Phil Smith and BBC Radio Newcastle's Nick Barnes answer fan questions after Sunderland's defeat to Millwall
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00:00Hello and welcome to another edition of On The Whistle, after another very disappointing
00:15afternoon watching Sunderland, unfortunately. James is away at Harry Potter World and I
00:20think me and Nick were both hoping, you know, that maybe next weekend we can go to Harry
00:24Potter World instead of watching Sunderland. Maybe that would be nice. We probably made
00:27the wrong choice today. That would be nice. We should have swapped. Very disappointing
00:31performance. Before we get into a few questions, Nick, what did you make of it? The main thing
00:36fans are saying was that it was very strange. It felt like almost the handbrake was on.
00:40You know, sticking with the back five didn't really create a huge amount. It was quite
00:45a tough watch and at this stage of the season it was quite hard to understand really. We
00:49just spoke to Mike Dodds there and he basically explained that, you know, if you look at what
00:52Millwall have done under Neil Harris, they're so good on the transition set pieces and that
00:56was obviously in the back of his mind that he didn't want to give them the space, he
00:59didn't want to over-commit. I do feel like the way the season has gone, you have to try
01:03and give the supporters something. It was all very pedestrian today and I think they
01:07could have been a bit bolder. What did you think? Well, I agree with you about being
01:11bolder and I think the narrative from Mike Dodds over the last few weeks is that we want
01:15to go out and win these last games of the season. He's talked about possession, talked
01:19about sorting out the defence and keeping clean sheets, which on the whole they've done
01:25apart from the Blackburn game. So today was a bit puzzling because I was a bit surprised
01:31to find Dak playing in that sort of false nine role when you've got, I mean, OK, he
01:36might not be Flavour of the Month at the moment, Hamir on the bench, but he is big, he can,
01:42you know, put him in a pivotal position up front and use him as a target man. I thought
01:47this was a sort of game which was probably the ideal opportunity to do that and then,
01:52you know, to encapsulate the game as a whole. What Mike Dodds said afterwards was he thought
01:57the game was boring and both sides were boring and they were. I mean, it was a boring game
02:03to watch. But that made sense from a Millwall perspective because realistically a point
02:06would have been a good result for them away from home. Look at the way they all came together
02:10in a huddle at the end of the game and you can see exactly what Neil Harris is doing
02:14in terms of building the mentality again at the Den. He's trying to build that sense
02:22of Millwall being a team that nobody likes to play against. Nobody likes them and they
02:26don't care. That's their mantra, isn't it? And you could see that when they went one
02:30up. You know, they're more than happy to break the game up, go down and so on and so on and
02:35just slow it down. And I think there's an onus on you playing at home here to try and
02:40take the game to the opposition. And it was just sideways all the time. Nobody was really
02:47brave enough to gamble on throwing themselves in the box and putting balls in the box and
02:51the set pieces were poor as well. The corners, they didn't really negotiate those well, I
02:56didn't think. So, a very, very strange game. A very lackadaisical, flat, end of season,
03:04classic end of season game, if you like.
03:06Loads of people asking about the Dax selection. I suppose there's two elements that we asked
03:09my duds about and they basically said you've got two big physical centre-halves. Rather
03:13than give them what they want, which is someone to battle with, someone to fight with, putting
03:17in a more technical player, drop him deep, link up the player. He obviously admitted
03:21it didn't work, that's why he changed it at half-time. But what do you make of the broader
03:24point from a lot of fans that, listen, Dax is probably not going to be here next year,
03:27don't play him, give him a chance, give, I know he's not fit at the moment, when he's
03:32fit again, Roosner a chance, maybe get Tommy Watson into the squad. What do you make of
03:37that?
03:38I think that's fair enough. That's something I had talked to Benno about at the start of
03:43the second half, when Dax had gone off. I was surprised that Tommy Watson wasn't on
03:48the bench, as it had been talked about, and he's doing well for the U21s.
03:52He did train apparently in the warm-up with the first team, so I don't know if that's
03:54a bit of a nod that that's going to change in the next couple of weeks, but we'll see
03:58what happens.
