Utter dross and garbage.

[Andrew]

I'm not moaning yet he needs time said this and stick with this view. AA will come good once he finds his best 11. It's a new team now we have to get behind him. Not give up after 2 games we played 3 games in 7 days

I agree, we need to get behind him. I just have virtually no faith it will come good. especially after seeing the schoolboy errors he made in tactics and substitutions. This was very poor, alarmingly so.

[cookieg]

I'm not moaning yet he needs time said this and stick with this view. AA will come good once he finds his best 11. It's a new team now we have to get behind him. Not give up after 2 games we played 3 games in 7 days

I agree, we need to get behind him. I just have virtually no faith it will come good. especially after seeing the schoolboy errors he made in tactics and substitutions. This was very poor, alarmingly so.

That sounds like an "everything before the but is bullh,t" statement. If you are behind the team get behind them.

[Andrew]

I'm not moaning yet he needs time said this and stick with this view. AA will come good once he finds his best 11. It's a new team now we have to get behind him. Not give up after 2 games we played 3 games in 7 days

I agree, we need to get behind him. I just have virtually no faith it will come good. especially after seeing the schoolboy errors he made in tactics and substitutions. This was very poor, alarmingly so.

That sounds like an "everything before the but is bullh,t" statement. If you are behind the team get behind them.

After 65years of an unbroken season ticket and been through pretty much everything with the team, I do not need anyone to tell me about getting behind the team specially when using offensive language.

My idea of getting behind the team has always wanting what is best for the long term future, and speaking up when things look wrong.

I have not much faith that a novice manager with inflexible tactics, poor preparation eg poor set pieces and then having the audacity to blame the players after the game for not showing character, personality, energy in public is anyting like good management. The one thing I couldn't say was that the team didn't try, they had plenty of energy and effort, but like friction it was all wasted heat.

Getting behind the team is worrying about things when they look bad, and if you do not share my view that is your opinion I don't agree with it but I would never use abusive language toward another poster, especially when my loyalty is unquestionable.

Enjoy your evening.

[Baszab]

I can but remind you that AA fell out with at least 3 RM players, one of whom, Caballos, refused to play for him

He is a difficult character, and the hint of criticism to the players after today does not bode well

I have also had a season ticket for 65 years and something doesn't look right about this team this year - I saw it at Malaga when his defensive tactics were puerile / laughable in their inexperience

More worryingly than poor tactics are our "waste of money" players - viz:- ESR, Andersen and Bobb - all 3 utterly ineffectual

Diop, Lukic, Wilson and Raul would ALL have been an upgrade on today's pathetic performance

[the nutflush]

Andersen had his pants pulled down twice by Isidor in five minutes.  He has no business being in our starting eleven.  Slow as a cart horse.  Gives me Senderos vibes.

[Arthur]

With no worthwhile efforts at goal, clearly our attacking play was not good enough. Defensively, however, it looked to me as if we had worked on closing ranks more quickly when out of possession. I don't think there was any occasion when  an unmarked Sunderland player received the ball in between Andersen and Bassey.

While the substitutions affected our right flank, this played no part in the goal we conceded. Bassey, whom, overall, I thought was okay, was a half-second too late to spot the impending danger as Mukiele vacated his defensive position and this enabled Diarra to get ahead of him. I don't think Bassey's position just inside his own half was too high considering the Sunderland goalkeeper had released the ball only a few seconds earlier. I see many teams bring their centre-backs up to the halfway line when they attack; it's commonplace.

Unfortunately, far too many players player turned in below par performances. Josh King was the one player, I thought, to emerge with some credit for the way he played. I've read criticism aimed at AA for selecting Palacios. Cesar had a ropey sixty seconds mid-way through the second half when he blazed a shooting opportunity into the crowd and then gave the ball away and earned himself a booking, but otherwise he was tidy and no more 'out of sorts', in my opinion, than Bobb, Gonzalo, Berge or Iwobi.

All the same, it is an opportunity not taken because Sunderland do not carry as much of an attacking threat as most other teams and yet we couldn't create as many as - let alone more than - the few chances they crafted. If I were to try to analyse why this was, I would pick out two factors: first, too few players breaking towards and into the Sunderland penalty box quickly enough; second, the poor quality of our crosses. The first shortfall can be laid at door of AA's tactics, maybe, but I don't think he can be held responsible for the poor delivery from wide areas. Having a midfield player who can pinpoint a long pass as well as Xhaka would have helped but we don't have one.

Two defeats puts some pressure on Arbeloa already. Unlike our manager, however, I've not got a UEFA Pro Licence, nor have I played professional football, so it seems sensible and reasonable to remain level-headed at this early stage and see what he can do rather than straightaway laying on the criticism as thickly as I might put butter on my toast.

[RAY Rock]

Serious question Smith Rowe , Kevin , Bobb , Muniz , Palacios, Garcia , King how many goals will they score in premier league this season ?
Between them I would say around 12 that is the problem we have we don't create enough chances for them to even miss a few same last season we don't create enough everything we do is extremely difficult it isn't free flowing and we have no players that are willing to roll their sleeves up and drive forward and take a risk . I will be amazed if we score 25 premier league goals this season with the way Arbeloa is setting us up.

