Mike Dodds ‘confident’ Sunderland message and selection pledge after Swansea City loss
Mike Dodds says he remains confident in his Sunderland players and is staying optimistic that they can yet have major say in the race for a play-off place.
Dodds was left disappointed with his side’s dismal first half showing against Swansea City, the two goals deficit ultimately proving insurmountable as the Black Cats dropped eight points behind Hull City in sixth. Sunderland have now lost three Championship games on the bounce but says he has clarity on what went wrong in the game and as such, is confident that they can turn it around.
“I’m disappointed with it,” he said of Sunderland’s ongoing consistency issues
“I don’t know if this is the right phrase but my name is above the door. That first half performance isn’t a Mike Dodds team and the second half is what we all want to see. I’ll have to watch the game back, the bit that I need a bit more clarity on is we set up to be more aggressive in the first half but for whatever reason they had too much control and created too many chances. It was a really poor 45 minutes, really poor.
“We changed in the second half and went more reserved but actually looked more aggressive. There are still 12 games to go and I am going to be really naturally optimistic because I know we have some really good players.
“The result today isn’t going to help the push for the top six but we still have 12 games to go, I’m still confident in the way we work, I’m still confident in terms of the group we’ve got. The difference between my last game in charge and this one, I can see where we fell short and that’s something that we – staff and players – have to take on the chin. I’m looking forward to having a really good week with them and I’m looking forward to the next few games.
