Page 38 - 358264 LP231909 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (Issue 257)

LJ: THE YIN AND YANG
On Thursday 30th December 2021, Sunderland AFC thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 5-0 at the Stadium of Light to end the year top of the table. Understandably, manager Lee Johnson was given a standing ovation as he applauded and fist pumped in the direction of The Roker End and left the pitch to a loud chorus of “Lee Johnson’s Red and White Army.”
Exactly a month later his reign as Sunderland manager was over; after winning just one game in five and suffering a humiliating reverse at The University of Bolton Stadium. This in a nutshell summed up Johnson’s stint on Wearside, at our best we looked fluid, clinical and nobody in this league could live with us; at our worst, we looked disjointed, devoid of ideas and porous at the back.
So far this season, we have won 5-0 on three occasions, but also lost 4-0, 5-1 and 6-0, every side takes the occasional hammering, however such fluctuations in performance and results are not sustainable if you want to get promoted automatically. Unfortunately Johnson’s mood was also indicative of our on field displays, when we won, he was bullish in his post-match assessments and fed off the energy of the crowd; when we lost he would often get involved in disputes with opposition, players, management and match officials.
After a 3-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, he looked on the point of tears as he refuted accusations from the away end that ‘we’re fucking shit’ and pleaded with the fans to stick with the team as he was sure an upturn in form was just around the corner and we would go on to have a successful season.
Just ten days previously, he had declared that he wanted to draw Arsenal in the Carabao Cup quarter final before ‘taking on the real big boys in the semis’. Of course, this was a tongue in cheek remark, but when you contrast this with the defeatist body language of losing the next two matches it is easy to see why the volatility rubbed off on the players.
The yin and yang nature of Johnson’s management is also encapsulated by our contrasting form home and away, if only home games counted we would be top of the league with the best goal difference in the division. Away from home, however, we sit sixth and have won just five games on the road so far, having surrendered
leads against ten men on two occasions. Even more alarmingly, only basement boys Doncaster Rovers have conceded more goals on their travels.
We were warned of this of course, at Bristol City he had developed the nickname, ‘streaky Lee’ due his tendency to go on long runs of both wins and losses. We all hoped that his experience of coaching nearer the top end of the league above would be enough to shred this reputation during his time on Wearside, but last season he further compounded this image by guiding Sunderland through a 15 game unbeaten run, before winning just one of our last nine league games and ultimately missing out via the playoffs.
This campaign, the lads won 15 out of their first 18 games in all competitions before winning only one of our next six. An upturn in form did follow, but
in recent weeks have won one of our last five and have gone from pole position to being outside of the automatic promotion places having played four games more than Wigan and two games more than Rotherham.
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