Yorkie’s meltdown a worrying trend

OUR resounding defeat at Wigan looked like being the turning point of our season. Keano reassured us that lessons had been learnt and we’d move on. Great news for Sunderland fans indeed.

Fast forward seven days to last weekend’s game against Liverpool and it seems little has been learned. No new signings, although we’re still being told that plenty are on their way. Danny Higginbotham is confirmed, and Ian Harte and Southampton’s Kenwyne Jones are apparently set to arrive imminently, pushing our summer spending towards £35m, but will still leave us with a side lacking household names and, more importantly, proven Premiership quality.

Keane’s comments that there was a “fine line between loyalty and stupidity and there’s no doubt I have been stupid” seemed encouraging. The promise that “it won’t happen again. Dwight Yorke went off but there were other candidates, we just wanted a bit more pace in the middle,” had Sunderland fans collectively nodding their heads. At last a gaffer who was watching the same games as us and the end of Yorkie’s reign in the North East.

Despite playing well at times in the Championship last season, Yorke has been heavily criticised on fan message boards due to his severe lack of Premiership pace. So how did we shape up against Liverpool, one of the best counter-attacking sides in the land? You guessed it, with the Premier League’s slowest central midfielder in a holding role. Predictably, an hour later we were trailing and Dwight’s weekly substitution on the hour allowed us to inject some pace into the side. Tellingly, although our performance improved, it was far too late by this stage.

I hate to stick the boot in on players, but even Yorke himself admits he’s struggling: “It’s a steep learning curve, even for me. I felt I could deal with it. I felt I would be experienced enough to do it, but it is harder than anyone thought it would be.”

In a side that lacks speed and quality, the weekend did see one arrival in the shape of Keane’s former Manchester United team mate, Andy Cole. Could his proven past record be enough? He’s the Premier League’s second highest all-time goal scorer, so his pedigree is not in doubt. But to many fans he’s just another veteran from Keane’s playing days and as a former Newcastle hero, he’ll have to work twice as hard to prove the doubters wrong.

In all fairness we’re not lacking in spirit. The likes of Daryl Murphy and Paul McShane have bags of fight, which was evident on Saturday, but little in the way of Premier League experience. And whilst the manager was the ideal example of how the perfect attitude can help you overcome even the most perilous of situations, he had ability to match his mindset.

Another drawback is the injury list. Dean Whitehead and Carlos Edwards are by far our two most effective midfield players and their loss is easy to see while Kieran Richardson limped off on Saturday. Grant Leadbitter is the sort of creative spark that we crave, but his substitute appearance against Liverpool was his first of the season after returning from injury.

Quite simply, though, we’re now four games into the season and are hovering dangerously close to the relegation slots. Spurs are behind us and you’d bet on them not being there much longer. Whilst we’ve had a fairly tough opening fixture list, with matches against Tottenham and Liverpool, we need to get points on the board urgently. Going into Christmas needing to climb out of the relegation places is not acceptable to Keane or the fans.

So where do we go from here? Mixing youth and experience isn’t working at present, so we need a new direction. With Higginbotham on board, we could visit Old Trafford on Saturday with six ex-United players in the starting line up, with two more former Keane team-mates on the bench as coaching staff. Is this progression? There’s no doubting the pedigree, but a new source of players would be welcome. Non-team mates of Roy Keane apply here.