The footballing equivalent of finding that you’ve been burgled, but that the intruders only stole a bath mat and a pair of wellington boots. A bad day for sure, but one that could have been much, much worse.
Exhibit A: Kieron Richardson hits a laser beam free-kick, it crashes into the post, flies across the goal, hits the other post, still has the momentum to travel across the goal again, and finally settles with Mark Schwarzer, possibly via the post again. A physics defying escape.
Exhibit B: Kieron Richardson hits a laser beam free-kick. It flies into the top corner. The referee disallows it because Pascal Chimbonda has interfered with the defensive wall. An irrelevant foul and a bizarre let off.
Exhibit C: Djibril Cisse turns and smashes a volley against the crossbar from 25 yards. Supporters in the Putney End are lucky not to have had a goal frame heading their way, but somehow the moorings held firm. “Crikey”, as Toby’s subsequent text put it.
Also offered for consideration: many other near misses that had Sunderland fans up and then down in interrupted ecstacy, including a goal line clearance by an alert Aaron Hughes.
Against that, Fulham had some chances. The threat came in the form of the elusive Zoltan Gera, who time and again managed to find space and opportunities. In the first half he wriggled free, half-rounded Gordon, but could not convert an awkward chance. Soon after Andy Johnson crossed from the left, but Gera couldn’t sort his feet out and missed everything with the goal available. Next he arrived from nowhere with a terrific diving header, but Gordon saved it. He also shot high and towards Putney from the edge of the area. In the second half he again slipped his market, but headed straight at Gordon again.
You can look at this as a failure to make things count, or you can applaud the player for causing far more trouble than the rest of his teammates combined. I choose the latter, and was disappointed when Gera was substituted. It seemed clear by then that Sunderland were very happy to deal with Johnson and Zamora, so in some ways Gera was our only hope. He or Bullard, whose shooting is soon going to be compared to latter-era Papa Bouba Diop if he doesn’t sort himself out. Bullard again ran around like a hyperactive child, and again mixed decent build up play with passes direct to the advertising hoardings. He is doing too little with too much possession.
The consolation to all this was that the defence played quite well. Hangeland was quietly faultless, and Aaron Hughes read the game well and helped keep things close. Paintsil and Konchesky performed reasonably either side of them. This is encouraging, in so far as we thought this may be a problem area this season. Instead we find ourselves with five goals in seven games and a nagging feeling that this team is in danger of becoming over-coached, wooden, and predictable. We shall see.
Good summary.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with your penultimate sentence. The opposition know exactly how we play and don’t have much difficulty containing us.
I’m fearing that the squad is too limited and the manager too set in his ways to improve things.
Might actually have been better if we’d got the beating we deserved.
Comment by Tony Gilroy — October 18, 2008 @ 7:03 pm |
I didn’t get a chance to watch this match, but I followed it on ESPN’s Gamecast. It seemed to me like there weren’t many chances in the second half until Dempsey came in, then Fulham started to get some shots on goal. Is this the best use for Dempsey, as a high-energy sub, or should the guy be starting?
Not a bad result for Fulham, but the lack of goals has really been disappointing this season.
Comment by P@ — October 18, 2008 @ 7:08 pm |
IMO Dempsey’s an irrelevance. When he comes on you can’t fault his effort but nothing crucial ever seems to come from his involvement in the game. In no way is he the problem or solution.
Comment by Tony Gilroy — October 18, 2008 @ 7:16 pm |
Yeah, nothing for Clint today. Bruce at DuNord – who has contacts – says that Clint’s on the transfer list for January, although I don’t yet know who instigated this. Shame, a player I really like, and he did well at West Brom, but he’s never going to come on and change a game in ten minutes, especially from the left flank.
The issues go way beyond that anyway. Roy had his Finland team churning out 0-0 draws, I wonder if we’re heading for a similar fate?
Comment by weltmeisterclaude — October 18, 2008 @ 8:06 pm |
Hughes and Hangeland were excellent. Other than that, very few positives. I watched a live stream, and found myself shouting at Bullard with frustration on numerous occasions. His corners were mostly hopeless. His free kicks were mostly hopeless. Why does he have to take ever single free kick? Johnson looks to me like a highly overpriced striker. Reminded me in many ways of Seol. Yet if Seol had put in that performance he would have been crucified. On the other hand, the forwards were getting very poor service from midfield. Whilst agreeing with you that Gera at least gets into good positions, its all a bit futile if you only convert 1 in 20 of them.
Comment by Mike H — October 19, 2008 @ 5:11 am |
But we know Gera *can* score – already has – so surely the thing is for him to be getting chances, then some will go in. The top teams score goals in part because they shoot a hell of a lot more than others. We should be pleased that Gera’s causing trouble. Nobody else was remotely threatening.
Agree re. Seol. Johnson tried hard, but so did Seol, and was similarly effective (although Seol has scored a goal, of course). Fine, Johnson might need a bit of time to get going, but he looks like the player we feared he might be. Time will tell.
