We haven’t had to use the phrase ‘Typical Sunderland’ for a while now, but Saturday’s self-inflicted defeat at Portman Road falls firmly into that category, unfortunately.
Of course, none of us like getting beat, and it’s ultra-frustrating when we gift-wrap the opposition two goals with two awful mistakes – the second of which allowed us no time at all to respond. Ipswich were there for the taking, and we gave the game to them.
Positives? There weren’t that many come full-time, although going into
the closing stages, I thought a draw was a dead cert, and if either team was going to win it, it would be us.
It wasn’t to be, and hopefully this is a great reminder to the players that the Premier League is ruthless, and if we’re all not at it, we’ll suffer the consequences.
I did feel the team looked sluggish and a bit off the pace, mentally and physically. Even watching on TV, the players didn’t seem to have that ‘bounce’ when it showed them walking into the ground before the game (hindsight’s wonderful, isn’t it?), we struggled to have that energy and determination that saw us through many games last season, and when the final whistle had blown, we’d paid the price.
In some respects, it’s not surprising given the number of people who were at the World Cup and have only recently returned to the club. Two pre-season games simply isn’t enough, and Le Bris was pretty much forced to chuck Alderete into the second-half action as Luke was about to spontaneously combust. Needs must, but our favourite Paraguayan wasn’t anywhere near fit, although that doesn’t excuse his mistake either.
Ballard looked slow and cumbersome – something’s not right there, he was miles off it. Xhaka seemed off the pace too, Talbi couldn’t get going, Brobbey missed chances he should have done better with, Sadiki faded after a bright opening and Angulo turned in an inconsistent hour – albeit punctuated by an exceptional free-kick. O’Nien looked fit enough, but a poor error knocked the stuffing out of him, and he struggled.
Without making excuses, the World Cup hangover is real – we saw the evidence of it on Saturday – and we’ve not had the players back in training for too long. I had hoped that, given the lack of squad turnover, it wouldn’t impact us too much, but the sharpness wasn’t there. It felt like a mid-pre-season display in many respects, rather than the opener. Fitness to gain, sharpness to come, mistakes to iron out.
But there’s nothing anyone can do about the Ipswich game now. Those 90+ minutes in the legs, however, will stand us in good stead – and it’s not as if we played badly. We were just a bit impotent. We dominated possession but didn’t do anything with it, and in open play rarely caused Ipswich too many problems.
That needs to change, and I found the post-match interview with Thomas Meunier reassuring – he seems a good character, fronted up, and completely disagreed with the club interviewer’s assertion that we’d created more than enough chances to win the game.
That mentality will stand us in good stead, and as a collective, we’ve got to focus positively on Sunday at home to Fulham. That point at Ipswich has gone, and a good week on the training ground – and perhaps a signing or two over the coming week – will help us get to the levels we need to be at to pick up Premier League points.
We suffered defeats last season – although I can’t remember too many sucker punches like that one – and always bounced back strongly. This group of players, and the management, are a generational best. The likes of Meunier, Xhaka and O’Nien are exceptionally strong characters, and we’ll need them throughout this season – and we all need to have the same mentality.
We’ve got a great group of players, a manager who impresses and learns, and an excellent atmosphere in the Stadium when everyone gets behind the club.
Saturday’s result was disappointing, there’s no getting away from that. But ultimately, we lost a point that we should have won. That’s it. We’ll win points this season when the opposition feels they should have got something. That’s football.
For us, it’s absolutely essential this result doesn’t impact anything beyond this weekend gone. Yes, it’s frustrating – especially given the nature of the goals we conceded – but we trust the team will learn, and we need to brush it off, show the right character, and create a brilliant atmosphere for our first home game of the season, on Sunday against Fulham.
In the cold light of day, there’s plenty to be positive about – and a couple of stupid mistakes doesn’t change that.
Hopefully, it’ll be used as motivation, and looked back on at the end of the season as a key moment that got everyone focused on the job at hand.
