Sunderland have returned to their normal ways. One week after beating their rivals Newcastle 3-0 they suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Everton. Sunderland arrived at Goodison Park with the confidence of last week’s victory still fresh in their minds. They started the game playing a 5-3-2 which changed to a 3-4-1-2 when attacking.
The idea was to keep it tight at the back and come away with a result. It didn’t work. Although Sunderland hit the post twice with the game at 0-0, scored two goals and had more attempts on goal, the final score was 6-2. Here are the main lessons learned from Sunderland’s trip to Everton.
Lose the self-destruct button
Sunderland found themselves two-nil down during the first half, but managed to get a goal back just before half time. An equalizer came shortly after the break, but that’s as good as it got before Sunderland hit their overused self-destruct button. Everton took the opportunities presented to them and began scoring goals for fun. Sunderland looked like they could concede at any time and in the end the scoreline could have been even worse.
Duncan Watmore deserves to start.
Watmore came on as a substitute for the last 15 minutes. Some will argue that even though he was only on the pitch for relatively short amount of time, he was Sunderland’s man of the match. His ability to run, pass, take on the opposition and create opportunities must give him a good chance of starting the next match. Sunderland have few players with Watmore’s attributes, and for a team that needs to start picking up points quickly, a player of Watmore’s ability must be used more often. Other clubs are taking notice and if Sunderland wish to keep hold of their England U21 international they will need to start giving him more minutes on the field.
Patrick van Aanholt is not a defender
This may sound harsh for a player who is a left-back, but time and time again, van Aanholt has shown that the art if defending is not in his repertoire. He gives the opposition to much time on the ball, is easily fooled, gets caught out when attacking and is too slow in reading the game. He has had a torrid season and teams see him as a major weak link and target him. Going forward he isn’t too bad; he’s quick and at times can put a good ball into the box. He showed these qualities at times against Everton, and contributed an assist for Sunderland’s second goal. Maybe it’s time to retrain him as a winger, as at the moment left-back, or even left-wing-back is not going to be a position he can make his own in the short or long term, whether that’s at Sunderland or elsewhere.
Three at the back does not work at Sunderland
Sebastian Coates, Billy Jones and the returning Wes Brown filled the central defensive positions. With John O’Shea and Younes Kaboul out injured, maybe the thinking was to play an extra defender to compensate the fact that Sunderland’s first choice defenders were missing. Unfortunately, the plan backfired. Jones is not a natural central defender, Brown didn’t look anywhere near match fit and, along with Coates, was caught out by the pace of Everton’s attack too often. The Uruguayan also contributed to Everton’s goals by scoring a second-half own-goal. Having a extra defender does not always mean the defence will be tighter, especially if the players playing in the formation are either not comfortable with it or simply not good enough. Maybe, just maybe, if O’Shea and Kaboul had played in this formation, it would have worked. Many Sunderland supporters will be happy if three at the back is not seen again for some time.
The old Jack Rodwell needs to return
Since leaving Everton, Jack Rodwell’s career has almost stopped still. Two big-money moves have simply not worked. During his first season at Sunderland, central midfielder Rodwell had a tendency to almost disappear from games. Today was the same. He came on as a first-half substitute and did very little. For a man of his build (6 foot 2 inches) he should not be going unnoticed. During the second half, he switched from midfield to central defence; unfortunately he faired no better. Rodwell has the talent – that is without question – but unless he applies himself more this young man with three England senior caps and transfer fees totaling £22 million to his name could easily end up as one of footballs ‘could have beens’. The Jack Rodwell that was seen at Everton when he played there could be an asset to this Sunderland side.
It’s not all bad for the Black Cats; there are positives to be had, even after a 6-2 defeat, although they are few. Duncan Watmore’s impact has already been mentioned, but Sunderland did start the game brightly and they could have easily been two up if not for the Everton goalpost being in top form. Jermain Defoe came back into the starting line-up, looking sharp at times and scoring a good goal. Steven Fletcher looked dangerous occasionally, and scored with a good header. A battling spirit was also present, up until Everton’s third goal, as Sunderland came from two down to level the game early in the second half. Sunderland have now scored five in two games; unfortunately, they have conceded six. As well as missing O’Shea and Kaboul, Sunderland were also missing Fabio Borini and Ola Toivonen; suffice to say, Sunderland could do with them back as quickly as possible.
After the game, manager Sam Allardyce had this to say: “We’ve thrown away an opportunity to feel good this weekend. We went behind when we really shouldn’t have done. If Everton had scored a wonder goal from somewhere then you can say ‘there’s not a lot we can do about that’, but the last four goals were all stoppable by us and there was nothing brilliant about Everton’s play. We seemed to get carried away by the euphoria of getting the equaliser and we had really good opportunities to get 3-2 up, but instead of taking one we left the back door open for Everton to make it look like an easy win. That’s a lack of understanding of where you’re playing and who you’re playing against. You’ve got to keep emotional control and you play at this level via the intelligence you’ve got – ability is all well and good, but if you don’t have the intelligence with it at this level, you lose control.” (via safc.com)
Allardyce has a tough job ahead of him and although a few positives can be taken, it’s the negatives that will be giving the 61-year-old sleepless nights as he tries to find the formula to keep the Black Cats in the Premier League. With the group of players at his disposal, a team that seemingly can only defeat their rivals Newcastle, a plan must be made and it has to be a good one.
Sunderland supporters have everything crossed once more that a miracle can happen and Sam Allardyce can somehow get this team picking up points and get on the road to safety.
