RAYO REVIEW

Sunderland were comprehensively beaten by Rayo Vallecano at the Stadium of Light by three goals to nil.

With our first choice players all having been given 90 minutes together versus Augsburg, the lineup consisted of academy and second choice players. Notably, Anthony Patterson and Chris Rigg were both given starts. The lineup was as follows:

Patterson, H.Jones, Lavery, Triantis, Huggins, Rigg, Neil, Le Fee, Roberts, Isidor, Browne

Early on, Rayo Vallecano had control of the match and had a series of shots that didn’t go anywhere near. Whenever we did manage to get a hold of the ball, we were sloppy with it and there were a number of loose passes or instances of poor decision making. Isidor was a passenger for much of the game, he didn’t even touch the ball until near enough the half hour mark. In the 19th minute, Vallecano took the lead after an absolute howler from Rigg. The midfielder attempted a Cruyff turn and had it stolen, with the away team taking full advantage. There were two yellow cards within three minutes of each other, one was given to Roberts for a very bad foul (studs up with no contact on the ball I don’t think) and then the second was given to one of their players for kicking the ball away after the whistle had gone and then arguing with the referee about it. The ref was actually the same one who sent Dan Neil off for swearing a couple of seasons ago at home to Middlesbrough. Dan Neil played fairly well, he missed a chance right before their goal and was quite combative. We did grow into the affair in the last 20 or 25 minutes of the opening 45. Le Fee was decent enough but his final ball was off all afternoon, perhaps sometimes the other players should have worked harder to get on them though.

In the second half, the Spanish side brought on eight players immediately and those fresh legs gave them energy to score just two minutes after the restart with a well worked goal. Despite the fact he conceded three, Patterson did well. He made one good save, with his leg at the near post. Lavery stopped a Huggins error resulting in a goal. The Welsh defender worked hard to cut out a player who was dangerously deep inside the box but then, rather than just accept the corner, he tried to clear it for a throw-in however he didn’t get it away far enough. The original player was then able to regain possession and square it back in but the academy player was able to block. They made it three on the hour mark and shortly after Isidor registered a shot on target. With around 25 minutes left to play a number of academy players were given a run out. Tutierov had the best time of things, he should have scored after breaking away on a few occasions but he always took too long to fire at the target. He needs a decent loan somewhere to develop, he’s looked really good in preseason. Aleksic also worked the ball too long once or twice, rather than just having a pop, including one where he was gifted possession by their goalkeeper.

Oh well, it’s only preseason after all and it was a patched together team that won’t represent our actual starting XI next week. Rayo Vallecano are a decent side as well, they’ll be playing in Europe this season. We do need more depth in the defence clearly but we’ve just signed another left back and I’m fairly confident we’ll get at least one centre back in before the window slams shut, so the club know this as well.