Ciaran McKenna says…
Suffering back-to-back league defeats and losing our impervious home record were tough blows to take but losing to one of the best teams in the world — and the reigning league champions at that — is nothing to be ashamed of.
Oxford provides a good opportunity to get back on track, but I know they won’t make it easy for us. They’re struggling in the league and without a win in four games, so they might see the FA Cup as a good opportunity to lift the fans and instil some hope for the rest of the season.
With this in mind, I think Régis Le Bris will field as strong a team as possible this weekend.
In the last round against Everton, I thought we would rotate and focus more on the league, but I was proved wrong and a strong eleven helped us progress into the next round. Of course, Everton are a much better side than Oxford but Le Bris seems interested in the FA Cup and its possibilities, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if we did see a good team take to the field this weekend.
However, the Lads have had a tough and demanding week. Games against Arsenal and Liverpool would’ve taken a lot out of them and that may force Le Bris’ hand in terms of rotating the squad.
I remember in the run-up to the Everton game, he said that he would speak to each player and see if they were up to it — and I presume he will have followed the same procedure this week. I wonder whether Melker Ellborg will get his first start in goal on Sunday, and maybe Jocelin Ta Bi will be in the squad for the first time since his arrival.
I’d like to see the best side available to us play this weekend, but whether that’ll happen is a different story. By 1:00pm on Sunday, our questions will be answered and an idea of our chances in this competition may be clearer.
John Wilson says…
Losing twice on the bounce is an unusual feeling for Sunderland fans but it’s worth remembering that thanks to the quirks of the fixture computer, we’ve played last season’s champions and this season’s champions-elect — with a game against Manchester City thrown into the tough run of matches.
That being considered, it’s still been a very positive and uplifting season and for the first time a long while, the FA Cup offers us definite hope and possibilities.
We haven’t got the punishing, continuous run of midweek games that teams in the EFL or in Europe are dealing with.
We also aren’t in a relegation fight, so the FA Cup can be a positive distraction from our league matches. From all the interviews and messages coming out of the club, it sounds as though this is the case; in fact, Noah Sadiki actually said that the cup is “just as important as the league games”. Nice to hear.
Consecutive defeats might’ve dented any European hopes that some of the more positive-minded fans might be hoping for (myself included), so the cup tie could be coming at exactly the right time to reignite the squad and fans, and to give us something to battle for on a different front.
No matter how proud we should be of a potential mid-table position come the end of the season, it nevertheless gives the players little incentive to pull out all the stops and do battle in every game — an FA Cup run can give us that.
So although I expect a few changes this weekend (some perhaps forced), I’m certain we’ll put out a strong team and take Oxford very seriously. Being in the hat for round five could start to awaken some imaginations!
Malc Dugdale says…
I’m looking forward to the game and I do hope we progress, as after a tough few Premier League games (with a good result against Burnley in the middle) we certainly need something to pick the Lads and the fans back up.
I’m the sort of fan who appreciates that we’re likely to lose to Arsenal and Liverpool during our first season back at the top level and that taking points from these teams again this season always was a tough ask after doing well previously.
That’s especially true when such games are so close together and we’ve recently been without our skipper.
Despite only taking two points from twelve available, these are established elite teams and that isn’t a bad haul for a team such as ourselves. I also get that defeat is a painful pill to swallow, amplified by Sunderland not playing as well as we know we can — although the Arsenal performance wasn’t bad at all, other than the score.
Oxford is a place many of us went to when we were back in the doldrums of League One, and I have fond memories of the away end limbs and Elliot Embleton scoring for us as we progressed the part of our journey.
The side we take to their weird, three-sided stadium will be very different from the eleven that faced Arsenal and Liverpool, but it’s a great chance for some of the fringe players to get some minutes and for more relationships to be matured and solidified.
It’s also a chance for some players to rest a little and to enjoy the thrill of the FA Cup from the bench if needed, whilst maybe recovering and getting ready for the next Premier League challenge to come.
In short, this is a fresh breath of air where we can rotate, still play some good football and hopefully progress to the next round without too much fuss and bother — ideally with zero injuries to our Premier League starters.
On the day, I’d like to see more of Lutsharel Geertruida, Wilson Isidor, Romaine Mundle, Eliezer Mayenda, Dennis Cirkin, Chris Rigg and maybe our new goalkeeper Melker Ellborg. Drop a smattering of the first eleven around that and we should have enough to prevail.
We’re pretty safe in the league, so let’s give this a go and put a smile back on all our faces before the league returns.
