Why were Sunderland so bad against Huddersfield Town? YOUR questions answered after bad loss

Sunderland Echo

Transcript

00:00 [Silence]

00:13 [Thunder]

00:14 Hello, it's Phil here. Welcome to the latest edition of On The Whistle.

00:17 Now, apologies that I am moving and it's probably a bit wobbly,

00:21 but I'm going to take you a bit behind the curtain here.

00:23 Unfortunately, I can't do it at Huddersfield because we're in the Gasworks car park,

00:27 which is a fair walk away.

00:30 And basically, I need to get there before they lock in.

00:32 So I thought rather than not do a video at all, I thought I would take your questions on the move.

00:36 So I've written them on my hand.

00:38 So I can't remember your names, but thank you very much for sending them in.

00:41 Unsurprisingly, a lot of emotion after a very frustrating performance.

00:44 So let me take the...

00:46 It is raining, so I'm a bit worried these might get washed off as well, but we'll soldier on.

00:50 So the first question is about set pieces. Basically, why is someone so bad at them?

00:54 Well, I think it's a massive issue, isn't it?

00:56 Another set piece tonight, such a sloppy one to concede.

00:58 I think you almost accept the sum and there's not a huge amount of height in the team.

01:02 So you think if someone scores a thunderous header, you can kind of understand it,

01:05 but that one is just such a poor one to concede.

01:08 Going forward, I think the reason why they're so poor at set pieces is fairly obvious.

01:12 I think it's one of the reasons why Alex Pritchard's such a massive loss from the team.

01:16 I think without him, you know, there isn't a natural set piece taker, certainly not from corners.

01:20 And I think the inconsistency of delivery is essentially a reflection of the fact

01:24 that there's no one there to replace him.

01:26 And I think Solinda are going to have to have a big think moving forward about how they take set pieces.

01:30 When Pritchard didn't play at the start of the year, they took short corners a lot.

01:34 And I actually think that might be a better avenue because at the moment, the delivery just isn't there.

01:38 Having said that, should have scored late on when Pembele basically took it off Ballard's header.

01:43 So yeah, I think a lot of people...

01:45 Sorry, I'm walking up a hill here, which is quite challenging.

01:48 Well, I'm coming downhill, so hopefully we'll get some second wind.

01:51 But yeah, great question, totally agree.

01:53 Got another one on Job in the midfield three.

01:57 Is it time to rotate a bit? Is the current blend working?

02:00 I'm inclined to agree that I think physically, I don't think Solinda are quite there.

02:05 I think they're losing too many drills and too many games.

02:08 That was definitely the case tonight.

02:10 I thought Huddersfield were a lot snappier, a lot more physical, and they probably won that battle.

02:16 I actually thought Job stood up to that fairly well at times.

02:19 He made some good challenges.

02:21 He cleared one off the line, which was a really good intervention.

02:23 So I'm inclined to think that tonight, I'm not really sure he was the problem.

02:26 I actually thought he performed fairly strongly.

02:29 But I do think there's a question there about the blend.

02:32 Is Chris Rigg the answer? Well, we know he's got that tenacity, but he's so young.

02:36 You can't really be depending on him every game.

02:38 But is it time for him to get a go? Possibly.

02:40 The other one obviously coming into the equation is Callum Stiles.

02:43 Is he ready to come into the side and impact it?

02:46 We know he trained yesterday, so he'll be there soon.

02:49 Could he be the answer? Well, hopefully he can add something to it.

02:53 What else have we got?

02:54 Someone says, "Why are we so narrow?"

02:57 Yeah, another interesting question.

02:59 I think that it's something we spoke to Bale about.

03:02 Bale felt Sunderland were too open and especially away from home.

03:05 So I think he's fairly unapologetic in saying that out of possession,

03:09 a big part of what he's trying to do is tighten Sunderland up.

03:12 And that means being a lot more narrow.

03:14 He always says he doesn't want teams to play in the middle of us.

03:17 In possession, I'm not really sure you can say that we're so narrow.

03:21 I think in possession, there is quite a bit of width.

03:24 Tonight, that wasn't really the case because obviously the idea, it seemed,

03:29 was to sort of rotate Bayern Mönchengladbach.

03:31 So that Mönchengladbach, who we know, likes to drive and field off the right.

03:35 Could have that space to operate in, but let's be honest, it didn't work, did it?

03:38 It was a really, really disappointing performance.

03:42 So we'll have to wait and see how that one develops moving forward

03:46 because I think it needs a rethink.

03:47 Losing Roberts is a big miss because Sunderland with Roberts and Clark

03:51 are a completely different proposition and we actually saw that in the second half.

03:55 So I think that's a big thing for Bale going forward.

03:57 And the last question I've got written down here is,

03:59 what's actually our style?

04:01 I think that's the big question, isn't it?

04:03 What is the style that Sunderland is trying to play at the moment?

04:06 It seems to me that Bale wants to tighten them up, especially away from home.

04:09 He wants to get almost another midfielder in there to make Sunderland less open

04:13 and he seems to want there to be more space for players like Clark to operate in.

04:18 So it's almost as if we're trying to work to a bit more of a counter-attacking style

04:23 to try and tighten up and also create more space for the wide players.

04:27 But at the moment, I don't think you can say that Sunderland are creating enough, really.

04:32 I have to say that apart from Hulme's late effort, they created so little tonight

04:40 and it's really, really concerning actually because I think there have been some signs of defensive improvements.

04:45 It's very rare that Patson's having to make loads and loads of saves.

04:49 But when you create so little, you're always at risk.

04:53 So I can understand why Bale was frustrated with said players, but I think we have to be honest as well,

04:58 that was a really, really, really poor performance and it leaves Sunderland with a lot of work to do.

05:03 So, yeah, a bit concerned coming away from that one, to be honest.

05:07 I think at the moment, Sunderland are having flashes in games where they look really strong,

05:12 they look like they can be a play-off side, but we haven't really seen them produce anything close

05:16 to a complete 90-minute performance for a long, long time, really.

05:21 And that's a huge worry.

05:24 A big couple of games coming up because the fixture list gets significantly more difficult towards the end of the season.

05:29 So, yeah, a lot of questions. I think after that one, a lot of work to be done.

05:33 But thanks very much for sending your questions in.

05:35 They were really good this week, loads of interesting topics and really, really good talking points, I think.

05:39 So, yeah, see you again on Saturday and fingers crossed we're talking about a much more better,

05:44 dangerous performance and three points in the bag as well.

05:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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