2 Up, 2 Down... or is it 4 Down?! Either way, we’re ranting about Sunderland again after Burton

Joseph Tulip says...

It might be obvious or even a cliché but it gave me a lift to see Jermain Defoe in the starting line up. This could also be interpreted as a desperate act by Alex Neil to turn around our fortunes but despite his age, Defoe’s quality is undoubted and even lacking fitness, the former England man made a tidy contribution with limited service.

Another 30,000 crowd. This is absolutely incredible for League One, let alone on a cold Tuesday night to watch a side seemingly in freefall. It wasn’t a pretty night but at least we stopped the rot and can look ahead to Saturday in a slightly more positive manner.

If ever there was an example of a club sacking a manager unnecessarily... You either get the new manager bounce or you don’t. If we had been fighting relegation I’d have understood the decision to remove Lee Johnson, but when you’re third in the league, a new manager will need time to replace one relatively successful formula with another. There were signs of this with the way we played, a mixture of neat passing with scrappy, hopeful balls forward. I don’t blame Alex Neil, but the decision to change manager was shocking SAFC! Neil could be great with a pre-season under his belt, but that is not why we brought him in.

I feel sorry for Callum Doyle. The lad has played a lot of football for a teenager and he does look vulnerable to balls in behind. Despite that, in the second half, Doyle was almost our playmaker, carrying the ball out of defence 20 yards or more on several occasions trying to find a telling pass. Doyle needs a rest, but let’s keep the faith with the lad.

Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images

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Tom Albrighton says...

The tactical acumen or therein lack of shown by Alex Neil should come as a red flag for what’s to come. Sunderland we’re again void of ideas and application in another crucial game for our season. After Saturday’s pathetic showing, the least people expected was some kind of change as well as a reaction - neither were forthcoming.

Corey Evans - Captain Anonymous. Quite ironically for a Belfast man the last time a Captain oversaw such a self-inflicted catastrophe, Titanic was going belly up in the Atlantic. Yet again completely anonymous, no heart, no desire and fittingly booed from the pitch. Not fit to wear the shirt, never mind the armband

If at first you don’t succeed... Keep doing it again and again and again and again and again and again until the clock runs out and you can't do it anymore - Lynden Gooch on cutting in from the wing. I don’t need to say anymore.

The form of Doyle and Cirkin. Now at an all time low its becoming painful to see these two players, who are good footballers at their core, be shelled every week until their final sinews of confidence are stripped from them. With no cover and no help from senior players around them there isn’t an end in sight for the purgatory they must be in. Cheers Kristjaan.

Photo by Alex Burstow/Getty Images

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Michael Dunne says...

Zero attacking threat. Sunderland showed absolutely no style of play or even any patterns of play. They were resulted to hoof ball and crosses into a box where more than often, it was an isolated Ross Stewart. In the second half, they didn’t even look like threatening whatsoever. This was against a poor a Burton team.

January 2022. The month where Sunderland’s season went completely and utterly belly up. Sold all our cover, brought in a manager who looks to be providing no boost to the team and the team conspired just to completely self-destruct. It should never have come to this and the board should be ashamed of the decisions that they have made. Pathetic.

The complete and utter apathy around the club is just very sad to see. There just feels to be a sense of resignation and deflation. People were leaving 10-15 minutes to go, they are booing the players constantly and fans not even celebrating when we scored. It’s just a sad state of affairs, considering there was a lot of progress between club and fans recently.

How little must Patrick Roberts, Jack Clarke and Leon Dajaku be showing in training that Lynden Gooch still starts ahead of them?

And for positives? Well Pritchard is still very good at football.