Phil discusses Sunderland's 3-2 win over Middlesbrough and discusses the end of the January transfer window
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00:00Morning everyone, welcome to the latest edition of On The Whistle where we're going to have
00:13a chat through Sunderland 3 Middlesbrough 2 but I'm also going to chat a little bit
00:17about the conclusion of the transfer window as well and a little bit of my thoughts on
00:21how Sunderland got on and answer some of your questions.
00:25Absolutely huge night for Sunderland last night. I think we knew that probably the two
00:30toughest games that Sunderland have left this season were Middlesbrough away and Leeds away
00:34and I think we all felt that we would have a good sense of where Sunderland are in terms of the race
00:39for the top two or whether it's probably going to be the playoffs at the end of this month once
00:42those two games are out of the way. I think for Sunderland to get three points is an absolutely
00:47massive step forward and keeps them very much in the race for the top two. I think not just
00:51the result but also the performance as well let's be fair the first half an hour Sunderland were
00:55really really poor. I just thought Middlesbrough were more aggressive, they were sharper, their
01:00passing was excellent and I think Sunderland if we're honest sort of 30 minutes were very
01:04fortunate to be at 1-1. Dan Neal obviously a really good tenacious bit of work to rob Delano
01:09Bergsog of the ball, really clean strike but obviously gets a bit of fortune with the deflection
01:14that goes in. Middlesbrough at that point could and probably should have been more than one goal
01:18ahead so a little bit of fortune there. I thought the second half there was so much to like from
01:22Sunderland, I thought their aggression, their pressing, also how nicely they moved the ball as well
01:27I thought it was a really good performance. It felt a little bit as if they'd sort of
01:33you know Middlesbrough will feel that they wasted their dominance in the first half
01:37it felt as if that was going to be the case for Sunderland that they'd wasted their dominance at
01:40the start of the second half, really sloppy goal to let Hayden Hackney score again a brilliant strike
01:44you have to give him a lot of credit for that but it actually felt as if the game had started to
01:48fizzle out a little bit when Enzo Lefebvre produced that little bit of magic. I think that it was a
01:53game where we saw a lot of Sunderland's resilience and also their quality and I think they deserve
01:59a lot of credit for that. It was interesting speaking to Regis Lebrise after the game
02:02normally when there's been a few times this season to be fair when there's been a marked
02:05difference between Sunderland's first half and the second half performance, Lebrise tends to sort of
02:10diagnose if you like a tactical problem that he needs fixing. It was interesting that last night
02:16he was pretty clear in his post-match press conference that he felt the difference in the
02:19second half was just intensity. He'd said to Sunderland's players that in a game of this intensity
02:24they needed to give a little bit more basically, they needed to play with a bit more passion, a bit
02:27more confidence and certainly a bit more aggression. I think we definitely saw that in the
02:31second half and that allowed them to then sort of dictate the game on their own terms really.
02:36A couple of performances that I wanted to mention, I thought Daniel was a really important part of
02:40Sunderland getting back into the game. I thought that his sort of quality and his tenacity at the
02:45base of midfield, I think that was an important reason why Sunderland were able to get on the
02:48ball a little bit more as the first half progressed. I thought that was really important in the end
02:52result and of course we have to talk about Enzo Lefebvre, one of the most magic Sunderland
02:56performances I can remember. Every time he got the ball he just seemed to make the right decision,
03:01he made something happen. I spoke about it with James on our post-match reaction video.
