Cats boss Sbragia is losing patience
Mar 16 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal
RICKY Sbragia is ready to give Sunderland’s forgotten men another chance after losing patience with some of his stars.
The Scot labelled Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Wigan as the worst performance of his tenure, and promised personnel changes for Sunday’s trip to Manchester City.
One is guaranteed, with on-loan Tal Ben-Haim unable to face his parent club, but Djibril Cisse also seems likely to pay for his failure to strike an effective partnership with Kenwyne Jones.
Cisse has scored just once in eight games since finding the net against Bolton on January 3. He was dropped to the bench against Liverpool in Sunderland’s last away game, and if a similar fate befell him at Eastlands, the chance of his loan from Marseilles being made permanent would recede still further.
Judging by Sbragia’s unusually unguarded post-match reaction on Saturday, the best he can hope for is perhaps to be stationed on the right of a midfield five. His frustration at the ineffectiveness of Jones and Cisse was obvious.
“They didn’t perform, and they didn’t perform against Tottenham the way we expect them to,” said Sbragia. “We just have to persevere, work with them Monday to Friday and hope it gels. There were signs in training it has been going well.
“They were okay but they should be giving me more in general. Maybe the delivery from the back is not good enough or maybe they are not running off the ball enough but in general (Titus) Bramble and (Emmerson) Boyce dealt with them quite well.”
Jones’ statistics are little better than Cisse’s. His goal against Stoke
City was his only strike in six matches. Five months of playing together seems to have brought little understanding.
But not since Daryl Murphy on November 8 has any other Sunderland player started at centre-forward in a league game. That was before Sbragia’s time and while Jones was still finding match-fitness after a knee operation.
“They are individuals,” Sbragia conceded. “I would think in general Djib would have played in France on his own because in French football they tend to play one up front.
“I look back to my time at Bolton, Kevin Davies couldn’t play with anyone. He found it very difficult to play with Nicolas Anelka so we put Kevin out to outside right and Anelka up front. There might be things we have to do like that.
“I may possibly have to change the team against Manchester City. Overall some games they do well as a unit but in the last two home games they have been poor to be honest. We just have to work at it. If I feel it comes to a stage where it is not gelling I will have to make a decision. A number of players did not come up to the standards we expect and we can’t afford to carry people.” The Scot expects to have Anton Ferdinand available again after back and hamstring trouble.
“He’s got a good chance of playing against City,” he said. “We will know on Monday or Tuesday but I spoke to him on Friday and he says everything is looking better. But apart from that I may need fresher legs against Man City and to give the squad players a little bit of a chance.”
Sbragia was not the only member of the Black Cats entourage unafraid to speak his mind. Dean Whitehead lambasted the club’s fans on BBC Radio Newcastle for getting on their players’ backs as early as the sixth minute.
Wigan exploited the situation with goals from Ben Watson and Charles N’Zogbia either side of Grant Leadbitter’s equaliser. Steve Bruce agreed with Whitehead that the home fans had helped his team.
“The crowd were a bit impatient weren’t they?” said the Corbridge-born manager. “Talk about edgy. Wow.”
