Sunderland Preview and match thread

Elias wrote:

A top half finish is about the best we will get this season.

Agree

Only if we stop the rot this Saturday we can't afford to keep dropping points

Elias wrote:

A top half finish is about the best we will get this season.

As most on here predicted in August

RegGreen wrote:

Jethro wrote:

Broom and mayor starting together

Broom at LWB no Grant

anyone know what’s wrong with grant not even in the squad ???

Conor Grant was ruled out of Plymouth Argyle's 2-1 away defeat by Sunderland by an injury, manager Steven Schumacher has confirmed.

The left wing-back had scored the Pilgrims' equaliser in the 1-1 draw away to MK Dons on Wednesday with his fifth goal of the season.

However, Grant did not even travel to the north-east of England for the game against Sunderland due to a pelvic problem.


Schumacher was asked about Grant's absence from the squad after the game and was hopeful the 26-year-old would be back for the visit of Charlton Athletic to Home Park next Saturday.

"Conor had a slight niggle from Wednesday night," said Schumacher. "He has had a little bit of an issue with a pelvic problem that he has been nursing for a couple of weeks.

So it was a good idea to not ask him to go again. It would have been probably too much of an ask for him and we don't want any long term damage.

"It was more a precautionary thing keeping him at home and hopefully he will be available for next week."

Grant was also absent from the Argyle squad for the 2-1 FA Cup second round win away to Rochdale last Sunday due to the pelvic problem.

Without him against Sunderland, Schumacher went with Ryan Broom at left wing-back but that did not work out.

The Black Cats were superb on their right side, with on-loan Bayern Munich attacker Leon Dajaku especially impressive, and it made life very difficult for Broom.

He had not played at left wing-back for Argyle before and the combination of Dajaku and Alex Pritchard caused both Broom and Macaulay Gillesphey a lot of problems.

With Sunderland 2-0 up, Schumacher made a tactical switch midway through the first half, moving Broom across to right wing-back and putting skipper Joe Edwards on the left.

On the decision to start with Broom on the left, Schumacher said: "That's probably one, in hindsight, where you are thinking 'Maybe I got that one wrong'. We swapped over and we did look a bit more solid.

"But when I look at all the information we got on Sunderland, (Lynden) Gooch is one of their most creative players.

"So I'm thinking 'Okay we have got our best defensive wing-back (Edwards) up against him so that's good'. And Nathan Broadhead on that side as well is a real handful and he has scored a couple of goals lately.

"That was just the decision I made. Broomy has not played wing-back for us before and it was tough for them.

"But when they moved over he was more on his natural side and was playing more as a right winger. He has played right wing-back before for Cheltenham a few years ago and he looked a little bit more comfortable.

"I'm glad we changed it when we did because we could have been out of sight if I didn't. We looked a little bit better."

Broom was eventually replaced by striker Niall Ennis in the 60th minute, when the score was still 2-0 to Sunderland, and Jordon Garrick was moved from playing up front to wing-back for the rest of the match.

I hope the shoemaker is given plenty of time to get it right, I'm sure he will be by those in charge, if not by some of the fans. We won't be relegated and if we're not in the promotion picture come may well not the end of the world, never expected us to be anyway. Home against Charlton on Saturday is almost a must win if we're to stop the rot and stay in the mix at the top.

Would have preffered the self  promoter to have taken all his little posse with him to Preston and got in another manager, this all smacks to me of argo panicing and going down the cheap unambitious route, lets hope the Shoemaker proves me wrong.

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

Would have preffered the self  promoter to have taken all his little posse with him to Preston and got in another manager, this all smacks to me of argo panicing and going down the cheap unambitious route, lets hope the Shoemaker proves me wrong.

Only time will tell.

Right decision to appoint SS midway through the season

Graiser wrote:

Right decision to appoint SS midway through the season

As long as he's backed to make the changes he needs to make in January.

Jethro wrote:

Graiser wrote:

Right decision to appoint SS midway through the season

As long as he's backed to make the changes he needs to make in January.

I think he will be, as the previous manager mentioned earlier in the season there is still funds available within the budget

Clearly has doubts about Ryan and Cooper as LWB's

Bolton didn't make the squad either, is he still not match fit?

Grovehill wrote:

Clearly  has doubts about Ryan and Cooper as LWB's

Bolton didn't make the squad either, is he still not match fit?

cooper is still playing catchup for match fitness abd law well when was the last time he played longer that 5 minutes seeing as we dont have reserve team football. That probably played a part in selecting Broom.

Bolton is not going to be match fit after a week or two returning to training. Could have made the bench i agree but i doubt highly he would have made an impact if he came on.