03:07It's not just the fact that he does kind of wonderful things with the football, it's that
03:10he's so efficient, that's the word Lebris always uses. It's not tricks for the sake of it, he's
03:14always leading to a chance or opening up some space. I thought he was tremendous. I think that
03:19it was an interesting game for me to see Middlesbrough as well because every time I
03:23watch them under Michael Carrick I'm so impressed with like 80% of their game. I think the way they
03:28move the ball is fantastic really at times and I thought especially in the first half,
03:33Sunderland couldn't really live with their movement, their rotations, the quality of their
03:36passing as well. But I think what we probably saw as well is that the main reason why they're not
03:41at the moment an automatic promotion contender is defensively they're just not as strong as the
03:46teams around them. We've seen certainly Burnley, also I think Leeds as well to an extent, maybe
03:51Sheffield United not quite so much when they've played Sunderland. You felt like even when
03:55Sunderland have played well it's not been easy to get at them. I think you can see with
03:58Middlesbrough they have some big issues defending their own box and I think that's probably why
04:02even though the quality of their play on the ball at times looks very much top two level,
04:06I think you can see why maybe they haven't been able to sustain that over the course of the season
04:10with their defending. So a huge result for Sunderland really and I think again definitely
04:15flashes of quality certainly from Le Fay but I think it was one in which they had to dig in and
04:19show some resilience and I think we probably as well have to shout out Wilson Isidor just for the
04:23way he's responded to that at night at Burnley. I think we all knew really that his personality and
04:28his character that he would bounce back pretty quickly but he's certainly done that so a huge
04:33amount of praise goes to him. Let's have a look at your questions just in terms of the game now.
04:38I'm going to get to the transfer window in a little bit and Neil says was that Le Fay performance
04:42one of the best ever in a Sunderland shirt? God help defences when he's 100% fit. He could be the
04:46difference between automatics and playoffs or am I getting carried away? I think he was that good
04:50last night Neil. I agree with you on that. I think we've all felt it was only a matter of time before
04:54the assists started coming. I think every game he's played in he's created a big chance for
04:59a teammate that they just haven't been able to take so it's no surprise to me those contributions
05:03have started flowing but it was interesting that Le Brice spoke when we spoke to him in
05:08his press conference before the game which was last Friday. He was saying that he'd had a conversation
05:12with Le Fay and Le Fay kind of admitted that he was enjoying it but he was struggling a little
05:16bit on the left just because it's not his game to be 1v1 with a defender. We all know that's
05:21Mundell and Watson thrive and so I still think that Sunderland will want to get Le Fay in field
05:26and I think that's such an exciting prospect because almost every touch last night was a
05:31productive one. I honestly don't remember Luke Ehrlin successfully completing a tackle on him.
05:36There may have been one or two over the course of the game but the amount of times he sort of came
05:39out on that top in that duel was remarkable and listen as you can imagine Neil I watch a lot of
05:45Sunderland games and sometimes they can blur into one. I gave Le Fay a 10 out of 10 in my player
05:49ratings last night. Like you maybe I was getting a little bit carried away at the time but I thought
05:54it was such a magical performance, a real joy to watch. I was almost giggling at times with some of
05:57the things he was doing on the pitch and so just thinking back there's not too many 10s I've given
06:02in my sort of I think it's coming up for eight years, nine years in the job now. I know that I
06:07gave Pierre Ekwell one in the Southampton game at this point in the way Ekwell's Sunderland
06:11career sort of went but if you remember that time we beat Southampton heavily at home he was a maven.
06:15I definitely gave Charlie Wike and Aidan McGeady 10s when they did the whole four assists four
06:20goals things against Doncaster in the Covid era. I don't know if you remember that game because I
06:23kind of thought you have to give them 10 out of 10. If you're a winger and you produce four assists
06:27if you're a striker and you score four goals that's you know it has to be a perfect performance doesn't
06:31it. So it's definitely up there with the ones I've covered in the job obviously going back in
06:36all the way back to when I first started watching Sunderland you know the Quinn and Phillips
06:40performances in the Chelsea, Wieners, Hutton Stadium and the like. There's definitely a few that I've
06:44seen over the years but I really thought that was such an impactful performance on the face
06:48especially when you consider he's playing out of position in such a big game as well.
