Gav says…
Traoré looked lively
On a day where Sunderland weren’t great from an attacking perspective, the one bright spark was Bertrand Traoré, who was our best player in the first half and created a handful of half chances out of nothing.
Alright, you could maybe argue that he could’ve done better with some of them, but often in games that are lacking in inspiration, you need someone on the pitch to just have a go and get their shots away, and at least Bertrand did that for us.
Robin Roefs is solid again
Our goalkeeper was tested numerous times in the opening
period and I think we’d have gone into the break behind if it wasn’t for our flying Dutchman between the sticks.
We know he’s a quality operator, but you can really appreciate how good he actually is in games like this, because despite being poor, he kept us in the game.
Almost immediately after half time, we could’ve taken the lead through Enzo Le Fée — ironically from a Roefs pass – and without the great goalkeeping in the first forty five minutes, that just wouldn’t have been possible.
A confusing team selection
On the pre-match podcast, I speculated that whilst Règis Le Bris might go with a back five again, we needed to match Fulham man for man and go back to a four, with Chemsdine Talbi and Brian Brobbey coming in up the field.
Sadly, I think I was right in that the back five wasn’t the right fit for the game — we knew exactly what system and team selection we’d get from Fulham, so intentionally having one body less in midfield and an extra man at the back just didn’t work for us.
I don’t think a back five has worked as fluently in the games against supposed ‘lesser’ opposition than it did against Chelsea and Arsenal, and I’d imagine Règis will go back to the drawing board for the upcoming fixtures.
A shocking refereeing performance…again
The referee was terrible — for both teams, admittedly, but he was worse for us.
For 75 minutes, he blew up for every single silly little foul instead of allowing the game to flow, and then towards the end completely changed the way he refereed the game and started handing cards out like they were going out of fashion.
The free kick that Fulham eventually scored from was never a free kick, and the melee at the full time whistle showed just how out of control of the game he was. Another shocker.
We weren’t great and didn’t do ourselves any favours, but he certainly didn’t help and that Fulham goal doesn’t happen if he doesn’t give a soft, daft foul against us.
Jonny Hawley says…
Sunderland almost get out of jail
We almost scraped a point from a below-par performance, away from home in awful conditions.
It’s grasping at straws slightly, but I do think it’s important we remember that these results are normal, and will happen to everyone throughout the season.
On another day, we win that game despite all the exact flaws we witnessed.
Some decent moments from the Lads
I thought we looked dangerous in moments, and it looks clear to me that Enzo Le Fée is starting to make the left-wing spot his own.
There are enough signs to keep me confident we’ll be more than fine this season.
A tactical misstep?
Five at the back doesn’t work against mid-table sides.
I said the same pre-Everton and although we took a point, I thought we looked at our best when the players shaped up in the 4-3-3 — whereas when Trai Hume went to wing back, we had the most issues.
Yesterday, we saw that in spades as we tried to combine playing out from the back with a two-man midfield. So many times we broke the first line, only for the man on the ball to look up and see nothing!
I think we’re crying out for the extra body in the middle — both to supplement the counter-attacks and to provide options in possession.
A rare error from Régis Le Bris (hear me out!)
Not only do I think he got the formation wrong (a very rare criticism of him, don’t forget), I think he hurt us with his reticence to turn to the bench.
The substitutions of Brian Brobbey and Chemsdine Talbi were fine, but refusing to either change shape or freshen up when it was blatantly obvious that both Hume and Nordi Mukiele were blowing out their arses late on was poor.
If he makes more proactive changes earlier, I think we take a point from that game. But I haven’t had complaints about this since early last season, so don’t take this as an attack on “Le Professeur”.
Nic Wiseman says…
The “curse of the black kit”
We’ve yet to score in this kit — defeat at Burnley, a goalless draw at Palace and then this 1-0 defeat at Fulham.
Conditions were appalling, but it was the same for both teams.
Sunderland fail to find their spark
We weren’t at the races.
Dan Ballard should’ve done better for Raúl Jiménez’s goal, who just slipped from behind him.
The Lads don’t find their calling in London…
Our unbeaten record in London is at an end.
Maybe a good thing we got a reality check here ahead of our following fixtures.
…But it’s not all bad!
Our first defeat in five shows consistency.
It’s only our third league defeat and sees us in sixth position.
