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Sunderland v Manchester City


This is a Sunderland team who have become something of an enigma. They were 2-0 up against Birmingham on the opening day and should have cruised to victory, only to draw 2-2. Then they produced a bit of a nothing performance against West Brom last week and in the end they were quite easily beaten. Steve Bruce probably thought his team had more about them than that.

But they're up against Manchester City and everyone wants to beat them because of the money they've spent. At the moment it seems that if you score first against Roberto Mancini's side, they really have to change the way that they play. They were impressive on Monday night against Liverpool but I think they're still searching for their best team.

Prediction: 1-1


All those goals we've conceded! Bugger.

john@staustell wrote:Sunderland v Manchester City


This is a Sunderland team who have become something of an enigma. They were 2-0 up against Birmingham on the opening day and should have cruised to victory, only to draw 2-2. Then they produced a bit of a nothing performance against West Brom last week and in the end they were quite easily beaten. Steve Bruce probably thought his team had more about them than that.

But they're up against Manchester City and everyone wants to beat them because of the money they've spent. At the moment it seems that if you score first against Roberto Mancini's side, they really have to change the way that they play. They were impressive on Monday night against Liverpool but I think they're still searching for their best team.

Prediction: 1-1


All those goals we've conceded! Bugger.

Jesus, that's bad even by his own useless standards.

Predictably Twatish!

Potentially he has a point, it's semantics really about how long a moment actually is, perhaps he's thinking of moments in terms of 5 months?

Why doesn't he go the whole hog and just say "to beat City you have to score more goals than them".

I have very little time for his twaddle. He consistently gets more wrong results than he gets right so I just do not understand why the BBC keep him afloat.

They should seriously consider introducing "Challenge Paul the Octopus"

Tbf he's basing it on the fact that nobody has yet seen what we do if we go a goal behind. Hughes team was showing potential as fighters & this one certainly did v Scousers so I'm optimistic but we don't know until it happens.

Imo, if we can do that, we're title challengers as we won't lose many from being in front.

Ted Hughes wrote:Tbf he's basing it on the fact that nobody has yet seen what we do if we go a goal behind. Hughes team was showing potential as fighters & this one certainly did v Scousers so I'm optimistic but we don't know until it happens.

Imo, if we can do that, we're title challengers as we won't lose many from being in front.

I'm not sure if I dreampt this or not Ted, but I'm sure I read somewhere we didn't lose a game last year when we scored first (might just be in the league?)

Dronny wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Tbf he's basing it on the fact that nobody has yet seen what we do if we go a goal behind. Hughes team was showing potential as fighters & this one certainly did v Scousers so I'm optimistic but we don't know until it happens.

Imo, if we can do that, we're title challengers as we won't lose many from being in front.

I'm not sure if I dreampt this or not Ted, but I'm sure I read somewhere we didn't lose a game last year when we scored first (might just be in the league?)

I saw that somewhere. Whether it's true, I don't know but we certainly are a hard side to beat when we get in front. Also, I used to look at the positives when Hughes' side fucked up defensively; that we fought like fuck (or like the rags) to get back into games & never gave up. If we still have those qualities, with this squad & more playing time from last year's players, we really could do some damage.

The downside is that Bellamy was one of the stars of those kind of performances but Milner is similar attitude wise tbf. What a pity we don't have both, what a squad that would be..

Dronny wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Tbf he's basing it on the fact that nobody has yet seen what we do if we go a goal behind. Hughes team was showing potential as fighters & this one certainly did v Scousers so I'm optimistic but we don't know until it happens.

Imo, if we can do that, we're title challengers as we won't lose many from being in front.

I'm not sure if I dreampt this or not Ted, but I'm sure I read somewhere we didn't lose a game last year when we scored first (might just be in the league?)

Its true the games we lost in 09/10 we either didn't score or they scored first. We never lost having scored first..we drew a few mind you!

john@staustell wrote:Sunderland v Manchester City


This is a Sunderland team who have become something of an enigma. They were 2-0 up against Birmingham on the opening day and should have cruised to victory, only to draw 2-2. Then they produced a bit of a nothing performance against West Brom last week and in the end they were quite easily beaten. Steve Bruce probably thought his team had more about them than that.

