What were the positives and negatives from Sunderland's draw with Plymouth?
Yesterday at 01:00 AM
Despite recovering from 0-1 down to lead 2-1, the Lads were pegged back by the visitors, dropping two points in the process. What did our writers make of the game?
John Wilson says…
The unbeaten home record retained
One minor positive.
One more point banked.
Another minor positive.
A questionable Sunderland attitude
My guest for this match was a Bolton fan and he said that as a neutral, he'd be hard pushed to say which team was at the top of the table and which team was at the bottom.
The attitude — psychologically or otherwise — was appalling and lot of people's pre-match fears came home to roost as we struggled to turn up and capitalise on Sheffield United's slip on Friday.
We kept our unbeaten home record and earned a point but let's be clear: if that was Leeds United or another one of the top teams, we would've performed way better than that.
Psychology strikes again!
Dithering defenders
Defenders putting their foot on the top of the ball to wait for movement from an attacker should be banned, and if you're a defender and you disagree with me, you're wrong.
If an attacker sees a defender put his foot on the ball, the attacker isn't going to be making a forward run any time soon. The ball, and play in general, needs to be moving and fluid for creative runs to be made.
Just one of the many negative points from a very disappointing display.
Malc Dugdale says…
Our main man gets back on the scoresheet
Wilson Isidor scored and ended his recent hoodoo.
Not an entirely negative picture
We didn't lose, so we gain a point on Sheffield United.
That'll do.
A bad day at the office. We move on, and let's find a way to play bottom half teams as we have a few to come, and right now we look unsure as to how to tackle any of them.
A poor shape from the off
Against a team who are struggling to get points anywhere, the decision to play Salis Abdul Samed was weird.
For me, this was a game where Régis Le Bris got the tactics and shape wrong, and it was like a time warp as we went back to sideways football from the recent past.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. And the substitutes didn't make it a lot better.
Defensive dismay
We could've easily lost that game.
I think Anthony Patterson got a hand to the one that hit the post, but in the final fifteen minutes and despite being ahead, we sat back and lacked cohesion and structure.
Massive lessons need to be learned here. It was almost a car crash, and we did nothing to deserve a win.
Mark Roberts says…
Trai Hume's display
He created, scored and looked liked he bailed us out of a pretty flat performance with an excellent cross and a deft finish.
As usual, he was tenacious in the tackle and the only player who can be pleased with their performance against Plymouth, who are destined for League One.
Salis Abdul Samed shows promise
Perhaps I'm clutching at straws but I think he played reasonably well.
He had a 98% passing accuracy and was a lot more noticeable when off the pitch.
He was understandably tiring but we looked disorganised defensively without him and we were open to many more attacking moves as Plymouth grew in confidence.
An average performance against a poor outfit
Despite having 70% possession, we created very little, with five shots on target and an XG rating of 0.58. To put this into perspective, Burnley had an XG rating of nearly three and scored five on Wednesday.
The crowd did work pretty hard to get the Lads going but it rarely worked, so did we expect to just turn up and get three points?
Our closing down was lacklustre at times and we missed Chris Rigg's tenacity and creativity as the game disappeared and our passing sedately through the back four increased.
Plymouth only had a couple of shots at goal, but could be slightly aggrieved at only getting a point as Patterson had to turn a one on one until the post.
A tough afternoon for Jobe and Dan Neil
The midfield partnership didn't work out.
We've been crying out for Neil to be released into the 'number eight' position so that he can pull the strings further forward and create, but bar a good strike at goal, nothing much was created by the pair.
It was really the epitome of the team's performance: a bit rubbish and massively disappointing, especially after Sheffield United's game against Hull.
