Mike Dodds addresses the press ahead of Sunderland’s Championship clash against QPR on Saturday.
The Black Cats are aiming to finally put an end to their losing streak this weekend when they host QPR at the Stadium of Light.
Since taking over as interim manager of the club, Dodds is yet to pick up a point, with Sunderland currently on a six-game losing streak.
Injuries and suspensions to the first-team squad have not helped the situation. However, Saturday presents a new opportunity to recover ahead of the international break.
Below, Dodds explains the club’s current situation, updating fans on injury, club form and his view on QPR.
Mike Dodds provides Sunderland injury update
“I’ve been at the football club just over two years and the two years I’ve been here I’ve never experienced the kind of injury list and the things that have come up. I’ve never experienced that in the two and a half years I’ve been here.
“As I keep saying to everyone, it is what it is, I’m not going to cry about it I’m going to get on with it. I know what I’ve got to work with and I’ll continue to work as hard as I can with what I’ve got.”
Dan Ballard – injury update
“It’s not as bad as first feared. Dan’s been obviously wrapped up in cotton wool all week. It’s a really difficult one, what we’re going to do with Dan is leave it to the very last minute, just based purely on our circumstances at the moment, with the number of injuries and how severely light we are.
“So with Dan, we’re going to leave it to the very last minute in terms of making the decision on whether he’s fit or he’s not fit, do we take the risk? There’s a few moving parts at the moment which is difficult at the moment in terms of whether he’s fit or not fit.”
Does Dan Ballard have a hamstring injury?
“He felt a tweak to his hamstring. To be fair to Dan, he did try and carry on you know he didn’t kind of throw the towel in. Then when he ran back on, he said that he could still feel it. Came back in, my initial gut I feared the worst I’ll be completely honest with you. It settled down this week.
“I’ve sat here previously and said around Jack and ‘oh Jack will be back after the weekend’ and then I get the news that it’s going to be significantly longer. I’ve been overly cautious with it but he seems fairly positive, the physios are fairly positive. We had to wrap him from cotton wool and ultimately with Dan, if we had a fully fit cohort you probably maybe wouldn’t take the risk. But I think the situation we’re in at the moment, we’re going to give him every opportunity to be fit.”
Jensen Seelt – injury update
“I feel like I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this. Jensen played 90 minutes was fine no worries or concerns, absolutely nothing. Woke up the next morning, and his knee had completely swollen. The physios rang me Sunday, said you wouldn’t believe it, this is what’s happened.
“Jensen went to see a specialist on Tuesday or Wednesday. They’re still not sure about the time frame but his season’s finished. They’re going to make a decision in the next 14 days in terms of how they’re going to about his treatment because there’s so much swelling around his knee.
“I don’t really know what to say to people because it just seems to be one thing after another at the moment. He played the full 90 minutes completely fine, just woke up the next morning knee had swollen up couldn’t put any pressure on it. Came in and went to see a specialist on Tuesday because the physios were uncomfortable with what it looked like. The specialist said yeah that’s um unfortunately that’s his season done.
“We’re hoping that it’s positive news in terms of the next 14 days that he’ll be back for preseason. The worst-case scenario will be a considerable amount of timeout.”
Does Sunderland have any more injuries?
“We’ve got one more. Naz picked up a knock during the game so he hasn’t trained this week. He’s, unfortunately, another one in terms of time frame, he won’t be available for tomorrow. In terms of time frame again, we’re waiting on people that are a lot more qualified than I am, in terms of the time frame on that.
“He could be back within the next week or he could be slightly longer. Again he’s going to see a specialist. It’s a bit of a strange one because he took contact right at the end of the game, trained on Tuesday, and said it didn’t feel quite right. Been for a scan and we’re just waiting on the results of that. He won’t be available this weekend.”
How Sunderland are going to manage defensive injuries?
“I don’t think I can hide the back four if I’m honest unless I’m going to do something ridiculous and put an attacking player at the back which I don’t think I’m going to do. I’m not laughing about the situation because I understand where the club is at, I understand the severity of we’ve got to win games of football. But I like I’ve said previously, since I’ve taken the team, from a personal perspective I can see the kind of wood through the trees a little bit with the cards that that I’ve got at the moment.
