@chairboyscentral said:
Reading were the best team we've played bar Blackburn - super solid defensively and had enough quality to make what little they created count. We created more against them than either Derby or Middlesbrough did. Still look a little light up front, but let's judge our attacking output once Ikpeazu is back. Mehmeti was excellent again, what a find - hopefully gets a chance against the club that let him go on Saturday.
I respectfully disagree. Swansea were streets ahead and cruised against us. Reading were solid enough defensively, yes, but they were pretty pedestrian going forward. Unfortunately Joao has the quality to produce something like that out of the blue. Fred wasn’t a million miles from nicking a point though. Positives to take again, but I’ll refrain from all of the generic pleasantries.
Thought Reading were absolutely dire first half, played with zero ambition and were content to slow the game down and pass among themselves in their own half. When we got the ball we did well and had a few half chances, but after the break Reading stepped it up and controlled the game. Fred showed glimpses when he came on and had the one decent attempt at the end which was well saved.
Soulless experience in general tonight. Couldn't get iFollow to work so went for the Sky red button. Not in HD so rubbish picture and awful commentator. Really missed @bluntphil .
Frustrating from our point of view - thought Reading were very ordinary. We just need a bit of luck to come our way, or the opposing team to have an off day.
@aloysius - I have to agree that Bayo is not the answer. Clearly just coming back from injury but I fear the jump in standard is too much. I hope I’m proved wrong but not confident.
@eric_plant said:
Uche Ikpeazu is our marquee signing and he hasn't played yet and we've heard the square root of fuck all what's wrong with him
Can't believe people can blithely wave their hand along with some nonsensical justification of it
We've lost six straight games and we can't score goals and no-one is even mentioning it. It's absolutely ridiculous
Same goes for Dominic Gape, probably our best player
It's just wrong
We never hear what's wrong with anyone, it's nothing new. They were both down as "in contention" for this one, which was a step along from how they were described on Saturday, so that's a sort of update even if we don't know the nature of the injuries.
I genuinely don’t understand the issue that certain people had with the Sky commentator tonight. He was at worst inoffensive, and at best quite generous in his assessment of our performance.
I don’t mind not knowing about player injuries. Whether I know or not makes no difference, and if it makes just 0.5 percent difference to the approach other teams might take then it’s worth it.
It would be nice for Allsoo to occasionally make a save and keep us in a game.
Had three things to today, rooted to his line for their chance just before half time.
Parry's a powder puff low cross out, when it was a simple catch, fortunately fell to Stewart.
The goal although hit with pace, went straight under him.
@ChasHarps said:
It would be nice for Allsoo to occasionally make a save and keep us in a game.
Had three things to today, rooted to his line for their chance just before half time.
Parry's a powder puff low cross out, when it was a simple catch, fortunately fell to Stewart.
The goal although hit with pace, went straight under him.
@YorkExile said:
I genuinely don’t understand the issue that certain people had with the Sky commentator tonight. He was at worst inoffensive, and at best quite generous in his assessment of our performance.
He kept getting things wrong though. Like when he said Bloomfield had been sent off at Blackburn
@YorkExile said:
I genuinely don’t understand the issue that certain people had with the Sky commentator tonight. He was at worst inoffensive, and at best quite generous in his assessment of our performance.
He was awful. A couple of obvious factual errors, he said that Bloomfield (I think) was sent off v Blackburn, and that Allsop's first spell with us was in 2012. Didn't mention the amount of stoppage time indicated at the end of either half. Delivery was almost as soporific as Reading's first half display.
Totally agree @YorkExile. Factual and a bit boring but certainly not a whiff of bias or hatred towards Wycombe. He did say that Allsop first came on loan to Wycombe in 2012 which surprised me as he would only have been 20 at the time. I think it was 2016. Was Bloomfield not sent off at Blackburn or was it a case that he committed a tackle there that was very much like Dom Gape’s against Brentford.
Wow this league is tough isn't it? A good away performance dented by a strong turn and shot with one of Readings few chances. Last year we'd have won that with a late winner.
Dennis and Thompson were excellent in midfield. Stewart and Knight looked in control and the subs all added something to our attacking threat. Our full backs were untroubled for the most part too.
Horgan is becoming a bit of an enigma to me. We need to get him the ball but he dissapears in the current set up. He's too good for the little output he gives. Not sure where best to play him.