PS Dempsey wants out asap, it seems. We sort of knew this based on comments reported earlier, but presumably he just wants to play.
Comment by weltmeisterclaude — October 19, 2008 @ 8:47 am |
I was bothered before the game even kicked off by the fact that Fulham were announcing a completely unchanged line from the ones that produced weak surrenders in our previous few games. I think the teams needs to be shaken up a little. I know Roy likes 4-4-2, so why not play a diamond formation and stick Andreasen infront of the back four and Dempsey behind the strikers? Lord knows they both deserve to start, especially considering how the team is playing in general. I know this may not be popular, but I’m not opposed to dropping Bullard and Murphy for a couple of games if it mixes up the picture. Can anyone tell me the last time Bullard actually managed to get a freekick over the wall??? Gera also needs to be replaced but I’m not sure who else can play on the left. We got rid of our left wing players right? How about Grey? For me the problem is in midfield right now. The passing is poor, no visions and no service to the strikers. I’m getting concerned…
Comment by Mr. Ploppy — October 19, 2008 @ 2:29 pm |
I’m with you. I think Tony made a good point, we could almost do with an injury in midfield to shake things. I’d rest Murphy *and* Bullard for a game, just to see what happens.
Andreasen may have his head all wrong at present, but showed enough last year to suggest that there’s some talent there. I’d hope that a Gera-Andreasen-Etuhu-Davies midfield would be adequate.
Comment by weltmeisterclaude — October 19, 2008 @ 3:00 pm |
I think it would be worth trying that midfield for our next away match. Why not? The current midfield is just not cutting the mustard. I also wish Roy would bring on Nevland now and again. The last few games have been crying out for a substitution for the last 30 mins.
Comment by Mr. Ploppy — October 19, 2008 @ 3:49 pm |
Rich,
Good summary, I thought Hughes and Hangeland were both excellent. You have been singing Hughes praises for a while and I thought he was our MOM yesterday.
Have to disagree with you on Gera though. This is now the second game in a row where he has squandered a real scoring opportunity when we have’t exactly had chances in abundance lately. Today, he had a few and his confidence is clearing lacking as evidenced by his 2nd half header that he aimed instead of aggressively finishing.
Sure, you can choose to look at it as a positive that he’s gotten himself into some dangerous positions, but each of these chances were on the end of team moves. He didn’t get into these spots because of his individual brilliance, he just happened to be in the right place.
Now, I’m not dismissing his ability in doing this (he’s a very clever player), I’m just saying that there are other players who can do this as well (Dempsey, Seol, etc.) if Gera’s finishing is not up to snuff.
The problem is when you’re in a position like we are when we’re not getting results, we want the manager to try some other things and that’s not Roy’s style. Even when he does make a change, it’s often too late to have an impact like bringing on Dempsey yesterday.
Hopefully, we’ll start to reap the rewards of Roy’s patient hand soon, but at some point, patience becomes stubborness. I just hope that he doesn’t stand pat too long because we’ve really dodged the bullet the last two years and we can’t expect to do that again.
BTW, did anyone get to see the Haynes statue up close?
Comment by George H — October 19, 2008 @ 4:20 pm |
Don’t disagree with all the above especially the wooden display. It is a long way from the fast moving, crisp passing game we were playing at the start of the season.
The problem i feel is that we are not breaking fast enough. In the games against Bolton and Arsenal we were putting their defences under constant pressure with speed and directness. Yesterday we seemed to be passing sideways or back most of the time losing the Johnston advantage along the way. The intensity wasn’t there either bar a period halfway through the second half, it felt as if someone was turning the switch to LOW during the game.
Comment by Bruno — October 19, 2008 @ 4:54 pm |
Sorry, long time lurker but felt that I had to stick up for Gera.
He is definitely our best choice for the left, as good as Dempsey & Seol in attack, but also much better defensively. There were a few occasions where he gave the ball away (not ideal, but nobody’s perfect) but was then racing back down the field and ended up winning the ball back with excellent tackles. His workrate is immense, but that’s also what probably lead him to be substituted.
Comment by Adam — October 20, 2008 @ 10:29 am |
I think the Whites played reasonably well yesterday and should be happy with the draw. If Gera capitalized on several of his chances, I think many posters would have a different outlook on the situation. IMO, RH needs to be a bit more aggressive with his subs. I think we started our best 11, yet around the 65th minute, I would have liked to see D. Murphy come off for Andreason and Zamora come off for Nevland. Keene used all 3 of his subs, who made a noticible impact, as Dempsey did for the Whites.
Comment by jagoldman — October 20, 2008 @ 1:47 pm |
The miss by Gera was unbelievable.
When Clint get some decent playing time, he produces.
I’m just consistently amazed how highly lauded some players are when they never appear to do anything. The entire starting midfield was completely ineffectual. Bullard didn’t even look great.
Nevland would be an excellent super sub.
Comment by Derek — October 20, 2008 @ 6:05 pm |