Without a significant number of changes to the team, there is a very real danger of, in the words of the OP, 'doing a Sunderland'.
Plenty of us said as much during last season's struggles, and games like Saturday's - whereby teams can beat us comfortably (as it should have been on clear-cut chances) with only 25% possession - will become commonplace.
It's not that the players are even bad players. We know they're not and we have seen them play some excellent stuff over the years. The problem is that the squad as it stands today - shorn of those certain pivotal individuals that inspired all that was good when we were in our pomp - is remarkable for having not a single player who can 'affect' a game.
We know that the rise under Wilder was largely about the functioning of the team unit. Outside of Duffy, we were never able to rely on a player who could decide a game on his own through a piece of outrageous skill. It was all about 9 or 10 players all functioning to get the result. And for 3 seasons (save for the major fall-off when just one cog - Coutts - broke) the unit worked brilliantly and we played excellent 'front-foot' football.
Unfortunately, though, that team of May 2019 doesn't exist anymore. For the last 14 months, this team has not been on the front-foot. It is a team conditioned to just 'stay in games'.
The OP is absolutely right about there being no urgency on Saturday even when we went behind - there wasn't. And why would there be? These players are used to going behind every week but versed in not 'panicking' and changing anything that they are doing. Just stay in the game. This is not the team that got promoted.
It was insipid pointless possession. The gaffer had a face like thunder and rightly so.
I've seen enough football over the decades to be able to recognise a team that has a terminal malaise. We have a team that is missing the very best parts of what made it great in May 2019, and which - due to the previous gaffer's mistrust of flair/creative players - has less stardust than perhaps any team I've seen at the Lane. If the unit doesn't work - and it rarely does now - then we can forget it because we don't have any individuals who can win games by themselves with some magic.
It's a team that smacks of Sunderland, of Stoke and of Huddersfield. A team that came down playing a style of football that simply wasn't trying to create chances and goals. Those clubs showed that you can't just flick a switch and become an attacking team because you've dropped down a division.
It's particularly hard to countenance because many of these players have been part of great things for the club in the past, and we all have many great memories. Unfortunately, though, numerous of them need replacing. The 'unit' and 'the system' is long since dead and we need players who can actually change games.
This is so accurate it hurts to read it.
It's a good job SJ didn't realise this before he signed on or he never would be here.
It is obvious that he didn't realise it , because he would have made major surgery part of his conditions for joining.
To avoid sliding further down , he needs to realise it PDQ.
Then decide on a solution , which cannot be superficial.
Then persuade the Prince to finance the changes.
Sell Rammers (he ain't all that) , sell Berge (he doesn't affect the outcome of games).
Get shut (however cheaply) of Burke, Brewster (abject mistakes) , Stevens, Norwood & Fleck (because they've run their course here) , Lowe, Robinson & Osborn (unless played in MF) (because you get what you pay for).
Play Freeman or dump him.
Play Lopata + buy another physically dominant CB.
Buy an entire new MF with some idea of going forward on the front foot.
It remains to be seen whether SJ is cute enough to see just how dysfunctional the present team is and , on realising it , persuade the club to sanction the radical surgery required , with no promise of promotion , because it will be a season of transition.
But hopefully we avoid relegation.
Then we just might have a pop at promotion in 22/23.
TINKERING AT THE EDGES WILL SEE US SLIDE.
