‘Many positives’: Sky Sports pundit offers ‘fantastic’ verdict on Sunderland’s promotion hopes despite Leeds United defeat

Despite losing to Leeds United on Monday night, Jobi McAnuff believes Sunderland still have plenty to be positive about as they head into the business end of the season.

Everyone had written Sunderland off before the game, with a tenacious Leeds United squad seemingly destined to grab all three points at Elland Road.
However, by halftime, the Black Cats were up thanks to a fantastic goal by Wilson Isidor. Despite Leeds’ dominance throughout, Regis Le Bris’ team wilted in the final 15 minutes.

A brace from substitute Pascal Struijk won the day for Leeds, putting them on course for automatic promotion, but Sunderland should not give up hope just yet.

Sunderland were ‘fantastic’ against Leeds, but they can’t catch them now

During Sky Sports’ coverage of the game, Jobi McAnuff maintained that the Sunderland team should be happy of their performance against an extremely good Leeds side.

He stated, “Sometimes you lose a game, and if the performance isn’t what you want, you worry a little bit. But [Sunderland] played fantastically tonight. We were about to talk about how amazing Sunderland were.

Position	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Diff	Points
1	Leeds	33	21	9	3	68	20	48	72
2	Sheffield Utd	33	22	6	5	47	23	24	70
3	Burnley	33	17	14	2	39	9	30	65
4	Sunderland	33	17	11	5	50	30	20	62
5	Blackburn	33	15	6	12	39	31	8	51
6	West Brom	33	11	15	7	42	31	11	48

McAnuff believes the Black Cats will struggle to catch Leeds for the remainder of the season, but they can still finish strong and secure a solid position in the Championship table, putting them in contention for the play-offs.

He added: “I absolutely look at their [fixture] list and believe there are enough [points] there to get them rolling again. Can they catch Leeds? No, I think the disparity will be too large. There are numerous benefits to performing well in the most challenging environment in the country.

Regis Le Bris expects his players to bounce back from Leeds loss

Sunderland fans criticised Le Bris’ tactics in the game, claiming that substitutes arrived too late and did not have the desired impact. Others criticized his defensive approach to the game, which put pressure on the Black Cats.

However, Sunderland’s boss remained upbeat following the game and believes his young team will emerge unscathed.
He said, “They’ll be fine because they’re young.” They’ll recover shortly. It’s only a matter of time now. We have a full week to prepare for our next game at home.”

• Sunday 23rd February
  Championship

  • Sunderland

    02:30

    Hull City

• Saturday 1st March
  Championship

  • Sheffield Wednesday

    10:00

    Sunderland

• Sunday 9th March
  Championship

  • Sunderland

    05:00

    Cardiff

Sunderland have a home game against Hull City this weekend, and they’ll be hoping to keep their unbeaten home record at the Stadium of Light.

After that, it’s a hard journey to Hillsborough to face an unpredictable and inconsistent Sheffield Wednesday, followed by another home game against struggling Cardiff City to begin March.

By then, the top two may be totally out of sight, but Sunderland must keep working away and producing successes to sustain their own momentum above all else.