How Sunderland's season began to unravel both on and off the pitch as fans' disillusionment continues to grow

So far away it seems now, you wonder if it even happened at all. Sunderland sweeping forward in the driving rain at Preston, incisive and free flowing. A sea of red-and-white soaking up every minute, part disbelieving and part sheer delight. A fearless team; a club on the up.  

You could argue that not too much has changed, in the bigger picture. Many of those young players still have the world at their feet and their team remains pretty much as it was at the start of that afternoon - within striking distance of the play-offs. 

For those reasons Michael Beale urged fans to see the positivity after this latest defeat but those words will not find a receptive audience. Sunderland supporters are looking at their club and seeing a season that is unravelling, a team that is regressing at an alarming rate and an ownership whose decision-making they are rapidly losing faith in. They see a self-inflicted mess. 

For 71 minutes of insipid minutes of insipid, ponderous football the clouds gathered and then the storm broke. Though the chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ were far from universal, they were significant and reflected the disillusionment that has rapidly spread all around the Stadium of Light.

Seven games into his tenure, Beale is facing an uphill battle to win over both those who were unimpressed with his appointment in the first place and those who now wonder in what direction the team is heading. Beale argued that his team did not deserve to lose this game and that was fair: Hull City barely mounted an attack in the second half and their goal came through a fortunate deflection. Sunderland, undoubtedly, were dominant in the game both in terms of possession and territory. But it’s also true that they did nowhere near enough to win it, too much of their play one-paced and one-dimensional. By Beale’s own admission, they did not do enough to work the opposition goalkeeper. This against an opponent missing the spine of their strongest side, their three strongest forwards and their established central midfielder.

Early days in Beale’s tenure it may well still be but much of the discontent stems from this attacking woe being a recurring theme. Only three times this season had Sunderland failed to register an expected-goals tally of below 1 before Tony Mowbray’s departure. One of those was away at Leicester City in a creditable performance, and another was in the defeat to Middlesbrough in which they played 45 minutes with ten. In Beale’s seven games in charge, they have registered an XG of less than 1 on five occasions, according to Wyscout's model. Though defensively there have been some signs of improvement in certain games, their tally of seven points from six league games isn’t an unfair reflection of what the statistics suggest about the balance of play.

Training time has been limited but discerning an style of play and an identity in this team is currently difficult. With Alex Pritchard and Jenson Seelt on the right flank here they lacked width and incision, almost all of their play funnelled down the left to leave their output almost entirely reliant on Jack Clarke. Though the pressing was initially encouraging, the intensity all but evaporated beyond the first quarter of the game. The expectation that Beale would maintain the dynamism of Mowbray’s side and affect gradual improvement looks at this early stage to be misplaced, but only so much of that can be placed at the door of the new head coach.

He cut a forlorn figure after this game and though results and performances thus far have fallen short in the main, he has predictably ran into many of the same issues that faced his predecessor. The lack of balance in midfield, the lack of presence and nous in the opposition box, these were never issues that were going to be fixed overnight no matter how good a coach Beale may be. Solutions in the transfer market appear no closer, with Beale candidly hinting afterwards that as it stands, Sunderland are being outbid for many key targets by their divisional rivals. Beale has also been parachuted into this job entirely on his own, making that dugout a lonely place as he bids to put his stamp on the side. He has found himself in the eye of the storm but he is far from the only one facing scrutiny.

The dissipation of that hard-earned feel-good factor began even before these disappointing performances, rooted in the gradual breakdown of the relationship with Mowbray that began last spring. It continued into the very last days of his reign when there was significant disagreement behind the scenes of tactics, performances and substitutions. That internal criticism and division now feels like hubris, at best. Mowbray's successor has found it no easier to make this team more clinical, or to integrate the signings from a summer window that has broadly yielded limited success so far.

It now feels like Mowbray’s steady work was severely underestimated, his ability to build an attacking side on a limited budget and with increasingly limited experience. To manage the inevitable ups and downs and keep players and support firmly together, and to find creative solutions when injuries hit. What was undoubtedly underestimated was the importance of his communication and leadership. Though his comments about recruitment were at times pointed and divisive, for the most part he was the best communicator the club had. A thread between where the team was now and where they could eventually get to, with the progress obvious even if the direction of travel at times felt slower than anyone understandably wanted. 

The debacle over the Black Cats Bar and the derby arrangements have only served to reinforce the feeling that at the very highest level, Sunderland have become disconnected from their support base. The clearly upward trajectory of the team on the pitch and the generally sound decision making underpinning that for a long time bought the club grace with its off-field issues, but that is no longer the case. The storm that broke with those Black Cats bar signs was a long time brewing.

There were loaded comments upon Mowbray’s departure about high performance and progression and that now weighs heavy, because on and off the pitch Sunderland are demonstrating neither of those things. Given the generally solid performance level earlier in the season and what has happened since, it also reflects poorly on a club and regime that says it is data and evidence driven -  too much of the last six weeks has felt impulsive and muddled.

Perhaps in time these will be seen as teething issues, a bumpy start to a period of change. Perhaps Beale’s coaching pedigree will begin to shine through and this young team will come through the other side of this tricky spell to recapture the vibrancy it placed with not all that long ago.

There have been times since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus when discontent has been audible and clear, but never has there been such a widespread concern over the club’s direction of travel. The team at this moment looks ill-equipped to sustain the top six push without the reinforcements that seem no closer to arriving, and off the pitch there is even more significant anger. The table says that everything is still to play for and that remains very much the case, but at the moment Sunderland are heading in the wrong direction - and that goes well beyond the dugout.