Robbie rolls out Big Sam blueprint in a bid to stop dodgy defence
ROBBIE Stockdale will roll out the Sam Allardyce blueprint as he looks to halt Sunderland’s slide at Middlesbrough.
Stockdale was promoted to first-team coach by Allardyce two years ago, when Big Sam took over a side that was sitting next-to-bottom of the Premier League and shipping goals at an alarming rate.
And Allardyce’s first priority was to tighten up the defence to provide the platform which eventually saw Sunderland reach safety.
Caretaker-manager Stockdale has inherited a similar situation, albeit with Sunderland now bottom of the Championship, and intends to use some of the lessons he learned in that seven-month spell working under Big Sam.
“I would say as a player and a coach, you take things from everybody,” said Stockdale, who has been put in temporary charge along with Billy McKinlay.
“Sam was a big influence on me no doubt but there were things that David [Moyes] and Simon [Grayson] did that you think yeah, I agree with that. You’re always taking those nuggets of information on board.
“If we want to keep clean sheets, we need 11 players to be getting it right.
“We’ll organise them as best we can, the players will know their roles and responsibilities, and we are very confident that if they fulfil those, we will get a result. We haven’t got an awful lot of time to work on the finer details, but we have to do what we can.
“Usually when teams are at the wrong end of the table and struggling to win games, scoring goals is the problem. With us, it’s the other way around.
“We are going to try and work on that and address it.
“It will be difficult against Middlesbrough because they have some good attacking players, but that [keeping a clean sheet] has to be the starting point for any team.”
Sunderland are the only side in the Championship who have yet to keep a clean sheet this season, and only one team has conceded more goals than the Black Cats’ tally of 30.
Sunderland drew 3-3 at Brentford, and the scoreline was the same in Grayson’s final home game against Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night.
“Certainly we’ve conceded too many goals and that needs addressing,” said Stockdale.
“We can’t be scoring three goals and drawing the game, certainly not.
“We’ve been in winning positions where we should have held on, and we have also been in drawing positions where we should not have lost.”
Sunderland face a tough test against a side expected to challenge for automatic promotion, but Stockdale says his team must restore pride.
He said: “We are going to need to stick our chests out, be proud, and give the fans what they expect.
“We need to play with more quality, but certainly we need to go there and put a display on that makes everybody proud again. What I have seen is a lack of confidence when things are not going well. If there is ever a game to regain that confidence, it is this one on Sunday.”