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SUNDERLAND WANT IT MORE 29-4-08
Toby Higgins
There are things that were once funny: The Simpsons (pre-movie), Have I Got News For You (Rich snobs taking the piss out of rich snobs for being... well, rich snobs. It doesn’t really do it for me) and bad auditions on X-Factor (Yeah, you’re a loser, we get it).
There are things that have never been funny: Sasha Baran Cohen (from Ali G to Borat, the guy is still a prat) You’ve Been Framed (that clip wasn’t funny in 1992; it’s not funny now) and Sunderland’s ability to take vital points off us in the last minute.
I couldn’t face even considering a trip to the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
Instead, after watching Chelsea v United in the pub, I headed for home to catch the end of the BBC knock off version of Soccer Saturday. Gavin Peacock, Lee Dixon and Garth Crooks staring into apparent nothingness while telling us how excited they are, doesn’t quite have the same knock-you-off-your-seat thrill of watching Stelling and Co.
Once Sunderland had scored, the channel was quickly changed. If BBC1 was covering a good sport poorly, BBC2 was covering a poor sport quite well. Snooker is clearly not for everyone but it has a certain charm which means that when I watch it, I have a sudden urge to go out and play it.
It’s the same with many other sports. When I watch the Tennis at Wimbledon, I have to go and see how hard I can serve. When I watch the summer test series, I have an innate urge to pad up and play cricket. And when the PGA tour is on, I grab my three-wood and head to the driving range.
Football’s the same but after watching Boro, I find myself wanting to defend badly, offer no attacking threat and piss away about ten points a season in the last ten minutes of games. Monkey see, monkey do, I guess.
Saturday was an absolute disaster. Sadly, so have most Saturdays this season. And Sundays, for that matter.
The positives of the season are unfortunately masked by the glaring failings of our young squad. Everybody can see what the problems are but it’s finding out how to stop them happening that is Gareth Southgate’s main stumbling block at the moment.
We simply have not scored enough goals this season, particularly goals at key moments. When you add to that some rather alarming stats about the timing of us conceding, the plot thickens.
Aside from the facts such as we have yet to score more than two in any game this season and we have the third smallest number in the ‘goals for’ column in the League table, the graphs could go a little further towards explaining why this season has been so disappointing.
The first graph shows the timing of the goals we’ve conceded this season.
It identifies that the most common times for Boro to concede are the first ten minutes, the last ten minutes and between 51 and 60 minutes.
A closer look will show that of the 52 league goals conceded this season, 32 (61%) have been conceded in the second half of games, while 20 (39%) have been scored in the first half.
If you drew a line of best fit through the graph, it would slope from the bottom left corner to the top right which, in football terms, means the later the game gets, the more likely we are to concede.
The graph is limited in its detail. What it doesn’t show is that we’ve let in six last minute goals this season, costing us a total of five points. Three of these dropped points have been against Sunderland. If we had cut out the last minute goals against Sunderland alone, we’d be on 39 and safe whilst it would be Sunderland on 36 and sweating.
It gets worse. We’ve let in five goals between the 44th and 46th minutes and have twice let in three goals in the space of around 15 minutes (away to West Ham, 16 minutes; home to Villa, 13 minutes).
Sunderland, meanwhile, have scored four last minute winners this season boosting their tally by a huge eight points. It seems Sunderland just want it more.
The second graph shows the timing of the goals we’ve scored this season.
Of the 33 goals we’ve mustered, 20 (61%) have been scored in the first half, and the remaining 13 (39%) have been scored in the second half.
We have yet to score any goals five minutes either side of half-time and we score most goals between 11-20 minutes. Here, the line of best fit would go in the opposite direction - from top left towards the bottom right - showing that later the game progresses, the fewer goals we are likely score.
This isn’t purely down to chance or fluke. I think the team are instructed to follow tactics which lead to the production of the figures seen here. In terms of goals, we start games brightly, score early, and as the game goes on, we sit back, invite pressure on to ourselves and ultimately, concede.
The mentality of the team is too cautious by far. Too soon in games we decide to hang on to what we’ve got (which often involves a negative substitution and a switch to 4-5-1) instead of punishing teams. As a result, we put huge amounts of pressure on a defence which has a habit of losing concentration, particularly in the absence of a vocal, commanding leader.
The 1-0 home wins against Wigan (14th) Fulham (19th) and Derby (20th) have been as unconvincing as the score lines suggest because we make it difficult for ourselves by dropping off and inviting pressure, thus losing momentum. Each of those games could have ended in a draw or defeat based on chances the visitors missed.
It’s Southgate’s job to make sure that the players work hard as a team from the first kick to the last. He simply hasn’t this season and it has cost us dearly. Sunderland’s goals against us this season have been scored in the 2nd, 6th, 45th, 89th and 90th minutes. We switch off at all the key times in a game and when you simply shouldn’t concede, we do.
What Southgate said after the game did nothing to change my view that he is struggling.
"We levelled it up, it looked like it was going to be a draw but great credit to Sunderland, they have scored a lot of late goals here and they've done it again and they've caught us on the hop."
Yeah, they have scored a lot of late goals and everyone knows it. So why on earth have we let them? Why wasn’t Southgate stood screaming at them to focus before the corner came in? Why wasn’t Pogatetz, or Arca, or Boateng, or anyone else who fancies a crack at captaincy, actually doing some leading when we needed it? And more significantly, why haven’t they been doing it all season?
“Seeing Sunderland celebrate will hopefully galvanise us”.
The word "hopefully" sums up the way Southgate has approached the season in terms of management on a match day and leadership and it is simply not good enough. He doesn’t know how to galvanise the players himself, so hopes poor results will do it for him.
I don’t think they will and our league position would tend to back me up. If Boro do go down, then the players and staff will only have themselves to blame.
Same time next week…
Up The Boro
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