People who listen to our Podcast are probably fed up of me labouring this point, but pre-season friendlies and the performances you see don’t actually matter a great deal, and we shouldn’t try and read too much into them
For me, pre-season games are all about taking every positive that you can from them. And, whilst you may have woken up this morning, seen the scoreline and thought “wey, we must have been shite last night then”, the truth of the matter is that we were anything but and that there was plenty of really good stuff that we can take from what we saw
How Did The Teams Line Up?
The elephant in the room is that we’ve got 13 players missing currently (our entire World Cup contingent [11] plus Thomas Meunier [12], and then Jocelin Ta Bi [13], whose visa was rejected and he couldn’t travel), but the team we stuck out in the first half in particular was relatively strong – not entirely first choice, though, and I wish someone in the ear of David James had told him that when he kept bleating on about it on the coverage of the game that I was watching
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Sunderland lined up in the first period with young Melker Ellborg in nets, a back four of Nordi, Ballard, O’Nien and Reinildo, with a midfield four of Mundle, Rigg, Browne, and Hume, and Enzo just playing off Wilson Isidor in that typical 4-4-1-1 Sunderland shape that we grew used to last season in the Premier League
Liverpool, like us, had a squad made up largely of youngsters and fringe players, though we still saw Giorgi Mamardashvili, Harvey Elliott, Jeremie Frimpong, Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones, Rio Ngumoha and Kostas Tsimikas in the first half, with Dominik Szoboszlai, Milos Kerkez, Federico Chiesa, and Lewis Koumas held back for the second period
First Half – Sunderland Dominant!
In many ways, the side we saw in the opening 45 minutes from Sunderland was a bit of a throwback to the team that got us promotion from the Championship. Other than Nordi and Reinildo, every player on the pitch had been a part of the side that dragged us into the Premier League the season before last, and even then, Alan Browne barely played for us back then, but due to a lack of numbers in midfield he started for the second time in pre-season alongside Enzo Le Fee, Chris Rigg and Trai Hume, and I actually thought the three of them did very well in setting the tempo early and letting Liverpool know that we were playing this game at full tilt.
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Sunderland set up in what I’d suggest is now Regis Le Bris’ patented style, with Enzo going up alongside Wilson Isidor to lead the press and the central defenders pushing high to win us tackles nice and early, and to mop up any loose balls. Wilson Isidor had intimated the other day that we weren’t going to play this game at pre-season pace, and I think it’s safe to say that was the case in the opening 45. Thankfully, Liverpool matched our guile and intent, and it made for an interesting half of football.
We were largely on top in the opening exchanges, so of course, Liverpool opened the scoring. Rio Ngumoha drifted inside to join the midfield and create an overload, feeding the ball to Harvey Elliott, who then laid it to Northern Ireland international Kieron Morrison, who cut inside to guide a great effort past Ellborg and into the net
If we’re being picky, I think Ngumoha found it far to easy to take five of our players out of the game with a simple drop of the shoulder, and I have no idea why Reinildo thought it was a good idea to show Morrison onto his stronger foot allowing him to drift inside and get a shot away, but hey ho – these games are for ironing out mistakes, and I’m sure they’ll look closer at that in their analysis post-game
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In typical Sunderland fashion, though, heads never dropped, and we cracked on
In the 28th minute, Enzo Le Fee unleashed an unstoppable left-footed drive which no keeper in the world would have saved as it nestled into the top corner of Mamardashvili’s net – game on
Le Fee in that first half was simply a joy to watch. He looked like the player Liverpool thought they were signing when they spunked over £100m on Florian Wirtz, bobbing and weaving and dictating play from every area of the pitch. His goal was an absolute peach, and the fact he took that strike on with what is supposed to be his weaker foot just shows you how good he is — the Sunderland fans in attendance who had all paid a lot of money and travelled a long way to be there will no doubt feel they got some value from having seen Le Fee in the first half.
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I’ve also got to give props to Chris Rigg, though, who was every bit as good as Le Fee (minus a worldy goal) and really seemed to vibe off playing closer to Enzo and getting on the ball. We probably didn’t get the ball to Wilson Isidor enough, but when we did he was a threat, and it was nice to see him back. Browne, in fairness, played very well too and had Curtis Jones’ number on more than one occasion, and of course, the Lads at the back were their usual selves and looked solid and dependable.
After our goal, I feel Sunderland were the better team, looked the sharper of the two sides, and played the more authentic football, and going into half-time I was pretty happy with what I’d seen – their goal aside
Second Half – Men Against Boys
As much as I desperately wanted to see more from that first-half team, these games are essentially just training exercises, and we’ve got to look after the players, so Regis Le Bris swapped out TEN players, with only Melker Ellborg remaining from the side that trotted out before the break
What we effectively saw in that second period was our U21s team, and what a test for them, as Liverpool left Mamardashvili and Frimpong on and brought Chiesa, Kerkez, Koumas and Szoboszlai — their best player from last season — on to give our young lads the runaround
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It is early in pre-season, though, and Sunderland U21s managed to give them an early scare and put us into the lead through Timur Tutierov, his second goal of pre-season
Good work from Tom Proctor and Jaydon Jones saw the ball fed into a great position for the Ukrainian, and he could hardly believe his luck as it arrived at his feet, taking a split second to settle himself before finishing past Mamardashvili to put Sunderland 2-1 up
After that, though, the game became the Szoboszlai, Chiesa and Kerkez show, and despite the best efforts of our youngsters, Liverpool’s world-class showed more and more as the game went on
The equaliser from Hungary captain Szoboszlai was a genuine thing of beauty, and I think you’d find it tough to pick between his goal and Enzo’s for which was the best of the game, but he unleashed an unstoppable left-footed effort which zipped past everyone and into Ellborg’s net
We totally switched off at the back for the goal that put Liverpool ahead for the second time in the match, with substitute goalie Simon Moore — who replaced Ellborg not long beforehand — doing nothing to try and stop Chiesa from scoring what was a pretty decent finish. 3-2 Liverpool, and you could see which way the game was going to go from that point, as our young lads simply had no answer to the questions Liverpool were posing
The fourth – and final – blow came courtesy of Lewis Koumas. The Wales international, who was promoted last season with Hull City from the Championship, also looked very decent, and he finished coolly after some great work in the build-up from Szoboszlai and Chiesa
And that was that. Sunderland two, Liverpool four, and a very worthwhile outing for the boys in pink
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There wasn’t too much to take from the second half, but if I was going to spotlight anyone, I think it would be Tom Proctor. He’s not the biggest and he’s barely been seen around the first team, but having scored at York last week he followed that up with a very streetwise performance, and I really want to keep a close eye on him going forward because he looks the type of player you’d like to see coming through and being around the senior players next season, particularly when we venture into Europe.
He certainly didn’t fear the class of Liverpool’s midfield, and it was nice to see him give Szoboszlai the runaround on more than one occasion, and his set pieces look very good
On we go to New Jersey, where a strong Leeds side awaits us!
