Phil Parkinson defends making six Sunderland changes at Gillingham and reveals thinking behind Denver Hume and Jon McLaughlin decisions

Phil Parkinson has explained why he made six changes for the defeat at Gillingham, with the pressure intensifying on the Black Cats boss.
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Sunderland remain 11th after their latest defeat under Parkinson, incredibly he has now lost eight of his opening 12 league and cup games in charge.

Parkinson rolled the dice at Priestfield, Lee Burge dropped, Jon McLaughlin recalled alongside Laurens De Bock, Alim Ozturk, Tom Flanagan, George Dobson and Marc McNulty all recalled.

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Denver Hume was among those to be dropped, the left-back has been one of the few positives of recent weeks. Duncan Watmore and Aiden McGeady didn’t make it off the bench.

Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson.Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson.
Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson.

When quizzed on the six changes, Parkinson said: “Anyone who watched the game know the way Gillingham play, it is an absolute bombardment, long throws, everything into the box at every opportunity.

“We picked a team that we felt was strong enough to deal with that but also had enough quality to play and I thought when we played we did okay.

“There was never going to be loads of football in the game because they don’t allow you to play but I thought in the main we stood strong as a team and were desperately unlucky not to get something.”

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Parkinson added: “The lads gave everything, they are very quiet in there as you’d imagine because we have stood strong, tried to implement what we had spoken about in the week.

“For large parts we did that, we deserved something.”

On whether Hume was unlucky to be dropped, Parkinson said: “Yeah Denver was [unlucky to miss out], Denver had a bit of a stomach strain during the week but trained Friday.

“I just felt that De Bock’s experience and the type of game it was going to be, it is so tight here and so little room to play, that De Bock was the right one to go with on the day.”

And on Jon McLaughlin being restored, Parkinson added: “I just felt Jon was ready to come back in, I felt his performance was very good.

“I felt Jon had trained well and he was ready. His decisions on the ball were good.”