Time to regroup. Again.

By: Lucas | October 23rd, 2007

Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to West Ham was the third in a row for Sunderland, and they haven’t won since defeating Reading over a month ago. On Saturday they will take on Fulham, and thankfully the match will not be played in London, where the Black Cats have not won a top-flight game in over 6 years (20 matches).

But enough doom and gloom. Here are the salient points as I see them, as Keano readies his troops for another weekend of Premiership football:

Kenwyne Jones. The Trinidadian striker looked very good against the Hammers, scoring his third goal of the season and dominating aerial play (especially after Stokes and Chopra came on at halftime made the attack more effective and coherent). In general, I thought he was the only Sunderland player who really busted his ass for the full 90 (though the tough luck award goes to Craig Gordon, who made a number of nice saves, but gave up the game winner on a freakish scorpion-kick type own goal). I’m excited about Jones, and look for him to continue to thrive at the top of Sunderland’s attack.
Fulham’s offense is erratic at best. They did manage to put three past Man City’s tough defense over a month ago at Craven Cottage, but have not scored a league goal since (including Saturday’s 0-0 draw at home to woeful Derby County). Nothing is assured, though, and Keane’s boys will be smart to keep their eyes on American striker Clint Dempsey, who is having a nice time of it in his first full season in English football (three goals in his first three starts before the recent drought).
Sunderland’s backline has got to improve. Nyron looked ill-suited to be wearing the captain’s armband on Sunday; he and the rest of the back four were tentative and dodgy all day. Said Keano: “I don’t want to be interviewed every week saying we’ve been unlucky… That’s football and you have to deal with it and stop giving away really bad goals.”