Phil Smith's Sunderland AFC verdict: The key questions dismal defeat at Huddersfield left fans pondering

We are going to need to be at it for 90 minutes, Micheal Beale had said the day before this game. 

Beale had seen his side take seven points from nine, and a blistering half hour against Plymouth Argyle had raised some genuine hope that progress was being made. Set against that was the recognition that from game to game, Sunderland were struggling to produce an entirely coherent and commanding performance. 

So if Saturday’s win was a tentative step forward, then this undoubtedly was one step firmly back. Sunderland were desperately poor, particularly in an insipid first half and only marginally better in the second. The simplest way to critique their performance was that it was not until stoppage time that Huddersfield Town goalkeeper Lee Nicholls was called on to make a significant save from Trai Hume, and the one that followed shortly after was to divert his own defender’s clearance over the crossbar. 

Beale had warned his side what was coming, talking at length in his press conference about how the message had been sent loud and clear that this was a Huddersfield side to be taken seriously. In the two games since Darren Moore’s departure, Jon Worthington had seen a big uptick in attacking output and their recent performance data marked them out as one of the most direct sides in the league - and all the more dangerous for it. The test was going to be a physical one for Sunderland and Beale was clear that in too many areas of the pitch they didn’t stand up to it. Dan Ballard and Luke O’Nien generally dominated their respective duels, but that wasn’t the case elsewhere on the pitch and it gave the hosts a platform in the game even if they didn’t necessarily find it any easier to carve out clear chances. 

At half time there weren’t enough Sunderland players who could say they had done themselves justice with their performance, and there have been too many halves of late where that has been the case. It was also true that Sunderland’s set up, with some minor but significant tweaks, had seemingly done very little to help their cause. Beale brought in another central midfielder to try and help that midfield battle he had seen coming in his pre-match preparation, leaving Nazariy Rusn and Abdoullah Ba to rotate between the central and wide right position. At times the latter was almost entirely vacant and the imbalance in the side made it too easy for Huddersfield to double up on Jack Clarke. Matty Pearson and Jack Rudoni were both exceptional in this regard, and with Clarke stifled Sunderland had very little else to offer.

The second half was a touch better in terms of the tempo and the intensity and particularly towards the very end of the game, but Huddersfield had a chance of their own on the break to every one of Sunderland’s.

Beale rued Sunderland’s set-piece lapses afterwards, essentially arguing that it had proved the difference in an otherwise tight game. He also not unreasonably rued the cruel twist that saw his team forced to play the final stages with ten, after Patrick Roberts suffered a hamstring injury with three sets of substitutions already made. With Roberts now looking certain to be sidelined for a few weeks, the consequences of this defeat could go beyond the immediate dent in Sunderland’s play-off hopes.

Beale’s side remain firmly in the race for the top six despite this defeat, but the questions about what kind of team Sunderland are trying to build were underlined by this display. It appears that away from home in particular, Beale has looked to make them harder to beat and to try and create more counter-attacking opportunities. While they do by and large look more resolute from open play, the drop off at the other end has at times felt stark. 

The head coach is faced with some key challenges in selection and style, with a midfield group that is technically excellent but can sometimes look exposed when the game becomes more of a battle like this one. Up front, there have been signs of progress from Rusyn but to say there still remains progress to be made would be an understatement. Beale reasoned afterwards that his side’s inconsistency, both within games and between them, was a reflection of the similarity in quality between the vast majority of teams across the division. The challenge he continues to face is in convincing supporters that his changes are for the better when up until this point, the team has often looked a little muddled and the style hard to discern. Sunderland’s reunion with Tony Mowbray on Saturday will likely bring even more focus to that ongoing debate. 

Sunderland remain very much in contention for the play-off places and one defeat has not changed that, with their inconsistency mirrored by the sides around them. The gap between the top four and the rest is pronounced and Beale’s side have produced points at a level that puts them firmly in the best of the rest category. 

What this performance demonstrated emphatically is that they are going through some significant teething problems at a key stage of the campaign, their direction of travel still uncertain. What kind of team are we going to be, Beale had very fairly asked of his players after the game of two halves against Plymouth. After this one, fans could be forgiven for asking the same thing.