Sunderland were condemned to a dismal 0-0 stalemate by QPR on Saturday afternoon.
Sunderland broke a six-game losing streak with a 0-0 draw against QPR on Saturday afternoon, but it was far from their best display at the Stadium of Light.
Here are Phil’s top takeaways from the game…
SUNDERLAND SET FOR MID-TABLE FINISH
With eight games remaining, Sunderland is thirteen points behind the top six and nine points ahead of the bottom three. This campaign will almost certainly finish in the middle of the standings.
Anthony Patterson’s excellence meant that Sunderland at least ended their losing run, and probably drew a line under any sense of growing panic that they risked being drawn into an unlikely relegation battle. Given the number of teams below them and the form of those at the bottom, they probably already have enough points on the board and one win will certainly do it. With Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts likely to have four or five games before the campaign ends, they’ll get that.
So, despite the awful disappointment, there was some relief here. However, it means Sunderland will face something they haven’t seen since the 2010/11 season: a run-in with almost nothing to play for. Given their position at the start of December, it’s an astounding collapse that can be attributed to two critical decisions: dismissing Tony Mowbray without securing a high-calibre successor and failing to address last summer’s transfer failings in the January transfer window.
This point presumably indicates that Sunderland will be able to get through the campaign without making any additional changes, but it is now a campaign that will end as a big squandered opportunity.
The result provides some relief, but not the performance.
The result was about the only positive for Sunderland; this performance was perhaps a new low in a season that many are now eagerly anticipating its conclusion.
There is no doubt that injury and suspension issues are having a major impact on Sunderland, not just in the final third but all over the pitch. It was particularly noticeable in a reshuffled defence on Saturday, Sunderland side too ponderous and too disjointed when trying to play out from the back.
There may be some mitigating factors but it was quite simply a sad experience to watch a team that have so enthralled over the past 18 months produce so little – not even registering a shot on target across 95 minutes of football. QPR are much improved under Marti Cifuentes and Mike Dodds had rightly noted their improved defensive structure since his mid-season arrival, but this Sunderland side is a pale imitation of the one that soared to sixth last season and looked so competitive through the first half of this one. Even in the rare moments where they broke into promising positions, they lacked the quality or conviction to capitalise.
When the attendance was disclosed in the final ten minutes of the game, there were loud bursts of laughing, indicating that a fair proportion of regulars had decided to spend their Saturday afternoon doing something else. Many more would leave before the final whistle, with the game balanced so that only the visitors appeared to have a chance of scoring. While Sunderland continued to work, QPR’s substitutes, particularly Sinclair Armstrong, provided a great injection of effort and energy, almost propelling them over the finish line.
The apathy that has overtaken this ground (rightfully and quite naturally) for large sections of the season should raise red flags in the Sunderland management. Next season, supporters will expect a group strong enough to contend for a spot in the top six across 46 games, which will need a change in the transfer plan. Many of these young players have significant potential, but the difference between veteran players and those just getting started at the level is currently too large to handle the rigours of a Championship campaign. The effort and application are there, but the quality and consistency are lacking.
It just cannot be sustainable for a club of this stature to generate such high-level results in their third season back in the Championship. There is a lot at stake this summer, and the club hierarchy must get it right.
SHORT-TERM ASSISTANCE IS ON THE WAY—BUT SUMMER BUSINESS WILL BE VITAL.
It was another terrible afternoon for Dodds, who later said that he was more dissatisfied with this performance than with the other four defeats he had presided over. He has demonstrated a commendable effort to provide opportunities for the club’s young strikers, but his double substitution 10 minutes into the second half indicated that his attacking combinations had once again failed.
The interim head coach can see some light at the end of the tunnel, with Bradley Dack returning to the bench here and both Corry Evans and Aji Alese likely to join him at Cardiff. While Clarke and Patrick Roberts are unlikely to make that game, they should not be too far behind. That should at least make the final few games of the campaign a more palatable prospect but it also underlines the importance of the summer transfer window. If Clarke does depart as seems highly likely, then Sunderland will simply have to replace him with a player (or players) capable of making an impact at this level from day one. They look unlikely to mount a play-off push if they do not.
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