Mike Dodds committed to making 'bold decisions' despite Sunderland defeat
Sunderland interim head coach Mike Dodds says he won’t change his ‘bold’ decision making despite the disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Swansea.
Dodds named at attacking line-up with Nazariy Rusyn, Abdoullah Ba and Jobe Bellingham essentially forming a narrow front three.
However, what followed was an atrocious first half showing, which only really improved once Dodds switched to a more cautious system after the break.
Clearly, it didn’t work as intended, but Dodds is determined to stick to his guns in the remaining 12 games of the season.
"It didn't work, it doesn't take an expert to see that," Dodds said after the game.
"One thing I demonstrated last time I did this, and that'll I'll keep reiterating is that while I'm in this position: I'll continue to make bold decisions.
“Sometimes that will be a positive, sometimes a negative. The ironic thing is we wanted to be really bold and aggressive in terms of tagging certain players, we were actually more reserved in terms of set up in the second half and yet we looked more aggressive.
"In the first half we went with a back three and almost when man-for-man on their front three, we tried to get more bodies higher up the pitch because we knew the style that they would like to play. I wasn't happy in terms of how aggressive we were.”
"I wouldn't have sent the players out if I wasn't confident the message was really clear, so that's something as a collective that we all have to take on the chin.
"I know I've been really bold in terms of my decisions and how I've tried to set up, I'm not going to take all the responsibility because it's a relationship between me and the players.
“There was clearly a mentality switch in the second half, we were a lot more aggressive and on the front foot, and our quality on the ball was miles better. That's not a tactics thing."
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