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14th Dec 2016

Sunderland supporters were stunned by David Moyes’ starting XI against Chelsea

Not messing about

Darragh Murphy

There are no secrets about David Moyes’ tactics against the “bigger” sides in the Premier League.

Ahead of Sunderland’s trip to Anfield last month, the Black Cats boss made no bones about his strategy as he announced that he intended to park the bus against Jurgen Klopp’s free-scoring Liverpool side.

“We will go there and make it difficult for Liverpool,” Moyes said. “Anybody who plays against Liverpool has to park the double-decker bus, but we also have two centre forwards scoring goals.”

It was a declaration that didn’t instil much hope in Sunderland fans, who weren’t altogether thrilled to hear that they had 90 minutes of defending to look forward to in the hope of catching the Reds on the break.

Sunderland v Hull City - Premier League

There was no such luck and Liverpool claimed a routine 2-0 win.

This week, Chelsea visited the Stadium of Light with the chance to tighten their grip atop the Premier League table and record 10 league wins in a row.

And Moyes clearly didn’t want to see his side on the wrong end of a rout as he named seven, 7, SEVEN defenders in his starting XI.

Billy Jones, Papy Djilobodji, Lamine Kone, John O’Shea, Patrick van Aanholt, Jason Denayer and Jan Kirchoff are all listed as defenders but all seven of them took to the field in the hope of spoiling the Chelsea party on Wednesday night.

And Sunderland fans did not appreciate the ridiculously defensive line-up.

 

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