The inside story of Phil Parkinson's first year as Sunderland manager - what's changed and what lies ahead

It’s December 29th and Sunderland are in their lowest ever position.

Ever.

They are 15th in League One, seven points from the play-off positions. This is the first time they have ever played consecutive seasons in the third tier and right now, another one seems inevitable.

There have already been some chants for Super Kevin Phillips. Not many, but a sign of what seemed likely to follow.

It has the feel of a seismic day at the Keepmoat Stadium, one where something has to give.

The Black Cats win a free-kick just inside the opposition half.

There appears to be little danger, and Doncaster Rovers defend like it. Lynden Gooch gathers possession, and just keeps going. On and on he goes, until suddenly he’s just outside the edge of the area and even more suddenly, the ball hits the top corner.

It’s the opposite end of the pitch to where the travelling army are assembled and there is just that brief pause while it’s all processed.

Delirium breaks out, the shock only adding to the ecstasy. Sunderland were relentless, and though they were pegged back just before half time, the win was fully deserved.

Parkinson applauded from the red-and-white army, who he would then hail as his team’s ‘twelfth man’. The response was a wall of noise, passion and pride.

A promising draw with Fleetwood Town followed days later, two thumping home wins after that.

Parkinson had pulled his Sunderland tenure back from the brink.

Days before that short trip to Doncaster, a woeful 0-0 draw with Bolton Wanderers had finished with cries for change in the boardroom and the dug-out.

The latter had become inextricably linked with the former.

The Black Cats had finished the game failing to beat a struggling Wanderers side, as they had done so months before on the afternoon where terrace discontent was clear.

Here, the mood changed just under twenty minutes from the end.

An injury to Tom Flanagan gave, most felt, a natural opportunity to bring on another offensive player.

Instead, Laurens De Bock was introduced. It seemed to sum up a bleak midwinter, where a side had struggled to adapt to a new style and had been unceremoniously dumped out of three cups.

Within weeks, Jordan Willis was an overlapping centre-back and Gareth Ainsworth, whose Wycombe side had outplayed and outmatched Parkinson’s Sunderland during his first game at the helm, was having to change his team within half an hour of kick-off. Overrun, utterly exposed.

One year on from his arrival on Wearside, Parkinson’s Sunderland are perhaps somewhere in between those two dizzying extremes.

In aspects of their game they are markedly improved, and in others there still have much to do to prove they are finally a unit capable of climbing into the Championship.

The lowest of lows and the crucial calls forged in the discontent

That win at Doncaster Rovers came with an added significance.

It was, without doubt, a first real sight of the template that Parkinson would stick to throughout 2020, one which transformed the make-up of his side and significantly improved their points output.

Part of it was good timing, part of it good decision making.

The goal from Gooch was not insignificant. Alongside Charlie Wyke, the tenacious attacking midfielder was key to improving Sunderland’s pressing game.

Both had suffered injuries in the early stages of Parkinson’s tenure and both became key to the changing face of the side.

Both brought a formidable off-the-ball work ethic and in Wyke, Parkinson finally had an outlet he felt could hold the ball up.

Though that visit of Bolton was the game where the discontent was most audible, equally as significant had been the 1-0 defeat at Gillingham a week before.

Marc McNulty and Will Grigg had been the forward line desperately struggling to get into a game where Sunderland were direct and ineffective. There had been reservations about the style of football Parkinson’s Botlon had played, but the mitigation was the ruinous financial landcsape the manager and his staff had been forced to face.

Those fears were now being crystallised and there were no such excsused.

That was a nadir for a team plumbing new depths and in the weeks that followed, the shape of the team began to transform.

In the wide areas, Conor McLaughlin and Laurens De Bock were gradually replaced by Luke O’Nien and Denver Hume.

This had, in fact, been Jack Ross’ vision for the side in pre-season, noting that the pair could bring a new dimension to the team in a more attacking role.

Sunderland, too, looked better equipped for the pressing demands of Parkinson, the tailored regime of new Head of Sports Science Nick Allamby producing results.

