Gallowgate Toon

He was dropping into midfield on quite a few occasions today, I just didn't get it. Let the 3 behind him float, he needs to be a fixed point and always around the CBs.

Think we could've done with him, tbh. He's not shown much, aye, but we should've stuck him out on the left for the last 20 minutes and tried to stretch Stoke and get some crosses in with a genuine left footer. I'm all for fluidity but it was too much today and resulted in something much narrower than we needed, Mitrovic was dropping in midfield sometimes when there was just no need.

I thought he was very hit and miss, tbh. Pretty annoying that only Mbemba thought about giving him an early ball in the entire second half, mind.

Inexperience showed today, plus the lack of leadership thing too. Made some great openings but the final ball was too often crap, had some good chances but the finishing was often poor. Played some nice, relatively incisive stuff, in patches, but looked like our confidence was down a bit after last week. Was disappointed in Ayoze, he floated out of the game too much for my liking and can be really lazy out of possession. Sissoko, while involved in some good stuff, was infuriatingly rubbish off the ball (attacking and defending). Mitrovic seemed to lose focus after some poor touches and shots (he was being held a lot, mind, but he's going to have to cope with that) and we seemed to stop trying to get him in with balls over the top despite it looking dangerous in the opening 20. We needed some more width, Sissoko should've provided it but he was far too narrow. Not enough risks, again, too much safe passing. 'Keeper aside, Stoke were woeful. Hughes was wise to get them to shut up shop a bit after the opening exchanges. Guess it's important we didn't lose before Bournemouth. Keep missing chances and we ain't getting out of this, though.

Sunderland, like any PL team, will be fairly decent at shutting a team out for a bit when getting plenty of bodies behind the ball. We created some decent opportunities in the opening 44 but either the finishing or final ball weren't good enough. They'd have either tired or tried to open the game up more in the second half which would've suited us more. I don't think there was anything particularly wrong with our attacking play, we were building up pretty well and getting into good positions, just a bit of inexperience and/or lack of quality at the vital moments hampered us. We must persevere with Mitro and Perez, they will have frustrating times but them learning (quickly) is our best hope, at the minute.

I'd quite like to see him moved back inside for Stoke and put Aarons out on the left, if Dummett is going to play LB. A lot of his best work comes linking up through the middle, of course that might well be because he has the freedom to drift inside.

We're currently 2 points off safety, I don't think it's really cut-and-dry that we'll go down.

On a side note, I hope horrible things happen to Adam Johnson in prison. He's such a cunt.

Looks more and more settled in his general play, as the weeks go on. Not a dominant midfielder, someone of moments, but some of said play is absolutely brilliant.

My thought too. Think he just swung his boot at it as hard as he could after being clever to create space for himself. Lovely character and did okay overall, but not his day. Reckon he'll creep into double figures this season. Just. The dummy was really good, to be fair to him. He'll be fine, he's still learning.

Ayoze was a bit frustrating, at times, but still dangerous. Thought Moussa was fine, looked really up for it at first. Gini was our best player on the day.

Colo, Colback and Wijnaldum all had chances in the first half. The mackems are OK at sitting back, tbh, think we'd have pushed on in the second half.

Love him but that finish was bollocks. Why try and go inside against a giant? No funny stuff, just stick it in the corner with more space.

If Mitro buries that chance then we go on to win, imo, even with 10. That was a huge moment and he made a bad choice. Ref's fault, obviously, but we had chances to get something still.

Gutted.

Played really well and that bollocks is what undoes it. Fuck off.

Idiot.

M'Vila is a good player and is the standout one for that area of the pitch. Need to make sure we get Ayoze on him when he's in possession so he can't settle/hope he gans radge.

1 goal from open play in 6 games, apparently.

Mitro He's quickly become my favourite player, like. He's mint.

Dummett whipped one in beautifully within the first 5 minutes, like, should've happened more.

We tried to keep it tight for the first 20 minutes of the second half and could easily have ended up regretting it Don't think that was the tactic, tbh. Simpson was constantly telling them to push out. They were a nervous team without a win, sagging back was going to happen when the squad has the lack of character it does.

It's been a sort of 4-2-2-1-1 with plenty of fluidity and some genuinely great movement off the ball. Have doubts about its longevity but it's a system that should see us do well through the next run of fixtures. It's quite flexible for when we need to either go more possession or counter-based too - Wijnaldum's both comfortable dropping in pockets and sticking further out wide etc.

He's mint. Thought he seemed to be carrying a bit of a knock as he appeared a bit less keen to challenge for aerial duels, but some of his play was still absolutely excellent. A couple of really nice bits of link up (deft touches with his feet were really impressive), lovely finish and some cracking movement. Actually covers ground well when he gets going too. You can tell our lot like having a target. Norwich struggled with us as we were quite fluid at times but they couldn't really predict how you're going to attack, sometimes we passed it from the back, sometimes balls over the top, other times straighter passes to Mitro's chest. Think it bodes really well, granted he doesn't get crocked

Intrigued to see how he develops from here. Every week, he seems to look more and more suited to the league and up-to-speed with his fitness. I hope we get a proper CM to play alongside him in January, I think he'll be brilliant alongside someone suitable.