06:51So just really excited like you Neil to see where it goes from here and hopefully that little bit of
06:56quality can be the difference. I had a question here from Jack this morning thanks for sending
07:00this in Jack says thoughts on Samad's sub appearances look better being brought on to
07:04chase down plays and protect the lead against Barrow and Derby. Was Plymouth just the wrong
07:08game for him or is he not fit enough to start yet? Really pleased to mention this Jack actually
07:12because it was something I'd made a note that I wanted to talk about on this video and a lot of
07:16you over the course of the season and me at times as well have been a bit critical of the substitutions
07:20feeling that they needed to be more proactive that they needed to be more of them. I thought
07:23the breeze got spot on last night I thought Mienda when he came on at the end brought a real injection
07:28of energy for Isidore he'd been brilliant but I think it's clearly tiring. Same with Paveda and
07:32Roberts I know Paveda fell over at the crucial moment when he could have scored but I thought
07:35he brought a bit of energy. I thought the Samad sub was a brave one because at that time it was 2-2
07:40and you could naturally look at it and say go on try and win the game and I think the breeze
07:44actually I realised that the best way to win the game was to slow things down a bit to get a
07:49little bit of control back and I thought that Samad was excellent at the base of midfield. I agree
07:54with you Jack he's had a really really good impact against both Derby and Middlesbrough.
07:58I think you can see what his game is he breaks up the play he makes simple but effective decisions
08:02on the ball. I thought he showed last night what Sunderland have been missing for quite a long time
08:06in terms of natural defence of the midfielder. I agree that the Plymouth game probably wasn't quite
08:10right for him what I would say is that Lebris held his hand up after the Plymouth game and said
08:14okay it didn't work out but I feel like the minutes that he's got here from the start and
08:18in an intense championship game will benefit us in the future and Lebris would probably say after
08:22last night that was why he did it was to give him that help him get up to speed and I think we saw
08:26when he came off the bench you know he certainly found it a lot easier than he has in his first
08:30few appearances to get up to pace of the game. For me Jack I'm pleased you mentioned that because
08:34away from Lefevre's magic I thought that was one of the big positives I thought he had a really
08:38good impact, bodes well moving forward. Chantel also asked about bringing Dan Ballard into the
08:42team as a few mentioned about Sunderland's defending isn't quite there at the moment.
08:46Yeah I do expect Dan Ballard to come into the team at some point I think he's too good defensively
08:51not to. I think it's a real conundrum I'm really glad that I don't have to make the decision that
08:55Lebris does in terms of who he comes in for at some point. So I'm going to sit on the fence a
09:00little bit the one thing I would say is that I think we've seen time and time again this season
09:04that Luke 0-9 of all Sunderland's defensive players his distribution from the back is the
09:09best. Now I know that it seems a strange time to say that when admittedly obviously you know he
09:15played Job into a bit of a dangerous position which contributed to Middlesbrough's second goal
09:20but I think you saw for the third goal as well a brilliant touch from Lefevre but a great pass
09:23out wide 2-0-9. He is the centre-half who does that best in Sunderland's squad at the moment so
09:27I think that's really difficult for Lebris to leave him out especially with two home games coming up
09:31but we'll see what happens because I think for sure I think that you know Dan Ballard especially
09:37if Sunderland do keep leaking goals I think he will have to come back in the team because he
09:40defends the box so well. So I want to just chat a little bit before I finish about the transfer
09:46window so by the time that this goes out I would imagine that people will probably I think Jadon
09:51Danes will have been announced from what I understand the deal has gone through. Sunderland
09:57just didn't want to announce it last night because obviously with everything that was going on with
10:00the match so that's a done deal. Abdullah Barr has gone on loan to Dunkirk in the French second division
10:05Nathan Bishop obviously went to Cambridge United after his loan to Wiccan
10:10was ended early so a few bits and bobs there. Maybe in terms of done deals a little bit quieter
10:16than we actually thought it might be on deadline day but certainly important that Sunderland added
10:20some comfort up front. So Michael says feel like this team has gone from strength to strength in
10:23their origin always managing to bounce back after a setback. I just hope they haven't left it too
10:28late to catch the top two. Do we feel like enough quality has been added to give Oto's a proper go?