In the aftermath of that Gillingham game, Parkinson had also made his most divisive decision yet.

Though the ‘McDonald’s gate’ affair was blown out of all proportion, it was telling that Sunderland finished that game without calling on some of their key attacking players.

Aiden McGeady was one of them.

So often Sunderland’s talisman in the year previous, within a fortnight he would be told he had no future at the club.

To this day, the full reasons for the decision have never been truly explained.

Both Parkinson and McGeady have largely kept their counsel, aware that until he leaves the club permanently, it is in everyone’s interests to maintain a relatively dignified truce.

Some of the rumours that swirled around were unfair on McGeady, and can be rubbished by simply pointing out the fact that even now, the winger trains with the clubs’ U23 team.

This was a call made by Parkinson around team culture (though he didn’t draw a link between the two directly, in the same press conference he confirmed McGeady’s exclusion, he said the spirit could get better), and it is one that he knew would have major consequences.

Sources close to the manager pointed out that he had made similar decisions at other clubs, and that he was determined to do things his own way.

His instinct was that the team environment would be better for the change and in the initial months that followed, the improved results without a doubt worked to his favour.

Undoubtedly, it was a call that allowed him to truly put his own stamp on the side.

The current Sunderland side is probably inconceivable with McGeady in it, given the pressing demands in defence and the way the Irishman so naturally became the outlet on it (so often, you felt, because he was always willing, to his credit, to take a risk).

It was a high-stakes gamble, and some at the time remarked that McGeady would be wise to bide his time. At that point, it seemed he had a chance of outlasting the under-pressure manager.

Yet by the time he joined Charlton Athletic on loan just over a month later, there was barely a murmur.

McGeady remains a fascinating character and even now, it’s a subject which still draws debate.

An explosive recent interview from Lewis Morgan underlined the difference in approach between two managers.

Jack Ross empowered McGeady, allowed him a central role in the dressing room and was prepared to take on the challenge.

He was rewarded with a number of matchwinning contributions, the player even playing through a broken bone in his foot to try and drag his side over the line at the end of the campaign.

Twice, injury prevented him taking part in any pre-season preparations and twice, he came straight into the side to try and make a difference.

Parkinson saw it differently, and just over a year on he would point to the obvious stability and resilience of his group as vindication.

Off the ball they are a well-drilled unit, and off the pitch they are clearly a settled group.

If the surge of positive results at the turn of the new decade seemed to end the debate, the dip at the end of the curtailed campaign checked that argument somewhat.

It remains a fascinating topic that sums up where Parkinson has tried to take the team, where it has improved, a little of what it has lost, and the questions it still needs to answer.

The defensive third: Where Parkinson’s footprint is most clear and how he did it

In Sunderland’s most recent competitive fixture, Parkinson watched on as his side were forced to dig deep and grind out a point.

They were in trouble because of a defensive lapse.

Bailey Wright lost a header, Charlton Athletic substitute Chuks Aneke doing superbly to rise highest and win a flick-on.

Conor Washington was quickest to react and Tom Flanagan was forced to bring him down, leaving the referee with no real option but to show him a red card.

What was so remarkable about this passage of play is that it has become so rare.

What was once the Achilles’ Heel of Sunderland as a League One side has now become their biggest strength, arguably the main legacy of Parkinson’s first year in charge on Wearside.

Even after dropping to ten-men, the hosts posed little threat, their expected-goals tally for the contest was a paltry 0.06.

Will Grigg dropped onto the right flank, Sunderland’s reshuffled defence stood tall and Lee Bowyer was full of praise for what he witnessed.

Sunderland, he said, were better than the unit his side had faced just over a year ago.

The Black Cats’ previous trip to the valley, in January of 2019, certainly made for an interesting comparison.

These were the acrimonious days of Josh Maja’s departure.

Ross had been tasked with leading his side into a tricky away fixture as the future of his star striker was played out in public. When Stewart Donald declared on twitter that the youngster had rejected the offer of a new contract, Sunderland were on the train for the capital.

