Phil Smith discusses Sunderland's 2-0 win over Luton Town and answers questions from readers
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00:00Good morning everyone and welcome to the latest edition of On The Whistle, where we're going
00:18to be talking about Sunderland 2, Luton Tam Neill. A really, really welcome sort of home
00:23performance from Sunderland, exactly what we've all been hoping for, what we've all
00:27been looking for. A really controlled, dominant, comfortable win, clean sheet, couple of goals,
00:32some excellent individual performances. Just what the doctor ordered really, after the
00:35frustration of the sort of draw against Watford and particularly the draw against Plymouth
00:39before that. So we're going to have a chat through the game and as ever I'm going to
00:42listen and talk through your questions and comments. A lot of them looking forward to
00:45that massive Leeds game on Monday night, so we'll have a bit of a chat about that as well.
00:50On the game, I thought Sunderland were excellent, I think that's the first thing to say. I thought
00:55they took complete control of the game pretty early. You know, I think that we have to
00:59be sort of fair and say that I think that one of the big factors in the game, if you
01:04compare it to the last two home games, is that Luton Tam, surprisingly I think to all
01:09of us who had so much sort of respect for that team that climbed the way up from League
01:13One and gave Sunderland so many issues, they were so much poorer than both Plymouth and
01:17Watford in their performance. You know, if you look back to the Plymouth game, I thought
01:21Plymouth were limited in an attacking sense in the first half, but really, really well
01:25defensively organised and then in the second half grew a bit of confidence and came out.
01:30Watford, I thought, delivered a pretty good performance over the 90 minutes, in and out
01:33of possession. Luton, I thought, in both phases of the game were incredibly poor, in both
01:38halves to be honest. I thought Sunderland, you know, they controlled possession, but
01:43for all Luton didn't have much of the ball, Sunderland found it quite easy to play through
01:47them, to get to the edge of the box, get into the box. You know, I was looking at the stats
01:51this morning, Luton only had four shots, two of those inside Sunderland's box, both of
01:56those from set-plate situations. So, I don't think there's any doubt that it was a deserved
01:59win from a Sunderland perspective. Luton, you know, I think were in a lot of trouble,
02:04as I say, a really, really poor performance. I think we have to give credit to the Sunderland
02:08players because I thought they delivered a really professional, mature performance. The
02:11only slight concern was after that first goal again, I think you could make an argue that
02:16they could have been a bit more ruthless, they could have maybe gone through the gears
02:18a little bit more, and obviously they were nearly punished when Luton have got a very,
02:22very rare set-piece. Something Sunderland did really well throughout the game was they
02:25didn't give Luton that many set-pieces, they didn't give away cheap fouls. I thought that
02:29was really important. It prevented Luton getting any kind of head of seam, but the one time
02:32they did in the first half was, of course, that incredible moment where Carter Morrison's
02:35header was tipped on the post by Anthony Patterson, and the player following up somehow managed
02:40to have an absolute complete air-kick. The offside flag was raised, so it wouldn't have
02:43counted, but still, I felt like that was a bit of a warning to Sunderland because I thought
02:47that they hadn't really made the most of the advantage they had in the game. I have
02:51to say that from the credit where it's due, I thought from there on in, they really did
02:54control it. I thought they finished the first half well. Luton had a brief moment in the
02:59start of the second half where they came out quite strongly, but I thought Sunderland rode
03:02that out pretty comfortably, and in the end, could and probably should have had more goals.
03:06A bit unlucky, obviously, Patrick Roberts hitting the post. So, a really good performance.
03:10I think a little bit of credit has to go to Regis Lebris for the win as well, because
03:14he had a couple of decisions to make, really, through the spine of his team. The first one
03:19was we spoke on the whistle after the Watford game. I said that I felt it was really, really
03:24difficult to leave Elisa Meander out of the team because of the contributions he was making
03:29from the bench and in the pre-match press conference. I asked Lebris about that, and
03:33he basically said that he felt that Meander's role at the moment as a super sub, if you
03:36like, is pretty much perfect. He's a young player learning, he's getting opportunities,
03:41he's the next in line if there's an injury or what have you, but that he feels like it's
03:44really important that you have subs who can change the game and make an impact and unbalance
03:48the opposition. I was a little bit surprised at that because I thought Meander would come
03:51into the team, but I thought it paid off. I think the big difference between, aside
03:55from Luton, I think, being an inferior opponent, the big difference between last night and
04:00the Watford game was that Sunderland handled the ball much, much, much better, and I think
04:03the decision to stick with the three-man midfield was justified in the fact that, you know,
04:07Sunderland, as I say, what you don't want to do with Luton is you don't want them to
04:10be able to get up into your half, to win free kicks, to get in positions where they
04:13can just send loads of crosses into your box. Sunderland's control of possession meant that
04:18they never did that, and I think that's really important. That was a really important factor
04:22in the game, so I thought that decision was vindicated. We wondered if Patrick Roberts
04:25might be rested because that quite often happens in midweek games, but with Sunderland having
04:30an extra couple of days recovery to the Leeds game, with it being on a Monday night, LaBriece
04:34opted to stick with Roberts. That's all Roberts delivered his best performance in a while.
