Talking Points: Sunderland sunk by Cannon fire as Stoke seal the win

12/30/2024 01:00 AM

Cannon's late winner made it another frustrating away day for the Lads. Luke Davies looks at the main stories from the game

Milan Aleksić impresses on his first start

It might've been more out of necessity, but the highly-regarded young Serbian started his first game for Sunderland and we got to see a little glimpse of what might come with a little bit of time to further grow.

An away trip to Stoke in the purgatory that's the time between Christmas and New Year is never an ideal time to make your first start for a new club, and with that it took him a little while to get into the swing of things.

He was clearly a little nervous in the first half an hour, with some loose touches, and he seemed unable to keep up with the pace of an open Championship game.

He grew into the half a little and produced a couple of good runs, getting a fierce shot away that required a decent save from Viktor Johansson. In the second half, he was bright in patches but certainly not helped by the hot and cold nature of our team performance.

One thing's for certain: he is comfortable on the ball, can get about the pitch with ease and doesn't mind putting a foot in when required.

If he can match the development arc of the likes of Tommy Watson and Chris Rigg, as his minutes start clocking up, he'll be a very handy player indeed.

A tale of sheer frustration for Sunderland

Make no mistake: Stoke are one of the worst teams I've seen us play since we arrived back in the Championship. The fact it remained 0-0 after the first hour passed us by (and really we should've been 2-0 down) summed up the hot and cold nature of the performance.

For the majority, we looked comfortable without ever really impressing and as a unit lacked any of the sustained quality that's required to win football matches. If further evidence was needed, both Leeds and Burnley have gone to the Bet365 Stadium in recent months and left with a clean sheet and a 2-0 win, so in that respect against poor teams, we're miles off it.

The glaring miss on 72 minutes from Eliezer Mayenda wasn't the reason we lost the game, but was further evidence of how we can't (and don't) win games against teams we should be expecting to beat.

We had half-chances; we forced the keeper into only two saves of note, and squandered any chances given to us on a plate, which isn't the behaviour of a team with aspirations of achieving something.

The start of a recovery arc for Adil Aouchiche?

Aouchiche has been very much a forgotten man since Régis Le Bris took the reins at the Stadium of Light. There was clearly some history there, with Le Bris having previously managed the French winger, and Aouchiche appeared to be surplus to requirements.

To Aouchiche's huge credit, everything we heard from the club suggested that he was representing himself superbly, not complaining and getting his head down in training.

Whilst he might have only been given his chance as a result of injuries to the likes of Rigg, Romaine Mundle and Watson, he made the most of it and was easily Sunderland's best player, and one of maybe two (Dan Neil being the other) who came away from the match with any praise.

He was at the front and centre of anything that was good for us, leaving fans scratching their heads as to why we've not seen him used more often if he's doing this sort of thing in the week at the academy.

Hopefully his performance yesterday gifts him an extended run in the team, and can solidify his redemption.

What now for the Lads?

Promotion might've never really been on the cards, but after our start to the season, we thought we had the ability to compete with the teams dropping down from the Premier League.

It seems that the first twelve games of the season were nothing more than a young team, excited by a new season, a new manager and new ideas. Ironically, I'd bet that we turn over Sheffield United on New Year's Day, making this and the Blackburn result all the more infuriating.

We seem to struggle when we're favourites for a match, and pull a performance out of the bag when up against it and unfancied (Leeds and Burnley at home, Sheffield United away), so fully expect something better.

However, as I write this, and with Burnley and Leeds still to play, I don't see us having a hope of challenging for the top two over the course of the rest of the season, and no longer consider us nailed on for the playoffs, which is a hill I'd have died on six weeks ago.