If that was far from ideal preparation, then the Black Cats started the game utterly unperturbed.

Luke O’Nien scored a fine volley at the back post in the opening minutes, and Sunderland dominated the first 45 minutes.

Maja combined nicely with Charlie Wyke, and Sunderland played some of their best football on the road.

Charlton tried to play out from the back but the Black Cats pressed well and had control.

At half-time, Bowyer turned the game on its head.

There was nothing sophisticated about the switch, but it preyed on Sunderland’s key weakness. Charlton went direct, firing the ball early and long into Lyle Taylor.

Taylor had visited the Academy of Light the previous summer, only for the Black Cats to fail to get the deal over the line.

One of the best strikers in the division, Sunderland could not contain and the end result was the kind of 1-1 draw that became all too familiar in that campaign of fine margins and the most narrow of misses.

Privately, some at Sunderland conceded that this was the way to get at them.

They had real ability on the ball, and in Maja they had a tremendous striker, but the fear persisted that they struggled to cope with the physicality of some of their League One opponents.

The theme continued and was perhaps underlined even more starkly during the Checkatrade Trophy final a couple of months later.

Sunderland dominated the first half of that contest, producing one of their most controlled displays of their season. The sight of Lee Cattermole leaving the field at the interval with his fists lightly clenched and encouragement aplenty for team-mates spoke of a job half done.

Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett, like Bowyer at the Valley, was later able to turn the trajectory of the game by introducing Gareth Evans and Brett Pitman.

Powerful and imposing, they dragged their side onto the game and up the pitch.

Ross would later face criticism for the number of draws that Sunderland would register over the course of the season, and many fans were left wondering what happened to the enterprising spirit that had summed up the early stages of the campaign, the high watermark coming with that 4-2 win over Barnsley.

The answer, in short, was a lack of trust in a defence that was too easily exposed.

The wide open and ultimately unsuccessful games against Accrington Stanley, Burton Albion and Coventry City, from which Sunderland took just a point on home turf, settled their promotion fate and exposed the faultlines of a side that lacked defensive consistency.

Injuries and poor form saw Ross constantly reshuffling his options and fielding new partnerships in the spine of his side, an indictment of the previous summer’s recruitment in that position.

In the nascent stages of the 2020/21 campaign, that is a thing of the past and the display at Charlton underlined it.

Yes, that owes much to the opposition, a side still emerging from two years of off-field turmoil and one that, currently at least, bears no comparison to the one that beat Sunderland at Wembley in the play-off final.

Sunderland’s defensive consistency, though, is inarguable.

In the opening four games of the campaign, Sunderland’s expected goals tally is just 2.29.

That works out at just 0.57 per game, and is the best in the division.

Under Parkinson, their goals-conceded-per-game tally in League One is just 0.66, down from 1.07 under Ross.

The underlying statistics suggest that this is no fluke.

They concede two shots less per game and their expected-goals-against-per game tally is down, from 1.2 in the 2018/19 season to 0.99 under Parkinson.

Part of this, undoubtedly, is down to personnel.

In that regard, the early stages of the 2019/20 season are instructive.

This period was of course marked by the failure to keep a single clean sheet, something that Parkinson remarked upon as an immediate area for improvement.

Yet that bizarre statistic belied a side that under Ross was moving in the right direction.

Early in that summer, with Mark Campbell still hovering and the Black Cats hamstrung in the market as a result, Ross pointed to Jordan Willis as an example of where he wanted to take his side.

Willis was experienced, a dedicated professional, athletic and with room to grow.

At that stage, the expectation was that he would move to the Championship.

Sunderland managed to sign him, and the results were clear.

The Black Cats improved markedly, their XG in those opening ten games of the season dropping to just 0.79 per game.

Ross noted that while Jon McLaughlin had been a key figure as Sunderland kept clean sheets aplenty in the early stages of the previous campaign, now he had less to do even as his side failed to register shutouts.

In short, then, there was a platform for Parkinson to build on.

After a difficult start, that is exactly what he did.

