Your #onthewhistle questions answered after Sunderland 2-0 Derby County in Championship

Sunderland Echo

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the latest edition of On The Whistle. We have a Sunderland win to

00:13talk about which is a nice big Derby 2-0. I didn't think Sunderland played all that

00:19well but I'm very encouraged that they beat a team who will probably be in the bottom

00:23half of the season at home while not playing well. That's something they've not done

00:28easily for a lot of years. They didn't lead one, they didn't find it easy to do. So I'm

00:32wondering if you think it's very encouraging. It's not a vintage performance but I thought

00:36they deserved the win, they created the better chances. Yeah, I think they were by far the

00:41better team but they weren't in full flow. I think there's more gears to come from Sunderland

00:45that will have to improve against Leeds on Friday you would think. But a bit of a job

00:49done performance. I mean, Joe Bellingham, fantastic strike. For the first sort of three

00:54to five minutes I thought Derby were on top of Sunderland and I actually thought like

00:58oh, bloody hell. But after that I think we settled into it. Yeah, just one of those sort

01:03of got it done performances. Yeah, I think to be fair to Derby, I think they caught Sunderland

01:07out. I think we all thought they would probably be a bit of a low block, kill time. To be

01:11fair they came out really aggressive with the pressing. I think they maybe caught Sunderland

01:14out but to be fair I thought after a pretty scrappy start I think we started to see them

01:19take control of the game. I thought the midfield after getting into it were really good. The

01:23word for Dan Neal, we spoke at length about him after the Watford game when he made a

01:27daft error. We said he can be really good in that role when the team plays well. Stick

01:31with him, be patient. I thought he was excellent tonight. I thought he won his duels for the

01:35most part. Kept the ball ticking, was involved in some really nice triangles. Good performances

01:40all over the pitch. Mundell again was excellent. Job obviously with the goal, really good.

01:44But I thought Neal deserved a bit of credit. And I think the other thing I would say is

01:48late on we always wonder how Sunderland would cope with set pieces, a bit of aerial bombardment,

01:53Darby or a strong set-piece side. I thought Sunderland defended really, really well and

01:57I think they deserved a lot of credit for that.

01:59Paterson, can we shout out Paterson's distribution actually which was superb today.

02:02Great performance, great save as well. He hasn't had a lot to do this season. I thought

02:07tonight was probably the first time Sunderland kind of needed him and that was a really important

02:11one when he made that close range save. Lots of good signs even if it wasn't the best performance.

02:16Really nice to be talking about it. Not a brilliant performance with a clean sheet

02:19and a win. We haven't seen the couple of years he's been in the Championship.

02:23Let's get some questions.

02:24Apologise for the wind because it's good to sound windy.

02:28I'm trying to speak as loud as I can. I'm trying to get myself to shout.

02:30So the first question is from Ethan. Thanks for your question Ethan. He says,

02:33How likely is Isidore's deal to become a permanent? It seems almost nailed onto me if he keeps

02:38scoring and ingratiating himself with the supporters.

02:40Yeah, completely agree. It's still very, very early days. He hasn't actually, he's still

02:45made two starts but I think we spoke on Saturday about, you know, we wondered whether he'd

02:49be a natural sort of centre forward but at the moment he looks it and tonight he was

02:53on the periphery for a lot of the game but he's still, that front post run, we talked

02:57about that on Saturday. The kind of thing we haven't really seen probably since Ross

03:00Stewart. That was exactly the kind of goal Ross Stewart used to score. So excited to

03:04see Isidore do that. It's not a hugely expensive deal if he keeps playing well. I don't think

03:09there's any doubt that the support will do it if he keeps doing it.

03:12Well, when I spoke to him afterwards and asked him the question, he was at pains to

03:15stress that there's an option and he sounded quite keen on sticking to it to be honest.

03:19Caveat to that is, it's early days and anything can happen.

03:21We also know that it is partially performance based so it will actually automatically be

03:25triggered if he hits a certain level of performance. I don't actually know what those are but that's

03:30where it came from in my mind.

03:31Will it be games or goals?

03:32It might be due to team performance, it might be due to whether someone can promote it.

03:36I don't know the exact terms of that. I just know that there is a clause in that so it

03:41might be something that's triggered.

03:42There's your headline.

03:43But yeah, I think at the moment it's going to be me because if he keeps playing like

03:47this he's going to be desperate to do it because he's been so far from goal scoring

03:51so far forward.

03:52Joe Smith says, how many games do we give him before we see a Solyndra in a promotion

03:56race? Keen not to get too giddy but I genuinely think after 10 games where you are it's a

04:00reflection of your ability.

04:01I don't think you can say it until after Christmas.

04:03I'm confident in saying now that Solyndra are a playoff contender. I think we've seen

04:09enough over the period of games that they've played. They've played a strong opposition

04:13at times, they've shown some flexibility. Obviously you need luck, you need a lot of

04:18luck with injuries, that's the big thing.

04:20But I think the level of performance at the moment, I think we can talk about Solyndra

04:23as a playoff contender and I think we should hold this team to that standard.

04:26Friday night's going to be a massive test of where we are. I know that Leeds has points

04:31and Tally's a little bit underwhelmed but I think everyone knows they're the front

04:34runners for the title this year.

04:35I think we'll know a lot more after Friday Joe and I agree with James, you can't really

04:38talk about it. It's only automatic until after Christmas.

04:40I was going to say, for me, automatics. If you're up there after Christmas then fair

04:43enough. Because we've seen with Solyndra you can make a late play for the playoffs. I think

04:48when the top two in the Championship, it tends to be those top two now that emerge after

04:52Christmas, you don't really get those late runs towards the back end of seasons anymore

04:56in terms of the top two.

04:57And I think on that point, which is a good one, I think what you often see is the size

05:00of the relegation from the Premier League start slowly. They start a really ball whereas

05:03it heads towards Christmas when the squad settles. So I think that's an important part

05:06as well. I think Birmingham and Leeds are just going to be there stronger and stronger.

05:09And I just think the schedule is such a massive test over Christmas because there's so many

05:14games in such quick succession that if you have three bad results you can find yourself

05:18far down the table. If you have three good ones then you're right up there.

05:21So you can be excited Joe but not giddy. That's my verdict.

05:25The last one from Tony is a really pertinent one. It's a point I was going to raise.

05:29Injuries in these three game weeks will surely test our squad depth. How do you think we

05:33will manage?

05:34I think obviously the big negative tonight was Pevere coming off just ten minutes after

05:38Cosmonauts as sub. He just cannot get going can he? Lebris normally doesn't give much

05:43away about injuries but he said he's going to be out for a couple of weeks at minimum.

05:47He did say it's a chance for Tommy Watson. I thought Watson again looked so lively when

05:50he came on. It's really exciting to see what he does in the under-21s. He just comes and

05:54does for the first team. I'm assuming for him which is great. But I think we've seen

05:58Tony this season that Lebris doesn't make many subs. I think that's partially how he

06:01manages. But it's partially because there's not a huge amount of squad depth and Friday

06:05is going to be a huge test.

06:07Yes, I have no doubt about it. Onwards to Leeds.

06:10Very well, see you then.

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