Sunderland put in arguably their worst performance of the season against Hull City last night. Maybe even their worst performance since their return to the Championship.
Last night marked a new low for Sunderland fans.
Despite the club being in 8th place of the table and just two points outside the top six, there’s a sense that the Black Cats are about to plummet down the Championship standings.
And all the blame seems to be aimed at new boss Michael Beale.
The 43-year-old has now overseen seven games in all competitions, with two wins and four defeats from those seven.
Results can often be forgiven for a new manager coming in. But for many, Beale’s style of play appears to draining any confidence and enthusiasm that the watching fans have.
Branded ‘Beale ball’, it’s a very negative and backwards-thinking style of play, or at least it has been so far; completely the opposite to what Tony Mowbray brought to the club.
And Beale ball is doing one Sunderland player absolutely zero favours right now.
Rusyn struggle sum up Michael Beale’s Sunderland negativity
Nazariy Rusyn led the line for Sunderland last night. But he was barely seen.
Before being withdrawn in the 71st minute, the 25-year-old recorded just 11 touches of the ball, completing 3 out of 4 passes with 0 shots and an xG of 0.21 (Sofascore).
The Northern Echo rated his performance as a 4/10 with Scott Wilson adding that Rusyn ‘offered nothing’ throughout the 90 minutes.
Since arriving in the summer, the Ukrainian striker has scored just one goal in 12 Championship appearances for Sunderland.
Same old story, but Beale ball does Nazariy Rusyn no favours
It’s not uncommon for a Sunderland striker to go missing in games, and it’s not uncommon for Rusyn to be that striker.
He’s certainly had a tough time since joining the club in the summer; the change in manager doesn’t help, but it also seems like Rusyn has failed to settle into the Championship itself.
There’s certainly signs of a very talented player but last night, we saw nothing from him.
And whilst Rusyn could have done more when he did manage to get on the ball, he’s never going to succeed in a Sunderland side that played how they did last night.
It seemed like the plan was ‘get the ball to Jack Clarke and see what he can do’, to which Hull City simply committed fouls, dropped deep, and regained possession.
It was a relatively easy win for Hull despite it being a game lacking in quality from both sides.
Sunderland did manage to break on a couple of occasions when they managed to split the attacking and midfield lines of Hull with a neat through ball, allowing the likes of Alex Pritchard to push forward.
But when Sunderland got to the edge of the box, they ran out of ideas, and Hull players ran back behind the ball.
There was absolutely nothing for Rusyn to go off last night. He was given the mindless task of just running and running, and against a Hull side who usually play out from the back effectively, it was always going to be tough.
Up next is a home game vs Stoke City next weekend.