Sunderland’s five-game unbeaten run came to an end after a 1-0 defeat to Cardiff City. Despite Red and White dominance, we simply could not find that decisive moment, so how do the young Mackem’s learn from this to ensure another result like this does not happen?
It was a really frustrating one at the SoL yesterday. So much possession with absolutely no cutting edge only to be handed a sucker punch when Mark McGuiness put Cardiff ahead with their only shot on target.
My big frustration was our final ball. We looked so incredibly comfortable in possession but when it came to that final cross or that final layoff it was well off the mark to our usual standard.
Alex Pritchard, who is usually a constant creative threat, could not get it right at all. Be that one of his corners that never seem to ever beat the first man, looking for that one pass too many or messing up the final pass, it just was not his day. Jack Clarke, who has been by far our most dangerous player this season, was not quite as deadly as he has been and Patrick Roberts seemed more interested in dribbling from the right wing across to the left wing without making that killer pass.
Both Mason Burstow and Luis Hemir struggled to get into the game and although you can question the positioning of Burstow during attacking phases, Hemir on a number of occasions was waiting for the tap in and he would be let down by the lack of service.
It is part and parcel of how we want to play. When it works it is absolutely beautiful to watch, but when it doesn’t, it can be pretty frustrating to observe as you watch players seemingly go around in circles and I do feel sometimes we need to rethink things tactically when teams are sitting with eleven men behind the ball.
Our other issue was that we were missing the clinical finishing we have seen throughout the season so far. Pritchard missed a great chance in the first half off a pull back from Abdoullah Ba, as well as Patrick Roberts firing a shot straight at the goalkeeper after some brilliant work from Jack Clarke. I sat there thinking ‘missing chances like that are going to be costly’, and unfortunately, they were.
You do have to look at it though as one of those games where we were just a bit unfortunate. On another day we win that game by three or four, but it just was not meant to be. We just need to look at it as a tiny bump in the road and must look to go to Hillsborough on Friday night and bring home the three points.
