The club stated their intentions of top-flight survival early on, brining in the likes of Victor Valdes and Alvaro Negredo, and Karanka believes that early business has helped them in their good start.
Advertisement
He added: “We need to add to the team and we’d like to do that”. “We didn’t expect to play like Brazil”.
“He is a really experienced player who scores important goals and the sort of player who can be useful in a derby”.
“I thought we played well (in the second half), we had a good level of intensity but we ran out of it with sort of 10 minutes to go”.
We have got two players in almost every position, so you have got to be on your toes and play well.
Sunderland have undergone a summer of change, with Sam Allardyce taking over as England manager, leaving them seriously behind in their transfer plans.
The third positive to come from the game was the performance of some of the players.
“I think it will be, I don’t think you can hide the facts, that will be the case, yes”. He’s a wide-man by trade but Gooch shouldered the responsibility of attempting to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and, alongside the debuting Steven Pienaar, he performed admirably.
Let’s not kid around, he was hardly Zidane – or to a lesser extent, Jan Kirchhoff – but he showed maturity at a time in the game when we badly needed it.
If Duncan Watmore is considered a first teamer at Sunderland then so too should Lynden, who in my eyes is the more well-rounded of the two.
Mannone said: “You have to deal with it, it happens in games, it happens in the Premier League”.
“But again, I didn’t think we deserved to go in 2-0 down, I didn’t even think we deserved to go in 1-0 down, but that’s football”. He’ll benefit more from taking a backseat and learning from the players around him. That will give the supporters and the players a lift as this is a team that excels when everyone is together, that will be a big boost for the up-and-coming games.
Paddy McNair was different.
“I hope they understand that I have made this incredibly hard decision for me”.
He said: “We played pretty well for half-an-hour, got beaten by a really good goal, and then, losing John O’Shea before half-time, we had our worst spell of the game and conceded another”.
Advertisement
“We talked about the young players and they were full out”. They didn’t fashion a chance until the half-hour mark, where Jermain Defoe’s goal was rightfully ruled out for offside.
