Sunderland trying to ‘protect’ a lead responsible for West Brom defeat – Tony Mowbray
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Tony Mowbray believes Sunderland were a little too naïve in disappointing defeat to WBA.
Tony Mowbray has accused his Sunderland players of ‘sitting too deep’ as they lost at home to West Brom.
Sunderland went in at half time a goal up but were completely dominated after the break.
Inevitably, West Brom were able to make that dominance count and came away with a 2-1 win, but Mowbray believes his players made things needless tough on themselves.
“We need to address the scenario where we feel that we have to protect something, because we don’t help ourselves – we sat too deep, invited pressure on,” Mowbray said.
“When this team at this stadium it needs to play on the front foot. Yet it’s a human thing, really, sometimes to try and protect what you have got.
“Against good teams and good players, if you give them too much time on the ball they will pick the right pass more often than not, and that’s what they did tonight. It’s a learning curve, it’s a journey for this team.
“The frustration is that we are so close to being pretty good and then you get a slap in the face like tonight which knocks you back a bit. There will be good days around the corner, and we will learn from nights like this.”
Despite losing it in the second half, Mowbray actually believed the key moment came in the first 45 minutes when Alex Pritchard failed to capitalise on a great chance.
Had that gone in, Mowbray believes, it would have been a very different second half.
“It was a frustrating night for us. Pritch’s chance in the first half when he was through one-on-one with the goalie, if that had gone in, it would have been 2-0 and it would have been a long way back for them from there.”