Mike Dodds reckons that he may have to experiment with team selections and formations to overcome the loss of Jack Clarke, who is out until April with ankle ligament damage.
PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE
"I think there’s got to be a strapline in all the games as to what Sunderland are. I don’t think we can be passive in any of the games. I got asked about the Leeds game where the question implied that we sat off them and if you watch that game back, we denied them space but when the ball went into certain areas of the pitch we were really aggressive and we were a little bit more on the front foot. So it might be a case that we might have to concede some territory, but in terms of a Sunderland team, we can’t be passive and we won’t be passive how we approach the game."
ARMOURY
"Regardless of Jack Clarke or not, we still have a running thread of how we want Sunderland to look and that’s something that’s going to be my responsibility for the next 12 games to find a solution to that. To be honest, I’m looking forward to the challenge of that, it’s going to be a real challenge for me and I think it would be a real challenge for the most experienced coach who could sit here. When you take someone of his quality out of your armoury, you can have the most experienced coach in the world sat here and it would be a challenge, but that’s something I’m looking forward to over the next period and it’s something where I won’t leave any stone unturned to find a solution to make sure that we go into every single game with a mindset that we’re going to win the game."
