Mike Dodds is still undecided on one important tactical change ahead of Sunderland’s meeting with Millwall this weekend.
Sunderland will look to make it four games unbeaten this afternoon as they prepare to host Millwall, having overcome two tricky meetings with Leeds United and West Brom.
The Black Cats have now picked up five clean sheets in their last six games, but finding the back of the net has remained a problem, netting only three goals in the process.
Mike Dodds‘ side have struggled to find a happy medium so far and spent the last two matches mostly penned into their own half – though they did pick up four points too.
Dodds opted to play five at the back against Leeds and West Brom, pushing Trai Hume into the middle and offering Timothee Pembele his first two starts since joining the club last summer.
The formation certainly worked for Sunderland, but it remains to be seen as to whether they will stick with it as they face Millwall, who are six points behind them.
Which formation will Sunderland play today?
Dodds has now hinted at a potential formation change this week, but admits it depends on how he wants his Sunderland team to play against The Lions.
When asked by We Are Sunderland whether he would return to a back four, the 37-year-old said: “Potentially.
“The back five has served us really well over the last few games. What it does, it allows us to absorb not so much pressure but forward passes which is something that could be really important in this game. Millwall will play a lot of forward passes so a back five will be beneficial to that. A back four allows you to get another attacking option on the pitch.
“It’s a decision for us as staff to decide whether we go four or five, brd on whether we want to absorb their forward passes or put another body on the pitch to put their back four under a bit of pressure.”
Mike Dodds shouldn’t make the same mistake again
Playing three centre-backs worked very well against Leeds and West Brom as it made it so hard for them to penetrate our backline, as it did when we played them before Christmas too.
We were never going to be able to play them off the park and instead just had to hope a single chance would pop up for us, like it did for Pierre Ekwah at The Hawthorns.
However, that isn’t how we should be setting up against Millwall.
We already tried to play the same formation against Swansea earlier this season and got absolutely battered.
Our defence has looked a lot more assured even before we changed formation, so I would like to see us have more of a go at it in an attacking sense this afternoon.