Michael Beale explains Sunderland's approach at Huddersfield Town and what went wrong

Michael Beale said he felt his side had lost the physical battle after the 1-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night.

Sunderland had come into the game having taken seven points from the last nine, but produced a laboured performance in the first half in particular. Beale had tweaked his set up slightly for the game, with Jobe Bellingham returning to midfield. Abdoullah Ba and Nazariy Rusyn then rotated in a very fluid front three, but the visitors badly struggled to carve out chances.

Beale said he felt his side needed to feed his wide players quicker and took too many touches against Huddersfield's aggressive press.

“We know they go man for man in midfield, so we tried to put an extra one in there," Beale said.

"We tried to play Pierre and Jobe high, and Abdoullah in behind, and we had moments, but we flipped it over. I thought there were times in the first half where we were wasteful, where we broke free and could have got the ball to Jack or Naz earlier, down the sides. When we did get down the side in the first half, some of our quality wasn’t good enough.

“I thought Pearson had a good game against Jack. From the first whistle, he made it physical, and it was difficult for Jack. Rudoni doubled up on him. In the second half, we moved Jobe on that side a bit closer and got some freedom down that side.

“There was a couple of moments where Naz got in down the side in the first half and we weren’t picking people out. Our quality in the final third all night wasn’t good enough. It’s a disappointing night. I felt Huddersfield made it physical in the duels, forcing us back, and there were times in the first half where I felt we had to give a bit back, and I’m not sure we did that well."

SUnderland's reliance on Jack Clarke was also exposed on a rare night where he struggled to impact the contest. Huddersfield Town's goalscorer Matty Pearson produced an even more impressive defensive performance to limit the winger, ably assisted by the tireless Jack Rudoni.

Beale said: “We’ve done okay recently because other people have scored, but we’ve found out tonight that Jack is human because some weeks, he’s been super-human, hasn’t he? He’s been absolutely outstanding. He had a much quieter night, although he still had moments in the game. He still picked passes when he came inside, and in the first half, I thought he was our most composed player.

“It was better in the second half when we had Jobe and Romaine running down with him, but sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition. They’re fighting for their lives and they made it really difficult for us to play our football. We’re going to have to get much better in both boxes.”

Sunderland return to action away at Birmingham City on Saturday afternoon.