#onthewhistle after Sunderland snatch draw

Sunderland Echo

Phil Smith discusses Sunderland's last-gasp draw aganse Leeds United and takes questions from readers

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the latest edition of On The Whistle after Sunderland drew 2-2 with

00:18Leeds United, just me tonight so I'll chat a little bit about what I thought of the game

00:21and then go through some of your questions. An incredible obviously end to the game, it

00:27looked as if Leeds United had got the win 2-1 up. I thought they'd frustrated Sunderland

00:31really well in the last 20-25 minutes, I thought they'd showed their intelligence, their game

00:36management, the little bit of the dark arts in the way that there was obviously a lot

00:40of time wasted but at the same time they bought fouls, they used the ball well. To be fair

00:44I didn't see Sunderland getting an equaliser and then it's an incredible error really,

00:49Adam Brown's sort of effort. It's either a Shane Warne style ball of the century to spin

00:54it away from Meslier or it's a terrible goalkeeping error, maybe it's a little bit of both. I

00:58have to say my main takeaway from the game was who'd be a goalkeeper? I mean Meslier

01:02makes an amazing save from Denis Sirkin early on and it drops to Khrushchev to tap in from

01:07a yard and then all everyone's going to talk about at the end of the game is that error.

01:11Definitely a slice of fortune for Sunderland there, I think they weren't going to score

01:15without an error, I think that's obvious, they'd barely tested Meslier in the last 20

01:18minutes. But I have to say that I do think they did deserve a point, I thought they played

01:23really well, a lot of spells in the game. I thought the start was really, really good.

01:27It was interesting listening to Regis Lebris there, he talks a lot about creating this

01:32culture of players owning up to mistakes, of learning from it and moving forward and

01:36he put his hand up in the press conference and said that he felt he got the shape wrong.

01:39Sunderland were obviously playing pretty much with a back five almost with the way that

01:42Dan Nail dropped in and Lebris was up front saying he didn't think that worked, he said

01:46he thought it invited pressure, it pushed Sunderland too deep and he felt it was one

01:50of the main reasons Leeds were able to get back into the game and equalise. He then changed

01:54it to more of a 4-4-2, I think you saw Rigg particularly really push forward and after

01:58that I thought Sunderland were really, really good. They could definitely have gone under,

02:02Leeds were brilliant in that 15 minute spell in the first half where they could have gone

02:052-3-1 up but they didn't. I thought Sunderland's first 20 minutes and second half were really

02:10good, controlled the ball, pushed Leeds back, showed a bit of a different side of the game,

02:14mostly this season we've seen them be a very dangerous counter-attacking side but this

02:17was as good as they've been in terms of controlling the game, caught out with a sucker punch really,

02:21a good move from Leeds, one that Sunderland should have defended better. But I thought

02:25they played really well up until those closing stages where I thought they were falling short,

02:30I thought they were running out of ideas, interestingly speaking to Lebris there, he

02:32said he thought that fatigue was a big factor, it's obviously Sunderland's third game in

02:36six days and they've not actually used a lot of players this week, I think that's an interesting

02:40thing going forward, Lebris again only used two substitutions so it looked like they'd

02:44run out of ideas but in the end I think they pretty much deserved a point for their performance

02:48over 90 minutes, you can see why Leeds United will feel aggrieved because they were seconds

02:53away from winning it and they did well away from home with their own injuries. But yeah,

02:57I thought Sunderland just about deserved a point, there's loads of positives to take

03:00away, a really good start to the season and a really good point in the end, I think Leeds

03:04showed all their quality, I thought Nonto on the right wing was brilliant, probably

03:07the best player on the pitch, I thought that they've had two serious central midfield injuries

03:12this week, look at the players they've brought in, Tanaka I thought was excellent and then

03:16Joe Rothwell, I mean a serial promotion winner, a Premier League player on his debut and I

03:20think you can see the quality he has, so I think it kind of shows what Sunderland have

03:25got to do this season to compete with these teams, how good they're going to have to be,

03:28but I think we can take loads of positives from the performance.

03:30I'm going to get straight into your questions, Ethan Todd says is that the worst goalkeeping

03:35moment of the SOL since the Steele-Camp Royer era? Well it definitely brings to mind the

03:39famous Millwall game doesn't it, if you remember just after Simon Grayson got sacked when

03:43both goalkeepers made a number of poor errors, that was definitely the one that was sort

03:47of at the top of my mind, incredible, I think a lot of us could be going to football for

03:52years and years and never see an error like that and like I say, to be honest I just feel

03:56for him because that save from Sirkin, you say that was one of the worst goalkeeping

04:00moments of the SOL, that save from Sirkin before Riggs drops it in, it's definitely

04:04the best save I've seen this season in the Stadium Light and I can't think of a better

04:06one in the last year or so, I guess that's the life of a goalkeeper and as Lebris said

04:10afterwards if you're in goal or you're up front, your mistakes really do get magnified

04:15and it's a cruel, cruel sport I think.

04:18Really good question, this is from Mike, hello Mike, thanks for your question Mike Smith,

04:20he says what a night, Reg clearly not got much confidence in his bench except for Brown

04:24and his hope for Tommy Watson, is hoping Sam Edd pulls through quickly after the international

04:28break and Connolly builds himself up, any under-21s games coming up?

