Talking Tactics: What went wrong for Sunderland at Southampton?

Opposition Lineup

Russell Martin has been in fine form with Southampton during the middle third of the season, stretching to a 20-game unbeaten run since the two sides met at the Stadium of Light earlier in the season.

As we know, Martin is synonymous with his possession-based football and therefore utilises a side that are all comfortable on the ball no matter what position on the pitch. For this game, Martin opted to remain with an unchanged side to the one that scored four goals in their last outing away at Birmingham during the midweek.

Che Adams and Adam Armstrong operated as a strike pairing in possession with David Brooks on loan from Bournemouth holding width in the channels. Southampton operate similarly to Sunderland with a midfield three, all of whom are comfortable going forward with Flynn Downes acting as the main anchor and both Armstrong and Smallbone acting as roaming eights in the midfield. Martin uses a 4-3-3 to maintain possession whilst also being able to exploit the counterattack and progress forward with pace on transition.

Sunderland Lineup

Mike Dodds was forced into three changes from Sunderland’s midweek game against Leicester, Luke O’Nien unfortunately picked up his 10th yellow card and was therefore suspended for this one.

Romain Mundle, Abdoullah Ba and Mason Burstow came in to replace O’Nien, Ekwah and Hemir. Chris Rigg retained his place in the side and was allowed to play in his preferred #10 position with Jobe dropping deeper to accommodate this.

Dodds chose to return to his usual 4-3-3 / 4-1-4-1 formation following his flirtation with a three at the back in recent weeks. Ba & Mundle operated on the left and right respectively with Burstow leading the line in the latest edition of Sunderland striker roulette.

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Sunderland’s midfield trio were together for the first time this season and under the command of Dan Neil as club captain, had an opportunity to impress and the youngest Midfield trio in the Championship. Neil sat in his slightly deeper role, Jobe dropped in to play as more of a traditional box-to-box role and Rigg was given license to roam forward alongside Burstow out of possession into a 4-4-2 shape.

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Early Stability

Following a switch back to a more familiar shape Sunderland looked much better out of possession than when operating as a three or a five, players looked more assured in their roles of tracking and shape as a whole looked more balanced than in previous weeks.

Counter-pressing returned as players looked more comfortable in knowing when they were able to press, and this was showcased through Burstow getting two early opportunities albeit he spurned both wide. It’s worth noting that Burstow received no passes from his teammates throughout his 56 minutes on the field completing only 17 touches.

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Regression of Progression

Perhaps Sunderland’s biggest criticism in recent weeks has been the speed and directness of their ball progression when looking to attack teams.

There’s no getting around the fact that in losing Clarke, Roberts, Cirkin, Huggins and in recent weeks either Ballard or O’Nien Sunderland have injuries to their most progressive ball carriers in the squad. Jack Clarke was previously leading the league in progressive carries prior to his injury and was only second to Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid for carries into the penalty area in a single season with 10 games remaining.

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As a note, progressive carriers are registered as times whereby a player has carried the ball in a forward direction more than 20 yards in a single possession.

The only other currently fit Sunderland player with any progressive carry stats above average is Dan Neil and he’s struggled to do so on his own. Without the likes of Cirkin or Huggins at fullback to drive the ball forward into the final third, or centre halves able to progress the ball from inside their own territory into the opposition half Sunderland’s attacks have become stagnant and lost much of what makes them deadly to opposition teams. It must be noted that Neil did attempt 10 passes into the final third and completed 52/59 passes in this match.

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Counter Pressing Side

Mike Dodds has had to shift his playing philosophy numerous times in the last few weeks due to the unfortunate scenario he’s found himself in.

Due to this, Sunderland have now found themselves slowly morphing into a counter-pressing side in order to create clear-cut opportunities.

As they struggle to advance themselves up the pitch organically, the next best option is to wait for the opposition to look comfortable and attempt to regain possession high up the field by pressuring their mistakes.

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It’s a far-gone reality from the ideal style of play that Dodds and Speakman want to replicate but given the personnel available to Dodds and his coaching team it’s currently the best option on offer for Sunderland.

Sunderland aren’t playing great at this moment in time and Dodds has to answer for that, but a large part of why things aren’t currently working is down to the spine of Sunderland’s team restricting how they would normally play.

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Self-Destructive Sunderland

As has happened on what feels like so many occasions for Sunderland this season, self-inflicted mistakes seem to have cost the Wearsiders countless goals this season and yet again they were the victims of their own downfall against Southampton, having to claw themselves back from a 2-0 deficit once again.

The caveat remains that this is a young side, actually the youngest side ever recorded in the EFL was set by the team on Saturday and therefore we should expect mistakes like Rigg’s over-eagerness to dive in which cost the us yet another penalty.

Similarly, to the way Dan Neil dropped the ball at Brammall Lane last season, players like Rigg & Jobe completed 5/8 & 31/34 passes respectively but despite this will learn not to make the same mistake again, something that should be encouraged with not much left to play for this season.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

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Resilience in defeat

Sunderland were able to efficiently utilise the counter press to good affect for their first goal, Hume pouncing on a loose touch provided Mundle with the space to attack and score which should do his confidence the world of good, similarly Jobe pressed high up to win the ball before rifling his effort into the top corner to bring the lads back level.

Even though these efforts counted for nothing, they are still goals on the board for Sunderland, something which has been devoid in recent matches.

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Note from the shot map, the chances created by Sunderland are nowhere near as high quality from an xG perspective than they were earlier in the season when all of our creative talents were available for selection. Long range efforts have become the norm once again which is a sign of a side struggling to create meaningful opportunities.

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In Conclusion

With the requirement for points becoming more of a necessity each week as the chasing pack drags Sunderland down, Mike Dodds will be looking to stop the rot against QPR on Saturday.

With more suspensions and injuries making the news, Sunderland might just manage to crawl over the finish line this season rather than the relaxed jog the Ownership group had hoped Dodds would be able to steer the club to as the season draws into its final stretch.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images