The switch to a 3-4-3 system brought improved performances from players like Flanagan, who have clearly benefited from the defensive coaching on offer.

Denver Hume, too, is a player whose defensive game is going from strength to strength.

It has not gone unnoticed that over time, the youngster has begun to throw himself into challenges with a gusto in stark contrast to some of his early appearances.

What was a problem position twelve months ago is now well and truly locked down.

Bailey Wright has proved a superb addition, and indeed it is testament to Parkinson’s structure that the serious injury he sustained last season did not lead to a major drop-off in Sunderland’s defensive numbers.

Injuries will present a conundrum for Parkinson in the final days of the transfer window, but the preferred back five is now fixed in a way it never has been in Sunderland’s League One spell so far.

A further boost for Parkinson this season has been the outstanding form of Grant Leadbitter, seizing the holding midfield role and adding another layer of protection for his side.

Leadbitter has been one of the players to struggle for form during those dismal cup exits in the midwinter of 2019, and has spoken candidly, movingly and inspirationally about that period this week.

Many had wondered how prominent he would be in the final year of his contract but right from early pre-season, Parkinson and his backroom staff were buoyed by his superb output in training.

Leadbitter was going above and beyond, specially-tailored sessions Nick Allamby boosting his fitness.

Parkinson recently played down reports linking him with a move for Leeds United midfielder Robbie Gotts, who had been on the club’s radar over the summer.

That made immediate sense. Leadbitter’s performances, as well as Dan Neil’s, had significantly reduced the need for strengthening that part of the pitch.

Though the picture was perhaps not as bad as it first appeared in October 2019, this is one department where Parkinson’s work is undoubtedly clear.

It says everything that while once supporters would have felt on edge against most sides in the league, this side of the Black Cats’ game is now the main reason many would put forward if asked what was most likely to get them over the line in terms of automatic promotion.

On his arrival, Parkinson said that the Sunderland side he had watched and analysed were ‘too loose’ and ‘too open’.

Twelve months on, no one would accuse his side of that.

The changing boardroom climate and where it’s left the Black Cats boss

One of the most obvious questions to put to Parkinson at his introductory press conference was to try and determine exactly where the club stood off the pitch.

Ross’ departure, of course, had come twitch the side sitting in a decent position in the table and amid rumours that the FPP takeover had collapsed (denied on twitter by Donald).

It seemed obvious that Parkinson, so bruised by what he had experienced at Bolton, would have asked exactly the same during the recruitment process.

At this stage, a club official interjected.

A manager of Parkinson’s experience and calibre, they said, would not have taken a job unless they were confident that it stable both in terms of its finances and its leadership.

Parkinson subsequently concurred, and said he had been satisfied with what we had been told.

Fans would later discover that there would indeed be no takeover from FPP, but that a significant sum would be injected as a loan, instead.

There has, in a year in charge, barely been the slightest hint of dissatisfaction from the Black Cats boss even as the feeling towards the club ownership from supporters has reached a crescendo.

Part of that is because of a genuinely strong relationship with Stewart Donald, and part of it is the pragmatism of a manager now long in the tooth.

Whenever takeover talk has been raised, Parkinson has played it with the straightest and deadest of bats.

This, he always says, is the reality of life as a manager in the EFL.

You have to learn to live with it, block it out, and do your job regardless.

Such a view extends to pretty much any outside noise, which Parkinson clearly has a hard-earned capacity to ignore.

Even in the depths of his first few months, the Black Cats seemed almost entirely unmoved.

This at times could come across as an inability to grasp the scale of the discontent around the city, and often left fans feeling utterly detached from what was being said about the games they were watching.

For Parkinson, it was because, as was something of a mantra around the training ground, he knew what needed to be done and how to get there.

It has nevertheless been yet another fractious year on Wearside and even if Parkinson keeps his cards close to his chest on off-pitch matters, he has been unable to avoid entirely the continued change.

As manager, he finds himself at the heart of a club grappling with where it stands now, and where it wants to go.

It was a tumultuous summer, Parkinson had to contend with the significant disruption that came with a complete overhaul of the club’s recruitment department.

