There are numerous things Sunderland must do if they are to improve on their present campaign next season. Of course, there is a new permanent head coach. A new centre-forward, ideally one capable of scoring a few goals. Some experience to supplement a young group that has shown a lot of promise this season but is still severely unbalanced.
Above all, the Black Cats would benefit from a period of stability rather than the constant chaos that has characterised the last five months, and that is ultimately the deciding factor in the self-inflicted implosion of a season that promised so much but will end in a fortnight with rancour and recrimination swirling around the Stadium of Light.
When Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus made the still-unfathomable decision to fire Tony Mowbray in early December, Sunderland were seventh and within touching distance of the play-offs. After Saturday’s defeat to Millwall in their penultimate home game, they sit 13th, with promotion ambitions long gone.
Michael Beale’s terrible appointment, his hasty resignation, the panicky promotion of Mike Dodds as a short-term successor, and then a period of exasperating inactivity in which the interim leader was basically hung out to dry. This hasn’t been a great run for Sunderland’s ownership group, and that’s before we get into some of the off-field actions surrounding January’s ill-fated derby, which sparked justifiable outrage among the fanbase.
Sunderland requires leadership, which must start at the top. If the Black Cats are to regain some of the momentum they lost this season, they must avoid repeating the blunders of the current campaign.
It’s not the blame game, and it’s not excuses, it’s just clear facts that a lot of things have happened this season, said Callum Styles, who arrived on loan in January as the gathering tempest was reaching its climax. When there are a lot of changes and there is no continuity, it is difficult to maintain momentum moving forward.
It’s difficult to keep that up. But this club has a lot of skill, and there’s a lot to be enthusiastic about for next season. We still have two games remaining, and we want to finish as strong as possible. Beyond that, I believe there are grounds to be optimistic.
Sunderland’s slog to the Championship finish line continued on Saturday, and encouragement was hard to come by. A horribly awful game against Millwall, whose lack of ambition could be excused given their need to ensure their survival, seemed to sum up the Black Cats’ downward spiral in the second half of the season.
All the age-old problems that have been apparent for much of the season were evident again – the lack of a striker, with Dodds scrambling between Bradley Dack and Jobe Bellingham in a desperate attempt to find anyone capable of leading the line, a resultant lack of attacking threat, with Sunderland only recording one effort on goal in the whole of the game, and a failure to muster any kind of a reaction when the home side’s backline was eventually breached with 19 minutes.
Duncan Watmore was the Millwall player who inflicted the goalscoring damage, as within four minutes of coming on as a substitute, the ex-Black Cat mustered more attacking presence than all of his former team-mates combined, stealing ahead of Dan Ballard to prod home at the front post, albeit with the final touch possibly coming off the Sunderland defender.
Should Sunderland, with nothing at stake, have been more daring in their approach and system? Perhaps, given their now-obvious limits, it would have made no difference.
If we had been better with the ball at the top of the pitch, the setup would have made a lot more sense, Dodds remarked. Yet another example of what may have been.
