Phil is back to discuss Sunderland's win over Luton Town and take questions from readers
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00:00Hi everyone and welcome to the latest edition of On The Whistle, where I'm absolutely delighted
00:14to say that we've got another Sunderland win to talk through, this time arguably even more
00:18impressively than at Hull City, a 2-1 win at Luton Town. What if we're honest, it was
00:24a pretty brutal game. Sorry that I'm coming to you from my home, well it's not really
00:29a studio, but a room at home rather than with Robo as you can imagine, three games
00:33in a week and two days is quite demanding logistically, so it was a little bit easier
00:38to come and do it from home. I was so impressed with Sunderland last night, more in terms
00:44of the character than the performance necessarily. I think you've got to be realistic and acknowledge
00:48that Luton had the better of the game, they had more of the ball, they certainly had more
00:53of the territory. I know that there's always going to be a bit of a debate about Luton's
00:57playing style and whether people like to watch it or whether people don't like to
01:00watch it. I think what you have to acknowledge is that they are exceptionally good, especially
01:04at home. Forcing other teams to play in their own half, I thought their press particularly
01:09in the first half was exceptional. It's not very often that teams are so good in their
01:14pressing that Sunderland essentially find it borderline impossible to play out from
01:17the back. I think we have to acknowledge that Sunderland in some ways were a little bit
01:23fortunate. I think if you give up as many shots as they did, if you give up as many
01:28set-piece opportunities as they did, if you lose the ball in your own half as much as
01:31they did, there are going to be nights where you lose the game. If you played that game
01:36ten times, maybe there'd be a different result in some of them. However, having said that,
01:42I have nothing but praise and positives really to come at it from a Sunderland perspective
01:46for a few reasons. One, because for the most part, the way they defended their box I thought
01:50was exceptional. I think that's maybe a big difference to what we've seen since Sunderland
01:54came back into the Championship, where maybe they've looked a little vulnerable sometimes
01:58from set-pieces and defending their box. If you think back to two years ago and that play-off
02:01semi-final at Inverton Town, I know that basically half the defence was injured and Sunderland
02:06didn't really have any defenders. You might remember Adgealeesay basically had to come
02:09on while he was still pretty much injured. That had big consequences for next season
02:13because he suffered a recurrence that time when Sunderland was struggling. In contrast
02:16to that to last night, Chris Mepham, another towering performance at the heart of defence.
02:21Dennis Serkin, we didn't see him getting forward as we know he can do much last night,
02:25but defensively strong. Luke O'Neill, very, very good yet again in defending his box.
02:30Overall, I think Luton will feel like they were hard done by and should have got more out of the
02:33game. Anthony Paterson didn't have too many saves to make. He made a really good one from McGuinness
02:38from a corner where he clawed it onto the bar. He made an excellent one from Adebayo in the second
02:42half flying high to his right, but it wasn't as if he was constantly making worldy saves.
02:48I think obviously a big moment of controversy in the game was that Luton felt they should have
02:52taken the lead just before half-time. Having watched it back, initially I thought it was a
02:56very harsh decision to rule Clarke offside. He was standing in front of Paterson, clearly
03:01blocking him, but he had moved away by the time that the flick-on was made at the near post.
03:06When you watch it back, he does try and head the ball before Morris makes contact with it,
03:09so I don't think it was a shocking decision, even if I can understand Luton's frustrations.
03:14Loads of positives from someone's perspective. Then, of course, more than anything else,
03:17the fact they scored again, two excellent goals, really clinical moments of real composure from
03:23two young players who really have no right to be that calm and finish with that level of composure.
03:30For sure, someone wrote their luck in certain moments, but to be honest, I know that Luton at
03:36the moment, the table looks very negative for them, but I think if they reproduce that level
03:41of performance, particularly at home for the rest of the season, I think they'll be up there in the
03:44top six. I think they'll win so many games at home that we'll look back later in the season and say,
03:49what a tremendous three points or something to take. Let's have a look at your questions. A lot
03:53of them are on a similar theme, so I may move a few of them into one, but hopefully you'll get
03:58the idea. Joel Smith says, best win of the season by a long way. Thought someone showed incredible
04:03amount of guts and bravery. The type of performance the promotion contenders turn in,
04:08so, so proud tonight. I think that's obviously a big thing people are taking away from them,
04:12really proud of their team because of the resilience they showed, the fact that they
04:15didn't allow themselves to be bullied, really defended the shirt with a performance and
04:19totally appreciate that. Chris Liddell says, is the actual team spirit and togetherness and
04:24never say die attitude shown tonight as important as the win? Yeah, I totally agree with that,
04:28Chris. I think that these kind of wins give you so much as a group because they're such a strong,
04:33bonding experience when you go through a really difficult game like that, but you get through it
04:37and you think about players, you look at the celebrations and the final whistle, the players
04:41absolutely loving it in front of the fans. Players like Isidore, who I think now you can see really
04:46feel part of this group and really feel part of the club. So I definitely think that's sort of
04:53a big thing that they'll take away from the win tonight, is that unity and that sense of
04:57togetherness. I think that's really sort of important. Ross says, is that the best result
05:01of the season so far, given the context of the game, Luton's performance, squad quality, etc?
