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Bowers Blog: 18/10/16 - Winning Is Overrated

The Championship is really what it’s all about, right?

I kid, I kid.

I stick by my opinion that we are better than a number of the other sides in this division but even I am struggling to be positive after Saturday's defeat at Stoke City. Whilst I do think that Stoke are definitely better than being a bottom three club, we virtually gifted them that win at the weekend - it's becoming an embarrassingly frequent occurrence.

I actually thought we started the game brightly and even after Joe Allen scored the first goal, I felt we were more than in it. But once the crucial second went in, the game was over. Whereas Crystal Palace showed fighting spirit at the Stadium of Light a few weeks ago having gone behind by two, Sunderland simply surrendered.

The majority of our players did not look interested in the second-half and that’s really telling. They did not look up for the fight.

I have defended David Moyes and I do still have faith in him long-term but I’ve got to start questioning his ability to manage or motivate the players when they step out onto that pitch. I don’t want to sack yet another manager but if he isn’t getting the best of a bunch of players who I believe are more than good enough to compete successfully in the Premier League then questions seriously need to be asked. Still, it's early days and he needs to be at least afforded some time.

For me, the players shouldn’t need motivating, as if for some stupid reason they’re not playing for the manager they should look at the constant numbers of fans they get both at the Stadium of Light and on the road as well. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.

If we haven’t got at least five points from West Ham, Bournemouth and Hull then I’ll probably start to think it’s not going to work with Moyes.

Looking ahead to the weekend, West Ham are still not doing well even though they beat Crystal Palace away at the weekend. If - and it’s a massive if - we can stop Dimitri Payet from running the show then we may have a chance of getting a result. But like Stoke, West Ham are a much better side than their position suggests in my opinion, so we need to be on the top of our game if we are to get a result.

Sunderland have never won at the London Stadium - let’s change that at the weekend!

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