“That doesn’t help the results, and that doesn’t the loyal supporters that we got. I appreciate that doesn’t help. Unfortunately, we just are where we are at the moment. That’s not helping anyone, and that’s definitely not helping me, believe me, that is definitely not helping me. But there’s nothing I do about it, so I’m just going to get on with it, I’m going to keep working with the players, I’m going to make sure the planning and the processes are really really strong, I’m going to make sure the players are really really clear in terms of the game plan.
“We just have to come through this period and we will come through this period and we’ll be stronger for it.”
Do the owners understand the situation you are in?
“I hope so. As I said after one of the games, what will happen in 12 months time, people won’t appreciate the context, in particular last four games, they won’t appreciate the context to it. They’ll just see Mike Dodds lost four games. I’m really comfortable with that because I understand that’s how the industry works. But I think anyone who is kind of logical can see that there have been some circumstances that have been really difficult to manage.
“We’ve played two teams in Leicester and Southampton, and this is not an excuse and I’m not trying to spend any positives because that’s not my nature. But we’ve played Leicester and Southampton, had the youngest team in EFL history in the third youngest team in EFL history which is a positive, but at the same time, I don’t think that’s something that we will want. It’s been forced upon us in terms of players that are available.
“You don’t want to go into those games as a head coach with all due respect you don’t want to play Premier League budget and Premier League infrastructure. Both probably would argue they’re the best teams in the league for whatever they do and then you’re picking such a young team.
“I will always back young players but to have across the board but so many young players is not ideal. I keep going back to the point I think we’ve got some incredibly good footballers at this football club. We’ve got some huge assets at the football club.
“At the moment we’re going through a spell; the only way for us to get out of this spell is all of us sticking together, internally in particular in terms of the staff, myself and the players. I’m quietly confident when players start to trickle back into the group to give the current crop a little bit of support, things will start to turn and things will start to look a lot rosier.”
What are Mike Dodds’ thoughts on QPR?
“I bumped into some fans down at the beach and they were like ‘it’s QPR, they’re 20th and they’ll be lucky if they stay in the league and they’ve been down there all season’. The new coach has come in has made them and made it really really hard to play against them. They’ve had some really positive results, they went away to Leicester and won 2-1. Having watched their games, they were completely different QPR to the QPR we played early in the season. Like I always say, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record, there aren’t any easy games in this league and we’re going to have to be really really good to get a result.
“The players know that. We’ve prepared really really well like we have done in all the games. We have got to concentrate on ourselves, we’ve got to execute what we’re trying to do. What you do have with teams like a QPR that are scrapping for their lives, you know they’re going to come and give absolutely everything. We’ve got to double down on that bit and make sure that we give more than what they’ve got to give us.”
How important is it that Sunderland do not get sucked into a relegation battle?
“You don’t need me to say that’s really important. I’ll be honest with you, none of us are looking in that direction because the result results haven’t gone well in particular the last four games, but I think we’ve shown enough. We played against the Leicester team for 45 minutes and were better than them, and they’re top of the league. We’ve shown enough in spells that we’ve got more than enough to be looking up and not down.
“If those four games we had been completely railroaded or run all over then I would be more concerned. There’s also context, and I keep saying that and I don’t want to sit here and I’m not trying to spin positives because the reality is I’ve lost four games. But the context is we’ve had some circumstances in terms of player and availability, whether it be suspension or injuries mixed into the fact that three of those four teams you’re playing top six teams. There is some context to the situation.
“So from my perspective, and I understand how important the next few games are, so I’m not being flippant with that, but that isn’t a focus for us I’ll be honest with you. Our focus is to get back to winning ways and start climbing the table again.”
Have the defeats affected the young Sunderland player’s morale?
“One thing with football, as long as they’ve got complete Clarity and they see progression you keep them going in the right direction. I think that’s what we’ve we have at the moment with the group. What we do whenever we review a game, we always review against what was our objective in the game. That provides them with a level of clarity. We review what went wrong, so what do we need to be better with? We review all the physical data in terms of what do we feel a Sunderland player should look like.
“We provide a huge amount of clarity to them in terms of this is the expectation of you as an individual, and this is the expectation of the group. There has been a level of progress away from which is the most important stat which is the result at the full-time whistle.
“They’re not skipping down the corridors, they understand that we haven’t won period of time. They’re not skipping out of corridors but they also understand what we’re trying to do. They understand a level of clarity in terms of the process that we’re trying to work to. At the moment we’ve just come up against some good opposition, we haven’t had a kind of fully fit armoury to go up against them.
