Michael Beale was booed off in his first match in charge of Sunderland this afternoon.
Michael Beale was appointed as Tony Mowbray’s successor at the start of the week, much to the frustration of the Black Cats supporters.
The head coach desperately needed to impress in his first game in order to get the fans on side, but things couldn’t have gone much worse on Wearside.
Jude Bellingham was in attendance as Sunderland were beaten 3-0 by Coventry City, despite having 21 shots and 60 per cent of the possession on home soil.
Abdoullah Ba‘s horrific miss in the first half pretty much summed up Sunderland’s performance, with a number of missed chances setting Coventry up for victory, despite a rather underwhelming display from the visitors too.
After a very poor showing that has left Sunderland ninth in the Championship, here are our player ratings…
Sunderland player ratings vs Coventry City
Anthony Patterson – 5
The goalkeeper pulled off a brilliant double save in the first half, while he couldn’t do much about Coventry’s first two goals.
However, he made a costly mistake to gift the Sky Blues their third – his second mistake in as many games.
Niall Huggins – 5
Huggins made four interceptions but was far from his best this afternoon. It now looks like he could be facing a spell on the sidelines after he was stretchered off in the second half.
Luke O’Nien – 4
O’Nien looked solid for most of the first half, but he was very poor for their first goal as he dragged his man down before the referee played on.
The centre-back failed to improve after half-time and was a key part of a very disappointing defensive display from Sunderland.
Dan Ballard – 5
The defender wasn’t at all phased by the height and stature of Ellis Simms. Definitely the better of the two centre-backs, but not brilliant either.
Trai Hume – 6
Probably the best of the four defenders. The full-back did well to clear a header off the line and was unfortunate with their second goal. I didn’t see as many successful slide tackles as usual!
Dan Neil – 6
Dan Neil always works very hard and covers a lot of ground. He had 95% passing accuracy and made five tackles, but wasn’t really helped by his midfield teammates.
Pierre Ekwah – 4
The Frenchman was dispossessed way too easily today. He has been far from his best since returning from injury and he would definitely be demoted to the bench if Sunderland actually had any depth in the middle of the park.
Jobe Bellingham – 5
Jobe failed to impress in front of his whole family this afternoon. The midfielder didn’t have as much of an impact as usual and I would have preferred to see him up front.
Patrick Roberts – 7
Easily our man of the match. Patrick Roberts proved to be a real handful for Coventry’s defence and made four key passes, while enjoying three successful dribbles.
Abdoullah Ba – 3
Terrible. The Frenchman missed an absolute sitter that could have put Sunderland 1-0 up, while a positive 10 minutes in the second half was about as good as it got for Ba.
The 20-year-old has done absolutely nothing to warrant starting the past three games and hopefully he is finally dropped on Boxing Day.
Jack Clarke – 6
Not quite as affective today and we rarely saw him take the man on like usual. Their full-back had a pretty easy afternoon. He also should have scored in the second half but instead just passed it to the goalkeeper.