the club.
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Every manager likes to build their own squad, playing matches with the previous regime’s players must be infuriating, knowing that you didn’t select these guys and that deep down, if you’re honest, some of them you wouldn’t have in your reserve team! Big Sam has had his first opportunity to bring in players that he feels fit his mold, and for the first time last night against Man City, we saw a glimpse of the type of player he feels is good enough for Sunderland.
So then, let’s have a very quick rundown of our new acquisitions:
Lamine Kone:
Big, strong, no nonsense center half. EXACTLY the sort of player you associate with Sam Allardyce! Looks an athlete, has a yard of pace, and doesn’t mess about with the ball.
Sam has reportedly been chasing Kone since his West Ham days, and pursued him relentlessly in this window. This frustrated some fans, but Sam’s persistence showed us that he knows deep down this is a top player who he felt can be the difference to our back line.
Missed a free header against City, but this was after all his first Premier League game. I’m sure fans will remember him for throwing Yaya Toure about for ninety minutes rather than one missed chance!
Jan Kirchhoff:
Bargain buy from giants Bayern Munich. At 6’5, he can play center half or central defensive midfield. Brought on at CB against Spurs away, Kirchhoff looked woefully out of his depth. In fact, let’s not talk about his debut!
However when deployed in midfield against City, he looked a Rolls Royce! He was calm on the ball, passed beautifully, tackled well and did pretty much nothing wrong at all for the whole night.
Plus, this gives us height in midfield which we’re sorely lacking!
Dame N’Doye:
Don’t know a lot about him yet, at 6’1 he looks a powerful player. Presumably Steven Fletcher’s replacement?
Sam likes a target man, we will need this lad to hold the ball up and show some bottle in the box.
Whabi Khazri:
Who?
Exactly. I knew NOTHING about this boy, had to look him up. Played the 2nd half against City last night and looked seriously impressive! Fast, energetic, a goal threat and puts the ball where he wants it. This is the type of player we need to create chances, which we have simply not been doing.
Steve Harper:
Yeah, this one divided opinions didn’t it! The enemy himself in our own ranks.
Brought in presumably to assist in the development of young Jordan Pickford, he brings with him a great amount of experience to have about the place. I have no problem with Harpo being at Sunderland. He’s a good guy by all accounts and should add value to our cause.
We saw the manager opt to give starts to Kone and Kirchoff against title contenders Man City, and immediately, both made impacts. As mentioned above, Kone looked a man-mountain of a defender. Strong, solid, and athletic. Kirchhoff blew away all demons from his Spurs debut, and rightly was man of the match against City. Khazri showed flare, invention, pace and creativity – none of which are words we have used much this season at all!
Sunderland conceded an early goal which frustrated home fans, but we played with real passion against a top side. We looked like we belonged in the premier league for once! In all seriousness, if we’d taken our chances we could have beaten City by four or five goals last night, especially in the second half.
Fans left the ground with some hope, some pride for once! We started to believe we could stay up.
(Worth a mention by the way that City’s players need to seriously man up if they fancy winning the title this year! No league trophy was ever won by time wasting, rolling about on the ground pretending to be hurt, or going crying to the referee about being pushed around by the goliath that is Jermain Defoe! Grow a pair man for God’s sake, you’re on £200K+ per week!)
Sunderland have given me a glimmer of hope after our performance against City, but we have to keep it up! Some desperately hard fixtures await us, and a one off showing just isn’t going to cut it.
One week ago I was sure we were finished. Now I’m not so sure. A performance like Tuesday’s will be enough to see us beat most sides, but it has to be there every time we play!
Liverpool away presents it’s own unique challenge, and while teams above us continue to pinch the points, we need to start proving to the whole table that we belong in this division, otherwise next season is going to be a long, unpleasant one!
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