After the lads suffered yet another huge defeat away to Bolton, Lee Johnson departed Sunderland AFC. Whilst many fans couldn’t wait to see the back of him, a part of me was gutted to see him go and I really hope he goes on to be successful.
Out of the three permanent bosses we’ve had in this league so far, I felt by far the most investment in Lee Johnson. Jack Ross seemed like a nice guy but lacked the tactical awareness to control games when it really mattered. Phil Parkinson managed to steady the ship defensively quite well but his pure stubbornness and lack of emotion made it hard to get behind him too much. His decline to non-league in his post-Sunderland career shows his best days in management were probably behind him. As for Lee Johnson, I really wanted him to be the man to take us up.
You either loved or loathed his post match analysis but I tended to find them quite interesting; whether I agreed with him or not, they were always able to provoke some thought and I always felt confident that he would do all he could to ensure an improvement in the next game. Coming across as measured, positive and objective, his mindset was always on assessing what went wrong and how to put it right next time.
Additionally, LJ was the first person in a while, in my opinion, who’d managed to get us playing good football. Whilst I will always maintain that the result is more important than how pretty the football is, I’ve really enjoyed watching us at times this season. Beating Cheltenham, Morecambe and especially Sheffield Wednesday 5-0 were the prime examples of us performing at the peak of our powers. Slick, expansive and entertaining are three words that come to mind when describing how we moved the ball in the final third.
Thirdly and most importantly, this is a football club I believe in a lot more now. Whilst the positive changes and direction of the football club are more likely to do with KLD and Speakman, LJ’s influence is not to be under-stated; removing many of the older and weaker members of the squad in the summer and replacing them with younger, versatile players who ‘fit the model’ is a change that has seen us be in a more positive situation across the club than we have in a long time. Many of this season’s new-arrivals went on to state how conversations with the gaffer helped them to make their mind up to join the club, showing his personality and commitment to the cause significantly helped us make positive changes.
Now, for the bad bit. As much as I’ve waxed lyrical about the head coach, he clearly wasn’t faultless. After yet another away-day thumping at Bolton, it dawned upon me that our problems come when we don’t have much control over a game. When we can be the dominant side, we make light work of dismantling anyone at this level but whenever there’s a game where another team gains control or we just don’t start right, we’re too easily bullied and intimidated by the opposition. Getting hammered away to Portsmouth, Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday are just three examples of games that didn’t start well and ended up getting progressively worse. We’re full of technically great footballers, which Lee Johnson deserves full credit for, however we really lack fight and physicality to battle our way through games. It’s that lack of nastiness and strength that, in my opinion, allows us to capitulate too quickly. As much as this is mainly a fault of the players, it is the job of a head coach to be able to get the balance right in his team selection and too often we have too many creative players on the field and not enough bite. For all of the positivity he brought, his lack of know-how into changing a game on the spot or giving his players some more strength to cope with harder situations is what cost him in the end.
After another significant drop in form, LJ’s time on the touchline had simply run its course. As previously mentioned, the 40-year-old’s problems were mainly to do with the team’s tendency to simply self-destruct before our eyes. If we are able to replace him both sufficiently and quickly, this decision may prove to be one of the best this club has ever made as it could see us finally secure promotion out of this league to the Championship. If we are not able to replace him with someone better, a part of me will always look back this decision with the thought of ‘what if?’ Although I’m far from certain that LJ could have definitely been the answer, I’d have loved to seen him turn things around once again and lead us to promotion back to the Championship.
Sometimes however, things are just not meant to be. Whatever LJ goes on to do in the future, I really wish him well. An intelligent and extremely hard-working head coach who really pays attention to detail and seems to be very suited to the modern, ever-changing game, as well as a seemingly solid bloke, he departs with all of my best wishes.
