Take it as red, Cats’ disciplinary record is an awful one
DISMISSALS UNDERMINING WEARMEN’S SURVIVAL BID
SUNDERLAND’S fight for survival has been undermined by their evergrowing red card roll of dishonour – the Black Cats averaging a sending off every three and a half games under Chris Coleman.
Jake Clarke-Salter’s dismissal for a second bookable offence in Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat against Preston was the Wearsiders’ sixth sending-off of the season – and for the on-loan Chelsea defender, who was making his return after a three-match ban, it was his second red card in successive games.
He will now miss the next two games, one for his latest infraction with another match added because it was his second sending-off of the season.
Jason Steele, Didier Ndong, Lee Cattermole and Callum McManaman are the others to have seen red this term.
In the six games in which Sunderland have been reduced to 10 men, only once – when Cattermole was sent off in the goalless draw against leaders Wolves at Molineux in December – have the Wearsiders avoided defeat.
Coleman has grown increasingly frustrated at the mounting tally of red cards and at the weekend he suggested it might be a sign of players who are stretched to breaking point as the club flounders at the bottom of the table.
He said: “Six times since I have been here we have had men sent off.
“Maybe that is a team which is struggling and stretched, always pushed to the limit, I don’t know.”
However, this season is still some way short of Sunderland’s worst in terms of absolute numbers of sendings-off.
The Black Cats have twice had nine players dismissed over the course of a campaign, most recently in Steve Bruce’s first year in charge in 2009-10 - all of those coming in the Premier League.
Before that Mick McCarthy’s first full season at the helm in 2003-04 also saw nine men receive their marching orders over the course of the campaign, although one of those sendings-off came in the League Cup.
In terms of games per dismissal, however, the record of a red card every three and a half matches under Coleman is worse than that of both Bruce and McCarthy in those seasons.
The nine red cards under Bruce in a 38-match season equates to one every 4.22 games, while the eight red cards under McCarthy in a 46-match comes out at one every 5.75 fixtures.
If Sunderland avoid any more red cards this season Coleman will end up with a games-per-dismissal ratio of 4.83 – lifting him above Bruce – but one more sending-off will mean his record will set a new low.