Defensively solid but woeful going forward today. Piroe James were woeful. Joseph poor, Gonoto not much better. Still it’s a decent point at a tough ground

I`d have taken a point all day after our last 2 games.
Aaronssen far too easy to push off the ball Joseph not yet physically up to it against solid non compromising defenders, Piroe is offering nothing same with James and as for Bamford we would be better playing Joffy.
Against Boro he lost the ball too many times, botched passes and one shot that went 30 yards wide.
Get rid.
We need to bring in some experienced forward from somewhere.
Not another project at this stage.
The defence was good today though.

only saw the first half as I'm away. I'd have taken a clean sheet and a point too. get some players in next week especially a 10 and 8

We had no idea what to do in transition. Rutter has left a huge hole. You can see the players have lost that swagger and are a bit shell shocked. Midfield and Piroe were clueless progressing the ball. Worst game I’ve seen James have.. Jospeh couldn’t keep the ball.

If we don’t bring in 3 or 4 good players in we’ll struggle to make playoffs it’s quite staggering

There’s so much wrong with this team offensively. We had the same problems the back end of last season even when we had Rutter, Summerville and Gray. As said above, the transition from defence through midfield into the final third is snail’s pace. Poirot should stick to solving mysteries, he should be nowhere the team. He’s turned out to be a terrible signing. My priority would be to sign a genuine left winger with pace. We need the threat of running in behind teams, there’s only James that currently offers that threat. Gnonto never was and never is going to be a winger. He needs to be doing his work centrally nearer Joseph. Get a proper winger, move Gnonto to where Poirot has been playing, and throw Poirot in the skip with all the empty beer glasses and coffee cups. We may see the best of Joseph if we can start getting some decent ball across a bit earlier, he’s not one to destroy defenders in behind with his pace. We’re only gonna see that with a change of personnel, you won’t see it with the current team.

Jack Clarke might be an option with his pace with Gnonto playing the Rutter role.

There's no way we spend 20m+ on a single player whilst we're in the championship

he refused a new deal. they may want to cash in or part ex. hopefully £13m will get in done

He's not in the last year of his contract, is he?

2 years left. If prem don’t come calling we’re in a good position for him. I reckon £15/16m gets it done. Sunderland can’t turn that down. We surely can afford that plus get the other 3 in. YEP confirmed we’re seriously looking at him.

We could do a lot worse than Jack Clarke. I’d prefer a genuine left footed winger playing wide left but inverted wingers seem all the rage nowadays. He’d be an asset from set pieces as well. The amount of set pieces we have failed to score from over the last couple of years has been criminal. I can’t believe a pro team at this level doesn’t have a single player that can deliver a high quality dead ball consistently.

I'm not sure. Unless they get 20m+, he stays and they try to get top 6. Unless Sunderland are struggling with PSR

I`m sure I saw a stat that said we were one of the worse in the League for scoring at set plays and it shows.
Free kicks are a joke and we might as well not bother sending anyone up for corners although we have looked better this season without yet scoring.

clarkes expected to leave in the next week. happy to go to leeds by all accounts

Yeah, i think we're in with a reasonable shout to get him. But will come down to how stubborn Sunderland will be on fee. I'm not sure they can turn down £15m for him.. Leeds should stick £5 or 6m add ons depending on promotion.