Phil Smith: Inside Alex Neil's first seven Sunderland games after walking into perfect on and off-pitch storm on Wearside

Lee Johnson was as head coach judged not just on results, but on development of players and most importantly, the development of a style of play that would run as a thread through the whole club.

So, for example, when Sunderland edged past Portsmouth amid a poor run generally in late January, it was three valuable points but a game not seen as particularly helpful to Johnson’s cause.

By now, Sporting Director Kristjaan Speakman and the hierarchy were becoming concerned by the performance levels they felt threatened not just a place in the top two, but a place in the top six.

That judgement has proven a fair one, even if valid criticism remains that given the apparent urgency of the situation, two games were allowed to drift by before Neil’s arrival.

So the new head coach walked into something of a perfect storm.

Discontent over that acrimonious fortnight, over the failure to balance the defence on deadline day, over the continued obfuscation of the club’s ownership structure.

Welcome to Wearside, Alex.

The brief now had very quickly become results, results, results.

Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a genuine belief behind the scenes at Sunderland that Neil is not a good fit for the club and its philosophy in the long run.

His preferred style fits neatly with the club’s aim of establishing a high-intensity, counterpressing side they believe will align with what Sunderland fans want from their team. In a matter of weeks, Neil has Sunderland from a team whose pressing intensity is middling for the division, to one right at the very top.

And though it didn’t really feel like it as long ball after long ball was launched forward in the first half on Saturday, the expectation is of more dynamic play when there has been time and space to get ideas across. Even if the football has at times been a fairly brutal watch, there has to Neil’s credit thus far always been a willingness to make attacking substitutions in search of a win.

Neil, after all, has made no apologies: for now he will be pragmatic, and debates about style and long-term direction can be had in the summer.

The Scot arrived first and foremost targeting improvements to a defence that had leaked goals to an alarming level over the campaign, particularly on the road.

What he didn’t quite expect was to inherit a squad where there was such a chasm in match fitness. There were a batch of youngsters overexposed and fatiguing rapidly, and a batch of talented senior players well short of their sharpest. Throw in some key medium-term injuries to the mix and Neil was soon making sobering but searingly honest assessments about the task ahead.

This, then, is the context to Neil’s relatively modest return of 12 points from seven games.

There have been no games to waste on giving players the chance to play their way up to speed and into form, while pulling together a defence has often meant sacrificing attacking flair for greater protection.

Take, for example, arguably the most impressive result of Neil’s tenure to date.

It is not, you suspect, in his instincts to tell his two full backs not to venture forward, and to tell his two wingers that their primary job is to stop crosses into the box. Yet it was evident to all that the trip to Wigan would be a step too far for a young defender facing burnout in Callum Doyle, and that left Neil little choice but to hand Arbenit Xhemajli a first league start. Neil knew he could trust Xhemajli to defend resolutely and make good decisions on the ball, but also that he couldn’t leave him or Bailey Wright in too many 1-v-1 situations.

The Kosovan was superb and it was an excellent team display, one where the head coach added significant value. It was also a gameplan that Johnson could rarely have considered implementing given the club’s broader aims during his tenure.

On home turf, where teams sit in and Neil knows he cannot play purely on transition, finding that balance has been far more difficult.

Playing a far more expansive style exposes Sunderland to the counter attack, and as their best attacking players edge towards their best form and fitness they are not as creative as they should be.

This really is a failure of squad composition, and in particular to replace the outstanding Dion Sanderson, the kind of defender whose composure on the ball and speed off it is essential to a more aggressive gameplan.

Fans understandably reserving judgement will be eager to see how the refreshed Dan Neil, the sharper Patrick Roberts and the returning Nathan Broadhead impact the output of this side at the Stadium of Light in particular.

Neil admitted as recently as Saturday that with every game he learns more about his players and by extension, what he can and can’t expect of his team.

The gap between the Dan Neil of Saturday and the Dan Neil of his first two games in charge, he not unfairly pointed out, was vast.

Which is why, seven games in, it is hard to really say what Alex Neil’s Sunderland are.

Which, you suspect, doesn’t particularly bother a head coach who is acutely aware that this is not a season in which you will edge into the top six with an unimpressive points haul.

This will end up being one of the most competitive season’s in the modern history of League One, and so all he can do is eke the most out of his players from match to match.

“All I think about is the next game,” is his most-repeated public mantra.

Perhaps the biggest positive on that front is that particularly defensively, performances have been on a steadily upward curve in those seven games.

Sunderland (again) feels like a club in limbo at the moment.

For much of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus’ first year the mood was upbeat, and the confidence in the new direction was just about absolute.

Now, great debates lie ahead this summer.

Louis-Dreyfus has already said that will be the moment to discuss what next in the club’s complicated shareholding structure, and fans will expect a greater level of clarity on what he intends to do.

On the pitch, Sunderland will have to reflect on where they found themselves in the last two months and ponder whether tweaks to the philosophy, particularly in recruitment, are necessary.

Where Neil fits into that will be fascinating because listening to him so far has strongly suggested he would not be prepared to take such an inexperienced squad into a full campaign. Make no mistake, if Sunderland do not win promotion then the rebuild will likely be every bit as sizeable as it was last summer.

It’s interesting, too, that perhaps the moment at which Neil’s popularity on Wearside reached an early peak was in publicly acknowledging just how poor his side had performed in that win over Fleetwood.

Neil is happy to talk tactics in detail, but his direct and down-to-earth demeanour have quickly resonated with the Sunderland support and in those moments you undoubtedly get the sense of a manager who could be popular and successful.

All things considered, it has been a solid start to a very challenging brief.

For now all that matters is where Sunderland end this campaign but for head coach and club, this is a journey that has barely even got started.

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