05:06Yeah, I said on Twitter after the game that for me, it was the best win of the season, not in
05:10terms of the all-round performance, but I just think because how difficult it was to play in
05:15those circumstances away from home. The fact that it was just a couple of days after another really
05:19tough away game at Hull, I think you have to add that to the mix. For me, that was sort of the best
05:24season, best performance of the season because of the way that they put bodies on the line,
05:28the way they dug in, the way they were really resilient and found a way to show some quality
05:32in the moments they had it. I did sort of post that myself on Twitter and I did get a couple
05:36of replies saying people felt that the Burnley win was probably the better win because it was
05:40such a complete performance against a promotion contender and someone had a lot of control in
05:44that game. I can totally understand that point of view, so I'd be willing to sort of concede that.
05:49But for me, Ross, yeah, I agree that for me, because of the context around the game,
05:53because of the spirit shown, that was for me the best win of the season so far.
05:58Question here from Olof, who says,
06:01Job's on yellow card, four yellows after the squabble at the final whistle,
06:06nine games until the clear out. Can we manage a game without him? Feels
06:10worse than missing Hulme for a game, in my opinion.
06:12Yeah, really good spot, Olof. So, obviously, there was that scrap at the final whistle.
06:17We started because Mepham challenged Kaminski, who'd come up from the corner,
06:21fairly, I should add, won the ball. The final whistle then blew and there was a bit of afters
06:24and then there was a huge pile on. I'm sure you've all seen the footage of Luko now jumping
06:29as Luke does. So, there was about four plays across the two teams. He took a yellow from that.
06:34Job was one of them. Interestingly, and I think what I would say is probably more significant,
06:38Olof, is Chris Rigg was obviously booked early in the game, which means he's now also on four
06:42yellow cards. So, you have Trey Hulme, Job and Chris Rigg on a yellow. Now, I think we've seen
06:48from the season so far that Sunderland can go a game without Job. He's obviously a huge player.
06:53He's been brilliant all season. I mean, I think Brown showed last night that he's ready to step
06:58in. The concern would be is if Bellingham and Rigg got another yellow card in the same game,
07:02because that would mean they would both be missing. With Sam Edds still injured,
07:07that would force a pretty significant reshuffle for Le Brice. That would obviously be far from
07:11ideal. It would be fairly similar. I don't remember last year, Ballard 0-9 got suspended
07:16for the same game. And so, Treantis and Siltak coming against Birmingham at home, they'd never
07:20played together before. So, that was far from ideal. Credit to them, they did well and Sunderland
07:24won. But yeah, I agree with Walloff, it would be a big miss, but I think it can be manageable as
07:28long as him and Rigg don't get booked again in the same game. That would obviously be far from
07:32ideal because then it'll mean a fairly significant reshuffle. So, fingers crossed, Sunderland can
07:37avoid that. And Hulme again, doing well to not get a yellow card in another game. He's managing
07:41that so well. Hopefully, he can stay off that fifth yellow until Ballard gets back fit. Because
07:46if he picks up a fifth one when Ballard's fit, I think you can move 0-9 out there and play sort
07:50of like a back three with Ballard and Metham as well. And that would obviously, that wouldn't be
07:56as big as a loss as it would be now, where it would be hard to see who comes in. So, yeah,
08:00definitely want to watch, I think. But hopefully, yeah, as I say, as long as they don't get them at
08:04the same time, then I think Sunderland will be okay. Similar sort of thing from Chris,
08:10SCFC lad. He says, do you think we need another DM if Sam Head is still injured in January?
08:14I think it's an interesting point. I think like, again, I thought, I know Daniel came under a bit
08:19of question for his part in Luton's goal, which is fair enough. Having said that, I think,
08:24you know, Luton are sensational at set pieces. Players like Carlton Morris are going to find
08:28opportunities. I thought on the ball, he had a really good game, especially in the second half,
08:32should have had an assist for Connolly. Obviously, played his part in Mundell's goal as well.
