The worst performance on Saturday was by Roy Keane himself. His biggest mistake was taking Yorke off and putting in Collins. A minute or two after Collins comes on, the man brazenly hold the attacker in the penalty box, thereby giving up a penalty and goal. Yorke was playing fine, although not exceptional or maybe not up to his standards. But all of his passes were accurate. Furthermore he attempted two nice give-and-goes, one with Murphy and another with someone else. In the case of Murphy, that man seems to always need 2 or 3 touches before passing the ball. Anyway there Yorke was in the position to move forward and possibly take the shots on goal, but the ball was not passed on to him. It is true that Yorke was not running down every ball and trying to be the General in midfield ( and only he knows why), but his level of play was still above that of all the other midfielders.
As others have pointed out, Sunderland’s team is really thin. The back line is good. McShane and Nosworthy are excellent. The midfield is not strong, and in the absence of Yorke it is significantly weaker, as we saw in the Birmingham game. For a significant part of that game, the play by both sides was really scrappy.
They will need a heroic effort against Liverpool on Saturday. LPool’s new striker would be a handful.
