Given we spend half our time reminding ourselves that for most of the last 70 years Sunderland have been crap, it shouldn’t feel completely unfamiliar to us when we lose a game of football and play poorly, but all of us – even me, an eternal optimist – must be feeling even just a little bit deflated after Saturday.
If I was going to try and spin that into something of a positive, the reason we’re gutted is that expectations for what this side is capable of have been raised to such a ridiculous level
that when they do have the occasional off-day, it really hurts us. Bluntly, we’ve been so bloody good this season that I think most of us felt we’d go to Fulham and win the game.
Of course, I mean absolutely no disrespect to Fulham – they were deserved winners on the day, and their home form this season has been very decent, so we shouldn’t have been surprised that they gave a good account of themselves – but I can’t help but think that had we actually played to the levels that we’ve shown throughout this season, we’d have gone there and got the three points ourselves.
Instead, we were everything that we haven’t been. We were sluggish, slow, and second to almost everything bar a few glimmers of hope at the start of each half. Why was that the case? I’ll leave the inquest to Régis and his staff – I’m sure they’ll be keen to put it right, and I’m certainly not going to sit here and tell him why I think I know better than he does… although I was right in my pre-match prediction that a five-at-the-back system wasn’t right for this game and that we’d end up being overrun in midfield without the extra man in there to deal with Fulham’s attacking front four. But I’m definitely no expert, and instead a mere pundit who doesn’t know a millionth of what our head coach does about the beautiful game, so I won’t crow about it!
As fans, all we can control are our emotions, and I think that’s important. This is a tough run of games that we’re about to enter, and we’re now without a win in our last three games, so I think we need to be conscious about how we handle that. Our next three games before we face the mags are Bournemouth at home, and then two games in the space of four days away at Liverpool and Manchester City. I fancy us to get a couple of surprise results, but the gruelling reality of the Premier League is that we could very well be sat here after that run having not picked up a single point, as all three of those sides are bloody good.
What will be will be. I know in my own mind that this is a brilliant team, led by a brilliant coach, and they’re destined for brilliant things. There will be points in this season where we suffer defeats, but as long as we experience highs more often than not, we’ll be in a superb position.
Let’s keep our heads and re-focus. Bournemouth are a great side, but we’ve already proven this season how tough it is to come to the Stadium of Light and get something, and as fans we’ve got a huge part to play in that with how we back the side from minute one to minute ninety. Let’s not dwell too much on Fulham, as that’s in the past now and all we can do is put it right with the next game and the next performance.
This is a strong group containing strong leaders like Xhaka, Mukiele, Le Fée, O’Nien, Alderete et al. They don’t need to be told about what must be done to put things right on Saturday, and for me that’s so refreshing – that my club has players who we can fully trust to do the right things on the pitch.
