This defeat can be blamed on several things, but selections, substitutions and tactics probably cover them all.
Nigel Adkins tinkered and got it badly wrong, those that have read my previews and verdicts over the years will notice that there is a recurring theme, that good players dont become bad players overnight or as in this case vice versa, that if you do the same things you get the same results, be that winning or losing and that continuity is a good thing.
We had none of that on Saturday against Sunderland and you have to question the managers selections, whilst at the moment the back four is picking itself and the midfield four was a bolt on as well, why the sudden introduction of Mayuka a few weeks ago I questioned why Adkins didnt throw him on in the final minutes against Liverpool to try and rescue a point, I said then if he cant get off the bench in a game like that, then he is perhaps never going to do so, but I was wrong, after nearly four months at the club without a league start and six games where he hasnt even managed to get off the bench and on to the field, suddenly Mayuka is given a start ahead of not just Jay Rodrigues who must feel that after a solid performance against Reading he was worth his place, but ahead of the likes of Guly or Tadanari Lee who now seems to be right out of contention.
But perhaps even stranger was Steve De Ridder on the bench, here is a man who couldnt get a game in the Championship, why suddenly was he not only selected for the bench, but brought on ahead of the like of Jay Rodrigues, Guly, Tadanari Lee and others, how this game cried out for Billy Sharp, De Ridders emergence probabaly spelled out that something is wrong and once again begged the question about whether the manager is making his own selections, I actually hope that he isnt, because if he is then his selections on Saturday were seriously flawed.
I just cant get my head round selecting Mayuka, afer seven weeks in the wilderness has he suddenly improved so much in the last fortnight that he is worth a start ? his first ever one at that, after a big defeat yes managers suddenly make drastic changes, but surely not after a solid home win.
But it was more than just a few poor selections and substitutions, the fighting spirit and confidence just wasnt there, with the exception of a few players the rest didnt play with the belief that they could win the game, we had no attacking thread down either flank, I know im being harsh but its easy to forget how young Luke Shaw is, defensively he is strong but on Saturday he offered nothing going forward first half, just after the break he had a really good run, but that was about it in the second, a lot has been put on Shaws shoulders, on Saturday it seemed to weigh him down a little, he didnt have a bad game, but he didnt have a great one either, unfair because at his age he should be able to rely on more experienced players to lead by example and too many of them didnt.
This was a very very important game lost, with the run of fixtures coming up, if we arent careful we could be on a four game losing streak now, the manager has some hard work to do, over his tenure Nigel Adkins has always had to learn as he went along and that often means that at times its two steps forward and one backwards, Saturday was a backward step that was for sure, but the real disapointment was the manner in which we took it, the mistakes we made and the lessons we should learn from them, really should have been absorbed a long time ago and should not be being repeated now.
For their part Sunderland came and put in a performance that you feel that as it stands now Saints could not do, they came into the lions den, kept it tight, rarely looked troubled or made mistakes and took their chance when it came, this is the sort of performance that we now need to put in at both Fulham and Stoke, can we do that, I truly hope so but I cant see it after Saturday.
A day later Im still perplexed by the roles that Mayuka and De Ridder played in this game, its something I cant quite put my finger on, but I feel that it is at the heart of all that has gone wrong this season, perhaps Nigel Adkins has been under pressure to use them both, perhaps he was using this game to prove a point, if that point was that neither are of the quality needed in this division, then he has proved it, if the choice was the managers and the managers alone then Im sorry but I am very worried.