Stephen Elliott: This is what Lee Johnson will have learned on his frantic first afternoon as Sunderland boss

With a whirlwind couple of days late in the week that seemingly set in place a new blueprint on how the club will be run, it was back to the important business on the pitch on Saturday.

It’s not often a new manager or “head coach”, if we are to use Lee Johnson’s official title, takes to the dugout so soon after signing on the dotted line. Usually a new guy taking over will watch from the stands, observing and analysing his team from a distance before taking the reins fully on the Monday morning.

Interestingly, Johnson decided to break this protocol and was straight onto the front line before the ink on his contract even had the chance to dry. With the opposition struggling for form and sitting adrift at the bottom of the table, he obviously felt it was a good time to nab his first win and get things off to a flyer. While it didn’t quite go the way he might have expected, it would have certainly been a valuable afternoon education for the new man.

There was a new 4-3-3 formation on show and in the early stages Sunderland looked like a different team compared to what we have seen in recent weeks. With the returning Aiden McGeady back in the starting line-up after his long omission, the team played on the front foot with a high tempo and found themselves primarily in the Wigan Athletic half.

It didn’t last long though as on fifteen minutes, and in typical Sunderland style, the team gave up a soft and sloppy goal to the Latics. The usually dependable Bailey Wright was outmuscled by Kyle Joseph, and the Wigan attacker fired past a helpless Lee Burge.

After their goal, Wigan looked comfortable and Sunderland struggled to show any indication that they were going to create something which would have got them back into the game. McGeady aside, who looked sharp and was unlucky with a couple of efforts, Sunderland put in another lacklustre performance in what has been a poor season to date.

Johnson, I presume, will have learned a lot about his squad of players and if he was not aware already, he’ll conclude that confidence amongst the squad is low. The lack of sharpness and end-product in the team’s play is also clear.

Phil Parkinson lost his job last week and while this was the correct decision, a lot of these players have been nowhere near the level required to be deserving of representing this football club. The new manager has a big job on his hands to improve this group and if he cannot, then I have a feeling he won’t hang about in replacing them. It’s up to the players to find that bit extra now as some of their Sunderland careers could be depending on it.

New Sporting Director Kristjaan Speakman and Johnson will no doubt be banging their heads together over the next few weeks in trying to put a plan in place to make this club succeed again. I wish them both the best of luck and really hope they can be successful.

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