Mind Maps: How the brain races over Sunderland's tactics and form!
03/22/2025 02:00 AM
John Wilson's brain buzzes with formations, player picks, and RLB's choices — trust the pros or keep debating? Plus, a fun coffee-order tribute to the squad!
I think it's indicative of an interesting and exciting season when subconsciously I'm thinking about all things Sunderland AFC for quite a chunk of the day. My brain jumps from one thought to another — and I read or listen to many differing opinions.
It goes along the lines of: "We need to play 4-3-3." No, I think we should try a 3-5-2. Oh please! How outdated is 4-4-2!? What decade are we in!? Why are we still persisting with Roberts? We're a worse team without Roberts on the pitch. Why is Browne on the bench? Why isn't Browne starting? Dodds needs to get out of this club! Is our recent downturn because Dodds has gone? O'Nien should be in midfield. O'Nien is our best central defender.
You get the drift!? Glorious personal opinions. It's what we all love to do.
Every one of us is hiding a top, top manager or coach inside our heads.
But here's the thing — if we accept that RLB and his team have done a sterling job to date (which I'm sure most of us agree he has), why do we always question his decisions?
The coaches and recruitment staff are all professionals who know the ins and outs of football management way more than us. They watch, observe, discuss every move, effort, and reaction of every single player on a daily basis. We can never know why Cirkin's form has dipped or why Browne's experience isn't utilised more.
We need to have faith in the professionals at the club and let them get on with their jobs. But where's the fun in that, eh!? Of course, it's good to chat and have opinions.
It's not against the law. Yet!
I've just finished listening to the latest brilliant podcast by our very own Ha'way the Podcast team (if you haven't subscribed yet, you're missing out — and "subscribed" doesn't mean you have to pay), where Chris Wynn chats with football financial expert Kieran Maguire.
Kieran has been privy to many a meeting behind the scenes involving many different football clubs. Despite being a football fan himself, he's come to realise "he knows absolutely nothing" about motivation, coaching, fitness, personal well-being, dietary requirements, etc., that go towards developing a team and a player. He said the best-run teams "ignore the noise". They have a belief and confidence in a plan or model and move forward with it. He's known some chairmen sack a manager because "that's what the fans want, and he wants to be liked". Not a great foundation for a club!
Of course, clubs can get things wrong, or a plan can go so far before it starts to crumble — but I think it's generally a good thing that KLD and KS seem to be thoroughly bought into what they are doing.
But as I said earlier — we're all allowed opinions, and it's fun to chat! I think sometimes fans get frustrated when they don't understand what's being done. Communication is another big factor that clubs should be aware of.
One of the big questions for me personally at the moment is why has there been such a drop in form recently? Have the players switched off and are coasting towards the playoff semi-finals? How dangerous is that if that is the case? How are they not motivated to give their all in front of 40,000 fans? It's a question I'd love to ask a player or coach.
The nearest answer I've heard came from Alan Hansen when he was on MOTD. He was asked about motivation for "lesser games" or against "lesser teams". All he could honestly say was that in the tunnel, all his Liverpool teammates would be eager and keen to get out on the pitch and play. But there was always something in the back of their heads (if it was against a lower league team, for example) that said, "It's okay, we've got this, it isn't going to be a problem" — and it was hard to get out of that mindset.
Hardly a satisfactory answer — but an honest insight nonetheless.
Some of these frustrating anomalies are born out of a lack of experience. If you have never been in a particular situation before, even if you're warned against certain outcomes, us humans usually like to do it "our way" or find out for ourselves.
I often like to put a football scenario into my line of work; it helps to clarify a stance for me. At my last school, a young member of staff wanted to try something she thought was new. "It doesn't work," I tried to kindly advise her, and told her the outcome when I'd done it 20 years earlier. She responded that she wanted to try it for herself. Fair enough, I guess.
After a term, she stopped the "new initiative" and pointed at me in the staff room, saying, "Don't say a word!" The point being is humans often like to find out for themselves. Did we always listen to our parents or grandparents? Do governments continue long-term plans of previous governments? Can you tell a young team, "If you're not careful and respect all opposition, you could fall on your arse?" You'd like to think they would.
So, as you can see from my mind map — like thousands of others, I suspect — my brain is addled at the moment, thinking about team formations and psychology. But it's all good fun in what so far has mostly been an exciting campaign. I'll leave you with a bit of fun relief that I do when travelling up the M1 on match days.
My usual stop is Woodall Services, where the coffee place prints out your order after asking for your name. If you enlarge my latte orders, you can see I'm working my way through our squad! Little islands of fun amongst the brain rage!
