jocklatic
Vital 1st Team Regular
The recent Rotherham and Blackburn games felt like steps forward in the in terms of performance and an more effective method of play showing a mix of long and short passing. Sandwiched between those two games were Hull and Cardiff that demonstrated us at our worst Joyce like incoherent long ball. Unfortunately any progress we felt made on Tuesday seemed to take 2 steps back and lessons we learned not on display as we reverted back to relentless long balls.
Like our previous meetings over the past 18 months with Sunderland it was a clash of styles with Sunderland's slick pass and move vs our physical battling direct play. Their style of football had proven to be like kryptonite to us last season and unfortunately we didn't seem to have learned anything from our 3 loses at their hands and despite taking the lead their style comfortably beat us in all departments to give them what ended up a relatively easy win.
We knew Sunderland were lacking height and physicality with their missing first teamers and it seemed like our tactic was just just long ball in constantly in the hope we could drag them into a battle where we had the bigger and stronger players. But Sunderland were too smart to get dragged into our game, they had the composure and movement to comfortably bypass our press and play around and through us.
The one area they did have height and physicality was in their centre backs and they were able to deal with such a limited and predictable long ball approach quite easily. Wyke did ok but he really wasn't getting good long balls to work with they were just hopefully blasted towards the final third and hope he gets it rather than played into channels, space or when he's open. It meant that nearly every long ball lost posession and set up another chance for a Sunderland attack.
It was clear Sunderland were missing their focal point and hold up play by having no striker on the pitch so for all their nice passing they struggled to find a man in the box. We sat deep and were absorbing the pressure relatively well but but Roberts on the right was picking up the ball very deep and running through us beatung 3 or 4 players and getting shots off. Fortunately his finishing was poor and we had a number of let offs but the warning signs were there. He ripped right through us multiple times and we never seemed to get a grip on it or adjust tactically to counter that.
They also had no tackling def mid which meant we was a lot of space in centre mid to potential pick up the loose balls and they looked vulnerable but there was so little passing going on from us. The Power we saw against Blackburn could've had a field day in that space but Max had one of his worst games since coming back, his tackling and passing were way off. When you've got Naylor who won't go forward or pass the ball forward and Power that off form we had absolutely nothing in centre mid. The only time we ever made anything in that space was when Broadhead controlled a high ball on his chest turned and ran at Sunderland. He combined with McClean to set up Wyke for the goal. But that was a very rare moment were we got the ball down and played a few forward passes together.
By half time i didnt think we had played that well and our goal was against the run of play. Sunderland were under performing themselves and looked unbalanced and lightweight - but they were better than us, created more chances and had more pressure. You felt if the game was there for the taking for whoever stepped up their game in the second half. If we could just stop giving them the ball back by going long we could have a good chance of coming away with the points.
But after halftime Sunderland responded and we didn't - they upped their game they changed to a 4 at the back from wing backs and attacked us more aggressively - they started to dominate posession and exploit us repeatedly down both flanks. They constantly had 2 on 1 overlaps in wide areas against our wing backs and it looked inevitable an equaliser was coming if we didn't adjust our tactics to counter their changes. We needed to desperately switch to get our wing backs protection maybe a back 4 with 4 in front like we did against Blackburn later on. But as we often are guilty of we didn't read the warning signs and without making any tactical switches they got their equaliser by exploiting our weakness we didn't fix. We had absolutely no one to blame but ourselves we were getting over ran down either flank time and time again, we had enough warnings to know it was a major issue and we stupidly ignored it.
We were poor in posession in the first half but it got much worse in the second. We made virtually no attempt to play any football, there was no one showing for the ball, no movement, no runners just hit it long and immediately surrender posession back. It was basically attack vs defence, we completely surrendered midfield and we were chasing shadows and clinging on. We were over ran, in desperate need of a tactical switch that never came.
Their winner came from a shocking moment from us were we gave away a foul then everyone turned their back and wondered off while they took the free kick quickly and unchallenged got a cross in a good cross but no idea what Darikwa was doing he didn't seem to make any attempt to challenge for the ball and gave them a free point blank header. We pride ourselves on being solid defensively so it was a very soft goal to give away. But to be fair I think even if that hadn't gone it they'd have still likely got a winner as they were all over us and we were on the ropes.
Last 10 minutes or so we made some changes but the damage was done. Aasgaard and Shinnie probably did more in their short cameos getting forward than most of the midfield showed in the previous 80 mins. We gave them a couple of late very scares from a cross and a set piece but we missed our chances.
At the end of the day I think we got a lesson in what football can do to a long ball team - you just don't let them have the ball. They were missing a number of key players and even gave us a lead but we still struggled. We were poor throughout and second best in every department - out thought tactically, out played, out worked. We didn't deserve anything other than a loss. Only real positives were Wyke scored and we only lost by 1 goal margin.
There is a direct and undeniable correlation between how much we hoof it vs how much football we play and results. When we mix it up and have some pass and move amongst some direct play it's fine but when the only time the ball moves forward is a 70 yard pump out of defence it's always ineffective. It's been our primary tactic but resulted in the less chances created, goals scored and good performances over the last 18 months than when we play football. We haven't really got better at going long yet we still seem to view it as our tactic of choice rather than moving increasingly towards a more passing play that nearly always gets better performances and results - I don't understand how we keep playing to a weakness.
You know you aren't going to win every week - no problem. You accept we aren't going to play really well every game and the opposition will sometimes be better than you - fair enough. But the thing that is so frustrating is when we know before a ball is kicked if we just go long it doesn't work but we so often just do that anyway. Opposition teams must be praying we choose to play like that against them as it only helps them and hurts us. How long until the penny drops we are not a good long ball team and need to try and not revert to it being our main approach?
Good summation there KDZ but you missed big fat glaringly obvious piece out.....their goal scorer for the equaliser SHOULDN'T have been on the pitch, would imo totally have changed the game. Undone yet again by piss poor officiating & yet another rant from me to say just f@ck the EFL...