[Beamer]

At the beginning of the season I read about the hard high press we were going to play. Did I miss something as yesterday I saw full backs playing like wingers and when we lost possession our players standing still watching whilst not getting into the faces of the opposition. Letting players like Xhaka have all the time in the world to pick his pass and always seeming to come off second best in tackles and getting to loose balls didn't instil much confidence given the physical lightweight feel of our team and the lack of a ball winner in midfield.

[Bill2]

@flyingfish i also dont understand why AA keeps playing palacios on the wing. IMO he is too slow to be a winger, to me he would be better suited in cm indtead of iwobi, but ultimately i would like to see charles there.
As to the point that we're playing too wide, i also agree. Need to play a back three or one of our cm needs to drop behind to create a back three

From what I have seen Palacious could not replace Iwobi. We need a player who will challenge and show some strength in that position which Palacious does not have. Have to say I am not keen on him so far and he should not be a starting player.

[@jolslover]

Realistically, we only lost yesterday because of Andersens lack of pace. In fact they only had two chances all game and both were identical because Andersen was caught out of position.

Other than that we were actually pretty solid in defence which was good to see after our defensive frailties vs. Chelsea.

We have clearly been targetting a new RCB and had we got one I suspect we could have picked up points against Chelsea and Sunderland and no one would be in meltdown currently

[alfie]

Funny how nobody is mentioning how Bassey was left for dead by pace in that goal.

[Arthur]

I agree, we need to get behind him.

If Arbeloa had been reading your posts of the past week, I would happily wager he wouldn't be thinking, 'Here is someone who is getting behind me.'

[AustrianGeezer]

@flyingfish i also dont understand why AA keeps playing palacios on the wing. IMO he is too slow to be a winger, to me he would be better suited in cm indtead of iwobi, but ultimately i would like to see charles there.
As to the point that we're playing too wide, i also agree. Need to play a back three or one of our cm needs to drop behind to create a back three

From what I have seen Palacious could not replace Iwobi. We need a player who will challenge and show some strength in that position which Palacious does not have. Have to say I am not keen on him so far and he should not be a starting player.

Isn't that what people keep saying iwobi is lacking?

[Woolly Mammoth]

It will be interesting to note who will be in the starting line up for the next League match v Crystal Palace.

[Twig]

Realistically, we only lost yesterday because of Andersens lack of pace. In fact they only had two chances all game and both were identical because Andersen was caught out of position.

Other than that we were actually pretty solid in defence which was good to see after our defensive frailties vs. Chelsea.

We have clearly been targetting a new RCB and had we got one I suspect we could have picked up points against Chelsea and Sunderland and no one would be in meltdown currently

I agree we looked a bit better defensively although we were opened up more than just for the goal, they somehow contrived to hit the post with the goal at their mercy and should have run out 2-0 winners.

Given that we didn't have even a single attempt on target that unfortunately rather narrows down our options of picking up a point to a nil nil draw. Not great.

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

Funny how nobody is mentioning how Bassey was left for dead by pace in that goal.

The moment where his shorts were low riding and his arse was hanging out on the telly was just embarrassing, especially given he's our captain. He needs to drop this baggy shorts gimmick and start acting like a professional.

[keithh]

Twas a shame as Sunderland looked there for the taking - looked at bbc stats and cannot remember worse ones than this game 10 shots, none on target.

[Deuce]

Two games in lads. Two games in.

And this is coming from someone who was sceptical of AA before he was appointed by us. He will need time, and so will the lads. As been mentioned several times, Iraola needed 10 games before getting a win at Bournemouth. Id say we need to give AA at least til december

But this is the path TK and the club has chosen for us. I think its ambitious. I also think its a massive gamble to appoint AA AND to bring in every player the HE wants. That is a risky strategy for a DoF.

But hey ho, onwards and upwards

That's cos the DoF hasn't got a scooby doo what he's doing!

He's signed the players Silva wanted and AA wanted so that would suggest otherwise.

Some would suggest that letting a manager dictate which players are bought in, is not a good strategy for a DoF. Getting the right players for the managers tactics? Absolutely. All for it.

But letting a managers personal preferences of certain indivoduals shape the squad of a football club is risky to say the least.

And some of these people, like me, are likely to base that on having witness Fulhams Lawrie Sanchez era.

But the flip side of that was when we got promoted and TK signed Anguissa, Seri etc and that season didn't end well. As you say there has to be a balance.

Yeah, a real scattergun of a window that, which we also had to pay for several sunmers after that. No overarching plan, ni big idea. Just players in. We didnt figure out Anguissas best role until too late.

[Porthogs FC]

Realistically, we only lost yesterday because of Andersens lack of pace. In fact they only had two chances all game and both were identical because Andersen was caught out of position.

Other than that we were actually pretty solid in defence which was good to see after our defensive frailties vs. Chelsea.

We have clearly been targetting a new RCB and had we got one I suspect we could have picked up points against Chelsea and Sunderland and no one would be in meltdown currently

That's the match I saw as well. Looked far more the likely to win until we got caught for pace. Which is something I've said in years past (this is not a new problem).

[Chi_FFC]

Funny how nobody is mentioning how Bassey was left for dead by pace in that goal.

It is kind of funny, isn't it? For all the complaining about Anderson and/or Cuenca, I've seen quite a few concerning things from Calvin since the start of preseason.