Dan Neil’s honest Sunderland admission after goalscoring issues in frustrating Swansea City draw

Dan Neil admits Sunderland have been too static in the final third against deep-lying defences following a frustrating goalless draw at Swansea.

The Black Cats played against 10 men for over an hour at the Swansea.com Stadium after midfielder Charlie Patino was sent off for receiving two yellow cards. That caused the hosts to defend in numbers, with Sunderland unable to break them down.

“It’s very frustrating,” admitted Neil after the match. “I feel like there’s been a lot of times when I’ve played for Sunderland and teams have gone down to 10 men and we just struggle to break them down. I felt the first 30 minutes were really good, in and out of possession. I thought we dominated, our press was fantastic and they couldn’t really get out of their half. We were forcing errors and cutting through them as well.

Neil had a good chance to open the scoring before Patino’s red card, while the midfielder was given licence to get forward into the opposition’s penalty area, with Trai Hume moving into the centre of the pitch alongside Pierre Ekwah.

“We like to roll Trai inside and go to a back three,” said Neil when asked about his role. “Trai and Pierre sit and because I’m on the right side that gives me chance to break forward and almost become that box in midfield with me and Jobe (Bellingham) in front of Pierre and Trai.

“That’s just the way we’re playing. Some games like where Pierre was out injured I’ll drop in and do Pierre’s job. In this particular game I had to play higher and felt like I was getting a bit of success just picking up them pockets. I’m enjoying playing that role, I’m just a bit gutted I didn’t find a way to put that chance in the back of the net because playing that role I want to score goals and have goals and assists. That one will be on my mind.”

While Sunderland have been working on breaking down teams which sit in a low block,with Patrick Roberts and Jack Clarke regularly receiving the ball out wide, Neil admits the team need more of a cutting edge.

“We’ve been working on it and one of the big things is movement in the box,” Neil replied when asked about trying to break teams down. “I think we are a little bit static. Clarky gets to the byline, Pat gets to the byline and sometimes the cross comes in and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s something we probably need to look at as a team but when the ball does come in the box we are very static in there. There is nobody getting away from men and filling the right zones.

“I don’t know how many times (against Swansea) I’ve counted where the ball has ricocheted to the back post or the ball has been crossed to the back post and there is nobody there to tap it in. They are things that we are constantly working on and clearly need to keep working on them. Hopefully with hard work in training we can start converting them chances into goals.