Last time we played things didnt look that great, our luck seemed to have run out, and our form looked liked mid table nobodies. Most managers would accept their fate and move on, hoping to finish in a euro cup spot if lucky, and maybe even settle for less. But not this one. He didnt come all the way from north africa to be turned down, no sir. He bombarded his team with meeting, increased his player instructions even more, and aced his winter transfer season. (#notsohumblebrag)

Winter Transfers:

Probably better than our summer ones. So lets review our even more stellar signings:

Nacho:

As evident last time, our defense crumble at the slightest bit of pressure. So we needed a cool head in the back, someone less… O’shea-like. And who deals with pressure better than a benchwarming real madrid center back? His lack of physical prowess is more than compensated with his intelligence and tough tackling nature. (also he cost us virtually nothing so thats good!)

Saul:

As indicated in the chart in entry 4, we have a bit of a deficit in midfielders, with jordi gomez being too much of a weakling to actually play 90 minutes and cattermole too much of a bully to do the same. So we needed a player who can play as a CM, BWM, and DLP. Enter saul. a jack of all trades a master of none, the 20 year old will fit very nicely in our team.

Traore:

In Entry 1 i made a rash decision to sell fletcher, and said this:

I currently have 4 players who could play up top: Borini, Defoe, Lens and Fletcher. And even though the 3 first players are similar to each other, i opted to sell the only player who could play in a more physical role. However, what is done is done! We shall fight with our three-fairly-weak-injury-susceptible- forwards!

Yeah… i was wrong. So to recuperate the damage done, i decided (on deadline day) that we dont need borini anymore and need to get a striker less fragile than a cardboard. And we got him (rather cheaply) in a deadline day signing so awesome im still grinning about it. For again almost the wages of ronaldo in a month we secured a wonderful player to add variety to the team and made profit (lots of it) off the borini sale.

Updated Squad Rotation Chart:

The players in blue boxes are the new lads

Schedule:

Inconsistent, but better. Much better. Some really good performances, some not so good.

And after the capital one cup knockout, the fa cup run seems like its going to end soon, our run is shaky at best.

Highlights:

Middlesbrough (1-1) H: After the win on newcastle in the first ever derby for the Egyptian, the draw handed him a different derby this time; the Wear derby. And it was one of the nerviest games ever. A dull first 40 minutes that saw only 5 shots from both sides were building up to a scoreless first half, but a wonderful through ball from stuani to downing cut through our back 4 to reach downing (41) who slotted home coolly. And in absolute rage the black cats gave it their all to fight back, playing at one point a 2-4-1-3 , pressing very high and tackling everything that moves. 5 yellow cards and 2 crossbars later, it all seemed hopeless. But Ricky Alvarez beautifully controlled van aanholt’s whipped cross mid air and slotted home in the 93rd minutes to send the tie into replay.

Man United (3-2) H: A tactical masterclass from the Egyptian madman guided his Sunderland side to defeat Van Gaal’s United who played a narrow 4-4-2. Instructing he 2 wide attacking midfielders to man mark the wingbacks and playing a controlled short game, the Black cats opened the scoring early with a successful penalty by Jordi Gomez (3), Schneiderlin (14) and Schweinsteiger (45+2) started the comeback for united, but Shatov (46) and Lens (54) made a comeback on their comeback (combackception) and jordi gomez’s missed penalty (69) didnt affect the match as we achieved an important win in our fight for the dream top 4 spot.

Where We Stand:

Back to the top 4 with a bang

Key Stats (league only):

Top Scorers: Defoe (11), Lens (8), Shatov (6)

Top Assisters: Johnson (9), Defoe (6), Jones (5)

Yellow Cards: M’Villa (8), Kaboul (4)

Red Cards: M’Villa (1), Kaboul (1)

Appearences: M’Villa (24), Khune & Johnson (22)

7th best Defense, 6th best Attack, 7th best Possesion

Thats all for now, join us next time cause its ass kicking time here in Sunderland and were going to Europe *prays to god we dont get a losing streak that puts us in 9th or something*. Al Salamu Allaykum!

PS: Job Security: Untouchable #humblebrag2.0