Phil Smith's Sunderland AFC verdict: What impressive Leeds win showed us and where head coach search stands

There had been a subtle trail of what was to come in Mike Dodds’ pre-match press conference, even if it was not immediately apparent at the time.

Dodds had been asked about selection and in particular selection up front, and had an interesting view on his side. We’re around six months away in our development from being able to impose our style on any team we face at this level, he said. As such, every selection will have at least an element of horses for courses about it. Sunderland have strong principles about how they want to play but the quality at the very top of the league demands flexibility - at least for now.

So Dodds made the call, always a brave one, to change a side that had played well just days before and significantly so. Sunderland switched to a back three, dropped Jobe Bellingham back into midfield and pushed Alex Pritchard up to lead the line.

The premise was relatively simple, to deny the space in which Leeds United’s wide players and forwards have proved themselves to be amongst the very best in the division. To execute it was another matter entirely, and the endeavour with which Sunderland snapped into their defensive work for 90 minutes was a ringing endorsement of both the respect and support Dodds has within the dressing room. 

Daniel Farke damned Sunderland with the faintest of praise after the game, praising their defensive application but making numerous barbed references to the parking of a bus. Sunderland’s winner was dismissed as a coincidence. Leeds certainly dominated possession but Farke’s analysis belied the fact that Sunderland created the better chances in both halves of the game, and not just from set pieces. Though in the first fifteen minutes of the game they had struggled to get up the pitch and flood the box in their new shape, that quickly began to change as Jack Clarke saw more and more of the ball.

They were the better side in the game, even if they spent most of it without the ball. Dodds had taken a risk but it was a well calculated one.

It was a selection and a game plan that was also interesting in the wider context of the club and its next steps. Tony Mowbray had left a question hanging in the air in the days before his departure from the club, pondering whether the right balance between development and winning could be found. The clear inference was that he felt there was a pressure placed on him this season to focus on the former and that it would inevitably be at the expense of the latter.

There was a pragmatism about Dodds’ approach that Mowbray had clearly felt was not in his remit to deploy. Pritchard led the line for the vast majority of this game and when replaced in stoppage time it was by Bradley Dack, the four summer recruits left on the bench. Pritchard, a player who the club were prepared to lose in the summer, received a standing ovation upon his departure after once again underlining the value of his experience and craft. Yet Dodds also managed to find more game time for Abdoullah Ba and most interestingly for Jenson Seelt, who produced an excellent display that represented a big step forward in his Sunderland career. The defender is emerging as a major set piece threat, and here impressed both in and out of possession. 

The win was significant in cementing Sunderland’s play-off credentials and in the shorter term, in relieving yet more pressure on the club’s search for Mowbray’s successor. Noise around Will Still stepped up considerably in the hours before this game, and it is clear that he represents in many ways an ideal candidate for Kyril Louis-Dreyfus. Up and coming, bilingual, tactically astute, and a track record of overperforming his budget at Reims to date. 

What has been clear from the off is that it would not be an easy deal to do, either in convincing Still to move to the Championship or in agreeing a deal with Reims themselves.

At this stage, what we can say with certainty is that nothing is imminent. Sources were keen to stress that the club had spoken to a number of candidates and as recently as Monday night, the expectation behind the scenes was that Dodds would more than likely be in situ for the trip to Bristol City on Saturday. Dodds himself is certainly preparing for that eventuality at this stage, after a rare day off on Wednesday.

Dodds has shown that he can maintain Sunderland’s top-six hopes while the search for the right candidate continues, and every impressive performance further raises the prospect of a significantly longer spell at the helm if Louis-Dreyfus’ search does not yield a result - at least not immediately. 

Whoever eventually ends up at the helm, Dodds has underlined his importance to the long-term project and it is fair to say that this game has transformed any lingering doubts externally about his ability. He had promised to do things his way this time around and he most certainly did that with this win. 

This is not exactly how Sunderland want to play in the long run, the brief being clear to dominate the ball and dictate the tempo of the game. And yet the aggression, the application and the speed of the play in transition were absolutely hallmarks of the style the hierarchy want to see. It was a night that showed the value of a little flexibility, at least for now.