Team Sheet & Tactics For Sunderland

Hello fight fans. 

A quick confession, I called it wrong on Martin O’Neil. But with that admission I must qualify matters so you don’t mistake me for me suddenly becoming  one of those solemn and devoutly devout converts who always believed him to be a one man footballing maestro since way back when.

During his tenure at Villa, I’d go as far to say that he didn’t stink the place out as I wasn’t one for conveniently overlooking the pots and pots of money he spent achieving very very little.

At Sunderland he has taken a squad of players who had understandably failed to do anything memorable under either  – the ‘at large mental patient’, Royston Keane or the cuddly burn out, Mr Steven Bruce – and turn them into a side that have looked if not reborn, then certainly far less predictable than they ever have.

I never thought he was a con man as such, rather he was held in far to higher esteem based upon what he had actually achieved.

fig.1=An array of precise, near surgeon like passes from the Crafty Croatian© fig.2=A ring of steel through which the Black Cats stand little or no chance of penetrating. fig.3=A series of intelligent balls from the back men to feed the wingers. fig.4=A series of potential fiendish one twos between our fleet of foot front runners. 

So what of this game then? Well Sunderland away is precisely the sort of game you could bet the rent on us either dropping a testicle or worse. The old, ‘Err, it’s a bit cold, bit windy…’

Thank the merciful Lord for his bounteous mercies that those days are finally behind us. Remember  Tommy ‘Ketchup’ Cuddlestones and Jermaine ‘Pushing on for top 4’ J**** giving us abysmally half hearted performances at grounds like The Stadium of Light and The Reebok? No, I don’t want to either.

Sunderland have traded this season on a very similar platform to Swansea. If you don’t agree then tell me how, how in the name of Christopher Biggins has Mr Bendtner begun scoring goals?

What MON has installed, as has the sainted Brendan Rodgers,  is a simple tactical philosophy that doesn’t  dwell heavily upon individual talent. 

The way we beat Swansea needs to be replicated here. Sunderland need to be terrorised on the wings and find themselves running into a ring of steel whenever they want to attack the final third. And put simply, if we adopt a similar approach, we’ll do’em.

Predictions? Modders Anytime Goal Scorer isn’t too shabby at 7/2 nor is Adebayor at 8/1 to get 2+ goals. Spurs to win by a 2 goal margin is a bet I am positively eBaying furniture to lump on with the 11/2 price courtesy of Boylesports.