So launching straight into the team that came 17th place (these are going to stop before the Euros but it gives me something to do between the Euros and the Premier League season starting so)
SUNDERLAND
On the one hand, this season has to be taken as a success for Sunderland and for Sam Allardyce. Only losing one of their last ten games, a feat bettered only by the top two, meant that Sunderland overtook Newcastle and Norwich on the penultimate hurdle and managed to secure their Premier League status for another season. For a team that looked in serious trouble after picking up just three points from their first nine games, it always looked as if survival would be considered good enough this season. And furthermore, it's a testament to what can happen if you make positive moves early enough. It took Newcastle until March to sack the hapless Steve McClaren, and Norwich didn't sack Alex Neil at all. But Dick Advocaat was relieved of his duty after only eight games (at which point Sunderland were ahead of Newcastle, it's worth noting), Sam Allardyce was brought in, and the season was just about saved.
Nevertheless, it was a long, hard graft for Sunderland. Back to back wins at the end of November against Stoke and Palace clawed them to twelve points and seventeenth place for the time being, the first real shoots of revival under Allardyce. It took them until January to pick up another Premier League point (the fixture list was not kind with Liverpool, Chelsea Arsenal and City all beating them over the Christmas period) but seven points from four games in January represented a decent haul for that month. But nevertheless, the tide was beginning to turn around them, and with Bournemouth and Swansea picking up form, Sunderland's much needed 2-1 win over Man United in mid-February saw them now just one point behind Norwich in what was looking increasingly likely to be a three horse race for one survival spot, as Norwich hit a shocking run of form.
Sunderland at this point became draw specialists, picking up draws in six of their last ten games, but as mentioned, losing only one of them. But it was the crucial games that they won that kept them up, a 3-0 pummeling of Norwich followed by two wins in a week against Chelsea and Everton enough for them to secure survival.
Both in attack and defence, Sunderland were just slightly better than everyone below them. A lot has been made of the strength of the goals of Jermain Defoe and it has to be said that Defoe is certainly one of the key reasons Sunderland stayed up, with fifteen league goals, but moreover, the (relative) defensive stability that a manager like Big Sam gives you cannot be underestimated and the likes of holding midfielder Kirchhoff and central defender Kone offered a huge boost to this Sunderland side.
However, let's not be too kind to this Sunderland team, who frankly shouldn't be finding themselves down in the dogfight, season after season, year after year, in a perpetual state of desperation for their own survival. Yes, once again they managed it, but Sunderland have now been in the Premier League for nine seasons, and they've managed to not improve at all, peaking with a 10th place finish in 2011 that now looks to be a distant memory, as they've been below the 40 point mark for the last four seasons now. If finishing 17th would have been an achievement for Sunderland eight years ago, why is it still an achievement now? There are no long term tactics, no plan, no innovation, just a series of haphazard managerial signings that ended up falling flat, leading to another short term appointment to keep Sunderland in the Premier League, only to be sacked when things went wrong again the following season.
And so here Sunderland find themselves once again, the worst team left in the Premier League. And since you would expect at least one of the three teams coming up (probably Boro but let's not rule out Burnley) to put on a good display and stay up comfortably, that means that Sunderland will inevitably once again be amongst the favourites to go down next year.
I wonder where they will be in twelve months time, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Championship.
England Squad
I sympathise with Roy Hodgson. Over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking long and hard about how to drop from the squad alongside the two obvious players in Delph and Townsend. My initial reaction was Rashford, for the reasons that I previously gave - I think he's just a younger, less talented, and less-experienced Daniel Sturridge and I don't think he adds anything to the squad that we don't already have in Vardy, Kane and Sturridge. However, if Roy is planning on playing two up top and if he doesn't see Wayne Rooney as a striker, then we'd need a fourth striker to make up the numbers, so I don't begrudge him picking Rashford at all.
So if Roy sees Rooney as an attacking midfield player, then the finger for me points to Ross Barkley. He's not as good as Rooney or Alli, and he's been pretty terrible since the turn of the year so Lallana gets in ahead of him on form. If we play the diamond, we have three tips of it ahead of Barkley, and if we play a 4-2-3-1, then I could even see the likes of Vardy or Sturridge dropping into the hole ahead of him.
Hell I could even see the arguments for Daniel Sturridge or Jack Wilshere, which is that they can't be trusted to stay fit, especially with Sturridge suffering an injury scare so close to the Euros. My response to that is of course that Wilshere is fit and Sturridge is training, so will be fit for the first game which is still over a week and a half away. And if Sturridge is fit, he has to go, he's arguably our most dangerous player.
