Talking Points: Sunderland defensive disaster-class gifts Plymouth a point

Yesterday at 01:00 AM

The lads were punished for trying to hang on to a goal lead against rock-bottom Pilgrims. Bomber looks at the main takeaways from the game.

Completely wrong starting XI

Now we are all very excited to see more of Samed and what he can contribute to the team, but a home game against bottom of the league was definitely not the match to decide to see more of what he can do.

Plymouth were arriving at the Stadium of Light on the back of a 5-0 pasting from Burnley, and having only scored three goals away from home all season. Even the most ignorant of Sunderland fans would have seen that such circumstances should not have called for a true 'defensive midfielder', and what would see is dominate the game would be pace and forward thinking.

Mayenda would also consider himself incredibly unlucky to have not started the match and if Le Bris was insisting on using a 4-3-3 and 'resting' Rigg, should have included a combination of Isidor, Mayenda, Roberts, Neil, Le Fée and Jobe, and look to shell-shock Plymouth early-doors.

The introduction of a Samed took away from the approach we should have had, giving Plymouth the opportunity to get a foothold in the midfield and build confidence when it should have been at an all-time low.

Our inability to defend effectively

As previously mentioned, before yesterday's game, Plymouth had only scored three away goals all season. So the fact they almost doubled that 15-match total in just one trip to the Stadium of Light is something we should be a little embarrassed about.

What is made even worse is the fact we gave them both goals through our own inept defending.

I'm not sure what has gotten into us in recent weeks, but where our resolute defence was a pillar of strength in our assault on the league table, we instead look uncomfortable, awkward and anxious in doing even the most fundamental defensive duties.

In reality, we could have quite easily ended up losing the game with the changes we gave up, and it would have been very Sunderland to have lost our unbeaten home record to the league's bottom club, and them achieving the double over us just to rub salt in.

As it was, we only dropped the two points, but such is the state of our defending it feels as bad as a loss. Whilst the points cushion will likely be enough to see us finish the season in the playoffs, I'd have no confidence in entering a playoff scenario with our defence in its current state.

A 14-minute window into how we should have approached the game

Not for the first time this season, Sunderland only really got going after going a goal down. The Patterson own goal seemed to be the metaphorical kick-up-the-backside that fans were looking for.

For that 14-minute period from going 1-0 down, to 2-1 up, we attacked with pace and purpose, and at the point Trai Hume's classy strike rippled the net, it looked like we would likely go on to win the match and score another goal or two in the process.

But no sooner had we got ourselves in the leading position in the match, we reverted back to what is quickly becoming our staple against the "poorer" teams in the division, which is to have all the possession, do nothing with it, then concede a goal that nobody saw coming and make things hard for ourselves.

We currently have a bit of an inability to perform with the 'favourites' tag around our necks. Pitch us as underdogs against Sheffield United, Leeds or Burnley and we put in a display fans will be proud of, but stick us against teams at the bottom where we are expected to brush them aside and we are too easily dragged down to look like a mid-table team.

In reality, if we approach every game against bottom-half clubs like this 14-minute period, we'd probably be sat in the automatic promotion spots and not having this as a talking point!

Tactically absent-minded

Fans have bemoaned the manager's approach to substitutions before', so it's nothing new, but for me, yesterday's game was the first time I was watching the match and really questioning what on Earth Le Bris' was doing / thinking.

After swapping a defensive Samed for attack-minded Mayenda, we had a quarter of an hour of domination with the previously absent goal threat, but on going 2-1 up and seeing something working for the better, the response was to sit back and defend the lead as if we were attempting a smash-and-grab job... at home... against bottom of the league... Really!!!

This was further compounded when with still 9 minutes to go (including stoppage time) and still 2-1 up, we saw Leo Hjelde come onto the pitch holding up five fingers... then four fingers... then a single digit... yes we were really going 5-4-1 to hold what we have at home.

Really, the inability to manage the game yesterday meant we actually got exactly what we deserved, regardless ofhow we feel about the result.

RLB constantly talks about treating each game on its own merit and planning a style for each opponent separately, but he got this one very, VERY wrong.

All is not lost... do not despair yet!

Alas! Let's try and forget about it for now! Sheffield United lost, we'll keep our fingers crossed for a Leeds/Burnley draw and look back objectively at this weekend and think "well it wasn't great, but no harm done!

We can then look forward to a long build up to a (hopefully) much-improved performance against 'Boro, to further open the gap between the top four and the rest of the division.

We are approaching the business end of the season, but we are not quite in it yet. There will be plenty of twists and turns, and the three teams above us will all slip up at some point, we just need to make sure we keep ourselves in a position to take full advantage of it.

One thing is for sure: drawing at home against teams at the bottom of the league is certainly not the way to go about it.