We are now competitive in this league. Now we need to score some goals. Wow. This league is tough.
Hopefully there are some free agents out there that could give us more goal threat ? We don’t create enough chances and certainly score enough. Our defence is improving but don’t see many clean sheets , so we need to score more.
@davecz said:
Hopefully there are some free agents out there that could give us more goal threat ? We don’t create enough chances and certainly score enough. Our defence is improving but don’t see many clean sheets , so we need to score more.
I agree, if we could keep clean sheets then we could build...It might seem odd but we actually need to focus at the back and target clean sheets to stay in this division. I never thought we would score many goals so we need to focus more on defence.
@ChasHarps said:
It would be nice for Allsoo to occasionally make a save and keep us in a game.
Had three things to today, rooted to his line for their chance just before half time.
Parry's a powder puff low cross out, when it was a simple catch, fortunately fell to Stewart.
The goal although hit with pace, went straight under him.
Harsh. He's been great and made loads of saves so far! I'd be blaming the centre backs for the goal - he was beaten by the power and the fact it was maybe too close to him. He should've caught a cross (was it a corner?) just before halftime but we were under pressure and he probably thought best to just clear. Who knows but it's further up the pitch where we're struggling. He deserves praise in my opinion
I think Horgan suffered a bit tonight from having to drop deep more often to cover JJ - who didn't really need extra help before they swapped Holmes for Esteves. There are certain games where JJ will need more protection and he's still getting to grips, but one of the few negatives tonight was that we overprotected him imo. But he'll have Aarons and Buendía to contend with on Saturday, which is kind of terrifying even with a shield.
@eric_plant said:
He kept getting things wrong though. Like when he said Bloomfield had been sent off at Blackburn
@NewburyWanderer said:
He was awful. A couple of obvious factual errors, he said that Bloomfield (I think) was sent off v Blackburn, and that Allsop's first spell with us was in 2012. Didn't mention the amount of stoppage time indicated at the end of either half. Delivery was almost as soporific as Reading's first half display.
I didn’t catch those two bits of commentary, so I’ll hold my hands up to that. Poor research on Allsop’s playing history is one thing, but getting the facts so wrong about events this season is a little disappointing. However, my point stands with regards to his general delivery. I was on the edge of my seat all game as I always am watching us, but I can understand why a jobbing part time red button commentator wasn’t quite so enthralled. I found him eminently preferable to some of the mainstream nonsense you get.
@Chris said:
I don’t mind not knowing about player injuries. Whether I know or not makes no difference, and if it makes just 0.5 percent difference to the approach other teams might take then it’s worth it.
Absolutely. Why the obsession with having medical reports? How is it going to change anything if you are told that player X, Y or Z is out for three weeks or three months? In any case, injuries can suddenly improve or get worse so what’s the point in announcing a time scale that could change?
@Swiss_Exile said:
Completely agree with everyone on the injury blackouts. Seems like we’re the only club that does this and find it hugely disrespectful.
When I listen to Phil’s post match interviews with Gareth on RTB podcast I’m always hoping Phil will ask for more info on the injuries and expected return dates. It never happens so I’m starting to assume that he’s been told by the club not to ask.
When I do ask, I get largely ambiguous answers about missing players being in contention for the next game. I get why Gaz does this and I also understand the frustration of fans who just want to know what’s wrong with certain players.
What I can say is that I’ve never been told by the club not to ask about certain things - I’m not an employee of WW.
As it goes, I did ask Gaz about the prospect of any injured players returning for Norwich: “They’re all in with a shout”
If it helps, here is what I do know:
Ikpeazu - hamstring, largely down to very little football played last season and throughout lockdown. I’ve been told he’s nearly been in contention for pretty much every game this season
Tafazolli - An injury (not specified) that was picked up early on in the Swansea game. He finished that match.
Gape - No info but presumably an injury picked up in training.
McCarthy - calf strain, impression I got was that it wasn’t serious.
In other news, there are not one but two threads on the Sunderland forum celebrating our loss. I wish they could see how this makes them look to normal, sentient beings...
Thanks Phil for the physio’s report - that’s the most comprehensive injury update I’ve seen for a long time!
My post was no slight on you by the way, your interviews are excellent. Just find it frustrating to constantly hear that players are “close” and then see no sign of them for weeks.
