Victor Anichebe’s inclusion in the Sunderland team helps Jermain Defoe score even more goals
AT Christmas in the 2008-09 season me and my Stoke City side were staring down the barrel.
It was our first campaign back in the top flight after winning promotion and we were seriously flirting with heading straight back down.
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The problem? Our away form. At home we were excellent. But on our travels we had only picked up three points all season.
The thing was our home pitch was small — the smallest in the league. This allowed us to sit deep and get men behind the ball.
But when we won it and knocked it forward we were able to get up the pitch quickly to give support to our frontman Ricardo Fuller.
Away from home we had an issue when we tried to play the same way.
We would sit deep but, on bigger pitches, it took longer to get up to support Fuller.
At home, he could take one or two touches and we’d be with him.
Away, we needed him to take four or five before we could link up. And that’s a big ask.
The ball kept coming back and, eventually, if that keeps happening, the opposition will score.
Sunderland have been having the same problem this season. The trouble is, they have been having it home and away as the Stadium of Light pitch is just as big as the rest.
But, credit to Black Cats boss David Moyes as he seems to have solved it by bringing striker Victor Anichebe into the team.
At the start of the season, Jermain Defoe — no one’s idea of a hold-up man — was so isolated in attack, Sunderland were struggling to get players up to support him.
Look at the average positions against West Ham and you can see Defoe (No 18) is all alone.
This means he can’t hold the ball up and it keeps coming back, forcing Sunderland deeper and deeper.
Look at the defence against West Ham. Nos 16 and 23 (John O’Shea and Lamine Kone) are almost on the edge of their box.
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When Moyes used Anichebe against Hull, Defoe had support and the ball didn’t keep coming back.
And that meant the central defenders Papy Djilobodji (No 5) and Kone could get up the pitch and support the rest of the team.
Suddenly the midfield can push up — Duncan Watmore has been much more involved at the right end of the pitch, for example, in the last two matches — and the attack is not so isolated.
The other problem with one up front is the deeper you defend, the more narrow you become.
This is because you don’t want the opposition to be able to have a pop at goal from 25 yards — so you squeeze in.
This leaves space down the flanks, so the wide midfielders end up as extra full-backs and you play six at the back.
Watmore and Wahbi Khazri can hardly do damage to the opposition from there. Against Hull, Watmore (No 14) is much closer to Defoe. Since the switch, Sunderland have scored five goals in two games.
It had taken them eight games to score five before that.
Back in 2009, we survived because in the January, our boss Tony Pulis bought James Beattie and Matty Etherington. And they were inspired signings.
Fuller was brilliant at nicking us a goal with a bit of magic but Beatts was a real target man.
He could hold the ball up brilliantly when we played away, allowing us to get up and support him.
Etherington was especially good at getting up there as he was so quick.
From January we picked up seven points on the road — more than double the total we had nabbed in the first half of the season.
This, allied to our amazing home form (we claimed 35 points at the Britannia), led us to 45 points and safety. In fact, we finished 12th.
Seeing the problem is one thing. Addressing it another. Sunderland may just have done that.
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