Groundhopping Owl

I agree with this, we bought Van Aken to replace Sasso as our ball-playing defender but all the evidence so far suggests that Sasso is a better player.

Wildsmith 7 - relatively untroubled but commanded his box well, released the ball nice and quickly to start counter-attacks on a few occasions as well. Palmer 6 - I'll fall in the middle of the debate and say he did OK, albeit I still don't really rate him. He drove us forward fairly well but there was space to be exploited behind him and his crossing is poor. Nielsen 6 - grew into the game Lees 7 - did an excellent job of marshalling the defence Van Aken 5 - looked wobbly early on but started to improve and put in a great tackle at the end of the half Boyd 3 - he's really not a left wing back and I really hope Jos has recognised that after tonight, that's twice he's been really poor in that position at the Stadium of Light Bannan 7 - was our creative hub as ever and worked hard, albeit his work rate actually tends to drag him a bit too deep in his desperation to get the ball moving quicker Hunt 5 - looked a bit lightweight but was neat and tidy in his 45 minutes Reach 7 - linked play well and had a well taken goal, good performance Matias 6 - spent a lot of time chasing balls in behind to no avail, but did well to get a goal through his own pressing Fletcher 5 - not happening for him atm despite a good work rate, he kept getting caught offside and never really got a shooting opportunity Kirby 7 - impressed me with his work rate and confidence in driving forward

Just got back. We got the job done and I'll hold my hands up a bit and say that Jos's team selection was pretty good tonight, and he gave other youngsters a fair chance in the second half. It wasn't spectacular but it was never really going to be away from home at a half-decent League One side. I thought Reach and Lees were very good, Nielsen did pretty well and Kirby was impressive second half. Sunderland looked toothless but will probably still have enough to get out of League One, especially with some of their injured players coming back. Negatives for us would be that Fletcher had a poor game, as did Boyd who really isn't a left wing back and I pray to God we don't use him there again.

I thought it was a marginal improvement on Saturday - Sunderland probably weren't much worse than Hull, but we managed to get the win today. We're still going to have to kick things up several gears to get results against better sides though as we're too pedestrian, like against Brentford on Sunday or against Wolves in the next round.

I agree, although I'd say that the advantage of a back three is that we can shift players around the back line to give Nielsen an easier assignment if need be.

He's got such a physical advantage that he's worth persisting with in the team imo, as others have said he's not so great with the ball at his feet but neither is Tom Lees.

Fully agree with this. Was he subbed off so that we could give other players experience? It felt a bit pre-arranged, as while he'd been a bit lightweight in the first half he was far from a liability.

One thing I’ll say is that I’ll be glad we didn’t play as many kids if it ends up a draw and it goes to penalties, the game’s low key but you still don’t want kids taking them this early.

Agreed, their squad has expanded a fair bit more after promotion so their cup team is likely to be the side that walked the league last season.

Balls

Wolves at home await the winners. Tough game that.

True enough. Last two teams to win each cup while in the second division playing tonight.

It could even be a 3-4-2-1 like Chelsea played under Conte with both Reach trying to offer a threat from Fletcher.

I appreciate that he’s made those changes, but for me there needed to be more - Bannan and Reach are some of our most energetic and integral players, there’s little point flogging them to death this early in the season.