Lush Vlad

I mean, don't get me wrong. Players working hard and wanting to play for the club is massive for fans. As we have seen under Rafa. But the way Carver goes on there, FFS. Could you get any more clichéd? I mean, I want players to graft and put a shift in. But a bit of quality and skill would also be nice. The fact that he singled out Colback, probably just because he's from the North East, is absolutely shocking. He always has been one of the worst offenders for hiding on the pitch and he regularly just decides to pull players back or give away a pointless foul, instead of actually busting a gut to track or get back to defend.

Watching that John Carver interview, man I think I had wiped so much of that from my memory, or I just didn't give a shit about the club at the time and paid no attention. I had forgotten how bad he came across and also how awful the results were!

I totally disagree like. There aren't really a set number of teams from 10th downwards tbf, which is kind of the point. Anyone outside of the top 6 bar Watford and arguably Burnley are all about the same for one reason or another, but I'd argue that our reason is almost entirely Rafa. In terms of squad quality we'd be right down there imo and I think with any other non-top 6 manager we'd be that stand out team that looks like a cert for relegation. Agreed. Our defence is better than the sum of its parts. I put most of that down to Rafa and the coaching staff. I do feel like we would be exposed and concede far more under most other managers. I like the majority of our back four, but I don’t think any are high quality. Not yet, at least. Going forward. I think we are pretty toothless and there are next to no goals in the team. We lack pace and creativity in the final third and rarely look threatening. Individually, I don’t look at any of our attacking players and think we’re lucky to have them and they’ll be off to a bigger club soon enough. Whereas in recent years, that has actually been the case. I really do think on the whole, that this squad is made up of Championship/low end Prem players, bar a few exceptions. Throw in the fact that even ignoring the quality of the players. We are short in 2-3 positions. Then I really do think we’d be in a right scrap without Rafa.

Sb does the editing for the MOTD footage, I reckon. Nowt is happening over that FFS ………… I hope! Shelvey over zealously celebrated the goal in Cabaye’s face. Must have meant he wanted to injure him. 12 game ban.

Good ol’ Garth. Loves a mental statement

Well I was planning on going to this game. One of the only positives I can take so far.

go on... After the transfer window closed he argued that we had a perfectly fine squad and Rafa shouldn't have any complaints. Which now, of course, means that in his mind we are performing about average given our squad (i.e. a replacement manager would be doing the same). Not sure any manager in the league be able to do what Rafa has done for us and especially what we’re doing right now. I don’t see the managers who run the top 5 having the patience and character to persist with the high level of coaching, preparation, and planning to get these players ready every single week. I mean, let's not re-write history and pretend like he's perfect. But he did sign some absolute dross for Liverpool and he seemed mad keen on getting rid of Alonso for Gareth Barry! So I'm not saying that anyone he signs should just automatically be given a free pass, because Rafa rates them. All of that said. That line about Benitez is pure All managers have clubs where they don't succeed at and all managers have a long list of players that didn't work out, or were just complete and utter flops. We have had a few with Rafa already. But so what? It happens.

I mean even if you're trying not to be biased, like both sets of fans are. I am really struggling to see how they are the more attractive option? So it seems to be the training ground is owned by them and is decent. Is that basically the long and short of it, then? To say their ground is better and their fanbase is equal or better, is just laughable and clearly not true. Newcastle and SJP are known around the world, with SJP being packed out most weeks. Sunderland and the SoL are neither of those things

Just skimmed their thread asking who is a better club to buy. Wow. I was expecting a few bitter arseholes saying Sunderland, with most of the other posters shooting them down and laughing at them. But there seems to be a lot of agreement and back slapping going on. About them being the better proposition, them having the better ground, training ground, fanbase etc. They are not particularly self-aware, are they?!

Didn’t remember it being quite that far out that is even worse than I remember.

I think ‘heart broken’ is a bit strong. There is devastating news around the world that you hear about on an hourly basis. A pro footballer struggling with an injury and for a bit of form isn’t really heart breaking TBH

Yeah, we still waste some good opportunities to counter attack by hoofing the ball rather than passing it out. We're not Man City, but I think with a bit more confidence we can do better. That is fair. I understand why we play fairly deep with this team and don’t have a lot of possession. But we do enjoy an aimless punt up the pitch. Puts us under more pressure a lot of the time. Although TBF. A couple of times we tried to run and pass it out and we ended up losing it. So I’m guessing they are under instructions from Rafa and he doesn’t trust most of them in those situations.

I'd like a better keeper but he's no way as bad as people on here make him out to be. No, he’s not. But there also seems to be a few posters on here who seem to think he is immune from criticism. If you genuinely believe he wasn’t at fault for that first goal. Then fair enough. I just think it is a reglar occurence, Elliot being beaten by shots close to him or weak efforts. Whatever you think of the defendinf beforehand, he has to be stoppig that, IMO.

Isn’t it 1-2 posters defending him for his shit keeping today? Aye, everyone else is an idiot.

Yeah. He didn’t blow his whistle for every bit of contact and the game flowed well. Yedlin should have been off, mind. So I doubt Southampton fans think the same.

Yedlin and who else? If you’re thinking Hayden, then no way is that second challenge a yellow.

Yeah. Should have cleared the lot out and usually would. But went in a bit half hearted for some reason.

Regarding our attacking. We did look more of a threat. But I still think we lack pace, lump a lot of balls up to an isolated frontman and we sit quite deep. These aren’t really criticisms, per se. As Rafa is limited with his options and we lack quality. But I just never feel like we’re going to regularly create chances and we don’t have a striker in the squad that will make something out of nothing.

Kind of similar to the Liverpool game at times. They were getting into some good positions, yet I never really felt like we were going to concede. Two individual errors have cost us. We’re still pretty poor going forward. But then that is kind of to be expected when we have so many mediocre attacking players. Feels like two points dropped, TBH. Feel pretty positive about the club for a change.

I don’t think he’ll lose his place and I don’t want him to, either. I like all 4 of our centre backs at the minute. It is a strange feeling, I must say.

Distribution has been much better of later. But even ignoring the slow motion dive, that resembled a tree being felled. I thought his kicking had us in bother a couple of times today.

Yeah, I have re-read the second paragraph and don’t agree with that. In all sports I have played, you have captains and lads that just set an example and try to lead others, usually in a positive way. It is a personality thing more than anything.

True that, neesey. But if players are being lazy twats and not putting it in. I think it is right that the captain, leaders on the team or lads thay give a fuck in general. Should get involved and say something. Obviously nobody was there and we don’t know how it went down. But maybe Lascelles had already spoken with Diame, before digging him out publicly? Maybe he really was being that much of a shithouse and strolling about, he deserved it. The way he plays during games, I can easily imagine him being like that.

Mozy knows the score. Truth hurts. Fuck off Diame.

Unless it is a full takeover and it materialises pretty quickly. Then I’m really not arsed by this. Joint ownership with Ashley will end up being worse than what we already have and won’t work. How could anyone work successfully with that lying cunt?!