Jordan Willis discusses Sunderland's system, his attacking role and THAT assist

Phil Parkinson’s 3-4-3 system has been producing some exciting attacking play and Willis has been keep to it, overlapping in a style similar to Sheffield United’s recent success.

His regular forays forward were a source of delight for the home support and Willis says it comes naturally to him.

"I think it's just vital in our play,” he said.

“We want the wing-backs high and wide, it gives me the space to come into that wider area and the movement down the sides gives me that opportunity to carry on driving forward.

“It's something we've worked on. It does come a little bit naturally as I've played right back before, but it's also a side of my game we're going to continue working on.

"You can see how effective the system is when they [Sheffield United] do it, and hopefully we can keep doing it in that manner and it will bring us good results.

“The combinations and the movement off the ball [for the second goal], I think that's very key to how we want to play. The movement off the ball to make angles for everyone. It was a brilliant finish from Denver in the end."

Willis believes an added benefit of the shape is that it is not compromising Sunderland’s defensive play, and urged his side to keep building momentum.

"The defensive side doesn't really change too much because when one wing-back pushes on, the other comes around and almost fills in as a full back.

"There's little things when you might have to shift around a bit more, but I think it allows us to press a lot higher up the pitch and win the ball back. That's been vital and you can see that on the pitch where we're winning tackles, getting blocks in and keeping the pressure on.

"Things are really starting to click. We need to keep that going, keep improving, and not take our foot off the gas, [so we can] look back at the end of the season and say we are where we wanted to be.”