Big Sam’s Sunderland Revival

Whisper it quietly but Sunderland are all of a sudden looking like a proper team. It’s two wins on the bounce now as Stoke were undone at the Stadium of Light by a couple of great late goals. The more cynical of observers could argue that it took Ryan Shawcross’ red card to allow the Black Cats to break through but I don’t buy that. Mark Hughes’ men never looked comfortable from the start even after Jermain Defoe left the pitch early on in the game due to injury.

Despite Sunderland losing their leading goal scorer, the arrival of young starlet Duncan Watmore had the Stoke defence run ragged. He immediately sends a wave of anxiety throughout the opposition’s team when he comes onto the pitch and defenders are abruptly forced into second guessing what he is going to do. That is a rare quality and certainly one that Sunderland don’t possess in abundance within their squad. As much as I’d like to see Watmore starting more games you can understand Sam Allardyce playing him from the bench. The directness, tricks and pace that he brings to proceedings are all the more effective when he’s running at tired defenders. A backline that is weary both physically and mentally around the seventy-minute mark are even more susceptible to Watmore’s threat. He is a bit of an unknown quantity for teams at the moment and this is also working in his favour, but the former Altrincham player does possess attributes that will cause defenders problems irrespective of how well they prepare for him.

The other important point of note is that is that the victory was brought about by another run out for the 3-5-2 formation. I talked recently about not making rash decisions about its long term effectiveness based on just two performances. One heavy defeat and the win against Crystal Palace should not cause anyone to write it off or indeed hail it as the answer to all Sunderland’s woes. However I also mentioned that it should be given a chance both home and away, if nothing else it has earned that. That is just what happened and it looks to be effective when three centre-backs are in place. Youness Kaboul again looked excellent and is looking more like the player Sunderland supporters thought they were getting when he signed in the summer.

Big Sam is incrementally building a side in his image and is also having an effect on matters behind the scenes due to his data driven approach to coaching. Players are being judged by scientific stats around tackles completed, kilometres ran etc. It’s difficult to argue against the manager’s decision when confronted with hard facts rather than a subjective view of whether he is right or wrong. I’m all for this at the moment.

Whatever your view of Allarydce and his approach to managing Sunderland let him get on with it, especially since there are signs of things slowly coming together.