We've got to support big Kenwyne
I can't remember a game this season at the Stadium of Light where I've felt more disappointed leaving the ground as I did on Sunday after the game against Everton.
I've seen bigger defeats at home this season and I've seen Sunderland face better teams but I've not seen them fail to really have a go in the way they did at the weekend.
I don't mind Sunderland getting beaten if we've had a go but we were just so negative and in a nutshell, I got the feeling that we were actually more scared of losing the game than we were intent on winning it.
It was a game that never really got going and that was a pity because I was really looking forward to it beforehand.
The away team brought a lot of fans, we had a big crowd, well over 40,000 and I just thought we might have a really interesting game in prospect.
Everton couldn't be at their very best after playing in Europe midweek and they also had a couple of important players missing; then you look at our home form, which has been excellent and you just fancied we were going to have a good game ahead of us.
A lot of the disappointment from fans after the game has centred around Sunderland's 4-5-1 formation but I really don't know about that – what I do know is that if you approach a game in a negative manner then there's usually only one outcome.
And if you are going to play 4-5-1 then it is vital the midfield players get forward to support and I have to admit I felt sorry for Kenwyne Jones who was left isolated up front far too often.
I lost count of the times that Kenwyne was left 15-20 yards-plus away from his nearest team-mate.
Kenwyne isn't the finished article yet by any means but he is a real asset to the team and it's a crime not to make the most of him.
When I saw Kieran Richardson on the teamsheet, I thought he could well prove to be the key player because he likes to get forward and it's important that players went past Kenwyne regularly and got into the box.
Unfortunately, it never really happened for Kieran and it didn't really happen for any other of our players either, which was why we failed to pose a threat.
People talk about formations but the bottom line is that we really needed to support our front-man and we weren't able to do that.
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
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