Calum Mills says…
Brian Brobbey’s brilliance
Hold up play, integration, finishing…he had it all.
Bittersweet that we didn’t take all three points, but he was brilliant. It’s like he’s finally recovered from his World Cup efforts.
Le Fée, Fofana and Methalie catch the eye
Enzo Le Fée was phenomenal in the first half. The assist for Brian Brobbey was superb and it’s an absolute joy to watch him in a Sunderland shirt.
Can anyone name a better playmaker in our history?
He just links everything together with ease. Expectedly a little tired in the second half after his midweek efforts, but he was
top drawer yesterday.
As well as Nilson Angulo has done in spells on that left wing, I feel Malick Fofana has to start going forward, as his positive and progressive ability on the ball is what Angulo lacks.
Don’t get me wrong: Angulo does many things well, but he misses chances and doesn’t get at his man as well. Malick’s header in injury team either side of Gianluigi Donnarumma is a goal and he cut back inside well to strike one on target too.
Dayann Methalie started the game brilliantly by turning Iliman Ndiaye into a pretzel.
OK, he got a bit overzealous when trying to track back and getting himself booked but on his league debut, I thought he was fantastic. He won the ball, was confident in his passing, direct in his running and apart from the booking, he could time a tackle.
He showed his willingness to get beyond Angulo and then Fofana which is something I think we’ve only seen in part from Reinildo this season. The battle for the starting left back spot has just cranked up a notch…
“Never give up, never surrender”
I’ve said it the last few weeks that teams outside of the top six are going to struggle to beat us as we have a group of players that will not stop fighting.
For us to progress in Europe or cup competitions and become a viable candidate to win trophies, this is something we can’t go without.
This isn’t me happy clapping, by the way. I genuinely believe in what we’re trying to achieve here and how bloody good we are as a side!
And finally…
Have you ever seen a ball drop perfectly for players to swipe home as many times as it did today?!
Don’t get me wrong: we were very slack in clearing the ball. Dan Ballard missed his clearance with his right foot and ended up clearing it with his left foot directly to Antoine Semenyo, but in any other game, that ball bounces away into space.
As for Granit Xhaka? I love him, he’s been and we wouldn’t be where we are without him, but he looks goosed.
I wonder if there’s emphasis on Jules Ahoka in the international break to gear him up to be a substitute in the Premier League as he proved he’s definitely a starter in the cup competitions?
David Elliott says…
A brilliant performance from Brian Brobbey
Brobbey was immense, held the ball up really well and was a constant threat.
That was a complete performance and bodes well.
Signs of promise from Nilson Angulo
I really like Angulo and I think he can only get better.
Defensively, he’s excellent, takes up good positions and tackles well. He’s also strong when protecting the ball and is becoming more and more dangerous in the attacking third.
Sunderland create their own issues
Some sloppy passing and not taking proper care of the ball led to problems.
We need to make better choices about when to pass and when to just clear our lines.
A below-par display from Granit Xhaka
Xhaka looked tired; a bit below his usual standard and against a team with City’s quality, that significantly weakened us.
However for the second week running, we showed a lot of quality and matched the best.
John Wilson says…
Consistency from the sidelines
One of the pillars of Régis Le Bris’ coaching is to stay consistent and after a high pressure week, we certainly maintained attitude and consistency.
Despite the defeat, it was a gutsy and encouraging performance and if we keep up these levels of commitment, we won’t have many worries this season.
Brobbey time
He deserved his hat trick.
A battling performance, getting on the end of through balls. Well done, Brian.
Some loose passing
There were quite a few examples of slack passing and loose play.
Their first goal from a free kick came almost directly from our poor corner, and at least two other goals came about as we just couldn’t seem to clear the ball.
We were strangely indecisive at the back, which put a lot of pressure on the whole team.
A off day for Granit Xhaka?
Maybe very harsh, as it was ultimately a performance to be very proud of and we kept pushing until the end, but I thought our captain had a slight off day?
He lost the ball more often than he usually does — by his own high standards.
But that’s harsh as I was proud of the lads, despite a defeat leading into a three-week break.
Lewis Forbister says…
Sunderland hit their goalscoring straps!
We seem to be finally finishing our chances in front of goal and although we got beat very narrowly, a hat trick against Manchester City for Brobbey is nothing to turn your nose up at.