04:32Yes I think that's a really good point Mike and I sort of alluded to that before when

04:35I was talking about fatigue, that I definitely think that was a factor today and it's been

04:39a really interesting thing this week isn't it, all the other managers have made a lot

04:42more substitutions a lot earlier in games, now I think that's partially who Lebris is,

04:47I don't think he's going to be a manager who rings the changes throughout games and is

04:50making four subs early in the second half, but I definitely think there is a definite

04:54lack of squad depth at the moment, you can see that, it's not ideal your third game in

04:58six days, you know, continuity in your start in eleven is really good but your third game

05:02in six days, you want to be making changes in the latter stages of the game and it's

05:05clear at the moment that, you know, the options aren't really there, Roosen hasn't had a huge

05:10impact this season, Barr, Aushish, these aren't players that Lebris seems to particularly

05:14trust and I think that's definitely an issue going forward.

05:18In terms of the positives, there are two under-21s games over the international break, one on

05:22Monday night and one I think the week after, I think the plan is for Connolly to play half

05:25in one of the games then an hour in the next one, Sunderland have been really bullish about

05:29how fit they think Connolly is, how good shape he looks to be in training, they think he's

05:32going to be ready to go after that international break and that's clearly going to be a big

05:36break, a big boost, sorry.

05:38Eliza Mienda I think will be back as well, so all of a sudden you've got two players

05:42there that you can bring on in the final third, I do think Tommy Watson has looked really

05:45bright this week, I think obviously Paveda's injuries are set back but I think Watson deserves

05:49minutes and I think will get them.

05:51Sam Eddie is a frustrating one, Mike, I asked Lebris about this at his pre-match press conference

05:54yesterday, he's not going to be fit to be able to play in those under-21s games, they

05:58seem to want to be really cautious because they fear a recurrence of his injury, so I

06:02don't think we're going to see him straight after the international break, hopefully it

06:06won't be too long.

06:07But yeah, I think there'll definitely be three or four players coming back to bolster the

06:10squad after the international break and I agree with you, I think Sunderland definitely

06:13need that.

06:14Dean says, given we've come out unscathed against some of the very best this division

06:19has to offer and Burnley leads Borough who we fancy to do well and we head into the second

06:22international break in the top two, can Sunderland be considered challenges for promotion this

06:26year?

06:27I think this also fits in with a question from Boxeo Pats who says, did this performance

06:31give you confidence this squad is good enough to at least make the playoffs?

06:35I'm more inclined to agree with that, Boxeo, than Dean, your point, I just think Sunderland

06:41have played really, really well, I don't think they've been as strong defensively in the

06:44last block of games as they were at the start of the season, I think the teams have worked

06:49out a little bit how to create chances against them and that makes me think that maybe it's

06:53a little bit early to start seeing that Sunderland are genuine top two contenders, also because

06:58of what I've just said with Mike there about the Deccan squad, I'm not sure it's 100% there

07:02yet to be a top two contender, but I don't have any other feelings other than positivity

07:07in terms of I think these are genuine playoff contenders and with a good January, then had

07:12a bit of luck with the injuries and who's to say they can't make the top two, maybe

07:15they can, fingers crossed.

07:16At the moment though, my view would be I think we're looking at a genuine playoff contender

07:20here with a bit of luck who can push for the top two, but they have surpassed my expectations

07:24so far this season and I think they've got absolutely every chance of competing, so fingers

07:29crossed that continues.

07:31A couple of people asking about Job, who they said was outstanding, had an excellent game,

07:37really agree, I think it was a big test for Sunderland's three midfielders, I thought

07:41that the pressing, the lead short at times in the first half and the way they kept the

07:44ball, I think that was probably a level up from anything we've really seen from our opposition

07:49this season.

07:50I think a couple of people mentioned the Burnley game there, I think they were a side in transition

07:53at that point, I think Leeds were better than Burnley were.

07:57I thought all three of the midfielders ultimately came out of it with credit, I thought again

08:00Daniel was very good at the base midfield, Rigg I thought looked lively.

08:04I think with Bellingham, if one of those three shots goes in the first half, we're potentially

08:07talking about a man of the match performance, aren't we, because he's probably going to

08:10be the match winner.

08:11If I had to pick my player of the night, I'd probably go with Dennis Irken, really tough

08:14test against Nando who I thought was brilliant, I thought he came out of that with credit

08:18and going forward I thought he was excellent and obviously unlucky not to get a goal as

08:21we mentioned.

08:22So I think that's just about it, so thank you so much for all your questions, like I

08:27say something got a bit of luck, I think we just about deserved it, albeit I thought you

08:31could see that maybe in some aspects Leeds are probably a little bit ahead of them in

08:35terms of their squad depth, which you would expect for a relegated Premier League side

08:39not so long ago.

08:40But I think we can all say it's been an outstanding start to the season for some of them, they're

08:43in a brilliant position in the international break and hopefully with a few bodies back

08:47they can kick on.

08:48We'll be back with some podcasts over the international break, thanks again for watching

08:51and thanks for supporting the videos this season.

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