| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? 13:20 - May 22 with 1354 views | unstableblue |
The Premier League gave them such a gift:
West Ham (h)
Burnley (a)
Brentford (h)
Palace (a)
Villa (h)
Forest (a)
With a number of those starting the season slowly. They amassed 11 points, 3 wins, and were on their way.
The fixture computer gave us:
Liverpool (h)
Man City (a)
Fulham (h)
Brighton (a)
Saints (a)
Villa (h)
4 points, 4 draws. No wins. Valiant draws yes - Villa, Fulham and Brighton were strong. And yes we fecked up at Saints but I think we were fatigued. |  |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 13:23 - May 22 with 1294 views | J2BLUE |
I think you just have top give them a lot of credit. They had a couple of easier fixtures to start with but you still play everyone twice. There will always be harder runs. |  | | |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 13:29 - May 22 with 1264 views | Radlett_blue |
We need to stop moaning about this. Newly promoted clubs should regard the games against the top teams as a "free hit" from which they are unlikely to get any points. Yes, we started with 2 such games, but then had 4 games in a row against the lesser lights. |  |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 13:44 - May 22 with 1178 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
Gift? It’s the PL not a cup draw. Their recruitment was quite clearly elite. |  |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 13:58 - May 22 with 1097 views | Earls_Jeans |
I do agree that Sunderland had a bit of luck with the fixture list, however in some respects we did too.
We got two frankly unwinnable games out of the way while our matchday squad was still being frantically backfilled with new players. Luongo, Chappers, Wolfy, Harness and Al Hamadi all featured heavily against Liverpool - which wasn't the case when we played them again 5 months later (albeit the performance was actually worse second time around!). Better Liverpool and Man City when your squad is weak and undercooked, than blowing the chance to beat Wolves and Leicester (as an example).
For me the more salient point is that Sunderland got some of their best business done early in the window and were ready to go and build some momentum from game one. I know it is easier said than done, but that is the one thing Ashton hasn't nailed yet and absolutely has to this year for us to start well and give ourselves a chance. |  | | |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 14:28 - May 22 with 985 views | LegendofthePhoenix |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 13:58 - May 22 by Earls_Jeans |
I do agree that Sunderland had a bit of luck with the fixture list, however in some respects we did too.
We got two frankly unwinnable games out of the way while our matchday squad was still being frantically backfilled with new players. Luongo, Chappers, Wolfy, Harness and Al Hamadi all featured heavily against Liverpool - which wasn't the case when we played them again 5 months later (albeit the performance was actually worse second time around!). Better Liverpool and Man City when your squad is weak and undercooked, than blowing the chance to beat Wolves and Leicester (as an example).
For me the more salient point is that Sunderland got some of their best business done early in the window and were ready to go and build some momentum from game one. I know it is easier said than done, but that is the one thing Ashton hasn't nailed yet and absolutely has to this year for us to start well and give ourselves a chance. |
Absolutely agree on the need to get our recruitment done early and get the new team firing on all cylinders by the time the season kicks off. But those opening fixtures for us were brutal. I'd prefer a softer start and see if we can get a couple of wins in the first 6 matches. |  |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 14:33 - May 22 with 959 views | Vaughan8 |
I think it swings in roundabouts really.
Sometimes, the top teams aren't in full swing at the start of the season so you can "catch them cold".
However, the momentum of having a few wins in your first 5 games would be great. | | | |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 15:02 - May 22 with 858 views | gainsboroughblue |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 14:33 - May 22 by Vaughan8 |
I think it swings in roundabouts really.
Sometimes, the top teams aren't in full swing at the start of the season so you can "catch them cold".
However, the momentum of having a few wins in your first 5 games would be great. |
This was largely the view on here two summers ago from memory. It was mostly a case of 'get them out of the way quickly and possibly spring a surprise on them while they are cold'. It didn't work out that way obviously apart from 5 minutes at the Ethihad.
What would have helped was turning the Fulham and Villa draws into wins, that Brentford away game going differently perhaps. It felt like we spent a few months trying to get a monkey off our back rather than trying to establish ourselves. The Jack Clarke off the post at Fulham was a sliding doors moment as that and the Chelsea home win were very close together. Any attempt at momentum was just cruelly shut down.
By the time Feb come, we were just sinking fast and being picked off and falling short in must win games like Soton at home. All good experience though, we know what to expect this time. [Post edited 22 May 15:04]
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 15:13 - May 22 with 826 views | peterleeblue |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 13:58 - May 22 by Earls_Jeans |
I do agree that Sunderland had a bit of luck with the fixture list, however in some respects we did too.
We got two frankly unwinnable games out of the way while our matchday squad was still being frantically backfilled with new players. Luongo, Chappers, Wolfy, Harness and Al Hamadi all featured heavily against Liverpool - which wasn't the case when we played them again 5 months later (albeit the performance was actually worse second time around!). Better Liverpool and Man City when your squad is weak and undercooked, than blowing the chance to beat Wolves and Leicester (as an example).
