Mike Dodds delivers strong verdict on what went wrong in dismal first-half Sunderland performance

Mike Dodds admitted his Sunderland set up didn't work but insisted that the players had to take their share of the blame for a woeful first half performance.

The Black Cats fell 2-0 behind to Swansea City after a Ronald brace, and in truth they could have been either further behind on balance of play. Sunderland were much improved after switching from Dodds' back three to a more familiar 4-3-3 shape, with Luke O'Nien scoring a late goal to half the deficit.

Dodds said he would take the defeat on the chin but felt it was the mentality, rather than the system, that was the biggest issue. Sunderland are now eight points adrift of the top six.

"It didn't work, it doesn't take an expert to see that," Dodds said.

"One thing I demonstrated last time I did this and that'll I'll keep reiterating is that while I'm in this position I'll continue to make bold decisions. Sometimes that will be a positive, sometimes a negative. The ironic thing is we wanted to be really bold and aggressive in terms of tagging certain players, we were actually more reserved in terms of set up in the second half and yet we looked more aggressive.

"In the first half we went with a back three and almost when man-for-man on their front three, we tried to get more bodies higher up the pitch because we knew the style that they would like to play. I wasn't happy in terms of how aggressive we were, getting tighter to players. We can talk about tactics all day but when I watch it back I think I'll be most disappointed about the other side of the game, landing on second balls, tracking runners off your shoulder. They're the bits I'll be most disappointed with, I think.

"That's the question I've just posed of the players, how can we set up in a way that is more aggressive and then we have more players actually behind the ball, look more aggressive? That's something that I need to go and pick the bones out of. Clearly in the first half there was a lot that I wasn't happy with but the second half was miles better.

"We've got to take that first 45 on the chin, me, the staff and the players," he added.

"I wouldn't have sent the players out if I wasn't confident the message was really clear, so that's something as a collective that we all have to take on the chin.

"I know I've been really bold in terms of my decisions and how I've tried to set up, I'm not going to take all the responsibility because it's a relationship between me and the players. There was clearly a mentality switch in the second half, we were a lot more aggressive and on the front foot, and our quality on the ball was miles better. That's not a tactics thing."

The absences of Jack Clarke and Dan Ballard were keenly felt but Dodds said there was no excuse for the first half.

"Any team in this league would miss Jack Clarke and Dan Ballard, but I won't make excuses," he said.

"I won't shirk away from the responsibility of being head coach and the fact that the first 45 wasn't acceptable."