The idea that Sunderland were in any way mistreated in us being promoted last year is ridiculous, I think the only time they had more points than us was from 7 March after they scraped one point from a possible nine during a period when we didn’t have a game. They finished the season in worse form than us with one more point having played two more games.
More interestingly, it seems O’Nien has been playing as part of a back three for them in recent games.
@ChasHarps said:
It would be nice for Allsoo to occasionally make a save and keep us in a game.
Had three things to today, rooted to his line for their chance just before half time.
Parry's a powder puff low cross out, when it was a simple catch, fortunately fell to Stewart.
The goal although hit with pace, went straight under him.
Harsh. He's been great and made loads of saves so far! I'd be blaming the centre backs for the goal - he was beaten by the power and the fact it was maybe too close to him. He should've caught a cross (was it a corner?) just before halftime but we were under pressure and he probably thought best to just clear. Who knows but it's further up the pitch where we're struggling. He deserves praise in my opinion
The low cross he parried out was in the second half, we we lucky that the spill/parry fell to Stewart.
Their goal Stewart got turned to easy, but the striker although hitting with pace, has not directed t away from the keeper.
A keeper with more agility and quicker feet would be disappointed to concede that goal.
Comments
Uche Ikpeazu is our marquee signing and he hasn't played yet and we've heard the square root of fuck all what's wrong with him
Can't believe people can blithely wave their hand along with some nonsensical justification of it
We've lost six straight games and we can't score goals and no-one is even mentioning it. It's absolutely ridiculous
Same goes for Dominic Gape, probably our best player
It's just wrong
I respectfully disagree. Swansea were streets ahead and cruised against us. Reading were solid enough defensively, yes, but they were pretty pedestrian going forward. Unfortunately Joao has the quality to produce something like that out of the blue. Fred wasn’t a million miles from nicking a point though. Positives to take again, but I’ll refrain from all of the generic pleasantries.
Thought Reading were absolutely dire first half, played with zero ambition and were content to slow the game down and pass among themselves in their own half. When we got the ball we did well and had a few half chances, but after the break Reading stepped it up and controlled the game. Fred showed glimpses when he came on and had the one decent attempt at the end which was well saved.
Soulless experience in general tonight. Couldn't get iFollow to work so went for the Sky red button. Not in HD so rubbish picture and awful commentator. Really missed @bluntphil .
Frustrating from our point of view - thought Reading were very ordinary. We just need a bit of luck to come our way, or the opposing team to have an off day.
@aloysius - I have to agree that Bayo is not the answer. Clearly just coming back from injury but I fear the jump in standard is too much. I hope I’m proved wrong but not confident.
From the little I have seen of Uche I don’t think he’s going to be the saviour. Hope I’m wrong.
We never hear what's wrong with anyone, it's nothing new. They were both down as "in contention" for this one, which was a step along from how they were described on Saturday, so that's a sort of update even if we don't know the nature of the injuries.
You stop that. Uche represents hope.
I genuinely don’t understand the issue that certain people had with the Sky commentator tonight. He was at worst inoffensive, and at best quite generous in his assessment of our performance.
I don’t mind not knowing about player injuries. Whether I know or not makes no difference, and if it makes just 0.5 percent difference to the approach other teams might take then it’s worth it.
It would be nice for Allsoo to occasionally make a save and keep us in a game.
Had three things to today, rooted to his line for their chance just before half time.
Parry's a powder puff low cross out, when it was a simple catch, fortunately fell to Stewart.
The goal although hit with pace, went straight under him.
Yes sir . Of course sir. Trouble is I have a sixth sense about him. Hard to explain. Sorry to be enigmatic.
he has been our best player this season so far
He kept getting things wrong though. Like when he said Bloomfield had been sent off at Blackburn
He was awful. A couple of obvious factual errors, he said that Bloomfield (I think) was sent off v Blackburn, and that Allsop's first spell with us was in 2012. Didn't mention the amount of stoppage time indicated at the end of either half. Delivery was almost as soporific as Reading's first half display.
There’s no need for that. I think @glasshalffull would be quite handy in a skirmish.
Totally agree @YorkExile. Factual and a bit boring but certainly not a whiff of bias or hatred towards Wycombe. He did say that Allsop first came on loan to Wycombe in 2012 which surprised me as he would only have been 20 at the time. I think it was 2016. Was Bloomfield not sent off at Blackburn or was it a case that he committed a tackle there that was very much like Dom Gape’s against Brentford.
