Jack’s no safe pair of hands but risk is paying off
After the departure of Chris Coleman, Sunderland found themselves with a dilemma in their search for a new manager.
One school of thought argued the case for a ‘safe pair of hands’, someone who would all but guarantee promotion and use his connections in lower league football to attract the quality necessary to get out of the league.
Of course, this would have been a short-term strategy and would have caused a problem in the medium to long term should promotion be secured.
Thankfully, we decided to go for a more progressive appointment in Jack Ross, which perhaps posed a higher risk in the short term but on the evidence displayed so far, we have several reasons to be optimistic for the future.
After Wednesday night’s 4-1 success against Gillingham, the hosts’ manager described Sunderland as ‘one of the best League One sides we’ve seen here in a few years.’ This is high praise indeed, considering the major overhaul which has taken place on Wearside over the summer both in terms of personnel and playing style.
Despite the scoreline, the victory in Kent wasn’t perhaps as comfortable or emphatic as our previous outing against Scunthorpe but our attacking play was equally as devastating and clinical. Our front three of Josh Maja, Chris Maguire and Lynden Gooch caused the Gills problems all night, whilst Lee Cattermole and Max Power controlled the centre of the park for long spells.
The quality of the goals exemplified our new-found self-belief and the freedom afforded to the lads in the final third. George Honeyman and Max Power’s took on strikes that simply wouldn’t have been at- tempted last season and the third and fourth goals were a personification of the type of football Jack Ross expects from his side.
On both occasions we won back possession inside the opponent’s half and within seconds we had made the transition from defence, to the ball being in the back of the oppositions net.
When we got going our passing was extremely crisp and we formed some impressive combinations all over the pitch. However, we didn’t have it all our own way and if Gillingham had scored during their periods of pressure the outcome could have been completely different.
This is not necessarily a negative, though. Yes, on occasion we failed to assert control on the game and we were slightly open at times, but with a new system and a number of new players this is to be expected.
Reece James was making his first league start for the club and Donald Love had only just returned from his injury sustained against Charlton, so teething problems are to be expected.
In many ways it is encouraging that we have scored seven goals in two games, while conceding just one and people are still seeing room for improvement. If this is an indication of the results we can achieve and the quality of football we are capable of playing after such a short space of time, then I am very excited for the rest of the season.
The Wise Men Say podcast is available from every Monday, with SAFC debate from a variety of guests and postmatch reaction from Jack Ross. You can stream it direct from wisemensay.co.uk or subscribe to it on iTunes