lifeskyblue
Well-Known Member
This from a Sunderland fan in their board. I think this a pretty fair summary of the game
We started the game well and knocked it around with confidence and ease, but for a couple of sloppy moments. I think our set piece issue will resolve itself sooner rather than later as we're seeing two genuine threats getting on the end of crosses weekly now, and we were nearly rewarded when Batth hit the bar. A big concern though was that Coventry have no issues soaking up pressure and hitting teams with some penetrative attacks, and soon after the 15 minute mark that's what we began to see. They're by no means a long ball team but they have a good blend of technical and physical players who also make good decisions, and they were able to open us up on numerous occasions for the rest of the half.
We're a bit naive at times. We take risks playing it out from the back and along midfield and should continue to do so, however when it comes to the final third we too often became indecisive and lost momentum. There were times when we had them stretched and should have penetrated their defence with a through ball or better movement off the ball, but instead we kept possession and allowed them to regroup, meaning attacks often fizzled out.
Physically we were bullied at times. You have to accept that that will happen from time to time with the creative flair players that we have, however it gave them a platform today and they looked stronger than us. The ref might not have helped at times but without your red and white specs on, we were weak as piss.
Today showed that we were short up front. Gelhardt battled hard against their three centre backs but he was mostly fighting a losing battle as he doesn't have the physicality or experience to do that effectively yet. Stewart would have made a difference and that was made abundantly clear by their lad at the other end who I thought was absolutely terrific. Gyokeres has everything including strength, movement, ability on the ball and hold up play, and he deservedly got his goal at the end. We have two cracking centre backs and it was a good old battle but he certainly gave them the runaround at times.
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We started the game well and knocked it around with confidence and ease, but for a couple of sloppy moments. I think our set piece issue will resolve itself sooner rather than later as we're seeing two genuine threats getting on the end of crosses weekly now, and we were nearly rewarded when Batth hit the bar. A big concern though was that Coventry have no issues soaking up pressure and hitting teams with some penetrative attacks, and soon after the 15 minute mark that's what we began to see. They're by no means a long ball team but they have a good blend of technical and physical players who also make good decisions, and they were able to open us up on numerous occasions for the rest of the half.
We're a bit naive at times. We take risks playing it out from the back and along midfield and should continue to do so, however when it comes to the final third we too often became indecisive and lost momentum. There were times when we had them stretched and should have penetrated their defence with a through ball or better movement off the ball, but instead we kept possession and allowed them to regroup, meaning attacks often fizzled out.
Physically we were bullied at times. You have to accept that that will happen from time to time with the creative flair players that we have, however it gave them a platform today and they looked stronger than us. The ref might not have helped at times but without your red and white specs on, we were weak as piss.
Today showed that we were short up front. Gelhardt battled hard against their three centre backs but he was mostly fighting a losing battle as he doesn't have the physicality or experience to do that effectively yet. Stewart would have made a difference and that was made abundantly clear by their lad at the other end who I thought was absolutely terrific. Gyokeres has everything including strength, movement, ability on the ball and hold up play, and he deservedly got his goal at the end. We have two cracking centre backs and it was a good old battle but he certainly gave them the runaround at times.
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