Richard Hill and Tony Coton left the club, positions that are still to be filled.

Jim Rodwell’s appointment as Chief Executive clearly went some way to filling the void, as did the increased influence of non-executive director David Jones.

The scouting department nevertheless remained threadbare, leaving Parkinson with a major role in identifying and indeed signing players.

This was unquestionably a challenge, particularly in the context of the financial uncertainty sparked by the pandemic, and the salary cap rules that slashed Sunderland’s budget overnight.

The need and want for established quality at this level (Wright, O’Brien), has been balanced with the influence of Jones, Rodwell and others, who have argued for the greater use of data in Sunderland’s work going forwards.

‘Creating value in the team’ has been a mantra all summer and that means bringing in players like Arbenit Xhemajli, players with potential to be realised and, theoretically, a high ceiling in the years to come.

The change of influence behind the scenes has also brought a renewed focus on the Academy, after fans rightly lamented the persistent sales of young players for a fraction of their potential value.

The upshot has been a directive from the top to bring the U23s back to being a reserve unit, mirroring Parkinson’s shape and style at senior level.

There is pressure, too, to ensure the pathway that was not there for Bali Mumba, for example, is there for Jack Diamond and Dan Neil.

Parkinson himself has raised the stakes on this front, citing it as another reason for his decision to exclude McGeady.

That is something fans will hold him to over the course of the campaign.

All of this makes for one of the interesting aspects of Parkinson’s tenure.

Brought in as a League One specialist, primed to bridge the narrow margins between promotion and just missing out.

A year on, a takeover has still not happened, uncertainty reigns and Parkinson is at the heart of a new group trying to drive the club on day-to-day.

They are doing so not sure whether or when there will be a new regime in charge, or how the pandemic will affect the club’s operations in the medium term.

Promotion to the Championship remains the obvious and clear priority but it feels as the brief has changed in some subtle and slight ways.

The final third: A hurdle still to overcome

Early in his tenure, Parkinson sat down in the Academy of Light to answer questions put forward directly by Sunderland supporters.

Unsurprisingly, the issue of the club’s strikeforce was front and centre.

Sunderland had almost £4 million of striking talent in their ranks and yet the results had been underwhelming.

Parkinson, generally, is a manager who says plenty with as few words as possible. His remarks in the press are rarely explosive and his answers rarely elaborate for the sake of it, but he will answer any question and do so directly.

On this issue, his remarks were pointed. It was a question of service. Charlie Wyke, he said, scores his goals from crosses into the box.

Good teams, Parkinson added, play to the strengths of their strikers.

The results, up to this stage, have been mixed.

Parkinson has managed to coax some excellent and broadly consistent displays from his attacking midfielders.

Though he has dropped out of the side this season, the switch to a 3-4-3 system in the early stages of 2020 gave Lynden Gooch the central role he craved and his response was nothing short of exemplary.

Under Ross he became a senior player and in the year since, he has become an indispensable one as far as the general squad has been concerned.

Chris Maguire, too, has been a force to be reckoned with.

In his first season on Wearside he was a cult hero, but his place in the side wasn’t always secure.

There was a pivotal moment later in the season where Maguire’s outstanding intervention from the bench rescued a point against the visiting Stanley side.

Afterwards, Ross spoke honestly about his contribution. Chris Maguire playing like that, he said, will *always* be in my XI. The clear inference being that this was a level he needed to reach more often.

In 2020, he has.

Parkinson has managed him cannily, directly engaging the player and his agent early on his tenure.

If you want another extension, he stated, you will have to earn it.

Fitness and consistency of performance will be key and the response was emphatic. Even now, Parkinson rarely takes the opportunity to be effusive in his public praise for the 31-year-old.

Even after a bright start to the season, he has drawn attention to the form of Josh Scowen and the pressure that is putting on Maguire.

The form of those attacking midfielders, while hugely welcome, has also reflected the paucity of the output from those centre-forwards.

Shortly after his departure, Ross held a talk-in and was asked about the struggles Grigg had endured since arriving.

