Sunderland travelled down to the Capital over the weekend with the intention of resuming their good start to the season following the first international break of the Autumn period to face a Crystal Palace side that remained unbeaten in 15 games across all Competitions.
Despite both sides playing a game of cat & mouse, ultimately neither was able to break the deadlock and both sides took home a share of the points. With Palace having scored in every home game since April, a resilient defensive display
lead to Sunderland coming away with another point on the board and, more importantly, one more clean sheet to help boost the confidence of this new-look defence.
Despite several tweaks from both managers, Regis Le Bris will have come away from the encounter feeling happier as a point away from home is always a good point. How did a change in defensive shape help to weather the Palace storm?
Sunderland Line-Up
Sunderland made two changes to the side that took the field in their last outing against Brentford, even with several players only returning from international Duty 48 hours prior due to their involvement in South American matches. One was an enforced change due to a late muscle injury picked up by Enzo Le Fée on Friday morning, and the other came in the form of Wilson Isidor being rewarded with his first start in place of Eliezer Mayenda, which was a coach’s decision.
Sunderland’s normal 4-3-3 shape was deployed in this one, but with several small tweaks to the usual to deal with the wingback threats deployed by Oliver Glasner. On the sidelines, Sunderland’s three new recruits were all named on the bench for this one, and in a pleasant bit of news, Luke O’Nien — whilst not fit enough to make the squad — did travel down with the wider team and shows he’s on his way to recovery.
Opposition Line-Up
Oliver Glasner was forced into several changes himself after the unfortunate injuries to his star forward Ismaila Sarr and Adam Wharton; therefore, summer signing Jeremey Pino & midfielder Daichi Kamada came into the midfield. With the Marc Guehi saga ending on deadline day, he remained in the side to captain Palace and they continued to deploy their usual 3-4-3 system.
Jean-Phillipe Mateta led the line with Tyrek Mitchell & Daniel Munoz operating as wing backs off the flanks to provide width, whilst also capable of dropping deeper into a back five when required. Similar to Sunderland, Palace like to spring quick transitions on opponents and utilise the midfield overload to generate quick passing triangles and expose teams when they look to jump a press.
First Half Cat & Mouse
The first half saw an interesting battle between both managers, with neither team looking to give too much away. Sunderland looked to pin both Palace wingbacks back by inverting our defensive unit and utilising positional rotations to prevent space from opening up down either channel.
Noah Sadiki formed the width in the left channel, allowing Reinildo to push inside further forward; whilst Talbi pushed inside on the opposite flank to help flood the midfield and prevent Palace from springing any quick interchanges of passes through the lines.
Once again, Le Bris was able to demonstrate his ability to match up with the best managers in the game and helped to restrict Palace down to minimal opportunities, the only one coming through a brilliant individual pass from Kamada to split the Sunderland defensive line.
Keeping Mateta Quiet
Sunderland’s defensive partnership of Nordi Mukiele & Omar Alderete was excellent at keeping Jean-Phillipe Mateta quiet in a game which most neutrals expected the seasoned striker to notch a goal or two with relative ease. The sheer number of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) transfers in this week was a clear indicator of that!
But with both central defenders combining in a slanted set-up, which saw one marking Mateta and the other marking zonally just behind to deal with the ball in the event Mateta allowed it to roll across his body, meant that the striker was starved of service for the majority of the afternoon.
Both defenders finished with a ground duel rate of above 70%. Alderete finished 5/7 & Mukiele 3/4 with the latter also putting in a stellar job at physically containing the French forward, finishing with a 100% tackle success rate, making three interceptions and a whopping seven clearances to help Sunderland preserve a clean sheet.
Something worth noting is the overall defensive display from Sunderland during the opening four games. Looking at the metrics above, we’ve fared particularly well when viewing the number of shots on average we concede to opposition teams during matches. Of course, this will be skewed by the opposition faced, but demonstrates our defensive unit working together as a team.
Xhaka’s Calming Presence
In a second half which saw Sunderland really put under the cosh, Granit Xhaka once again demonstrated his immense leadership quality to get his side over the line and take a point back up to Wearside in some torrid second half conditions.
Where Xhaka really excels, however, is in his ability to match his leadership on the field with his consistently impressive displays whenever he steps out on the field for Sunderland. He won the most duels in the match with 10/12 and held a whopping 88% success rate within his aerial wins. Back this up with six recoveries and eight clearances, and you’ve got a defensive anchor without even taking into account his passing.
Finishing the game with 11 passes into the final third, 4/7 completed long balls, and 70 touches, Xhaka remains such an instrumental metronome in games for Sunderland, and it can’t be understated how important he is without stealing any of the headlines. Pair this with his forward passing across the league, as seen abov,e and you’ve got a real gem of a midfielder despite his age.
Ridiculous Roefs
No match analysis would be complete without discussing the sheer dominance of Robin Roefs between the posts at Selhurst Park, and he deserves all the praise going his way. Having made six saves and prevented a 1.36 xG, Roefs was dominant with his hands in this one. Combine this with the two high claims he also made and six accurate long balls in some strong winds on the afternoon, and Roefs commanded his area with ease.
One thing which I highlighted in his initial scouting profile is his ability to come off his line with real conviction, and it’s something which I believe factored into the miss from Jeremy Pino in the first half, by rushing out and making himself a huge target. Pino was required to pull the trigger immediately and ultimately couldn’t find the bottom corner.
Now with two clean sheets and arguably unlucky not to have a third following his penalty heroics against Brentford, Roefs has started the season off excellently and currently ranks third in the league for save percentage at 81.3% and third in the league for most goals prevented at 1.8. Great work, Robin!
Chance Creation
Whilst it still remains early days and isn’t a major concern, we’re already seeing a similar trend to last season in the chance creation metrics created during our short stint in the Premier League, which suggests we’re still waiting for some of our new signings to gel within the final third. Six total shot attempts away from home isn’t terrible however, with no efforts on target and a 0.36xG, we need to become more consistent in our chance creation.
Ultimately, it’s clear with the age & experience profile of our defence that this would be the foundational bedrock for survival; however, without a consistent way of applying pressure to the opposition through our attacking output, the defensive stalwart will only last so long.
I’ve got no doubt that as the season progresses, we’ll become more confident in the final third; however, we’re overperforming our current 3.4xG by two goals at the moment, therefore, should this regress to the mean, then we’ll see it become an issue as the season drags on.
Looking Ahead
All things considered, taking a point away from a side who’d made it extremely difficult to keep a clean sheet at Selhurst Park must be considered an achievement and a great foundation to build upon going forward. With Aston Villa up next at the Stadium of Light, Le Bris will be utilising his blank week without any cup fixtures to fully integrate the newest members of the squad and hopefully look to emerge from Sunday’s game with some additional points on the board.
