Jozy and the Footycats: Altidore at Sunderland

No, of course not, and of course you are purposely missing the point.

Poyet was brought in many, many games ago with one assignment; stay up.

Pulis went to Palace with less time. Felix to Fulham (I'm aliterative as heck this morning!) in a bigger hole.

One, maybe two of them will stay up. It is very possible S'land will miss by a point or two, which is squarely on Poyet doing stupid things like sitting AJ, the only dude who can score, until the second half of a critical match. Like going to a 3 man marking back when teh 4-4-2 was grinding out some much needed points.

S'land may miss staying up by the slimmest of margins - and that is down to the coach, like it or not.

If you miss by 15 points or were never in the hunt, that's life. But if you get out coached by other rats scrambling to get on the life boat - that's just cause you're not as good a coach.

 

If Norwich crash and burn S'land have a chance with 2 wins in 5.

 

No, the guy that has managed 10 goals in 45 appearances in the Australian A League. This guy:

 

If Wickham can knock a few more goals, I think he will probably force a move to another EPL team...He's entering his final year of his contract and has leverage since Sunderland can not let him enter that final year and risk losing him for nothing...So that increases the amount of exit and makes it more likely to keep a few old players..

I'm sure Sunderland will try hard to get Jozy off their book, but it will probably be almost impossible to do it, so I can easily see Jozy in a Sunderland shirt playing in the championship next year.

As for Klinsmann not giving Championship players any chance...well, it all depends on how Jozy does...If Jozy is among the top championship goal-scorer, I'm sure he will continue to be the USMNT number 1 striker..Who would you place above him??.....Johansson?..Is Dutch league really tougher then Championship?

 

in less than what two months he's racked up wins against chelsea and evert, two top four teams. both those teams beat his previous team...besides your definition of 'win' is limited. His victory is not being relegated and providing positive momentum, in my book making CP into a top 10 team is 10x harder than keeping manU in the top 4.

Also your last statement has the ring of a 'person' who has never accomplished much against extremely difficult opposition, you learn to respect the result.

 

Puyol's mistakes were made very early on: No defensive help, no dmid. He didn't eek out enough draws.

 

Sunderland won't lose Wickham for nothing - He will be under 24 when his contract ends.

Wickham and Altidore would be a productive partnership in the championship - As long Sunderland sorted out their other issues i.e getting the ball to them

 

He seemed prepared to give Holden some time.

And if Jozy is in the Championship next year, lets see how he does vs. the Dutch league.

 

Football as a whole is moving away from the 2 " big orthodox" striker in a 4-4-2, so it's probably unlikely they will both start together too often...Maybe a rotation...Both of them are a bit too slow and can't really create their own shot at will, so they are too similar to play together....Giaccherini will be under contract, so if they keep him, I see a combo of Jozy/Giaccherini or Wickham/Giaccherini in the championship.

There's also a small chance Fletcher may stay if other PL team dub him too injury prone...If he can demonstrate fitness by the summer, I think he should have enough interest...I'll say 5M pound for Fletcher...Sunderland will need to raise some cash from somewhere and Johnson/Fletcher is their 2 main asset to get some money.

 

Well wickham took his chance.

Something Altidore couldn't do.

That's life.

 

In both goals tallied and injuries sustained.

 

For once, I have to agree with you. The Championship is tougher all round than Holland, so if Jozy is starting in D2, then he stays as no 1 for the MNT, unless Johansson goes on an absolute rampage in the Eredivisie.

 

Truth be told, for a lone striker in one of the stronger teams, Bacon is looking "meh." Still better than Agudelo, but not as good as Jozy did.

I think the Eredivisie is stronger than the Championship. Mainly in what respects wing play and forwards. After all, the Eredivisie is the #8 league in Europe, as per the UEFA coefficients. Their teams tend to do well in the Europa. The defending is perhaps slightly below Championship level though, about MLS quality (IMO). The coaching in the Netherlands is a lot better than in the Championship, much more variegated and innovative. In general, coaching in England tends to be single-minded, stultified.

I can see Jozy bagging 10-12 in a season down there, but only if he starts most games. Which I doubt. Also, if Sunderland keeps their midfield formation the way they've used them so far, with a destroyer and a back-passer combo in the middle (Cattermole-Ginger in the latest variation), I don't see them creating much, not even in the Championship.

 

Absolutely. Sunderland very rarely look like a team, rather than a collection of individuals who'd met for the first time at breakfast. In that kind of environment, Jozy was only ever going to be feeding off scraps. He had to be much more assertive, to be aggressive almost for the sake of being aggressive, and hope to force errors from defenders. Picking up yellow cards would be a mark of progress in England. Not Jozy's game but he had to do it for as long as he was in Sunderland .

 

True, though it was odd seeing his teammates pass to him

 

This referee ruined the season. God damn this was a beastly non-goal.

 

Is it any coincedence that Ki wasn't there to drill every single ball into the stands as well? No Bardsley either. Hmmmmm

 

How on God's green earth that wasn't called a continuation is beyond me. Ridiculous.

 

Should've gotten the bucket and a freethrow.

 

He also had an absolute laser from about 20 rocket off the post in the early weeks, cannot recall the opponent. Had another long angled shot bounce just wide not long after that. I am still aggravated by the Johnson hat trick penalty against Fulham. More recently, he was pretty well robbed by a pair of excellent saves. With any luck at all, he would have 4-5 goals. Still not what he is capable of, but at least he would not be the easy local scapegoat.

Of course, he would still have his head thoroughly examined around here, but I think that is just a built-in feature.

 

Thats the guy that needs to show up every week. Play angry young man. We'll tell you when you need to dial it back. Until then, get pissed.

 

Honestly, over a million pounds per league goal for a striker is still a pretty easy scapegoat.

 

I wonder how many goals the likes of Suarez would score if every shot that hits the wood work or is nicely saved by the keeper becomes a goal instead. 50? By that standard, how good would it be to have scored 5 goals?

 

I actually think the ref had to call it back...Jozy responded to the foul by fouling back (2-handed shove, albeit to get away)...you can't let that play go on as a ref

 

Sure you can.

Only argument I could see you make in favor of the ref is if he blew his whistle while Altidore was tangled up which caused the defender to disengage (which it looks like in the gif, I didn't see/hear the actual footage).