Gallowgate Toon

Anyone think he'll do an end of season phone-in this year?

Sissoko and Cabaye sounds like a suicidal partnership to me. Sissoko and Tiote would complement each other much more IMO, both athletic enough to compete against that extra man too.

8 million is about his true value. I've said since he left that I wouldn't want him back but with our current manager he'd be a useful player.

There's no point in him being here, we employ him to chase players around and hang around our centre backs so he can take it off them and play a 10 yard pass. Pardew's going nowhere, we might as well move Sissoko alongside Tiote, bring Carroll back and go 4-4-2. Get it over with and sell Cabaye while he's in demand, as much as it pains me to say it.

Hopefully the comments on shape mean he's jigging the formation around.

Anita's practically never been used in his actual position since he got here. The only 2 times I can think of, where he's been a genuine defensive midfielder playing in front of the defence, are Liverpool away after Perch went off and Reading at home until Marveaux got subbed. He performed well in both. I don't buy the physicality argument either, there's far more to being a DM than being strong, such a backward mentality.

Me too. Expectations have been significantly lowered since I've come to the realisation that that the man just can't work with a team like this. He did better when Best and Lovenkrands were at his disposal.

We'll see but I think he'll learn how to handle himself over a relatively short period of time. This is a completely different style to France, he's used to being able to nick the ball off opposition and consequently having time to decide what he wants to do for seconds after, he's probably seldom had to use his strength in such an aggressive way. He's a good build, certainly strong enough to handle Danny Graham and others like that, but as you say, he's a kid who's now having to adopt new ways of defending that won't he won't have been taught before. There's a chance Colo will be here come September, it would be equally as stupid to say it's a completely foregone conclusion. I currently rate it as 70/30 he'll be gone, but there are a lot of details to iron out first before he can leave, and we know that those in charge can be extremely stubborn in negotiating.

Not now but perhaps next year, if Colo's here of course. I wouldn't write off MYM's physicality yet, he'll most likely put a bit of muscle on in the summer and he'll improve against more physical opponents once he adapts. There's no way he can't compete with the likes of Graham on a physical level now, he dealt with taller, stronger and quicker opposition in France and Europe, it's more a matter of style and aggression. For example he often tries to nick the ball from the opponent when it's in the air, like he could in France, this is something that will change.

I think if any centre half is going to have to play, it's MYM. I know he's been shaky of late but this would be the wrong time to put Colo and Taylor back together, they've been shown up at times by strikers with pace.

Based on what? Volatile personality, limited resources, fascist views, lack of experience, there are loads. What I was responding to was the hint in bimpy's post that it doesn't matter that Di Canio was a lower league manager, but it does matter that Pardew was. I think Di Canio will probably start to get bored after a while so I don't think he'll do so well long term, but I would expect the next 12 months to be infinitely better for Sunderland than they ever would under O'Neill. We'll see, but I'm not convinced. They seemed to be the early O'Neill team to me on Sunday, it took 3 long range strikes to get that result and they never looked particularly creative despite breaking in numbers. They will most likely endure a honeymoon period until the end of the season but come next year, I think he'll be found out. Once things settle I think they'll be picked off with such gung-ho counter attacking and they'll sink back to the style that they were playing under O'Neill.

Good article by Douglas, hopefully the journalists will start asking him relevant and challenging questions about his style of play etc. They'll probably get the usual load of guff back but it might at least put the pressure on him a bit more to know that his methods are being questioned. I'm still fuming at that Shola sub, as if that useless gimp still plays in virtually every game for us.

Just anyone that wants to take it to the opposition. We're such a chore, even with these players we're not going to slice teams open all the time, or dominate many games from start to finish, but we could be doing so much better.

I watched Debuchy's post-match NUFCTV interview. Fairly generic stuff, as you'd imagine, but he looked devastated at the end.

Simpson

I think they will stop up, but I don't think it will be easy. If their game plan is simply what they did yesterday, they'll struggle once things settle. I think the new manager boost will give them enough for now.

I'm not optimistic for this but I don't think we'll do too badly here.

Did McClean do anything of note yesterday? The only thing I remember him doing was completely fluffing up a great chance in the first half.

Going to be interesting seeing how they do for the rest of the season. They've got a fairly hard run in IIRC? I think they'll be poor next campaign but his unknown factor and passion might be enough to keep them up.

He did better with the likes of Best and Lovenkrands, he just doesn't have the ability or mentality to manage a team like this. Our only hope is to wait for him to accidentally hit the right formula, how depressing.

Needs another to share his workload at the very least, Sissoko's too high up.

This. We lack so much presence in the middle of the pitch, MYM and Taylor are capable enough to make simple 10 yard passes. It's rank watching Tiote and Cabaye come deep together, play some passes to one another while there's a gaping hole in the middle of the park.

It's just an unorganised mess at the minute. The team is all over the place. I suppose in that regard, he's right to sort the shape out but fucking hell, he's had years with the majority of the players, surely there should be a blueprint by now where the vast majority know what they're doing. I doubt it'll make much difference though, he doesn't seem to know his players' strengths.

We all know yesterday won't change a thing, everyone's allowed a bad season, remember? More insipid and unimaginative football to be served up for the foreseeable.

I actually don't think the lack of attacking pattern is really this team's biggest problem. Managers like Redknapp prefer to leave the offensive stuff up to players as much as possible, he mainly finds the right type of player, but most importantly, actually plays them in a position (and formation) that complements their natural abilities. Right now we've got a defensive midfielder that can't play football that well, playing as some all-action centre mid. An attack-minded central midfielder with limited physical capabilities, also playing as some all-action mid. The only true box-to-box player we have is playing as a striker who's not helping out the aforementioned 2 enough, and we have an AM and a striker on the wings. The midfield '3' in particular, is a mess, no wonder they don't look at all cohesive.