04:37I thought he was desperately unlucky not to get a goal or in a safe stop, so he hit the
04:40post with that effort, laid a great chance on for Isidore early on, another couple of
04:44crosses that on another day would easily have been turned in by somebody, so I thought that
04:49was another good decision. And I thought the Dan Ballard decision was the right call at
04:53the right time. One of Chris Metton's biggest fans, I think he's been one of Sunderland's
04:57best signings in recent times, to be honest, I know him from Bournemouth, so it was a bit
05:02of a gutsy call not to pick him, but I think you saw throughout the game, you know, Ballard
05:05won so many of his headers against Carlton Morris. The only way, really, that Luton,
05:09which felt like were going to get into the game, was through a knockdown, through making
05:13something happen through a long ball into Carlton Morris, and I thought Ballard just
05:15never really let him get into the game. I thought it was a really commanding display.
05:19So good night for Sunderland and a good night for LaBriece. We knew it was a really, really
05:23important game because with Leeds coming up on Monday night, Sunderland couldn't afford
05:27to lose any ground on the teams around them. You have to assume those teams are going to
05:30keep winning. That's, of course, exactly what they did. All three teams, other teams in
05:34the top four, won their midweek fixtures. So, a really important game and I think you've
05:38got to give LaBriece credit for holding his nerve. I think you've got to give Sunderland's
05:41players credit for holding their nerve and producing a pretty professional performance
05:46against, albeit, as I said, I think it's fair to say, a pretty limited opponent. So, let's
05:50go and have a look at your questions and what have you on the game.
05:53I'll have some coffee. Thank you very much.
05:58Saffa Mackham says, as comfortable a win as he could get without getting out of third
06:01gear. Luton were woeful. Definite reminders of when we had back-to-back relegations. They
06:06were that bad. And Josh on a similar theme says, do you think Luton will be the first
06:09team to have back-to-back relegations since we did? Hard to bet against it on their showing
06:14tonight.
06:15Well, I think that's definitely the thing, Josh. I don't think you could bet against
06:17it, judging on what we saw last night, because it was really hard to see what the playing
06:23style and identity was. I think that's the problem. At times, it felt like they were
06:28trying to play a little bit more than what we're used to seeing them in recent years,
06:31but they didn't really have a lot of success with that. I think the main thing for me was
06:35just that the aggression and intensity was so far away from what we're used to. We obviously
06:41played Luton an awful lot from that period where they obviously got promoted out of League
06:45One. We then played them again in the Championship. They were a completely different team, really.
06:51And it wasn't just at Kenilworth Road. They obviously were much tougher to face at Kenilworth
06:55Road than at the Stadium of Life, but their aggression and their intensity was a nightmare
06:59to play against. That's just what I say. They were so comfortable. The only team who I think
07:03really were as poor as Luton were at the Stadium of Life this season was probably Oxford
07:07United, but they've since really picked up under Gary Rowett. So I think that my assumption
07:12kind of was that Luton would have the quality probably to get out of it. My opinion on that
07:17probably has changed last night, because if you look at the teams at the bottom of the
07:19table, Plymouth are in excellent form, are having a real revival. There's a lot of teams
07:24down there starting to pick up points. The only team who are arguably in as poor form
07:28as Luton are at the moment is Derby County. And of course, they this morning just confirmed
07:32the appointment of John Eustace as head coach, which I think we would all agree is a pretty
07:36sound appointment when you're in that position in the table. So I definitely think that Luton
07:41are in trouble. Listen, I think the big thing for them is, will they still be able to eke
07:45out enough points at Kenilworth Road? Maybe they will, because I know it was quite a few
07:49months ago now and clearly they've probably got worse. But Sunderland had a really tough
07:53night. I know they won 2-1, but they had a really tough night down there earlier in the
07:56season. So I think it'll be about, can Kenilworth Road just be about enough of a fortress for
08:00them to eke out the points they need? So I wouldn't bet against them getting out of
08:04it, but I agree with you, Josh, at this point, basically on what I saw last night. They would
08:08definitely be one of my favourites for the drop at the moment. A really, really, really
08:12limited performance. They did invest in January, so I guess it'll be, you know, the silence
08:16they were in the team last night. I can't say they had particularly good games. Maybe
08:20they'll settle with a bit of time as the new manager puts his stamp on things. So we'll
08:24see how that goes. But yeah, I definitely think they're in trouble. Got another question.
08:29This one was over from YouTube. So as you know, we're starting to do, myself and James,
08:33just a little snap reaction video from the press box on the whistle, as well as leaving
08:37your questions on Blue Sky. As usual, you can leave them in the comments section under
08:41that reaction video. So SAFC Forever says, Hi Phil, why was Paveda not even on the bench?
08:46So yeah, a bit of an odd one, this. We asked LeBron about this at the game, because I think
08:51a lot of us thought that maybe Paveda would be pushing for a fair start, as I said. Roberts
08:57is often rested midweek games, so I wouldn't have been surprised to see him in the starting
09:01eleven. So big shock when he wasn't even on the bench. The good news is that there's no
09:05new injury. We asked LeBron about this after the game. He said that Paveda just wasn't
09:09available for internal reasons. He said he wouldn't comment further on that. So I think
09:15it's fair to say that it's an internal disciplinary issue, if you like. Now, I think it's important
09:21not to kind of go over the top or make too big a deal of it, because LeBron then said
09:26that he was pretty confident it would be resolved and that Paveda would be back in the squad
09:30for Monday night. So I think it's fair to say this is a pretty minor issue. It doesn't
09:34sound like, or there shouldn't be, any long-term issues with this whatsoever. But for whatever
09:38reason there has been an internal issue, whether that's being late for a meeting or late to
09:44arrive at the ground, I honestly don't know. So I'm not going to speculate too much, other
09:48than to say that, you know, LeBron said he'd be back on Monday. And so I think from that
09:52we can glean that it was a very minor issue. But definitely a shame for Paveda because
09:57he, you know, I think he would have got some minutes and a chance to sort of push more.
10:02So a really frustrating one, a really disappointing one, but one that I don't think, certainly
10:07that there doesn't seem to be any suggestion there'll be any kind of long-term consequences
10:11from that. So we'll see how that one pans out. But I expect Paveda to be back on Monday
10:15as things stand.
10:17Question here from Chris, who says, game was crying out for changes 20 minutes before LeBreeze
10:21made them. Rigg has been looked tired for a couple of weeks and given the impact he
10:25made on Saturday, a lexage would have been perfect last night. The so-called model of
10:29developing these young players only works if you actually play them right.
10:33I kind of agree with you a little bit, Chris. I think it's a little bit harsh as well. I
10:36don't have any problem with LeBreeze's subs last night. I do agree with you that Rigg
10:39has looked tired. But I think, as I said, I think the control that Sonnen had over the
10:44game justified LeBreeze's decision to start him again last night, especially in midfield.
10:50I agree with you that he could have come off a bit earlier than he did. I think it
10:53was clear for a while that he was struggling a little bit with fatigue. So I sort of agree
10:56with you there. I do think it was the right decision to bring Mienda on for Rigg. I think,
11:00as I said before, I think Mienda's really unlucky not to be starting games. I think
11:04he has every right to be the first substitute, if you like, and we can see the impact he
11:08has against Tyrone defences. So I didn't have a problem with him bringing Mienda on. I thought
11:13that was a good sub, albeit I don't necessarily disagree with maybe it could have been made
11:16a little bit earlier. And don't forget as well that Mienda is basically the same age
11:20as Aleksis. So bringing him on as regularly as LeBreeze doesn't even start him, it's shown
11:25a lot of faith in young players. So I think it's important to remember that Mienda is
11:28still, age-wise, an academy player. It's just his performances have been so good that we've
11:33kind of reassessed him now. So I see what you're saying about Aleksis. I thought he
11:37had a real impact on it on Saturday and I think he's really got something about him.
