Sunderland welcome Swansea City to the Stadium of Light in the Championswhip. Last time out Sunderland lost at Birmingham and Swansea lost to Ipswich. The Black Cats dropped to 10th place with the 1-0 defeat at St Andrews and midweek results mean that they are now 7 points off 6th place. Michael Beale has left the club and Mike Dodds will take charge until the end of the season. Jack Clarke is out injured. Dan Ballard is unavailable due to suspension and Alese, Cirkin, Dack, Huggins, Evans, Roberts and Embleton remain on the injured list. Luke O’Nien is one booking away from a 2 match suspension. Callum Styles could feature after recovering from surgery and resumed full training this week. Swansea City are on a poor run having lost 5 of their last 6 games and are 4th bottom in the current form table, conceding 13 goals in that time. Mick Dodds: “Jack Clarke is one of the best wingers in the league,” he said. “If you take Jack Clarke out of any of the teams in the league and he’s a miss. “On the flipside I’m also a little bit excited around tweaking and changing one or two things. I’m excited around what things can we move around within the group? “Without giving too much away, it’ an opportunity for me to change one or two things, I think last time I showed - I mean this respectfully - that I'll do what's best for the group. When you have someone like Jack that has been taken out of the group, you have to come up with solutions for that. “The next few games, in particular the one on Saturday, will be interesting in terms of team selections.” “My mindset is that I am going to try and win all 13 games. What might happen with that is that I might lose a game because I’ve been overly-bold and I will get criticised for that and then some games we might do really well and I will get praised for that. When you sit in this seat, I accept that is what comes with the territory. Luke Williams: "Today we were more than a match [for Ipswich]. There's almost nothing between the teams in terms of the numbers. "But we came off second best. There are some positives in there I am sure. I probably need 24 hours to start feeling them, but the players are completely committed. I think they showed that again today. "We can't question the effort. The goals we concede are unnecessary. Tymon gets bumped the wrong side and then Cabango kicks the floor a little bit. That's a ridiculous way to concede. "Then a free-kick in the opposition's half. No-one steps forward to press, one ball in the channel, no marking in the box. We don't need to concede a goal like that.” Form: Match Appointments: Referee: KEITH STROUD Assistant Referees: Andrew Dallison and Robert Merchant Fourth Official: Scott Tallis Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-3-3) Patterson, Hume, O’Nien, Seelt, Hjelde, Neil, Ekwah, Rigg, Mundle, Rusyn, Jobe. Subs: Bishop, Pembele, Ba, Aouchiche, Burstow, Watson, Styles, Hemir, Taylor Injured: Huggins, Cirkin, Evans, Dack, Alese, Embleton, Roberts, Clarke Unavailable: Ballard Swansea (4-2-3-1) Rushworth, Naughton, Cabango, Wood, Tymon, Allen, Grimes, Pereira, Cooper, Paterson, Yates Subs: Fisher, Fulton, Darling, Placheta, Patino, Kukharevych, Cullen, Sagoe Jr, Lissah, Injured: Ashby, Lowe, Walsh, key, Ginnelly, Abdoulai Betting Odds: Sunderland 3/2 Swansea 5/1 Draw 7/2 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: It's never dull following Sunderland, another week and another head coach We will soon find out if Mick Beale had truly lost the dressing room. If Dodds can’t get anything from this game, then we have little chance of making the play-offs. Hopefully the man in the middle (KEITH F***ING STROUD) doesn’t see it as another chance to grab the spotlight. I’m going for a 3-1 home win. Live Stream: Available to overseas fans https://safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Press conference: Ha’way the Lads
Great thread @RTB - hope you are well and life is good. I like that team - a chance to get pace and energy into it. Press high and clatter them. The lads are probs feeling good that Beale has gone and that sorry saga is finished. Ill go for a solid 2-0 home win Hawaaaaaay
Rumour on twitter which is linked on another thread suggests Clarke and Hjelde are out for a few weeks. Couldn't see either of them in the latest training video on YouTube either. Big chance for others to step up if true. Also interested to see how we cope without Clarke and Ballard if the Clarke injury is true.
I will try and look to the positives after this weeks upheaval and go for a comfortable 2-0, my worry is that with Dodds and Proctor there has been no change in tactics since Tony's last 5 or 6 games to Beale's 10 or 11 games. I hope I am wrong and we find that free flowing attacking threat that we so obviously have if the tactics are right. I would rather lose a game going for a win than capitulate trying to play passive defensive football as IMO defending starts at the front and we were quite adept at winning the ball high up the pitch and creating quick turnover chances, but we have not seen much of that lately.
Thanks @RTB for your hard work with the match threads. Ballard is banned for 2 games and as above re Clarke I noticed he looked concerned re his foot after he scored. Heyho if he is injured it will give others a chance, maybe Rusyn on the left and Seelt in as centre half. It will be interesting to see the players response hopefully they put on a hell of a performance and bag 3 points...HTL & FTM
Ballard suspended so I expect Seelt to play/ I can't see Dodds dropping Jobe for Riggs either, although I think he should
Great to see your match thread pop up, just what we all need ... ... same goes for the players and the entire club. Whichever team we have we're capable of beating Swansea at home. I'm expecting to see Jobe up front and Mundle, possibly Rusyn, out wide. Seelt and Hume could be the key, I'm expecting one of them to have licence to get right up the pitch. Ha'way the Lads!!!
Feels like a month since our last game, few injury concerns could make this one tough, 10-0 Sunderland
If reports are true re clarke it's a bit of a downer, on the other hand it's a chance for either mundle or rusyn to see what they can do. Looking forward to it.
As I mentioned earlier I had it suggested we might see Rusyn and Mundle out wide. I'm beginning to wonder if that means one on each side. Will we play a back three of Hume, O'Nien and Seelt with wingback, Jobe up front ... ... could be an interesting time.
10-0 FFS, If Clarke's out it'll only be 8-0 Hopefully back to winning at home and against a struggling side otherwise it could be a long end to the season. HA'WAY THE LADS MACKEMS ATTACKEM
Like your team but if the rumours are true this game will see more changes to players than we've seen for months. It's a good thing to my mind, time to mix things up a bit. Great to meet up last Saturday, enjoyed the day, if not the result, roll on Saturday. HTL
Embo - at least a month, but is he likely to make an impact after 13 months out? Roberts - 4 weeks Evans - who knows? Likely not to make an impact this season Clarke - 2 weeks apparently Cirkin - 2 months Alese - 1 month Huggins - 2025 Dack - No clue, looked like he was back in training sadly Hjelde - no idea
Should just be able to put a team out, but bench will be horrific. U21s are in action tomorrow, so we might get a clue there as to who will be on bench - Crompton, Kelly, Rigg and Watson probably
