Sunderland v City Post Match Discussion Thread

[Plaything of the gods]

Two days

 

[citytill1die84]

Jesus I just seen there goal again :( WTF is Barry doing he could of easily got to the line or even challenged Ji just stood and watched the linesman :( Mancini will have something to say to him.

 

[Chris in London]

Sorry if this has already been covered (CBA reading 44 pages) but I'd be interested in the view of any Sunderland fans on the state of their pitch. It looked like a ploughed field. In HD, you could see divots everywhere and the grass looked fairly long, too. Bit like the pitches you play on on a Sunday morning. On the other channel Leicester were playing Sale in the Rugby. The pitch looked in similar state to Sunderland's.


Is your pitch always like that? Or did Martin O Neill give orders for the pitch to be less than ideal for football as part of his game plan?

Nothing wrong with that if he did, mind. You can call it gamesmanship if you like, or anti-football, but it's not cheating, it's just playing to your strengths.

But if the pitch is always like that, it's barely a surprise Sunderland play some dross.

 

[mike channon´s windmill]

Sorry if this has already been covered (CBA reading 44 pages) but I'd be interested in the view of any Sunderland fans on the state of their pitch. It looked like a ploughed field. In HD, you could see divots everywhere and the grass looked fairly long, too. Bit like the pitches you play on on a Sunday morning. On the other channel Leicester were playing Sale in the Rugby. The pitch looked in similar state to Sunderland's.


Is your pitch always like that? Or did Martin O Neill give orders for the pitch to be less than ideal for football as part of his game plan?

Nothing wrong with that if he did, mind. You can call it gamesmanship if you like, or anti-football, but it's not cheating, it's just playing to your strengths.

But if the pitch is always like that, it's barely a surprise Sunderland play some dross.

Thought that myself. The ball certainly wasn´t gliding silkily - seemed very bumpy and lumpy. Having said that we had all the possession and enough chances to have run away with it but you might have a point. Desperate teams will use any advantage they can. Look at Stoke these last few seasons FFS!

 

[marsy was here]

IF i HEAR THAT KUNT AGAIN TODAY..it aint over till its over..AGHHHHHHH

 

[FTM]

To the people complaining about the pitch, surely if the pitch is bad you adjust your game to suit ???. The pitch is usually nigh on perfect but seeing as we had pretty much torrential rain all night and most of the morning the pitch got a major soaking so was cutting up pretty easily.

 

[park the bus]

Sorry if this has already been covered (CBA reading 44 pages) but I'd be interested in the view of any Sunderland fans on the state of their pitch. It looked like a ploughed field. In HD, you could see divots everywhere and the grass looked fairly long, too. Bit like the pitches you play on on a Sunday morning. On the other channel Leicester were playing Sale in the Rugby. The pitch looked in similar state to Sunderland's.


Is your pitch always like that? Or did Martin O Neill give orders for the pitch to be less than ideal for football as part of his game plan?

Nothing wrong with that if he did, mind. You can call it gamesmanship if you like, or anti-football, but it's not cheating, it's just playing to your strengths.

But if the pitch is always like that, it's barely a surprise Sunderland play some dross.

Ever since we moved to stadium of light, pitch is always pristine at start of season then very quickly deteriorates. The club has tried all sorts of different types of turf, lighting technology, coverings but never managed to sort it out.

As for dross, we play some quite good football when we want to, no point playing into the hands of ultra teams though is there? Unless you all have very short memories I'm sure you can all remember the days of struggling for points and back then would you really have given a shi* if your team put everyone on the line for 90 mins if it got you the much needed points to escape a relegation dogfight?

For me the truth of yesterday was that Man City came against a completely under strength sunderland side with players out of position/making debuts. Despite Mancinis rotation every single one of your starting 11 yesterday would walk into our first team. We just had more heart and our defence threw themselves in front of everything, we only managed to carve your defence open 3 times but got a dubious decision that got us 3 points. Unlucky again, maybe next year :-)

 

[waspish]

Sorry if this has already been covered (CBA reading 44 pages) but I'd be interested in the view of any Sunderland fans on the state of their pitch. It looked like a ploughed field. In HD, you could see divots everywhere and the grass looked fairly long, too. Bit like the pitches you play on on a Sunday morning. On the other channel Leicester were playing Sale in the Rugby. The pitch looked in similar state to Sunderland's.


Is your pitch always like that? Or did Martin O Neill give orders for the pitch to be less than ideal for football as part of his game plan?

Nothing wrong with that if he did, mind. You can call it gamesmanship if you like, or anti-football, but it's not cheating, it's just playing to your strengths.

But if the pitch is always like that, it's barely a surprise Sunderland play some dross.

Ever since we moved to stadium of light, pitch is always pristine at start of season then very quickly deteriorates. The club has tried all sorts of different types of turf, lighting technology, coverings but never managed to sort it out.

As for dross, we play some quite good football when we want to, no point playing into the hands of ultra teams though is there? Unless you all have very short memories I'm sure you can all remember the days of struggling for points and back then would you really have given a shi* if your team put everyone on the line for 90 mins if it got you the much needed points to escape a relegation dogfight?

For me the truth of yesterday was that Man City came against a completely under strength sunderland side with players out of position/making debuts. Despite Mancinis rotation every single one of your starting 11 yesterday would walk into our first team. We just had more heart and our defence threw themselves in front of everything, we only managed to carve your defence open 3 times but got a dubious decision that got us 3 points. Unlucky again, maybe next year :-)

You road your luck defended like demons think you deserved a draw but nicking at the end flattered you but good luck in your next game and don't do what West Brom did and lost after putting in a Stirling flawless show against us

 

[The Owld Fecker]

As an exiled Sunderland supporter (I live in Thailand) I watched the game live on TV and have, also, watched the rerun this afternoon (we are, currently, 7 hours ahead of the UK) and I have to say that I find some of the criticisms levied at Johnson & Dzeko more than a little harsh.

My view would be that (maybe) they are being picked on because they didn't attempt to hide, with Johnson looking like the only City player that was likely to actually open up a side that defended very, very well and Dzeko having to feed on scraps because of a distinct lack of creativity elsewhere in your team.

David Silva who does possess the ability to unlock tight defences had an off day BUT that can happen to any player - form is temporary, class is permanent!

For what it's worth, my view on why we won is down to one basic difference between the sides - listening to and implementing the game tactics decided upon by the respective managers - we did, you didn't.

Maybe that is down to our players realising that they would have to "work their socks off" because of the, obvious, quality that City possess whereas yours believe that they are, relatively, untouchable and can cock a "deaf ear" to Mancini's instructions.

Certainly, I heard nothing in his post match interview that would contradict that possibility.

 

[park the bus]

Sunderland's first 3 league games of the new year. Man City (h) Wigan (a) Chelsea (a). Realistically I was hoping for 3 points from this maybe sneak 4. Now we have a serious chance of 6 points, 9 if we stuff Chelsea like last year. Happy new year indeed for me.

Hope you guys wrap up the title (anyone but man utd). Really enjoyed watching you maul them at old trafford.