Sunderland 0-1 Hull City: Michael Beale chants and tactical analysis from James Copley and Phil Smith
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Hello there, James Copley and Phil Smith at the stadium of Light Sunland have just lost 1-0 to Vull City.
00:07 We should probably start with the atmosphere, the fan reaction towards that loss was not great.
00:13 Sections of Michael Bale chants, anti-Michael Bale chants, he gets sacked in the morning and such like.
00:19 Not great, Phil, not great.
00:22 No, I think the atmosphere was sort of flat in a reflection of the performance, I think.
00:27 I think it's important to say that there certainly wasn't any of that chanting before Sunderland fell behind.
00:32 But I think, you know, cold nights, Friday night game, I think the onus was on Sunderland to get out of Hull,
00:38 to create chances, to give people a lift and unfortunately it was just a continuation of what we've seen in recent weeks.
00:43 I thought they actually started quite brightly, they pressed well, Hull looked under a bit of pressure.
00:46 But the tempo and the intensity just isn't there at the moment and attacking-wise they look much less of a threat than they did even two, three months ago.
00:54 And it's a massive problem and I think we all knew that if Hull scored, you know, people would make their voices heard
00:59 because I think they were trying to get behind the team.
01:01 But there was a lot of understandable frustration and obviously since that Hull goal went in, it was going to change.
01:06 And to be fair, that was it until full-time and then it started up again.
01:10 So we have to put it into perspective a bit but it certainly tells you where the mood of the fan base is at the moment and it's not good.
01:16 Seven games into his tenure, where does he go from here?
01:18 You mentioned the mood of the fan base. We must note that some of the mood amongst the fan base isn't actually Michael Bale's fault.
01:26 There's been a lot that's gone on with the club that needs addressing and hopefully that will be addressed soon.
01:31 We're waiting on red and white army minutes, you know, internal investigations and all sorts of waiting on.
01:36 So yes, in a footballing sense it's not good but off the field it hasn't been good.
01:40 That's not necessarily Michael Bale's fault. It's certainly contributing towards the feeling of the club.
01:45 But in the seven games, we haven't seen too much really in terms of what Tony Mowbray had got going at Sunderland.
01:54 It feels to me like it's flat, it feels to me like it's sort of regressed a little bit.
01:59 It's a tough selling, it's a tough watch at the moment.
02:02 Yes, it is and as you rightly say, it's not all on Michael Bale.
02:05 I think even people who were maybe chanting tonight would agree that it's not necessarily all on Michael Bale.
02:10 As is recruitment, did we have any of that mentioned?
02:12 It's about the decision to sort of remove a coach who was very popular, where results were still decent,
02:18 where the style of play for the majority of his tenure was outstanding.
02:21 And obviously if you make that decision, people expect an upgrade.
02:24 And so far, Michael Bale hasn't been that and that's not necessarily on him.
02:28 It's partially on him of course, but you know, it's not entirely on him.
02:31 And as you say, it's also about the players and the key deficiencies in the squad
02:35 obviously haven't just been addressed by changing the head coach.
02:38 Tonight, the votes may be on Bale. In the coming days, I think the reaction is going to be pretty severe.
02:42 And that is not all going to be about Bale.
02:44 It's going to be a lot of other people who people are going to be making their points about.
02:48 And it's tough in a press conference afterwards, isn't it,
02:50 when he has to be asked those sort of questions about chance and whatnot.
02:54 You have to ask the questions, it happened at the stadium of Leed.
02:57 But I thought he dealt with it reasonably well.
02:59 You know, he wants some fans to get behind the young group,
03:02 a lot of whom haven't really been through this sort of lull or slump before.
03:07 I think he did make a reasonable point, but again, just so flat at the moment.
03:12 And actually, as you mentioned, I don't feel like some of them really have anything off the bench to change things at the moment,
03:18 which is a massive, massive problem for Michael Bale.
03:21 No, I thought there were some strange decisions from an attacking point of view tonight.
03:24 I thought with Alessio out injured and him having to go across the left back,
03:28 I thought playing sealed behind Pritchard off the left was an odd decision.
03:32 I think it made something very predictable.
03:34 It was all down the left-hand side, wasn't it?
03:37 Yeah, I think, listen, one of the things that Bale said in his press conference,
03:41 which was absolutely right, was there's nothing I can say tonight that's going to change people's opinions.
03:45 And that's fair enough. I'm not sure telling the fans to support the team is going to go down very well, to be honest.
03:50 No, it hasn't.
03:51 I'm not sure how constructive that is. At the same time, what can he say to those kind of questions?
03:56 Well, some fans will rightly turn around and say, look, we support the team regardless, but you've got to give us something.
04:01 Yeah, exactly. So just wanted to just not a great night.
04:04 I think as you rightly say, not all on my own, Bale.
04:07 Some of it feels like it probably is on my own, Bale, but it's just not a nice atmosphere.
04:10 And ultimately, the reason for that is decisions that have been made at the very top of the club.
04:14 And I'm sure no one's going to lose sight of that.
04:16 Absolutely. Well, you can head over to the Sunland Echo for Phil's play ratings, all of the reactions to Sunland's loss against Hull City.
04:22 We're also on YouTube, across social media, in print and online.
04:25 Thank you once again, Sunland fans, for watching.