The Black Cats boss was honest, though rejected claims that his side hadn’t created chances for the Northern Irishman.

Shortly after the Scot joked that since his departure, Grigg had scored twice. Maybe it was just down to him after all, he deadpanned.

Those remarks, of course, came after a lively Grigg was at the heart of a 5-0 rout of Tranmere Rovers.

This was Grigg’s best Sunderland performance, dropping deep to link up play, stretching the opposition defence out of possession.

He was terrific, a performance notable because it also produced his last competitive goal for the Black Cats.

Parkinson, like Ross, has suffered from the intense scrutiny that came with Grigg’s arrival and the circumstances of it, which returned to prominence after the release of Sunderland ‘Til I Die Season.

Ross, for his part, was always caught between protecting the player and trying to highlight the structural flaws the overpriced deal reflected at the club.

On the pitch, the puzzle still hasn’t been solved and there remains much work to be done in the final third.

Under Ross, Sunderland managed 1.68 goals-per-game in League One. Their expected-goals tally was 1.38 a game. The difference between those two numbers was oft-explained by the clinical brilliance of Maja.

Under Parkinson, the XG tally is up to 1.55, but the goals-per-game tally is down to 1.24.

By and large, he has gone with Charlie Wyke up front and while his pressing has been important to the team as a whole, his tally of four league goals is modest.

Indeed, the starting strikers have contributed just seven league goals during Parkinson’s 29 league games at the helm.

Last season, Aiden McGeady was the only player in the top 30 of League One for shots-per-90-minutes.

So far this season, only Power and Maguire feature.

On key attacking metrics such as touches in the box and XG, Sunderland’s tally is encouraging if not exceptional, and not dominant in the way their defensive numbers undoubtedly are.

Finishing, though, has not been clinical enough and in the tight margins between the top six and the top two, that can make all the difference.

Parkinson has shifted his formation slightly to try and address exactly that this season.

The now 3-5-2 shape accommodates an extra striker, often Aiden O’Brien, and the Irishman has proved an interesting case in point.

He has reinforced Sunderland’s pressing, and displays a willingness to stretch the opposition defence that was clearly lacking.

That he has had more shots than any Sunderland striker speaks to his intelligence in picking up good positions. For now, though, the finish remains elusive.

The subtle shift, in theory, also allows for the second central midfielder to get higher up the pitch.

Max Power’s hugely increased shot tally again reflects that. Again, though, the finish remains elusive.

Danny Graham has shown his quality at times and is building his match fitness (his XG of 0.74-per-game is also far superior to his team-mates, in an admittedly small sample), but the concern for supporters rests mainly on the lack of pace in the side.

Hume and Willis can provide it, and have the capacity to open up the pitch from deep, but in the final third it is lacking.

Parkinson was asked about this recently and while he said some extra pace would be ‘ideal’, he also pointed to Benji Kimpioka and Jack Diamond.

Even if Parkinson has allayed concerns over long-ball and aimless football (their long-pass percentage last season was fourth in the league last season, but top for accuracy and they were also third for total passes), many remain unconvinced that the incision required is there.

Where we’ve got and what needs to come next

The bar was set high for Parkinson from the moment his appointment was announced.

Donald noted his ‘proven track record’ at achieving promotion, and said his references from within the game had ‘set him apart’ from other candidates.

A year on, there has been evidence of that experience and knowledge in drilling a team for the rigours of League One.

Progress has evidently been made in some areas, and much still needs to be done in others.

Though promotion was the aim last season, the early curtailment of the campaign and the wider context of COVID-19 offered mitigation.

Yet it is also undeniable that his points-per-game record (from a smaller sample size) is inferior to his predecessor, at 1.66 compared to 1.82.

It seems remarkable, given everything that has happened in the year since his appointment, that Parkinson has only overseen 29 league games.

Tracking at two-points-per-game after a difficult opening set of fixtures, the Black Cats boss can point to a platform set.

After a turbulent year, a hectic fixture schedule means the demand is to build on it.

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