I am rewatching the first half. Are we that good or Sunderland that bad?
The way we knocked it about, amazing.
Combination of both, Sunderland were an absolute disgrace as the co-commentator continually pointed out. Bit like the Hull game for us recently, their players seemed to give up long before the end. The farce with Larsson not coming out until 3 or 4 mins in the second half and then limping on summed them up. The likes of Bridcutt, Alvarez, Van Aanholt, Rodwell really looked miles out of their depth today. With the Johnson situation and fans and players clearly given up on Poyet then they are really in the sh*t. Could do worse than start playing Wickham up top again, thought he was decent when he played up the middle in the second half.
For us, we played superb attacking football in the first half. 4 goals but it should have been 6 really. Fair play to Sherwood, tactically I thought he was far too ambitious in his team selection but it worked brilliantly. We pressurised their keeper, defenders and midfielders high up the pitch and reaped the benefits from that. I was a little disappointed with us in the second half and they created some decent chances. But the football played in the first 45 mins will live long in the memory. Some turnaround in form from the likes of Nzogbia and Gabby whom I suspect 99% of fans wanted them gone out of the club by the end of Lambert's reign.
Guzan 6 - had little to do.
Bacuna 9 - would have been 10 only for yellow. Cafu like going forward today with two assists.
Okore 7 - far more solid today though Wickham caused a few problems
Clark 7 - solid again in the main. Has shown great character this season to turn his career around.
Lowton 7 - hardly a long term option at left back but has filled a huge hole for us manfully. Brilliantly blocked one cross in the first half
Nzogbia 8 - would have got long odds on a return to form from Charlie a few weeks ago, outstanding at times though did mess up some promising counter attacks by overplaying the ball
Cleverley 8 - very good in first half particularly, didnt see much from him after the break not that we needed to
Delph 9 - A different level to every other midfielder on the park, deserved a goal
Sinclair 6 - Missed sitter was a shocker but thought his play was very passive anyway. Better player at Villa Park so far for us
Gabby 9 - Showed good perseverance for the first but his second was Benzema like.
Benteke 9 - Took the piss out of them at times, for the rest of the season we need to get him one on one with defenders in the box like his second goal today. That goal was like the Benteke of old
Sanchez had a decent cameo at centre half. Very strong in the air. Weimann and Hepburn-Murphy didnt see too much of it. Westwood didnt impress me against West Brom so fair play to Sherwood for dropping him. Gil obviously needs to pick up his ideas.
Lowlight of the day, seeing that ar$ehole Roy Keane in the stand. Suspect Ciaran Clark has done enough to be starting for Ireland in a few weeks
