Sunderland stifled by bizarre officiating
Anywhere else on the pitch, shoving your opponent in the back results in a foul — so how was it possible for a Bournemouth defender to shove Enzo Le Fée in the back inside the penalty area and get away with it in the first five minutes?
It’s particularly frustrating, as we know that VAR was brought in to support with clear and obvious errors and in this instance, it was both of those things and would’ve led to an incredibly good chance for us in a difficult away fixture.
Whilst I’m willing to admit
that I still have a severe and lingering dislike of Jarred Gillett after his antics in our game against Middlesbrough and the ridiculous red card given to Dan Neil, he hardly does himself any favours with some absolutely perplexing decisions.
On Saturday, these ranged from the penalty decision to a painfully blatant reckless and dangerous tackle by Tyler Adams on Granit Xhaka that resulted in a yellow — and that’s not to mention booking Noah Sadiki for failing to have the reaction time of a Formula 1 World Champion, kicking the ball away 0.01 seconds after the whistle had been blown.
The Premier League Match Centre, which feels like it’s now in place to justify bad decisions and has all the integrity of Iraq’s ‘Minister of Truth’ in 2003, described it as “normal contact” — because nothing says ‘normal’ like pushing an attacker over in the box.
It was one of the worst refereeing performances I’ve seen in recent times and even if we’d been teleported back to League One, we would be seeing better officiating than from Gillett.
Ultimately, whilst I’m always reluctant to put the blame on officials when it’s the team itself that loses points, this simply isn’t the case here as the inconsistent approach cost us a vital away win and completely changed the momentum of the game.
Normally, you’d be happy with a point away from home against a Bournemouth team in form. However, thanks to this referee, we’re left feeling cheated. Hopefully, we put in a formal complaint and can have a break from total ineptitude.
“Oi, Big Man! What’s your name?”
With Brian Brobbey out for the next couple of weeks, an intriguing question that had emerged over the course of this week was who Régis Le Bris would opt for when it comes to leading the line.
Like many others, I was expecting Wilson Isidor to start but I was hopeful that we would see Eliezer Mayenda get the nod. Prior to the game, Nick Barnes described things perfectly: we have three strikers, all with very different strengths.
Whilst we don’t have the option of combining them into some sort of ‘super soldier’ with ridiculous strength, intelligent movement and dynamic flare, it provides an interesting dilemma.
I couldn’t have been happier to see Mayenda take his chance well, assuming that Djordje Petrovic (how superior is Robin Roefs to this bloke, by the way?) would struggle to hold onto the ball from Habib Diarra’s shot, putting us into a well-deserved lead. The only disappointing thing was the lack of tribute to Randy Orton, given that we’re on the eve of Elimination Chamber and Wrestlemania.
When we had players missing due to AFCON, it provided fringe players with the chance to establish themselves into the first team and give Le Bris a dilemma.
Nobody took that opportunity but in this instance, I’m hopeful that Mayenda will take the chance given to him and that we can see how he establishes himself in the Premier League.
Welcome back, Granit!
Although it’s obvious that during the next couple of weeks, we’ll miss the quality of Reinildo and Brobbey, among others, it’s even more obvious to note the difference in our performance when Xhaka is on the pitch, as his calm presence in midfield not only rubs off on others in the squad but enables players like Sadiki to push further up and really showcase their talents.
In recent games, it’s felt like we’ve bypassed our midfield somewhat and really struggled to keep control of games — but this isn’t an option when Xhaka is on the pitch and is at his best.
After getting absolutely clattered in an incident that should’ve seen Bournemouth down to ten, it was concerning to see him subbed off on seventy five minutes. We can only hope that it was a precautionary measure and that he’s ready to start again in another difficult away fixture at Leeds United.
Robin Roefs shows his class
Amid the excitement of the summer transfer window, it was slightly disappointing to see Petrovic choose to move to Bournemouth instead of us — despite being linked strongly.
However, in retrospect, we couldn’t have ended up in a better position as the first half in particular, Roefs was absolutely dominant, claiming crosses well and making some vital saves.
I have to concede that I’m not an avid consumer of Bournemouth games, but it feels like Petrovic is the opposite — spilling balls and lacking confidence. It’s exactly the reason why we dismissed any sort of sentimentality and looked to recruit a strong goalkeeper ahead of this Premier League season.
In the back of your mind, you do have to wonder how long we’ll be able to keep hold of Roefs but we need to be grateful that we have a player of this quality representing us. It’s perplexing to think that this is only his second season of top flight football, and his potential is actually quite frightening.
For Bournemouth’s equaliser, whilst we saw Roefs in no-man’s land, it was a fantastic cross which ultimately drew him into a poor position and doesn’t take away from his overall performance.
Another superb away following — let’s keep it going!
Thankfully, we were able to establish that the racist abuse of Romaine Mundle wasn’t from Sunderland fans but instead originated from foreign betting markets. That said, we can’t shy away from the poor support that the Lads received against Fulham, with grumblings aplenty and early leavers visible for all to see.
However, it couldn’t have been different from the support the away fans gave the team on Saturday.
Whilst the debate about kick. off times and broadcasters moving games at short notice can be benched for another time, you can’t fault anyone who was willing to travel that distance for a 12:30 kick off. What’s more, the support in the game itself was first class — all you could hear during the first sixty minutes were Sunderland chants and encouragement of the team.
Whilst we’ve got more away games coming up, I hope this is something we take heed of in preparation for the visit of Brighton on Saturday 14 March.
By once again turning the stadium into an intimidating fortress and backing the Lads until the final whistle, we can help make the difference during a difficult phase of our season.
