Mike Dodds has issued a team selection hint ahead of Sunderland’s trip to Watford in the Championship this weekend.
Sunderland fans just want this season to come to an end.
Since the sacking of Tony Mowbray just before New Year, it’s been a fairy calamitous showing from the Black Cats.
The Sunderland owners and also sporting director Kristjaan Speakman have come under the spotlight for their choices in managers and in the transfer market too.
And Dodds has now come under scrutiny, following the 1-0 defeat at home to Millwall last time out.
Sunderland 0-1 Millwall as Mike Dodds criticism emerges
Dodds was a welcome face when Sunderland sacked Michael Beale.
Sunderland placed the long-time coach in charge until the end of the season but after 12 games in charge, he has just two wins to his name.
And performances seem to have gotten worse; at least judging by the Millwall performance last time out, which followed three fairly good results in the Championship.
A major criticism of Dodds has been his overall selection and formation.
He’s failed to adjust and now his Sunderland side look weaker than ever, with Sunderland fans left fuming after the defeat vs Millwall.
Mike Dodds drops team selection hint ahead of Watford vs Sunderland
Sunderland travel to Watford in the Championship this weekend.
It’s the second-to-last game of the season and although the Black Cats have nothing to play for now, fans still want to see a positive result to lead them into the summer.
And many might be hoping that Dodds has a major shake up in the side.
But speaking ahead of the Watford game, Dodds revealed that he ‘wont be experimenting’ with the side, saying:
“In terms of the weekend, I’ve always said we won’t be experimenting. We’ll put a team out to win the game of football.”
The difficult decisions facing Mike Dodds ahead of Watford
The first thing that comes to mind is that Sunderland really don’t have a lot of options to rotate.
They don’t have a small squad but they do have injuries, and some players who just aren’t up to scratch, so that limits the team for Dodds.
There’s really only the striker and maybe the wingers that Dodds can rotate, either dropping Bradley Dack this weekend and putting Jobe Bellingham back up there, providing Corry Evans can start in midfield.
We could see Tom Watson come into the reckoning in the final two games of the season, though don’t expect many huge changes, like Dodds says.
Kick off is at 4pm on Saturday.