That Bloomfield tackle was against Rotherham
Darius Charles was sent off at Blackburn
He also got grimmer and JJ mixed up and called Samuel "Martin" at one point
That Martin Samuel guy and his spiteful piece in the Mail must have been on his mind.
Wow this league is tough isn't it? A good away performance dented by a strong turn and shot with one of Readings few chances. Last year we'd have won that with a late winner.
Dennis and Thompson were excellent in midfield. Stewart and Knight looked in control and the subs all added something to our attacking threat. Our full backs were untroubled for the most part too.
Horgan is becoming a bit of an enigma to me. We need to get him the ball but he dissapears in the current set up. He's too good for the little output he gives. Not sure where best to play him.
We are now competitive in this league. Now we need to score some goals. Wow. This league is tough.
Hopefully there are some free agents out there that could give us more goal threat ? We don’t create enough chances and certainly score enough. Our defence is improving but don’t see many clean sheets , so we need to score more.
I agree, if we could keep clean sheets then we could build...It might seem odd but we actually need to focus at the back and target clean sheets to stay in this division. I never thought we would score many goals so we need to focus more on defence.
Harsh. He's been great and made loads of saves so far! I'd be blaming the centre backs for the goal - he was beaten by the power and the fact it was maybe too close to him. He should've caught a cross (was it a corner?) just before halftime but we were under pressure and he probably thought best to just clear. Who knows but it's further up the pitch where we're struggling. He deserves praise in my opinion
I think Horgan suffered a bit tonight from having to drop deep more often to cover JJ - who didn't really need extra help before they swapped Holmes for Esteves. There are certain games where JJ will need more protection and he's still getting to grips, but one of the few negatives tonight was that we overprotected him imo. But he'll have Aarons and Buendía to contend with on Saturday, which is kind of terrifying even with a shield.
I didn’t catch those two bits of commentary, so I’ll hold my hands up to that. Poor research on Allsop’s playing history is one thing, but getting the facts so wrong about events this season is a little disappointing. However, my point stands with regards to his general delivery. I was on the edge of my seat all game as I always am watching us, but I can understand why a jobbing part time red button commentator wasn’t quite so enthralled. I found him eminently preferable to some of the mainstream nonsense you get.
Absolutely. Why the obsession with having medical reports? How is it going to change anything if you are told that player X, Y or Z is out for three weeks or three months? In any case, injuries can suddenly improve or get worse so what’s the point in announcing a time scale that could change?
When I do ask, I get largely ambiguous answers about missing players being in contention for the next game. I get why Gaz does this and I also understand the frustration of fans who just want to know what’s wrong with certain players.
What I can say is that I’ve never been told by the club not to ask about certain things - I’m not an employee of WW.
As it goes, I did ask Gaz about the prospect of any injured players returning for Norwich: “They’re all in with a shout”
If it helps, here is what I do know:
Ikpeazu - hamstring, largely down to very little football played last season and throughout lockdown. I’ve been told he’s nearly been in contention for pretty much every game this season
Tafazolli - An injury (not specified) that was picked up early on in the Swansea game. He finished that match.
Gape - No info but presumably an injury picked up in training.
McCarthy - calf strain, impression I got was that it wasn’t serious.
Cheers @bluntphil -some nice insight there!
In other news, there are not one but two threads on the Sunderland forum celebrating our loss. I wish they could see how this makes them look to normal, sentient beings...
Thanks Phil for the physio’s report - that’s the most comprehensive injury update I’ve seen for a long time!
My post was no slight on you by the way, your interviews are excellent. Just find it frustrating to constantly hear that players are “close” and then see no sign of them for weeks.
The idea that Sunderland were in any way mistreated in us being promoted last year is ridiculous, I think the only time they had more points than us was from 7 March after they scraped one point from a possible nine during a period when we didn’t have a game. They finished the season in worse form than us with one more point having played two more games.
More interestingly, it seems O’Nien has been playing as part of a back three for them in recent games.
The low cross he parried out was in the second half, we we lucky that the spill/parry fell to Stewart.
Their goal Stewart got turned to easy, but the striker although hitting with pace, has not directed t away from the keeper.
A keeper with more agility and quicker feet would be disappointed to concede that goal.