Is the Corner in sight?

There has been little improvement in our results yet I would argue NUFC have improved massively under Steve McClaren.

If you watched in isolation our performances away to Man Utd, home to Chelsea and Norwich, and the first halves at City and Sunderland you would not believe we are a team sitting in the bottom 3.

In these games we've played some of the best football we have seen for 18 months. Our passing, movement, team shape have all improved. We have individual players who have come in and raised the team level - Wijnaldum, Mitrovic and Mbemba in particularly. Everything sounds great - except the obvious lack of points we currently have. 

Yes football is a results business and we do need to start winning points but I really do believe we are doing a lot of things right on the pitch, and usually when you do the right things on the pitch the results will come. Everyone outside the city of Sunderland and even some within if they are being honest saw that we are a much better team. We were better than City for 45 minutes and Chelsea for 75. The results will come and for that reasons I am pleased to see there is no mass call for McClaren to be fired. 

Not everything is rosy - we need to improved defensively - we need a new centre back and captain as Collocini is not up to either job right now. This needs to be addressed in January along with a top quality left back and Charlie Austin must be brought North 6 months after he should have arrived.  McClaren remains safe right now but he knows that Mike Ashley will protect his investment and will not allow us to drift too far before he makes a leadership change.

Our club has done a lot wrong over the last 7 years but slowly there seems to be small signs that we might be approaching a corner and potentially might even start to turn it.