Slick red and white passing
The passing was brilliant and it finally seems like we’re getting more confident with our press, which was amazing to watch.
Defensive mistakes leading to goals conceded
Our defence should’ve been tighter, as two or arguably three of City’s goals were due to our defenders not marking their man and not packing the box out.
More game time needed for Talbi and Fofana?
Thomas Meunier was decent and he got an assist for Brobbey’s second goal, but we do have two capable wingers on the bench in Chemsdine Talbi and Malick Fofana.
I’d like to see Régis Le Bris play a winger in the appropriate position after the break.
Matthew Donne says…
Attacking edge
We’ve been guilty of not creating enough chances or taking them when we do create a good opportunity.
That was put to bed today, it’s refreshing to see the lads play with some attacking intent and we’ve seen over the last 3/4 games that we can trouble some of the better teams with our offensive talent.
Enzo Le Fée’s good, isn’t he?
What a classy footballer.
His involvement in the first two goals showed his immense qualities and I still have no idea as to why a France call-up eluded him.
He’s just an artist on the pitch.
Defensive errors
The other edge of the double-edged sword.
Whilst our attack has improved, we’ve been guilty of giving away too many simple chances and at this level you’ll be punished for doing so.
With the defence somewhat changed in personnel, this could definitely change but perhaps results could have been different with some more solidity.
More rotation needed?
Some players (sorry, Granit) perhaps look a little tired.
Thankfully, a prolonged international break and less intense games could see us rest key players going forward.
Ricky Clucas says…
Dutch power reigns supreme
Brian Brobbey is a giant. There’s nobody else like him in football at the moment and he’s ours (for now).
Just an absolute pleasure to watch him go about his business as one of the best defences in the world couldn’t even come close to containing him. Maybe Wilson Isidor starting on Wednesday gave him a little extra bite, but felt like something all clicked yesterday.
Most people felt he’d kick on from a scoring point of view this season and push twenty goals — I can really can see him flying from this point.
An encouraging league debut from Dayann Methalie
Methalie looked the absolute business and even his yellow card could be put down to just really wanting to do the right thing and trying to impress.
A really exciting glimpse into what our left hand side can look like going forward, and will have much easier games to show what he can do.
Sunderland’s changes give the hosts a foothold
I’ve definitely been keen to see more up Brobbey and Isidor together but do feel it allowed City to assert more control in the middle get a tighter grip on the game itself.
Certainly not wanting to criticise Régis Le Bris as his overall approach to the game was absolutely spot on and I’m very much talking with the beauty of hindsight. I just feel it stunted us slightly.
The Granit Xhaka workload dilemma
Completely understandable that Xhaka played all three of the games across the last eight days — not to mention the fact he’ll want to play every single minute — but he did look a little leggy yesterday, so it’s definitely something to be aware of more when it comes to rotating our options.
It certainly wasn’t overly concerning. We’ll be more than alright again this season.
Tom Albrighton says…
Unplayable Brobbey
When he’s in the mood…good Lord, is he in the mood.
It was a delight to see him score three very well-worked goals and it was just reward for an entire team that’s created plenty and struggled to score.
Hopefully the international break won’t dim the confidence that the attack will have no doubt have gained in abundance.
Effort aplenty from Sunderland
If points were awarded for effort, this team would be top of the table. To a man, they faced up to a potent Man City side and gave them one hell of a game.
The usual suspects grafted their proverbials off but a shout out has to go to Dayann Methalie who belied a nervy start and early yellow to grind out a solid performance on perhaps the toughest stage to begin your Premier League journey.
A harsh lesson in game management
You can’t hand teams goals at any level…and you certainly can’t hand Man City four of them and expect to get away with it. Am I criticising the Lads for conceding five away to City? Not quite, because we certainly won’t be the only ones this season but the fact four of them were completely avoidable stings.
Hopefully the international break will provide us the time to work on the finer details of a back five we’ve seemingly stumbled on and work it into something that’s slightly more robust.
Most annoyingly is that without the four goals on a plate, we limited City to very few chances.
The positives outweigh the negatives on this one but when margins are fine, anything like this needs to be nipped in the bud early.
Thank you and good night!
I’m stopping at one negative because aside from sloppy defending being punished, there are no complaints.
