Sunderland Match Thread

[kop-al-74]

Not sure if it was just me but I thought Halsey was totally inept today.

He was giving phantom free kicks against our players, usually two passes after one of Sunderlands players booted one of ours up in the air. He was letting them get away with all kinds and only produced 1maybe 2 yellow cards.

Thought we had 1 maybe 2 decent claims for a penalty, and the handling of the Hyypia and Carragher injuries just seemed inept by the all the officials. I know referees in focus at the moment and i'm really happy with our 3 points, but to me that was a really bad refereeing performance.

Hey compaired to last week,this guy was in Collina's class.

[ningnangnong]

Torres is such a ****ing classy player, pretty much every chance he had, he created himself through hounding a defender, his footwork or just sheer pace.

If The Crow gets some more flight time, he will scaw some more goals.

Arbeloa excellent once again, as was Pennant.

Hopefully Rafa gives Babel a bit of a run in the team as well.

[Bob]

Good game, we'd have drew games like that last season.

We're much better this season.

Momo is back. Good. At his best he eats up midfields, remember the charity game against Chelsea a few seasons ago.

Carra will be out for a month from the face of it. Doubt he's been fully diagnosed though. Arbeloa will be fine cover, given the fixtures we have.

Notable mentions for Pennant and Torres, who just oozes pace. Pace forces defenders deeper thus streching the game for us to capatalise on. ALL very promising.

[Guest]

Xabi needs dropped, he's soo abject. Can't wait until Leiva is ready for the first team.

Pennant is starting to look good as is Babel. Very promising. But i still think we need a RW.

Torres missed a great chance.

Very harsh that mate as he had one player on him each time he touched the ball today as Keane clearly had a game plan to prevent us passing to death. Still, he played quite well and we had some really great passing moves (the first goal initially came via an Alonso pass to Pennant).

[tomasjj]

I thought Halsey was ok.
Maybe he could have cracked down on the alehouse **** from them, but all in all he was good.

Arbeloa was great when covering in the centre too.
Torres is just class, a bit better finishing and he will be a superstar.
Babel will be good, just you wait and see

[sean_lfc]

Torres is such a ****ing classy player, pretty much every chance he had, he created himself through hounding a defender, his footwork or just sheer pace.

If The Crow gets some more flight time, he will scaw some more goals.

Arbeloa excellent once again, as was Pennant.

Hopefully Rafa gives Babel a bit of a run in the team as well.

Aye Torres was very unlucky with the bounce of the ball on 2 occasions, he would've definitely put the ball at least on target from a dangerous position.

The Crow was excellent, works hard and is a threat.

Agree on Arb and Pennant, and Babel had some CLASS touches midway through the second half, near the cornerflag, held off 2-3 Sunderland players. Given a run in the team I can see him being very effective, seeing as Sunderland were always pressurising us.

[Morph]

The only good thing about the Carra injury if he is gonna be out for a while is the upcoming international break, we only need to get by Toulouse and Derby this coming week and then he's got another 2 weeks off, hopefully that'll be enough, if not the next game is Pompey Away which could be tricky

[Bob]

Very harsh that mate as he had one player on him each time he touched the ball today as Keane clearly had a game plan to prevent us passing to death. Still, he played quite well and we had some really great passing moves (the first goal initially came via an Alonso pass to Pennant).

Perhaps, but it's not as if we don't have possibilities.

Last season he played himself down the CM pecking order. With Gerrard playing CM, i can't see how you can justify playing him cause Mash and Momo are arguably better options, no?

[paulcooper4]

Babel will have learnt a hell of a lot from playing in that game and will do him the world of good.

Full respect to the sunderland players for trying to mask the fact that they are diabolically **** at football with superhuman ammounts of effort. They earnt my respect.

[Guest]

Perhaps, but it's not as if we don't have possibilities.

Last season he played himself down the CM pecking order. With Gerrard playing CM, i can't see how you can justify playing him cause Mash and Momo are arguably better options, no?

It seems that he's Rafa's general on the field, carrying out his instructions. Yes he's facing touch competition but he's still a calming influence from the center of the park, as his pass leading up to the first goal testifies.

But I agree with you on the whole that he shouldn't be considered undroppable, as Momo's performance, add to that Mascher and Leiva waiting in the wings gives us fantastic options.

Momo deserves to stay in based on that performance today.



All in all, this competition for places is doing the team a world of good, with Voronin also very impressive today. Hopefully Crouchie will accept the challenge and improve as the season goes on. I'm starting to think we could be in with a decent title challenge this season.

[DeeTheDog]

A bargain????

I'd want 100/1 for that

Shame I couldn't take your 100/1, still £10 at 33/1 will tide me over the weekend.

[sean_lfc]

It seems that he's Rafa's general on the field, carrying out his instructions. Yes he's facing touch competition but he's still a calming influence from the center of the park, as his pass leading up to the first goal testifies.

But I agree with you on the whole that he shouldn't be considered undroppable, as Momo's performance, add to that Mascher and Leiva waiting in the wings gives us fantastic options.

Momo deserves to stay in based on that performance today.



All in all, this competition for places is doing the team a world of good, with Voronin also very impressive today. Hopefully Crouchie will accept the challenge and improve as the season goes on. I'm starting to think we could be in with a decent title challenge this season.

[The Glove]

Sunderland did do well but all their running about will cost them this season. They'll be ****ed toward the end of the season, they'll knacker around the 70 minute mark every game if they play like that. Hopefully for them, they'll have a lead to sit back on, other wise they'll be lucky to not got back down.

[Guest]

Babel will have learnt a hell of a lot from playing in that game and will do him the world of good.

Full respect to the sunderland players for trying to mask the fact that they are diabolically **** at football with superhuman ammounts of effort. They earnt my respect.

Babel had a good game today, not fantastic but he's certainly up for the challenge and showed some silky skills on one or two occasions. Hopefully Kewell will offer us more on that left side, and for that to happen he needs to get back on his arse and play football again.

[Guest]

Sunderland did do well but all their running about will cost them this season. They'll be ****ed toward the end of the season, they'll knacker around the 70 minute mark every game if they play like that. Hopefully for them, they'll have a lead to sit back on, other wise they'll be lucky to not got back down.

They were very tough opponents today but we should have been cut and dried well before we scored late on. We were comfortable winners in the end and if we'd scored from the numerous chances we created, it could have ended 4-0 without any qualms about the score.

We're looking the part early on. Hopefully this continues ... Rafa's rotation policy will be key to that.