03:59I wonder. But these are the games, the opportunities. I think they're missing a trick in terms of
04:03giving some of the younger players an opportunity, giving a few players opportunities they wouldn't
04:07have got normally in the normal run of events if they'd been pushing for a play-off spot.
04:12This is ideal. They've nothing to lose by it. It's ironic, and you go back to Watford,
04:19I remember a game when Sam Alloys was in charge, it was the last game of the season, and he
04:23blooded a couple of youngsters in that game because they weren't going down, they weren't
04:26going up in the Premier League, and so it was an opportunity, and I think that is an
04:30opportunity missed.
04:32Maybe at the moment, Mike Dodds is too focused on his record, what it's going to say at the
04:40end of the season, Mike Dodds lost X number of games or drew X number of games, rather
04:46than, strangely he talks about this being a huge club and a bigger club, maybe he's
04:52taking the eye off the ball a little bit in that respect, and should be saying, right,
04:55look, for the betterment of this club, these young players should be getting the opportunity
05:00in these sort of games where we've got nothing to lose but everything to gain from these
05:05players getting that sort of experience.
05:08Going to a couple of questions before I let Nick go and enjoy Saturday evening, someone's
05:11asked where Patrick Roberts was, Patrick Roberts has had a son this morning, so congratulations
05:16to the Roberts, but that's why he wasn't involved, he obviously would have been involved.
05:19Trey Hulme had some illness yesterday, which then improved, which he didn't expect, which
05:23is why he was on the bench, because Dodds didn't want to make a last-minute reshuffle,
05:26and Daniel's got an ankle injury, so that kind of clears all that off.
05:31Just a couple of questions, Adam says, how much of the blame should Dodds accept for
05:34today's performance?
05:35Listen, I think it's a bit of both, I think the set-up I thought was too conservative
05:39today and I thought it was probably too slow to change it, I thought they should have got
05:43a mill wall more, they definitely should have got more players in the final third, I thought
05:46Baron O'Shea looked right when they came on.
05:48At the same time, there's a reason why Sunderland struggle to score goals, right, and the Dak
05:52thing was symptomatic of that today, the answers just aren't there, and that's obviously not
05:55on him, that's on the recruitment and the sporting director, isn't it?
05:58Yeah, I think there's an element of blame on both sides, I think there is the issue,
06:03as coaches will often tell you, I mean, it doesn't matter how experienced, they say once
06:06the players are out on the pitch, it's sometimes difficult to get instructions to them, and
06:11there is an onus on the players themselves to take decisions, and maybe they should have
06:17been a bit bolder, I just spoke to Callum Stiles, he sort of hinted that we perhaps
06:21should have been a bit bolder, we should have been a bit quicker in the passing, we should
06:24have been trying a bit harder to up the pace, if you like, because we knew what mill wall
06:30was going to do, so I think that both are culpable.
06:33Yeah, I think that is slightly personal though, isn't it, because Bayern and Auchish, they
06:37make mistakes, but they do try things, do you know what I mean, so a slightly conservative
06:41selection did lend itself to a slightly conservative performance.
06:44Yeah, and you know, you have to say, Mike Dodds did change it towards the end to try
06:49and get a couple of players on who do like to take players on, do like to get in the
06:54box where possible, but I again come back to the way Millwall set up, they get everybody
07:01behind the ball, they are dogged, they are a difficult side to play against, and came
07:06with a very definite plan not to lose the game, and the bonus was they got the first
07:10goal, and that is another issue with Sunderland, if they don't get the first goal, they struggle.
07:14They were almost too scared of conceding the first goal, and in the end almost forgot to
07:19try and get the first goal.
07:20I think it is getting into their heads a little bit now, we have got to get the first goal,
07:22and when they don't, they start to withdraw into themselves.
07:26Last question from Andy says, what is the point at this stage?
07:29I don't know, it is a good question.
07:31Have you got an answer to that Nick?
07:33I don't know really, I haven't, no.
07:35We will end it on that note then.
07:36Thanks everyone for watching, thanks for sending your questions in, and we will be back next
07:39week, either from Harry Potter World or Vicarage Road, who knows, we will wait and see.
07:44Harry Potter, sorry.