For me the more salient point is that Sunderland got some of their best business done early in the window and were ready to go and build some momentum from game one. I know it is easier said than done, but that is the one thing Ashton hasn't nailed yet and absolutely has to this year for us to start well and give ourselves a chance. |
That Leicester game was the day I knew we weren't staying. Up absolutely nothing went for us that day when it absolutely needed to. |  | | |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 15:28 - May 22 with 769 views | Radlett_blue |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 15:13 - May 22 by peterleeblue |
That Leicester game was the day I knew we weren't staying. Up absolutely nothing went for us that day when it absolutely needed to. |
We lost (or failed to win) some very close games, some were unfortunate (e.g. Leicester, whom we should have beaten) but it happened far too often for it to be just down to luck. Most other clubs had far better benches (we had the same last season in the Championship).
After the unfortunate failure to win at Fulham we couldn't follow up at home to Brighton, then had 2 thumpings by top 4 clubs & we were done. | |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 15:48 - May 22 with 699 views | SWLondonBlue93 |
A couple of more "winnable" fixtures for us early doors would have been nice, but let's face it our squad was not ready when the season started and so getting two fixtures where we were never likely to get anything ticked off could be spun as going in our favour. | | | |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 15:50 - May 22 with 686 views | GlasgowBlue |
But you have to play these team at some stage in the season.
Losing to Liverpool and City didn't knock our confidence. We played well and around 14th spot for a while. The second half of the season killed us. Not the opening fixtures. |  |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 16:10 - May 22 with 563 views | britbiker |
I remember working during Man city away. I walked through our warehouse and they told me we had gone one nil up. I said now were in trouble as we've poked the hornets nest. By the time I had re-entered the showroom we had conceded twice.
Tough start [Post edited 22 May 17:59]
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 16:20 - May 22 with 528 views | Ryorry |
By one of those coincidences, I just bumped into my retired former GP in town who I hadn’t seen for years. He’s a huge Black Cats supporter, and as per every consultation I had with him when he was in practice, our convo was 95% about football. He would defo disagree with you! |  |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 16:30 - May 22 with 494 views | itfc48 |
The problem with our squad then was not only did we have a lot of players trying to adjust to a higher level all the milestones get put on a pedestal i.e first Premier League goal, first Premier League point, first Premier League win and the first is always harder. | | | |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 16:38 - May 22 with 473 views | ringwoodblue |
There’s no easy games in the PL but we were pretty unlikely to get Liverpool and Citeh in the first two matches.
Hoping for a kinder start this time around. |  |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 16:41 - May 22 with 467 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
What is really interesting is that the expected results based on performances pretty much all agree that Sunderland achieved results way ahead of what would have been expected. You'll never know how much of this is down to being unbelievably clinical or getting the rub of the green.
This is based on the Opta stats :
Make of this whatever you like. | | | |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 17:10 - May 22 with 384 views | Vaughan8 |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 16:41 - May 22 by SuffolkPunchFC |
What is really interesting is that the expected results based on performances pretty much all agree that Sunderland achieved results way ahead of what would have been expected. You'll never know how much of this is down to being unbelievably clinical or getting the rub of the green.
This is based on the Opta stats :
Make of this whatever you like. |
I know they got smashed by Forest recently, but overall they've be solid at the back and have the ability to nick/score a goal, and as you say were clinical, as a lot of the teams are. | | | |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 19:11 - May 22 with 228 views | armchaircritic59 |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 13:29 - May 22 by Radlett_blue |
We need to stop moaning about this. Newly promoted clubs should regard the games against the top teams as a "free hit" from which they are unlikely to get any points. Yes, we started with 2 such games, but then had 4 games in a row against the lesser lights. |
Yep, you play everyone twice, whatever the sequence of events. That being said, I'd prefer it if say our first 6 fixtures didn't read something like, Arsenal, Man C, Man U, Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool! |  | | |
| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 19:29 - May 22 with 198 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
The main thing is that aside from having 3 years of building in the Championship, they got their recruitment right. We didn't.
As far as fixtures go, had we held on to get a point against Liverpool we would have gained confidence from that. But for a poor 15 minute spell against Man City we might have had a confidence-building performance and maybe a point again there. Then we might have gone into the game against Fulham with more confidence. Fulham (H), Brighton (A), Saints (A), Villa (H) really isn't any trickier than Brentford (H), Palace (A), Villa (H), Forest (A).
In amongst all this, Muric made a couple of bad errors which shot his (and the defence and many fan's) confidence. This had a big impact too. |  |
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 20:23 - May 22 with 68 views | Swansea_Blue |
So all we need to do is predict who’s going to start the season slowly and request those fixtures. Should be easy enough. [Post edited 22 May 20:31]
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| Everyone talks about Sunderland’s recruitment, what about fixtures? on 20:42 - May 22 with 33 views | gosblue |
When we went up last time I was told by a Burnley supporter that we would get two top four teams in our first two games. Just saying. | | | |
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