Sunderland boss gives interesting insight into how his team will approach Coventry City clash

After the trip to Coventry City on Saturday lunchtime there is a welcome pause to the Saturday-Tuesday schedule that has made February such a demanding month, the impact of which was obvious in a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Rotherham United on Tuesday night.

That was, Mowbray felt, also in part because the approach we had tailored to cope with Rotherham's direct, high-intensity style didn't come off.

Sunderland looked more like themselves in a more familiar shape for the final half an hour, though perhaps the state of the game and some growing nerves in the home ranks also played its part there.

Still, Mowbray's message at the Academy of Light since has been that he wants his side to get back to being themselves - both on the training pitch and in matches.

Though he'll continue to adapt based on the threat of the opposition, it seems fewer tweaks are likely come this weekend.

"There has been a lot of information for the players and I was a few minutes late for the press conference because I've just been in a meeting with my coaching staff about how we will approach the rest of this week," Mowbray explained.

"We're going to tone that side of it down, less information and make it very much, 'let's go and enjoy some football today'. Let's do some more generic, football-based sessions where the players can enjoy it, take out that overload of information.

"Let's be good at what we do, play our own game at the weekend and let them worry about us a little bit.

"There's a real diversity in this league and you have to let the players know what is coming, if every throw in and free kick is coming into their box etc.

"But I've said to my staff that we will work to the framework of what we do from now on, and I will tinker for the game that's in front of us - it's about the balance."

Mowbray is monitoring some fresh injury concerns ahead of the game, though Patrick Roberts is set to return to the starting XI.