By IVES GALARCEP
Sunderland faced a very difficult challenge on Monday in taking on Tottenham in a match the Black Cats needed to win to help boost their fading chances of avoiding relegation.
Jozy Altidore was nowhere to be found. He was dropped from the first team, and spent Monday playing with Sunderland’s Under-21 team.
While Altidore was kicking about in a glorified reserve game, Sunderland was being thrashed, 5-1, by Tottenham. Their awful attack looking just as toothless without Altidore as with him, with their lone goal coming courtesy of a shocking Tottenham turnover.
So what now for Altidore?
It’s hard to see Altidore’s exclusion from the first team as anything but the latest bit of evidence that his days at Sunderland are numbered.
This isn’t the first time Poyet has left Altidore out of a big match, the most memorable example being when he was left out of Sunderland’s Capital One Cup loss to Manchester City and an FA Cup quarterfinal loss to Hull City.
Altidore rebounded from those benchings to make a handful of starts, but the goals still didn’t come. He is stuck on two goals in all competitions for the Black Cats and it is looking more and more like he will be handed a one-way ticket out of Sunderland when the season ends.
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What do you think of this development? See Altidore salvaging anything from the current Premier League season? Think he can regroup in time for the World Cup? Where would you like to see him wind up after this season?
Share your thoughts below.
I have watched him match after match. He is slow to react, does not get into good positions, misses opportunities and is as slow as Christmas getting to the ball. Did I mention he is very poor in the air for a “big man?” I really hoped he would become a star but now I simply hope he does not make the cut to go to Brazil. If he is our best, we are truly screwed. The guy simply has no gut or heart.
Honestly jozy should go back to holland where his reputation isn’t completely destroyed.
Maybe Jozy requested it. He saw that Green was being drooled over, even though almost all of his minutes for his club came as a reserve, so he wanted to see how that worked for his USMNT career.
He hasn’t been great–probably not even good. But at this point Sunderland need wins. They have 6 all year. You know who has played in every win–Jozy, started 3, major sub (25 plus minutes) and 2 and a small (5 minute appearance) in one. I don’t care if he never touched the ball in those 6 games, the team won. For him to not even be on the bench is moronic.
No one ever said being a soccer coach was rocket science, but it seems some seem intent on proving that lack of any sense is a qualification. (They’re wrong.)