But one name that wasn't on my list of potential players to be dropped was Danny Drinkwater: a player who has not only won the Premier League, but started almost every game in the process as a pivotal box-to-box midfielder. And he is the name that Hodgson dropped.
Now before I lay into this ludicrous decision, I'm going to play Devil's Advocate and try and get into Roy's head to pose some arguments for dropping Drinkwater.
1. He's bang average - this one has been bandied about a lot, the idea is that Drinkwater's playing for Leicester doesn't grant him automatic passage to the national side, since you know Leicester had Danny Simpson at right back. His role in the midfield was to be carried by Kante and in and of himself he's just a bit naff. He runs but doesn't actually pose as much attacking threat as the likes of Wilshere.
2. He doesn't fit England's system - Drinkwater only works as part of a flat 4-4-2, where his team never has the ball and is always having to do a lot of work, but his technical ability is never tested: all he has to do is lump the ball over the top for Vardy to chase.
Now both of these arguments have some weight to them, albeit not much for me. Yes, Drinkwater doesn't necessarily slot straight into the England team set up, especially depending on what formation Roy wants to play, but I maintain that he would have been the perfect player to slot alongside Dier in a 4-2-3-1 or into a midfield two ahead of Dier and alongside Wilshere, should we go 4-1-2-1-2. The argument that he's an average player is an absolute nonsense. I've watched him play a lot this season for Leicester and he does as much work as Kante does in front of the back four, making tackles and clearances and interceptions, coupled with long passes is his thing. And if Vardy starts, as he probably will, we know that him and Vardy have an almost telepathic partnership.
Now one of the problems for me with the Wilshere comparison is that for me they aren't vying for the one spot. It's like the Rashford/Sturridge debate. There isn't one, just take both. Currently looking at the midfield in our squad, we have one defensive midfielder (Dier), two actual central midfield players (Wilshere and Henderson), two wingers (Milner and Sterling) and four attacking midfielders (Rooney, Alli, Lallana and Barkley). That is quite frankly staggeringly top heavy, especially when you factor in that we have three central defenders, so there's a solid possibility of Dier having to slot in there.
Simply put, we don't have enough defensive or box to box midfielders who can play in a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-1-2-1-2. Yes, we'll probably play 4-3-3 but even then. Only Wilshere and Henderson are actual central midfield players, the rest are attackers being played out of position or Milner, whose best position is on the wing, trust me. Assuming we play the diamond, then it will be Henderson and Wilshere starting in the two, but who else is actually going to slot in there? Milner? Not a bad choice but not his preferred position. Alli? An absolute waste, he has to go at the tip. Lallana? Ditto. Barkley? Not defensive minded enough and also ditto. Rooney? Don't even get me started.
We have four CAMs in this side, two CMs and one CDM. The balance of our midfield is shocking, and that's not even factoring in the fact that we have more strikers than defenders. This squad is a mess. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of talented players in this squad, and I would have picked most of the same players that Roy did, but if Dier gets injured? Who plays at the base of the midfield? Wilshere? We saw how well that went against Australia. Yes Drinkwater wasn't a CDM but he was the most defensive minded of our midfielders apart from Dier, and added a much needed balance to the squad, instead of Barkley who'll play about ten minutes tops and is just not as good as Alli, Rooney or Lallana in that position.
And if I'm pushing the Rooney in midfield card a little hard, it's because I have to! Because Roy picked four other strikers! Rooney cannot possibly play up front in this team or there is absolutely zero justification for bringing Rashford (and Sturridge)! Based on the numbering of the squad, I would imagine James Milner is our auxiliary CDM or CM but that for me is mismanagement. This whole squad is riddled with mismanagement and poor tactical decisions.
We'll see how Roy lines up on Thursday. I imagine he has to go 4-1-2-1-2 now based on the team he's picked, and I bet he'll go with Alli in the midfield instead of the tip because...reasons? England have played at their best in recent friendlies when Alli has been allowed to get close to Kane (and Vardy). I actually don't mind the diamond, not at all, I'm on record as pro the diamond, but without Drinkwater in our midfield, there is no balance.
And we are going to get ripped to shreds.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Congrats to Hull for their promotion.
- Congrats to Ronaldo - I mean Madrid.
- I'll talk cricket tomorrow.
- And of course, Sarries beat Exeter.
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