Albeit another disappointing display from Sunderland, one decision made by Mike Dodds was really the nail in the coffin against Southampton.
Sunderland made it six successive defeats as they were beaten by Southampton at the weekend, though they did it in completely different fashion to previous weeks.
The Black Cats had endured three 1-0s and two 2-1s in the last month, playing out incredibly dull, drab fixtures that ended – or began – with them conceding a soft, avoidable goal.
Their trip to St Mary’s looked to be heading in that direction as Stuart Armstrong took only nine minutes to net the opener after a horrific headed clearance from Jobe Bellingham, before Chris Rigg gave away a penalty just before half-time.
However, things took a dramatic turn when Romaine Mundle was handed a bit of luck to see his shot deflected in, before Jobe pulled off an absolute worldie to bring Sunderland level.
You could see just how it meant to Jobe and the rest of the team when they went over to the away support to celebrate with such passion, and it felt like what could prove to be a turning point in a terrible start to 2024.
Sunderland would never be handed such a result as easily as that though, with bad news striking again as Dan Ballard was forced off through injury. This would have been a disaster in itself, but it was made even worse by Mike Dodds‘ decision to bring Callum Styles on in his place.
Callum Styles definitely wasn’t the answer
Timothee Pembele occupied a spot on the bench, and while he hasn’t had the liveliest starts to his time on Wearside, it seemed to make sense to me to bring him on and push Trai Hume into the middle – where he was asked to play on multiple occasions last season.
However, Dodds instead thought it was the right idea to bring Callum Styles on – who had played at left wing-back against Swansea City and got absolutely torn apart. He was so bad that I was pretty convinced we would never have to see him play in defence again, but I was very wrong.
It then came as no coincidence that Joe Rothwell’s brace – both of which came in the following ten minutes – came down our left side, both of which Styles was out of position for and allowed them to breeze past us and comfortably claim all three points.
I’m not saying that Timothee Pembele would have prevented defeat, but bringing Styles on invited them to add to their tally and we didn’t seem too fussed about trying to stop it either.
It was another very poor decision from Mike Dodds, adding to a long list that seems to be rapidly growing after such a short period of time as interim coach.
I don’t know if Michael Beale managed to rub off on him during his stint on Wearside, but Dodds is costing us points, and that all stems from even worse decisions from Kristjaan Speakman.