Tony Mowbray explains Sunderland's plans for the international break and the Burnley dilemma he's facing

Tony Mowbray says Sunderland have shown they can go and compete at Burnley after the international break, but has warned that the schedule will undoubtedly have an impact on their preparation.
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The game being moved to a Friday night after being selected by Sky Sports for live coverage will pose a challenge to both teams, with seven of Mowbray's squad on international duty during the break.

With a handful of those in action in the early part of next week, preparation time for Burnley will be limited.

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As such, Mowbray's focus over the next week will be on individual work with the small number of senior players available for training.

Sunderland boss Tony MowbraySunderland boss Tony Mowbray
Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray

Sunderland took four points from their three fixtures against top-seven sides last week, and the head coach says that even with the key gaps in the squad at the moment, his players should be optimistic and looking to play on the front foot.

"We are treating these games against individual events where we have to turn about and show that we are ready for and compete," Mowbray said.

"During the international break I think we've got seven going away - in training on Friday we had sixteen available to train and we brought some up from the U18s/21s to be able to do some work ten-v-ten. So that tells you if we have seven or eight away [we'll be light on numbers] so we will be working on them individually. Wingers on their crossing, strikers on their finishing, defenders on their individual qualities etc. We're here to try and improve the players.

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"It's very difficult during these breaks to work on the team for the next game, especially as we are playing Burnley on the Friday night. Three or four of them won't be back until Wednesday afternoon and so we'll have a day to work as a team, and some of these players will have had a couple of games abroad.

"I try and tell them that they're not far away. We have to get some injuries back, recruitment right in the summer.

"We have the nucleus of a really good, exciting team and so we have to stick together and keep going. We should look forward to Burnley, we'll go and be positive like we did at Fulham and at Norwich, and play on the front foot and test them out."

One positive of the break for Mowbray is that he expects it will move Alex Pritchard and Lynden Gooch closer to competing for a starting place after their recent injuries.

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Both have come off the bench in Sunderland's two most recent fixtures and played a key part in the 1-1 draw with Luton Town on Saturday, and will add welcome competition and depth.

Sunderland also retain hope that Dennis Cirkin will be back at some stage after the break, though that depends on his recovering fully from his concussion.

"We have experienced players in Alex Pritchard and Lynden Gooch on the bench, and yet I don't think it's right so soon after their injury to expose them to back-to-back 90 minutes," Mowbray had said ahead of the Luton Town game.

"I think after the international break they'll be in a better place because we can get a lot of work into them and they'll be robust."