11:40His pace, really, for a central midfielder is quite remarkable. You don't really often
11:44see central midfielders who just through sheer pace can get past players. So it'll
11:48be interesting to see. I would like to see him get more minutes. The one thing I would
11:50say on Aleksis is, I think from the start, and this goes from player, club, everyone,
11:55he was recruited, you know, knowing that it was a long-term project. He didn't have any
11:59English when he arrived. Totally new league, totally new culture, hadn't played a huge
12:04amount of senior football. I think it's fair to say that was always a signing that was
12:07made fundamentally with next season in mind. And I actually think Aleksis has made some
12:11decent progress. Last night, I think it's hard to quibble. I think Meander was the obvious
12:15first sub and I think Solis was obviously the player you're going to come on late on
12:19just to help see it out. So I kind of see what you're saying. I would like to see a
12:22bit more of Aleksis, but I also think I have to say that by and large, I thought it was
12:26a pretty good night for the bracelets last night. I thought most of his decisions were
12:29vindicated in the end. But thanks very much for sending your question in. I agree with
12:33you that hopefully we'll see a bit more of Aleksis. So I'm going to put in a few questions
12:40in one now because they're all on a very similar theme. So Tom Shiny says a totally
12:45professional performance tonight. I thought we didn't really get out of second gear. Enzo
12:48is far too good for this league. I think we all agree on that. Someone replied just saying
12:53Enzo OMG, which totally agree. I think that's a sentiment everyone would agree with. It
12:58looked like walking football at times. Do you think you'll bring Samad in for the Leeds
13:01game? Job Sunland says back to our old selves tonight. We've got to have a real go at Leeds
13:07so we make up ground we've lost in recent weeks. Would you stick or twist regarding
13:10selections? And then Eldinsdale says who do you see playing CB at Leeds next week? Ballard
13:16was superb against Luton. I agree with that. I thought, you know, I would have said Trey
13:20Hulme was my man of the match just because another goal contribution. I thought he was
13:23excellent throughout the game. But I think Ballard would be right up there. I thought
13:26he just didn't give, as I said earlier, he didn't give Luton any weight in the game.
13:30Is there a possibility of a back three? Thinking back to the success we had against Leeds this
13:34way last season and the possibility of unleashing Mienda and Isidor together on the break. It's
13:40not something I'd really consider, to be honest, in terms of three at the back being a way
13:46to get Mienda and Isidor in the team. So I think it's a really good shout. My instinct
13:52is that we'll see La Brice name an unchanged team at Leeds. And the reason for that is
13:57I think it's interesting you mentioned there about switching to the back three for the
14:00Leeds home game last season. And I think away from home we played three at the back, didn't
14:04we as well? Because Pembele played a right wing-back from memory. Hopefully I haven't
14:08got that wrong, but that's what I seem to remember. I think that Mike Dodds and La Brice
14:12are really different managers. I'm not saying one's better or one's worse, but Dodds would
14:16always change the team based on the opponent in front of them. He would change formations,
14:22he'd change personnel. La Brice is massive on continuity, stability, partnerships on
14:26the pitch, imposing yourself on the game. And so I think he'll name an unchanged team.
14:32I think he'll want his core partnerships, if you like, to be in place. So that means
14:36Neil, Job and Rigg in midfield. Roberts out wide, Lefebvre on the left now, because I
14:41think you can start to see he's building that relationship with Serkin. And I think he'll
14:45use Mienda as a really strong option from the bench. If someone's chasing the game,
14:51I think you've got 4-4-2. If someone's well-placed, you might well bring him on four Isidor just
14:56to keep those fresh legs up front. So I think there's definitely, I can see the argument
15:00certainly for going to three at the back, given the success they've had against Leeds
15:04in the past. But I think La Brice will look to the performances away at Burnley and away
15:07at Middlesbrough and say, actually, we've shown that we can compete with these kind
15:11of teams. We've shown that we don't need to change it necessarily. And I think he'll go
15:16for stability and continuity rather than necessarily tailoring something specific to Leeds. But
15:21we'll wait and see. My gut is it'll be the same team as last night after a few days recovery.
15:26But we'll wait and see on that one. A couple of you also mentioned something fairly similar.