08:38So, I think we're seeing Neil get back to his best form in the last couple of games. I really
08:41do believe that. So, I'm not too concerned about it. I understand your point about the depth,
08:46because it's such a long season. So, I would agree with you that if Sam Head was still injured,
08:50it'd be a position I'd be looking at. The one thing I would say is that, although it's
08:53frustrating at the moment, Sunderland do think Sam Head's going to be fit after the November
08:57international break. So, I think we'll have, hopefully, a run of games before January,
09:01where we can assess where Sam Head's at. So, don't think that's something that we need to sort of
09:05rush into making a decision to. So, the Isteds, the Adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Isted tweeted me
09:12and said,
09:20I had a right smile when this question came in, because I thought it was a really interesting
09:22one. Because we've spoken a few times this season about how Labriez doesn't make huge
09:26changes. He tends to leave things as late as he can, try to really value stability.
09:31There's been certain games where maybe we felt like that's cost Sunderland.
09:36Last night's an interesting one, because what he actually said after the game was that
09:39he almost said that Sunderland got their rewards doubling down, despite a really difficult first
09:43half. They tweaked the shape a little bit in the first half to adjust, but generally speaking,
09:49they stuck to what they were doing. And what he said was that because Luton takes so many risks
09:54by going for a man-for-man marking system, a bit like Sunderland do, there is always a chance that
09:58just one little error would give Sunderland loads of space to break in. And that he always felt that
10:02the players that he's got, have got the quality to exploit it. And that, of course, is what
10:06happened. So Isidore goes for a header, Luton claimed it was a foul, but it wasn't given.
10:11The ball then runs towards Brown and errors made and rigs in. Very similar for the second goal as
10:16well. So Labriez's view was definitely that Sunderland were rewarded for not panicking and
10:21for actually sticking to what they'd planned for. But I think it's a really good and interesting
10:28question. I did think, again, he got the subs right last night. I thought Roberts did really
10:32well when he came on, when he was fresh. And Conley, again, looks a really handy player,
10:36doesn't he? Very sensible. So yeah, I think we can totally accept the point. There's definitely
10:41been times this season where I've felt Labriez has left it too late to make changes. But I think
10:45for last night, we can give him some credit because it did pay off in the end.
10:52I don't know. I don't know this for sure, but I would say is that I would suggest it's highly
10:58likely. It would be highly irregular for a season-long loan deal to be done without a
11:03January recall. Pretty much every club does it now. Mainly they do it because it means that if
11:07the player isn't playing, that obviously doesn't work for Bournemouth. So it gives them the
11:11opportunity to move him on elsewhere. So I would be stunned if there wasn't a recall clause,
11:19but I wouldn't be too concerned at the moment because ultimately Mepham's playing regularly,
11:23he's playing well and he's building his value to Bournemouth. So right now,
11:27I wouldn't be too concerned. But yeah, I would imagine I'd be very surprised if Bournemouth
11:32didn't have a recall clause. So that will be one to watch as we move closer to the window.
11:42Okay, so last one before I leave you. Inevitably, a lot of you asking about
11:45the top two. Cal says, does someone still have gears to go through? Billy just says,
11:49is it on iEmoji? And Gaz asks, when do we start talking about being automatic contenders?
11:54Look, for me, I think Leeds are going to win the league. I think they have the best squad. I think
11:58they have a proven manager at this level. They were unlucky not to go up last year and I think
12:02their performance date of the season suggests they're going to come out on top. What we always
12:05say about the championship is the teams with the biggest budgets, the deepest squads, the parachute
12:09payments will win out over the season because they'll be able to cope with injuries and fatigue
12:13the best. So I still fancy Burnley to be right up there, Sheffield United to a certain extent.
12:17And we know what this division's like. Someone like Borough, they'll come through over the
12:22second half of the season. But there's no reason why Sunderland can't be up there. I think that
12:26they're competitive in every game. Their home form's really good. And if they keep that up over
12:30the season, they'll be up there. Have we seen a level of dominance in every single game to suggest
12:35that they're really, really strong top two contenders? Maybe not yet, but the individual
12:39quality is there, the spirit's there. I think we're definitely talking about a strong top six
12:43contender here. And who knows? A good January window, an ambitious January window, you never
12:48know. So to be honest, I think Sunderland are in a great place. Not thinking about it, going under
12:52the radar, going about their business quietly. But I'm really excited about this season. I get
12:56more excited with every single game. But for now, I'm not going to go quite so far as to say they're
13:02genuine top two contenders. But if we're still having this conversation in a month's time, then
13:06why not? Let's just enjoy it. Certainly exciting times. Thanks so much for watching and sending
13:10your questions in. I'll see you from the stadium light on Saturday for On The Whistle after the
13:14Oxford United game and hopefully, fingers crossed, Dutchwood another three points.