Sunderland have now lost three games in succession since their much flouted derby victory over Newcastle United. That was their first victory against their bitter rivals at home since 1980 and they haven't looked like winning a game since. In the build up to their next game against Stoke City, Roy Keane spoke about guarding against complacency and he said he would be looking out for signs at training such as players walking on to the training pitch or having their socks down.
The players obviously fooled him because they did get beaten at the Brittania Stadium with a very tame performance. Keane said after this game that he could see from the start that certain players were going to let him down and he should have made substitutions early in the first half. Keane left his players with the ominous warning that next time he would be braver and sure enough he rang in the changes even before the game had started making five changes for the visit to the visit to Stamford Bridge. One of those changes was the inclusion of youth team striker Martin Waghorn whose only previous start for Sunderland came in the 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford last season. Needless to say Waghorn hardly got a kick in either game.
Whether it was a warning to his players or a ploy to confuse Chelsea, Waghorn inexplicably started this game in place of more established strikers like Cisse, Diouf and Daryl Murphy. That list gets even longer if you include David Healy and Anthony Stokes. Keane also started Kenyne Jones who was just returning from injury and didn't look fit at all. So Keane took his side to Chelsea playing two out and out strikers, one plucked from the obscurity of youth team football and the other just back from a six month lay-off.
In Sunderland's previous encounter against a top four side, the home game against Arsenal Keane played a more responsible 4-5-1 with Cisse leading the attack. Sunderland came away with a 1-1 and were desperately unlucky not to win the game. They attacked Arsenal on the counter attack using Cisse's pace to break through the Arsenal defence. They also crowded midfield not allowing Fabregas and Walcott the space to impose their talents. They got beaten 5-0 by Chelsea and it could have been 10. They only have Chelsea's benevolence to thank for keeping the scoreline in single digits. They'd scored the 5th by the 58th minute and after that they just toyed with Sunderland without inflicting any further damage. They didn't trouble the Chelsea goal at all and who'd bet against Chelsea beating their previous unbeaten home record if visiting teams were to play like that every week at the Bridge.
In fact the only time Sunderland looked menacing at all in that game was when Roy Keane got sent to the stand for berating the referee at half time. Roy Keane is not the type of person to bask in the glory of his success. We all know that. Mind you I would have thought after beating Newcastle United, he might have encouraged his players to use that result as a springboard from which to kick on this season. Instead he immediately put the players on the backfoot warning them about their demeanour at training. The Stoke game came four days after the derby victory and to me they looked tired and lethargic that night. Did they train too hard between those games? Was too much demanded of the players in this period when they would have been wiser to have spent a day or two winding down from the highs of the Newcastle game before building themselves up again for a difficult game at Stoke. Instead the players went into training after the Newcastle in fear of being dropped for percieved complacency after achieving what no other Sunderland team had in twenty eight years.
Keane is famous for raging against complacency and mediocrity. Footballers like every one else need time to settle and to develop. The trouble is Roy Keane is not like everyone else. He signs, replaces and drops players at will particularly midfielders and centre forwards. Since he has come to Sunderland he has played the following centre forwards; Connolly, Rada Prica, Anthony Stokes, John Stead, Cisse, Diouf, Murphy, Healy, Kevin Kyle, Chris Brown, Jones, Chopra, Roy O'Donovan. That's 13 players and the midfield is almost as bad. Leadbitter, Whitehead, Edwards, Reid, Wallace, Tainio, Malbranque, Richardson, Jordan Henderson, Liam Miller, Dwight Yorke, Dickson Etuhu.
It's very difficult to develop an understanding between players who don't play together regularly and it's even more difficult to play freely and establish decent form when you're immediately facing the axe every time you're selected. Sunderland players don't know who is going to be playing beside team or in front of them from one game to the next. Even against Chelsea, despite having Andy Reid on the bench, Keane chose to bring on Jordan Henderson another youth team player at half time leaving Reid and other far more experienced players on the bench. If Keane is trying to make the point that reputations count for nothing then he is doing so at the expense of his player's confidence and the continuity of the team. Andy Reid and Daryl Murphy have been key players for Sunderland and they have been helping the team to good results ever since they linked up on Reid's debut for Murphy to score one of the goals of the season against Wigan.
Murphy even set up the late winner at White Hart Lane this season though he has hardly played since. Keane brought both back into the side to play Portsmouth yesterday. It had the feeling of a measure of last resort to stop the rot and it seemed to work as Sunderland were one up at half time with Reid providing the assist. True to form, Roy hauled Murphy off at half time replacing him with Diouf who duly gave away a last minute penalty by which time Reid had been taken off as well. The reason for Keane's indecision could be that he demands the same standards from the players as he did of himself and if they are not reached then he tries out someone else.
No one will ever reach Keane's standards, certainly not the players he has at Sunderland but equally they will not become the solid premier league players they have the potential to be if they get thrown in every five games or so and then dropped right back to the bench again. Roy needs to stop playing mind games with his players and either give them a chance to prove themselves or get rid of them.
Roy of course has his own demons to wrestle. He still hasn't signed a new contract and the exasperation he feels at managing players who will never be as good as him is obvious in his team selections, his prolific transfer dealings and the sideline frustration he almost always keeps under wraps. Keane might well walk away from Sunderland, just as he did with Ireland and Manchester United because he seeks perfection and he's just not going to find it at Sunderland.
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