15:32So Chantel here says, nice to see big Dan Ballard back tonight. Had a very good game
15:36in my opinion. I'd also like to see Mundell back for Monday and Enzo in the middle. Let's
15:41give it a bash and not try, die trying. So Connor on YouTube also mentioned this. He
15:46says, with Mundell being back in training, could we potentially see him in the Leeds
15:49game? Leeds defenders like to play high up and I think having the threat of Mundell may
15:53just keep them looking over their shoulder. Yes, I agree with that. Instinctively, I would
15:57love to have seen Mundell in that game. I think it's highly unlikely, just in response
16:03to Chantel's question, that he'll start. Just because obviously he hasn't played since,
16:07I think it's November, wasn't it? The 2-2 draw with Coventry. Especially with hamstring
16:11injuries, you've got to be so careful because the risk of recurrence, especially for a winger,
16:15is all about explosive sprints, high intensity running. I think it would be really, really
16:19risky to put him in from the start, as much as I would love to see it. We've all seen
16:25how big a blow it has been for Sunderland not to have a left winger. Lefevre's managed
16:29to kind of cover that just by being an absolute genius, really, even though it's not his position.
16:33But it's been a massive loss and the absolute worst scenario would be to chuck Mundell in
16:37too soon for them to get another injury, which keeps them out for another six to eight weeks
16:41and you're potentially losing for the rest of the season. So I think Sunderland have
16:43got to be, although it's frustrating in the short run, I think they've got to be super,
16:47super careful with him and integrate him really slowly. Given that he was back in full
16:51training at the start of this week, I don't see any reason why he couldn't be on the bench.
16:54Maybe he could come on 15, 20 minutes, just really have a go at Leeds. I think that's
16:58potentially an option. So fingers crossed he can make that, because that would be really
17:02exciting. Lebris' press conference is tomorrow afternoon. That's definitely something we'll
17:06be talking to him about in that. So stay tuned over on the Echo website tomorrow afternoon,
17:10because I'll bring you all the latest from that and hopefully have a little bit of an update for
17:16you. So I think that's just about it. I did have one more question, which I'd got earlier in the
17:20day, which I'm just going to load up now. And while I'm doing so, I'm just going to mention
17:24someone replied to my ratings over on Blue Sky and mentioned that they thought Daniel Lenzo Lefere
17:28should have got an eight, which on reflection, I totally agree with. So I'm going to sort of call
17:33out my own ratings. I think that's fair. Obviously an excellent goal from Lefere and some great
17:37touches. Daniel as well. I probably, I gave him a seven. I thought he was excellent, but I probably
17:42hadn't fully appreciated how good he'd been until I sat and looked through the stats in the game.
17:46It's worth going and having a look at Neil's stats last night. His command of midfield was
17:50absolutely complete. His passing statistics, his tackling statistics, absolutely through the roof.
17:55So yeah, I thought it was worth saying that I definitely got that one wrong. Daniel definitely
17:58should have been there. To be fair, not very often that I underrate Daniel's performances,
18:03to be honest, but last night was one of them. So Dazzled says, can you see Abdullahi making a
18:07first-team squad anytime this season? Definitely. I thought it was just worth flagging this up
18:12because some of you will know that Abdullahi scored a hat-trick in the under-21s on Tuesday
18:16night against Huddersfield. He also scored against Wolves last Friday in the under-21s.
18:20To be honest, I think he's nearly there. And I think the obvious thing that will happen is
18:26Abdullahi, I can see he's placed in the squad and I can see he'll go and get some more under-21
18:30minutes. I think that's best for everyone. So basically what happened with what Abdullahi
18:34was, he obviously had that groin surgery. He came back into the under-21s team and just had a few
18:39niggles around the groin where he'd had surgery. It wasn't the same injury, just a fairly common
18:44thing for a young player coming back after such a long period out. So he took a little bit of a
18:48breather and suddenly drew up a new kind of plan for him, which was basically to play 45 minutes
18:52of the under-21s, which was last week, 60 minutes of the under-21s, which was the other night where
18:57he scored a hat-trick and then to play 90 minutes of the under-21s. So the view was once he had those
19:0290 minutes under his belt, he'd be ready to come into the first-team squad. The under-21s have got
19:06loads of games over the next couple of weeks. So I expect he'll play a full game with them at some
19:10point, maybe this weekend, maybe next week. And then he should be, by the end of this month,
19:15I certainly think Abdullahi will be in the squad. Can he make an impact? Who knows? We'll have to
19:19wait and see, but I don't think it'll be too long before we see him making his debut. So I think
19:23that's about it. There we go again. I've spoken for 19 minutes. Thanks so much for sending your
19:27questions in. Always lovely to chat through a sudden win the morning after. Thanks for sending
19:31your questions and comments in. I hope you've enjoyed the video and I'll be back after the
19:35Leeds game. It should be an absolute cracker. In the meantime, all your updates over on the
19:39Sun and Dagger website. So stay tuned for all those. Cheers.