10:33I think that I have sort of slightly mixed feelings on the transfer window. I think that
10:37I agree that it was always going to be a window in which Sunderland needed to add quality not
10:41quantity. I don't think there was a need to add loads and loads of players. I think we saw last
10:45night that Le Fay could potentially be a bit of a game changer, an absolutely brilliant signing
10:49considering we haven't even seen the best of him yet. I think that it's really hard to talk about
10:53Jadon Danes because I just haven't seen enough of him and it's always really unpredictable to know
10:57how players are going to go on their first loan because you just don't know how quickly they're
11:01going to adapt to Championship football. I think at the start of the window I think you could see
11:06that Sunderland were obviously targeting players with real sort of Championship experience. I think
11:10we all know that they were interested in Tom Cannon, they were interested in Ben Barrett and Diaz.
11:14I think those were players that you could have been really confident were going to hit the ground
11:17running immediately and could probably have come pretty much straight into the team. So I think that
11:23I think that obviously you could see that when those players went to other clubs, clubs with
11:29parachute payments which are really difficult to compete with, some striker targets went to
11:34teams playing in Europe. Tubor Akpom was one example of that. We've seen Sunderland change
11:37tack a little bit. I think the one thing I would say is that in that time, sort of coming from
11:41November into the end of the transfer window, Wilson Eastdoor and Eliezer Miendo have obviously
11:45done so well which has an impact because Sunderland know they can trust them and we know we can trust
11:49them because they've been excellent. So I do feel a little bit as if maybe the window was almost
11:54there but I just think maybe they haven't quite got that. They would have liked another proven
11:59player in the final third and maybe that will prove costly because you look at Burnley signing
12:03Marcus Edwards, you look at Sheffield United as I mentioned signing Barrett and Diaz and Tom Cannon,
12:08maybe that extra bit of quality and experience will prove the difference. We'll have to wait and
12:11see. I think that Sunderland, almost their bet is that players like Sam Edd, Perveda and Mundell
12:17coming back from injury is going to make a massive difference and I think we'll obviously have to
12:21wait and see. I'm sort of encouraging signs from Sam Edd last night. I think we've seen at times that
12:27we haven't seen enough from Perveda yet but hopefully now that he's fit he can start having
12:31impact. So I think it's a little bit hard to tell Michael at this point whether we have enough
12:34quality. I think maybe it was sort of 75% spot on I think but a lot will depend on how
12:41much competition and dance can really offer. It's really hard to make a judgment on this point.
12:45I don't think a loan for a player with so much experience was potentially what Sunderland
12:50were really driving at the start of the window but they feel like he's an excellent prospect so
12:54hopefully he can sort of have a real impact. So I think that we'll wait and see. I know a few people
12:58have reservations about Sunderland's defensive cover. That's definitely something I agree with
13:02with Hadji Alisa injured. I think Sunderland at the moment they're fine in terms of the options
13:06they've got. I think they've got more than enough cover but they're one or two injuries away from
13:10having potentially a big issue. So fingers crossed that's something that it's definitely
13:15something that in theory could cost them. Let's see how it works out. Hopefully everyone can stay
13:19fit and healthy. So yeah hopefully that answers some of your questions on the transfer window.
13:24I think broadly I think especially with Lefevre coming in it's been a positive one. I think maybe
13:28I would have liked to have seen a bit more of an experienced player in the final third come in.
13:31I think there's a lot of pressure now on Wunderland-Watson getting back fit quickly
13:37because obviously that left-hand side of Lefevre was amazing last night. It's a position of weakness
13:41at the moment in terms of personnel so let's hope those two can get up to speed. I think
13:45they're going to have a really important part to play and hopefully Watson can quickly when he's
13:48fit get back into the rhythm after everything that went on with Bryant and all those bids.
13:52So thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed the latest edition of On The Whistle and I'll be back
13:56after the Watford game to discuss whatever goes on there. Thanks for watching.