Solely days after Gus Poyet’s open letter to the followers, his Sunderland crew drew their thirteenth sport of the season with a well-known 0-0 scoreline.
The Uruguayan felt compelled to jot down after some horrid outcomes at residence cranked up the stress and left the crew languishing simply above the drop zone.
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Within the letter, Poyet requested followers to remain affected person and constructive within the midst of a foul run and accepted that criticism laid at his door.
So I invite all of you to remain constructive, to be sturdy, nearer to one another and maintain believing in what we began collectively final 12 months, working more durable to make it higher this season.
To complete I wish to make clear as soon as extra: the accountability of the outcomes of our crew is right down to me. I at all times mentioned it and I’ll at all times settle for my accountability.
Sunderland struggled all through the season and in fact, in the event you have been a season ticket holder on the Stadium of Gentle, you’d actually be questioning in the event you have been getting “bang in your buck”, on condition that the crew had solely scored twelve objectives at residence by this stage of the season.
It was hoped that the signing of Jermain Defoe would make a distinction and while he’d already picked up a few objectives, the crew nonetheless appeared bereft and devoid of concepts in entrance of objective.
A 0-2 defeat at residence to QPR — then close to the underside of the desk — was one other nail within the coffin of Poyet’s already fragile tenure on the membership, and it was within the aftermath to this defeat that he wrote the aforementioned letter.
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Days later, the Lads confronted Tony Pulis’ revitalised West Bromwich Albion on the Stadium of Gentle and after the sudden defeat to QPR, victory was actually required right here to alleviate a number of the stress on the crew.
By this stage, Pulis had the Baggies purring and so they’d solely misplaced as soon as of their earlier ten video games, so this was certainly going to be a troublesome encounter and that turned out to be the case, with the sport ending scoreless.
With out a lot issue, the away aspect absorbed our greatest attacking efforts and in line with the match studies, our greatest assaults got here from corners within the second half.
Sunderland’s greatest possibilities got here from corners.
Santiago Vergini headed vast a Larsson supply amid extra pushing and shoving within the penalty space, whereas substitute Connor Wickham turned Johnson’s ball straight at Foster.
With a visit to Previous Trafford on the playing cards, this was a horrible week for Poyet and the crew because the Lads solely picked up one level from a possible six. Regardless of this, the supervisor tried to take the positives out of the outcome and spoke about them after the sport.
The efficiency was larger in dedication. Going for it, it was spot on. We wanted a break. We wanted a fortunate objective or the correct choice from someplace. In England, you say it wasn’t to be and it was that type of day.
It’s troublesome for me. Tony has improved his crew, he is among the greatest and they’re troublesome to beat. I feel we did sufficient to get a break at the moment. It was essential to get again to fundamentals and we simply wanted that objective to be an ideal day.
We are able to take positives. We have been larger up the pitch, we crossed I don’t know what number of instances. It wasn’t to be. It’s essential to play this fashion. It’s essential to anticipate the second ball. We’ll see.
It was a transparent signal of a supervisor who doubtlessly knew his days have been numbered.
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Sunderland’s type of play had turn out to be so sterile and ineffective that they have been fairly just too straightforward to play towards and with the drop zone looming, one thing needed to change sooner moderately than later.