“I would feel a lot more uncomfortable sat here if I had a fully fit team um or fully fit Squad to pick from and the results were the way they were. That’s not an excuse, that’s definitely not excuse, but I would feel a lot more uncomfortable if that was the case. The group generally are okay and they understand the severity of where we’re at. They understand that we have to start winning games and start winning games quickly. But they also have real clarity on what we’re trying to do which is really important for footballers.”
How important is the international break for Sunderland?
“It’s come a good time. The break will be important, we will get two or three bodies back close to the team. Cory’s training with the team, Aji’s back training with the team, and Bradley Dack’s training with the team. They’ll be three huge positives going into the Easter weekend. Pat and Jack whether it’s going to be probably a weekend too early for them, we will see in terms of how their bodies react but that might be a weekend too early.
“Then you have got five players there that from a coaching perspective, from my perspective is a big boost and a big boost to the group. A win at the weekend going into the international break will be something that I’ll be really looking forward to.”
Is there anything Mike Dodds can do to turn things around?
“There is always something I can do, I’m coaching the team and one thing I haven’t done during this whole period is try to make excuses. I’ve tried to accept the circumstances that we have. You lose some key players whether it be suspension or injuries. The four games that I’ve taken, three of those are top-six teams which even if I had a fully fit team, they were going to be difficult games.
“We’ve just got to keep sticking to what we believe is right. We’ve got to keep sticking to our planning, our processes and our clarity in terms of what we’re trying to get out of the group. On top of that, we’re not a million miles away from getting people out of the physio room and onto the pitch which would be a huge boost.
“I’m quietly confident like I’ve said for the last few weeks, once we get that one, in terms of the work that we’re doing with them it will it will snowball quite quickly in the other direction. That one win is going to be really important for us and that’s not lost on me at all that that that one win is going to be really important.”
How frustrating has it been not having all of the resources available?
“I’m not moaning about it. It’s something that I want to do at some point and it’s something that I’m sure every experienced head coach or manager has gone through in their career. I would like to have gone through it maybe a year or so under my belt to fall back on previous experiences. I don’t have that unfortunately, I don’t have a previous experience that I can fall back on.
“I’m a confident coach, I have full confidence in the way I work. The group have complete confidence in the way I work. We have a really good environment in terms of training preparation for games. We have we have an honest group.
“It’s been frustrating but I also appreciate that’s life. Sometimes in life, things don’t go your way and you have got to get on with it. That’s where I’m at with it, I’m not beating myself up over it. I’m not happy, don’t get me wrong. I go home after a defeat I feel like I’ve let the fan base down, I feel like I’ve let the players down, I feel like I’ve let the support staff down and that’s not a nice feeling.
“I can see the circumstances for what it is at the moment. I would be in a very different mindset if I had a full team and the results were the way they were. I would have to really point fingers at myself then. At the moment there is a proportion of blame for me because I’m the head coach and we’re not winning games, but I also feel like I’m squeezing the most out of what we’ve got at the moment.”
Is there any reason to be positive around Sunderland at the moment?
“I’m really conscious around answering this question because when you try and spin positivity in a negative moment, it’s probably not the best time to spin positivity because people won’t understand the context. We’ve played against a Leicester team with, at the time was the second-youngest team in EFL history, and went toe-to-toe with them. The fans should be really proud of how young that group is.
“Dan Neil is 22, Job’s 18, Chris Rigg 18, Hemir 20, the list goes on. We went toe-to-toe with um a multi-million-pound football team; I still feel that we should have we should have at least got a point from the game. Then, three or four days later, you field the youngest team in the EFL history. In particular for spells in the second half, I felt that they gave a really good account of themselves.
“There’s definitely positives. If you would have said four or five years ago that you would have a young vibrant team, with huge upside, with loads of kind of from a finance perspective loads of assets, you’re playing in the Championship. That would have looked like a real positive a few years ago.
“The bit that I’m really conscious around is spinning too many positives. We did come sixth last year and at the moment we’re sitting in mid-table, we haven’t won in six, the expectation of a football club is the expectation and you’re never going to change that. We shouldn’t try and change that because this football club belongs in the Premier League. The aspiration is to get there as soon as possible.
“I do think there are lots of positives. At the moment it doesn’t feel like that and not going to sit here and start spinning them because the reality is the biggest positive will be winning a game of football regardless of talking around Chris Rigg and whoever else. We’ve got to win games of football and when we win a game of football that’s the biggest positive than all the other things”