Is the current Sunderland team the club's best footballing side in decades?

How many of us have ever seen a better footballing Sunderland team than the current one? I don't think I have.

Author:
Michael Graham
Publish date:
Jan 2, 2023 9:45 AM EST

In many ways, it was quite hard to really read much into the Sunderland performance against Blackpool on New Year’s Day.

The players started the game slowly and looked incredibly sluggish for most of the first half. They went in one goal down yet you simultaneously felt they were lucky to not be more goals behind and quite unfortunate not to be level.

There were reasons to explain that. The game was the last one in a busy festive period in which Sunderland had to tackle back-to-back away games. There was also an illness bug in the camp that saw a few players forced to get out of their sick beds to play the game.

While the Black Cats were tough to judge for much of the game, though, I did reach one realisation: I think the current Sunderland team is the best footballing side I have seen in my lifetime.

For most of us, the best Sunderland team we have seen was the one Peter Reid built in the late 1990s. It was a fantastic side built around the Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips partnership that took Sunderland to the brink of the UEFA Cup (Europa League) – twice.

That team was about so much more than just Quinn and Phillips, of course. The left-hand side partnership between Michael Gray and Allan Johnston was incredible, and the delivery of Nicky Summerbee from the other flank pretty much as good as it gets.

It was a fine team to watch and no one, certainly at Championship level, could live with. It was a team that was very much designed around getting crosses into the box.

There were notable exceptions, such the 4-1 win over Chelsea, but it was a team that overpowered more opposition than it did outplayed them.

That kind of football was exhilarating to watch and will never be forgotten by those of us lucky enough to live it, but it was direct. Swashbucklingly direct, but direct.

In terms of technical one and two touch football that plays around and through opposition, the current side are on another level to anything I have seen from Sunderland before.

There have obviously been highlight moments. Jack Clarke’s goal at Reading, for example, was the kind of goal I don’t think any of us had ever seen Sunderland score before. The calm and calculating passing from the back that effortlessly carved the opposition open would not have been out of place at the Nou Camp at Barcelona’s peak.

A few weeks later, Sunderland showed it was no fluke when Alex Pritchard scored a very similar goal away at Huddersfield. Again, it was technical football at a level that was fantastic to watch, incisive passing that moved the ball with precision so quickly the opposition were chasing shadows.

Of course, consistency of product has been tough to find, although Sunderland did turn on the style again for Patrick Roberts’ goal at Wigan recently. However, what has been consistent has been the intent. Even when struggling for rhythm in the first half at Blackpool, the style of football remained.

When the rhythm returned, what they produced was at a level beyond the Seasiders – and that was on a bad day.

“Sunderland are a top team,” Blackpool boss Michael Appleton said after the game. “I’d arguably say they’re the best side that have been here this season.

“The athleticism, the dynamism of the front four, the way they move the ball, two-touch, it’s everything you’d want from a balanced team and squad.

“Fair play to Tony [Mowbray], he’s got them playing well and they’re obviously in a good moment so we were playing them in a good spell. They’re as good as I’ve seen come here this season.”

It is indeed to Mowbray’s credit too. Alex Neil was incredibly popular at Sunderland and for good reason. That should never be forgotten either, regardless of the manner in which he left.

What you can say about Neil, though, is Sunderland never played like this with him in charge. He had the tools, too. In fact, from an attacking sense, with the exception of Amad Diallo, the current Sunderland side is much the same that Neil had. He had Pritchard, Clarke, Roberts, and Ross Stewart for them to play off.

I am not sure Stoke fans will say they have seen any evidence so far that Neil is likely to get quick, slick, incisive one-touch pass-and-move football out of the Potters either.

How far can it take Sunderland? I don’t know really. Maybe I just don’t care at the moment. One of the joys of this season has been the freedom of expectations and predictions and stressing over where Sunderland might be headed. I’m not ready to give up those things yet.

What I do know, though, is that Sunderland are a brilliant team to watch now. The club have managed to find some really good technical footballers and brought in a coach determined to unleash them and all their talent.

Whatever happens in the remainder of this season, long may that continue.

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