We’re 17 games into a difficult and lengthy season. We started like a rocket ship to Mars, but our performance has dipped in recent weeks. Is this owing to the modern nature of football, with stop-start seasons and international breaks? A completely new training regimen at the club, with players not recovering as quickly? Suspensions and injuries have also hampered us, but all clubs have these issues at some point during the season.
Or does Le Bris lack alternate strategies for dealing with the rigours of the Championship? It’s his first season away from France, where the style and tempo of play are completely different from what you see in England. As I have stated, there is a long way to go, and he has only just gotten his foot through the door at Sunderland. But I can’t help but make some loose analogies between him and Jack Ross.
For me, this analogy boils down to a perceived unwillingness to adjust the game’s dynamic and our approach. Matches against Preston, Coventry, and Millwall stand out the most, with important times where an early substitution, replacing an underperforming player, or allowing a goal at 2-0 that transformed the team’s dynamic may have been beneficial but ended up being costly.
Given how we’d been playing, I believe all fans expected at least six points from those three games; we only got three. Two out of three goals conceded against Coventry and Millwall were awful by our standards, with Coventry’s first goal being lucky. Both second-half performances were much below standard, and the dynamic appeared flat. Reg has pointed this out multiple times this season… So why is that?
If he has seen it happen multiple times, what is the answer to keep it from happening again? How can we turn leads into victories or break down resistant teams to get into winning positions? This is when I make the parallel to Ross. I didn’t mind him as a manager, but he never seemed to look for solutions and looked to follow a “well, if you can’t win, don’t lose” philosophy.
It’s five draws in a row, and I’m not sounding the alarm yet. But, in Ross’ first season, we won 22, drew 19, and lost 5. Not losing is fantastic, but not beating teams below us or appearing like we’ll break them down is concerning. Is this a midseason blip? I believe so. The performance against West Brom on Tuesday night was better, and we were unlucky not to get all three points, especially after the excellent introduction of Mayenda, who was causing havoc, and Isidor’s somewhat offside goal.
Again, this is a long season. I’m confident Reg will get us back on track.
Leave a Reply