But they're up against Manchester City and everyone wants to beat them because of the money they've spent. At the moment it seems that if you score first against Roberto Mancini's side, they really have to change the way that they play. They were impressive on Monday night against Liverpool but I think they're still searching for their best team.

Prediction: 1-1


All those goals we've conceded! Bugger.

bloody hell,have a dreamed the last few games and we have let goals into our net,,, HART OUT BRING BACK SHAY

With our defence at the moment i think only a dubious goal or a flukey penalty is the only way the opposition can score against us. Richards playing like he was when he first broke through alongside Toure & Kompany are feckin awesome, Lescott filling in at Left quite comfortably and with NDJ (my favourite player right now) sat infront of them all our opponents will have to really earn any goals scored against us.

One can only assume that statement about going ahead against us must relate to last season??? We have yet to conceed in all competitions THIS SEASON!!!

And surely he he should only be talking about this season!!!!

So based on that:

Sunderland took an early lead on the opening day against a mid table favourite in Birmingham only to throw it all away (hmm sounds like us a few seasons back LOL). Then they couldnt score against a newly promoted team who them went on to have their arases whooped 6-0.

Where as, we don't conceed in our opening game against (not only one of our bogies) but a team that finished top four last season & then thumped Scousepool, again not conceeding against a team that arguably has one of the Worlds top strikers!

Lawro goes for the draw based on that? Oh and hang on a mo, he didn't mention our Gazillions!!

You can spin things any way you like, easy really.

I expect nothing less than a win for us in this one with a clean sheet to boot.

As i type this i do still however have a gremlin in my head that i just can't shake that says this used to be the sort of game we cocked up after what, to be fair has been a damn good start to the prem result wise.

I really don't want to say "Ty***al City" as i hope NEVER to have to say that again!

I just read that on the BBC website. What a complete and utter C8nt. Why dosent he just say every week that I F8cking hate Man City and that i'd love to ride Liverpool Football Club!

And now changed :o)

It is a stupid thing to say that the key thing would be to score first etc etc but I for one will be very interested to see how the team plays after we do concede the first goal in a game. It might all depend on how early it is but so far we have seen a very patient approach playing a controlled game probing for an approach. A team that score first and then packs the defence will be a very interesting test of that patience and our ability to adapt tactics or maybe just the intesnity of the way we play.

i still dont think this team would take going a goal down lightly.. still too many players that react to that.. which is a healthy thing imo.

What a fucking prick I'd love to knock him out .

It will be a sad day when he predicts a 3-0 though.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:It is a stupid thing to say that the key thing would be to score first etc etc but I for one will be very interested to see how the team plays after we do concede the first goal in a game. It might all depend on how early it is but so far we have seen a very patient approach playing a controlled game probing for an approach. A team that score first and then packs the defence will be a very interesting test of that patience and our ability to adapt tactics or maybe just the intesnity of the way we play.

Now its turned into a bit of a tactics talk I am still concerned with the current formation against certain teams and I hope Mancini will be brave enough to change the 4-3-3 if required. The sure-fire way to beat our current 4-3-3 is to press hard up the pitch and make the centrebacks kick it long.

Everton will be the perfect test of this as its exactly what they do. They'll push hard on our defenders and compact the midfield with both their midfielders and a high sitting defence thus forcing Toure or Kompany to hit the ball long to a 5ft 6in Tevez - he's never gonna get it. Playing Johnson and Milner as the two supporting attackers also means we lack the pace to chase long punts allowing the defence to push up without fearing a counter of Bellamy-esq speed.

Against teams that deploy this tactic we will need to play with faster wingers and open up the game by having a target man to aim for. This would force the defenders to sit back and give the midfield more space in which our centre-backs can pass to leaving the likes of Cahill et al chasing shadows.

We have the team and personnel to employ both formations so I look forward to seeing it if the current one gets found out.

I would like to see a 4-4-2 system thrown in there at some point so teams have to think we are capable and Tevez excels when he has someone to run off.