Sunderland lost 1-0 away at Bristol City in the Championship this afternoon.
Sunderland headed to Bristol City in the Championship this afternoon, looking for a third-straight win in the league.
Interim boss Mike Dodds had guided the club to back-to-back wins against West Brom and Leeds United respectively, much to the surprise of many, but today he couldn’t steer the Black Cats to another three points.
Sunderland were beaten 1-0 at Ashton Gate courtesy of a Tommy Conway penalty in the first half, with the defeat in the wake of surprising news that Michael Beale is set to become the club’s next head coach.
Sunderland now sit in 7th place of the Championship table and two points behind West Brom in 6th.
Phil Smith highlights the ‘biggest issue’ right now
For Sunderland, since their return to the Championship last year, it’s largely been a case of having a good team, but no real striker.
Or at least someone to put the ball in the back of the net, and today was the same case.
Sunderland had plenty of the ball and plenty of chances to score and potentially win the game. But not one chance turned into a goal, and for all their positive build-up play and whatnot, Sunderland just find it too hard to score, too much of the time.
This was echoed by journalist Phil Smith after the game, who posted on X:
Is Michael Beale the man to fix that?
Although Beale’s Rangers spell ended poorly, he was widely regarded as a coach who at least tried to play attacking football.
And his side did play some good attacking stuff. Beale held the best win record of any Gers boss since Ally McCoist and so he obviously did at least some stuff right, and at QPR, Beale donned an exciting and attacking set up as well which served the R’s well in the second tier.
Whilst Tony Mowbray was a manager who could get his teams playing on the front-foot, Beale might have some more contemporary ideas of how to get the most out of this side, but one thing remains; Sunderland need a no.9.
Since Ross Stewart’s exit and his numerous injuries beforehand, the Black Cats have lacked someone with that end product, and whilst they tried to replace that in the summer, they ultimately didn’t, and now January is another crucial window.
Beale will still inherit a good side, but he also inherits the same old problems.
Up next is a home game vs Coventry City next weekend.