SUNDERLAND are a glorified Championship side. They have added a big fat lad who has the turning circle of a monster truck but who can cross a mean ball with his left, and a battering ram up front, a Primark Drogba, who is a real physical handful.
At their core they remain a limited team of spirited battlers - but they have taken four points off Boro and are higher in the Premier League table. That as much as anything is a searing indictment of Gareth Southgate's soft centred side.
But for a sharper, more focussed and more determined approach to the last few minutes that derby points tally and the places in the table could be reversed. At the Riverside a sloppy spell late on helped Sunderland to a late leveller and at the Stadium of Light lapses at the end of either half gave the mediocre Mackems first the initiative and then a last gasp winner. Whatever happened to Steve McClaren's "red zones" of heightened awareness? Is it concentration? Is it fitness? Is it mental fragility? Whatever, it must stop. NOW.
Worst, how many times are we going to concede from loosely defended set-pieces? Out in open play you can't really prepare for a moment of magic, sublime skill or the dropped clangers that can put you under expected pressure and lead to a goal in a flash. They are circumstances beyond control. But dead-balls are situations that the defending side should be able to control. There is a break in play to organise marking, the flight of the ball can be generally predicted, the movement of opposing players is visible and is limited by the offside law, defenders are facing the direction of the incoming delivery... these situations are practiced day in, day out.
Yet Boro, a team managed by a dug-out full of defenders, are being ripped open time and time again by routine set-pieces: costly goals have flown in against Cardiff, Chelsea, Man United, Bolton and now Sunderland. In his post-match interview Luke Young admitted that opposition teams may well have identified Boro's creaky zonal marking as a potential weakness. They are not the only ones: most Boro fans now watch corners and free-kicks through their fingers because we know it is a fatal flaw in the defensive make-up.
The late Sunderland winner was an average near post delivery that Murphy should not by rights have connected with. Forget about any confusion in picking him up when he made his run - he should have been picking himself off the floor because any confident, commanding keeper would have been out quickly to wipe him out - and Pogatetz for good measure - and punch clear.
Which brings us to another pressing problem. For my money, Brad Jones should not be playing for the first team. He terrifies me. And it seems he terrifies the defence. He made two good saves but his is a high risk presence. In almost every game I can remember he has fumbled crosses, dropped the ball or has come out but failed to collect leaving chaos in his wake and nervous team-mates to scramble clear. If we are lucky.
A harsher judge than me might put all three goals at his door. The first stemmed from when he came out to punch in a crowded box but failed to get any distance on it before it came back in and even then he made no attempt to Higginbottom's header, the second arguably he could have got to if he had been more alert in coming off his line (although that certainly doesn't absolve either Taylor for losing Chopra or Wheater for diving in and letting the Geordie Mackem cut back inside) and the third, as outlined above, at that stage of the game and with the stakes so high, he should not have been meekly sticking his hands up hopefully, he should have scythed through friend and foe to collect or punch.
The keeping situation is now critical. If Jones' display has any positives about it, it is that it highlights that no matter what his critics may say, Schwarzer is actually not that bad.
As for the rest... I am probably still too sick, angry, disappointed and frustrated to make a really objective judgement but for me the game was lost in midfield. Stewart Downing worked his socks off and ripped them open down the left but that was all the creativity and penetration offered as the rest were ineffective (and that is generous).
Cattermole was hopelessly lost on the right flank, Boateng was full of running and always willing but a yard short throughout and Arca is a shadow of the player he was going into the previous derby clash. He has never really regained his edge since the injury he picked up in that game, was rightly dropped earlier this year and has been the weakest link in the team since his return.
There were bright spots. Downing was excellent, Tuncay showed some great skills, neat movement and took his goal well and never stops running and Alves got another goal and had a few good touches (although I don't think we will ever be praising him for his workrate). And at the back Luke Young is rock solid and Poggi slugged it out with impressive Kenwyne Jones and picked up another battle scar for the cause. He also put in an incredible full length defensive diving backwards header to cut out a ball to Jones in the box.
Defeat to yet another average team of journeymen was a massive kick in the teeth - but also a reality check. It condemns Boro fans to a summer of parochial ridicule from their neighbours and after Reading and Bolton it was another missed opportunity to escape the relegation zone. For all the hype ("the best team outside the top four") and signs of a new attacking culture Boro have won just one game in ten - and that nervously against whipping boys Derby - and have taken just seven points from a possible 30.
Now we face a tense finish to a season. The odds are still in out favour but again we will stay up by default. It is still possible for Boro to get dragged down but it would take a bizarre set of results. Even if Boro fail to take another point four other sides would need to overhaul us.
Bolton would need to make up a three point gap and they face Sunderland at home (not one for the purists) and then go to a title chasing Chelsea defending and unbeaten home run that goes back to the Crimean War.
Reading also need to make up three points and have what look like winnable games at home to Spurs and then away to a Derby who will struggle to beat Sunderland's 15 point low water mark.
Birmingham, third bottom, need to make up a four point deficit and they go to revived Fulham next week then finish at home to a Blackburn side possibly still chasing European football.
And Fulham need six points and need to make up a six goal deficit to catch Boro. They will need to beat Birmingham in what will be a massive basement battle next week and then win away at a Portsmouth who may be mentally cruising down Wembley Way.
If Boro do not take at least the two points they need at home to Pompey and Manchester City and make themselves hostage to fortune and get caught up in that network of deadly permutations then they deserve to go down. They have had countless opportunities to not only save themselves but to push on. It is unacceptable that after ten years of Premier League experience and - maybe more importantly - Premier League money we are still looking at the results of teams below us two games from the end. There will be a lot of renewal letters, slick DVD and all, being thrown angrily in the bin right now.
There is a lot of work to be done in the summer.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »