The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Dodds lets ‘risk-averse’ Cats off leash
MIKE Dodds paid his tribute to Sunderland legend Charlie Hurley after news of the 87-year-old’s death.
The club’s interim head coach is preparing for tomorrow’s trip to Watford, their penultimate Championship fixture of the season.
But he took time out to express his sympathy to the family and friends of the former Sunderland superstar who made a huge impression in more than 400 games.
“From my perspective I don’t think there’s any words I can find to explain how important he was to this football club and not just the club, obviously the football world,” said Dodds.
“You look at the general outpouring on social media for him and I think that kind of speaks volumes. From my perspective and the players and the staff it’s obviously just sending our thoughts out to the family and friends at this point.
“He is obviously a huge legend at the football club. I’ve been here a short time and he was one of the first names that was explained to me on the stadium tour as important to the club in terms of more than 400 league games and player of the century voted by the fans.
“There’s no real words I can find to justify how important he was, not just to the people of Sunderland and the north east, but the wider football world.”
Dodds is still smarting from the Millwall defeat last week in which he said he was “bored” by his team’s performance.
“When I sat down with the lads I said I was bored watching them play which hasn’t been labelled at them for a long time I wouldn’t have thought,” he said.
“They [Millwall] have picked up points to other teams playing the way they play and they did the exact same thing to us as they did to some of the other clubs.
“That was my anger and frustration. We spoke all week about not letting them [Millwall] bank up and survive and we knew they would wait for that one opportunity which they had done in previous games and that’s exactly what they did.
“They painted their own picture and we allowed them to do that so that was a real frustration. We have debriefed it, spoken about it, had some honest conversations and we have to move on.”
Asked why some players weren’t playing with more freedom, with 16-year-old Chris Rigg an exception, he said. “It’s not an age thing, it’s a mentality thing.
“You can be 30-plus years old and have a psychological block when you need a player to take a risk and pass forward quicker or risk turning the ball over.
“Chris is a really good example in terms of his mentality.
“That was one of the things we spoke about, taking a few more risks in possession and we spoke so much about their [Millwall’s] threat in transition it became sort of a negative in the game because we became risk averse. We thought ‘passes would be cut out and that’s what they survive on.’
“That being said, that’s just being a good player. I think the best players at the highest level make the right decisions nine times out of 10 and that’s what this group has to realise and that’s part of my responsibility. To continue to coach them and work with them because if they don’t come over that hill, or that hurdle, they won’t get to where they want to get to and ultimately where we want to get to as a club.”