Season Preview - Sunderland

Last season Sunderland fans enjoyed a very much up and down campaign. Courtesy of madman Paolo Di Canio Sunderland found themselves bottom at Christmas, a position that, in years gone by, many have failed to recover from. After a one-nil defeat, home to Everton, Gus Poyet famously said that Sunderland needed a miracle. Subsequent to the defeat, Sunderland went on a five match unbeaten run, winning four, which included wins against both Manchester United and Chelsea away, and drawing one away to Manchester City (which they were unlucky not to win). After the miraculous run Sunderland ending up securing 14^th place in the table. This year though Sunderland fans will be hoping for something a little less stressful.

Transfers

Last summer, again under the explosive stewardship of Di Canio, Sunderland had a very poor transfer window selling their better players: Simon Mignolet, James McClean, Stephane Sessegnon and Ahmed Elmohamady and then replacing them with a great deal of players who were of an insufficient quality.

Again, already this year has seen a number of departures from Sunderland, three of which are only really worth noting: Jack Colback, Craig Gardner and Phil Beardsley. But they have replaced the players with Patrick van Aanholt, Jordi Gomez and Billy Jones of whom in my opinion are of sufficient quality to replace three significant, departing players. Furthermore Sunderland have had a mini raid of sorts on the mighty Manchester City, acquiring Costel Pantillimon on a free and Jack Rodwell for £10.5million. With no more departures looking likely and more possible incomings, it would to seem to stand them in good stead for a more successful Premier League Campaign next year.

Predicted Line up

GK – Vito Mannone

RB – Billy Jones

CB – John O’Shea

CB – Wes Brown

LB – Patrick van Aanholt

CDM – Lee Cattermole

CDM – Jack Rodwell

RM – Adam Johnson

CAM – Jordi Gomez

LM – Charis Mavrias

ST – Connor Wickham

This line up is not dissimilar to last season’s regular starting X1. This team is a pretty solid team for a one that struggled last season. A name that some of you may be unfamiliar with is Charis Mavrias. He is an exciting Greek winger who joined Sunderland last season from Panathinaikos and who is determined that this is his breakthrough season.

Squad Depth

Sunderland have a mid-table-esque squad depth. At the time of writing this article on the official Sunderland website, they only had six registered senior defenders. This area, if not strengthened, will become a major problem for Gus Poyet and his team if the problem goes unnoticed. Away from defence Sunderland have decent squad depth especially in midfield where for each position they have at least one understudy and in most positions they have two.

Predicted Finish: 17^th

Although I believe they are in a better shape for this season then they were at this point last season, I expect them to be in another relegation battle due to a lack of a ‘star’ player, a player who can turn a match by himself and a player they had in Fabio Borini Last season. But I do expect them to survive the battle due to their valuable experience they gained last year.

Predicted Key Player: Connor Wickham

I was hoping by the time I wrote this that Fabio Borini had signed for Sunderland as he would have definitely been my predicted key player but he hasn’t and I can only pick Connor Wickham as I believe that he will be the difference between success and failure for Sunderland this season.

With Fabio Borini looking more and more unlikely to rejoin the black cats this summer many would pose the question to Gus Poyet “Where are the goals going to come from”? It seems that Gus Poyet has already chosen where they will come from and it is Connor Wickham. I expect Wickham to be key to success this season but I also expect that if Sunderland struggle that he will be key to that as well. Hopefully for Sunderland fans Connor Wickham stays fit and continues his goal scoring form that he found during the end of last season.

By @joelymo444