Michael Appleton identifies key Sunderland duo who 'caused issues' for Blackpool

Blackpool boss Michael Appleton has identified Alex Pritchard and Elliot Embleton as the Sunderland players that prompted their change of tactics at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland were held to a goalless draw by the Seasiders although Blackpool had to survive a tough first half in order to get there.

After the break, Blackpool made an adjustment to their tactics and were pushing to win the games themselves.

However, despite Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts causing much of the mayhem, it was actually Pritchard and Embleton that Appleton felt were making the Black Cats purr.

“It was difficult because we were put under a bit of pressure,” Appleton said.

“Saying that, a lot of the stuff in the first-half was in front of us. The two boys Pritchard and Embleton in that number 10 role caused us a few issues which I felt we dealt with at half-time.

“Clearly the two wide boys (Clarke and Roberts) are a massive part of their game but we were almost happy for them to have the ball in the wide areas and try and show them down the line rather than show them inside, but there were a couple of occasions where we lost our concentration.

“From a physical output, it was difficult. But the reality is at this level if you want to win games of football you have to do both sides of the game, you have to see things out, you have to stay with runners and be disciplined.

“That was the message at half-time and we upped the ante, we pressed a little bit higher, we got a bit more aggressive and we created a lot more opportunities ourselves.”

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