Going through motions is just not good enough
IT’S hard to figure out just why Sunderland have seemingly opted for limping along until the end of the Championship season.
They’ve gone from being in with a realistic shout of the play-offs when Michael Beale departed, to being the team everyone would like to play against.
The Sunderland supporters really do deserve better.
Interim head coach Mike Dodds – or ‘Doddsy’ to one or two of his players – has come out and said some of the performances are unacceptable.
But it’s just words. It continues, so therefore it’s all been accepted.
Okay, so the team have kept five clean sheets in seven games and earned a creditable win at West Brom.
But they have only scored four goals in those matches – in fact just six in the last 10.
In the six home games Dodds has been in charge, his team have scored a total of twice, and even they were in defeats.
On Saturday against Millwall, more than 40,000 people turned up once again and were treated to a performance which, by his own admission, Dodds was “bored” by.
Well, playing five across the back at home, with a holding midfielder, what does he expect?
I had to laugh at one of the social media users who commented, “he’d put a glass eye to sleep”.
You have to feel sorry for the Sunderland faithful who are still waiting for a first home win since Beale departed.
That in itself is a damning statistic, never mind the numbers.
There was a plus in that Corry
Evans was back in action as a late substitute. But the team’s performance was lack-lustre to say the least.
And once again they conceded a goal when giving the ball away while trying to play out from the back. For the umpteenth time this season.
Sunderland found it difficult to break down a Millwall side who guaranteed Championship safety with their win.
There was a lack of creativity and excitement generated by the home team and when they did have opportunities they fluffed their lines.
Dan Ballard missed a header over the bar from a Bradley Dack corner nodded down by Luke O’nien.
Callum Styles sent a deflected shot wide. Jobe Bellingham nodded a free header from another Dack corner over the bar.
And in the second half it was more of the same as Sunderland misfired when it came to the one or two chances they created.
To think that goalkeeper Anthony Patterson had one of the home team’s best openings close to the end of the game when he ventured forward for a corner said it all.
For the club’s hierarchy perhaps the most worrying aspect is how quickly the Stadium of Light emptied in the minutes before the final whistle.
Those fans have become understandably fed up with the mindnumbing football being served up. Who can blame them for lacking any kind of belief in the players? For a
club as huge as Sunderland to simply go through the motions and allow the managerial situation to drag on to the summer is not good enough.
An appointment should have been made by now to galvanise the club, the fans, the city. And to allow a new man to assess what he’s got. That in turn would have ensured the players would not have downed tools so early, which appears to be what they’ve done.
Instead we’ve got Dodds reeling off the same “I’m angry” and “I’m bored” messages each week and probably wishing himself the season would come to an end.
Certainly the club don’t appear to be in any hurry to put him out of his misery.