Phil Smith takes questions from fans after Sunderland ended their seven-game winless run at Cardiff City
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00:00 Hello and welcome to another edition of On The Whistle, a very special edition of On
00:16 The Whistle because we have a Sunderland win to talk about finally after seven games we
00:19 can talk about not just a Sunderland win but a really good Sunderland performance. Apologies
00:25 for the slight change of scenery, obviously I usually come to you from the ground, from
00:28 the press box but to be honest Cardiff is such a long way away, hopefully you can forgive
00:32 me, I wanted to get straight home so I thought instead what I'll do is I'll pour myself a
00:37 glass of whiskey and we'll have a bit of a late night debrief. A good afternoon watching
00:43 the side, I think that was the nice thing, it wasn't just that Sunderland found a way
00:47 to win, they actually looked like the team that we sort of grew accustomed to over the
00:52 last 18 months before this sort of terrible run of form. A really classic away performance
00:58 in that they were happy for Cardiff to have the ball, Sunderland didn't dominate the game
01:02 in terms of possession but I felt that they kept Cardiff at arm's length and the key thing
01:07 was that every time they got the ball they played with real purpose. The counter-attacking
01:11 was excellent and they could have scored at least double what they did. Cardiff only really
01:16 threatened from set-pieces I think, which I suppose is always a bit of a worry with
01:20 the Sunderland team because we know they're not great on that front but a really sort
01:24 of vibrant performance from Sunderland and long overdue, certainly one they need to back
01:29 up but obviously really nice for us to be able to see that talent that we know is there.
01:34 It was really interesting, someone tweeted me during the game when Sunderland were 2-0
01:38 up and created loads of chances and said 'what's changed then?' and I think there's probably
01:43 a couple of things that I think sum up the performance. I think one is just confidence,
01:46 I think it's a young team and they got the break they needed, the penalty decision early
01:51 on Cardiff had actually started the game really well. Was it a penalty? I'm not 100% sure,
01:55 there's definitely a push on Joe's back. Some referees aren't going to give it but I felt
02:00 Sunderland just got the look they needed and you could see the confidence come back and
02:04 maybe that's just a by-product of the fact that it is such a young team. It was actually
02:11 the first time since Michael Beale's last game in charge that they've taken the lead
02:16 in the game and I think you could feel almost the pressure come off them and it feels as
02:19 if they could relax and show what they're all about. The other big thing that I thought
02:23 changed was Dodds moving Job back up front. It's something that I think a few of us have
02:29 kind of wanted to see for a while because he did such a decent job of it earlier in
02:33 the season. I thought he was exceptional today, I thought it was quite incredible actually
02:38 to watch an 18-year-old perform at that level in what is pretty much the hardest position
02:41 in the pitch. He got his goal, showed that movement in the box which was great but it
02:46 was all round game, held the ball up, stole the ball off defenders, brought other players
02:51 into play, ran the channels at times. I thought it was an outstanding performance and the
02:57 biggest credit you can give him I think is that he brought the players around him into
03:00 the game. So I think that was kind of the two big things for me today. I think one was
03:04 that Sunderland probably got a bit of a lucky break, that brought the confidence back and
03:08 the other thing was I think, I just think Job was so good that he gave Sunderland a
03:13 platform that they've been missing so much in the final third. That's not to say he
03:17 was the only good performer, I thought they were excellent performances right the way
03:20 through the team. Daniel was excellent again, Pierre Ecouart, really good on his return
03:25 to the start in XI. Aushija again, a goal assist, took his penalty so well it was almost
03:30 like Fabio Bereni, how emphatically he took it which was great to see. So yeah, it was
03:35 really sort of a pleasing afternoon. You don't want to get too carried away do you because
03:39 it's been such a disappointing few weeks but hopefully the start of a bit of a brighter
03:43 end to the season. So thanks for sending your questions and comments in. To be honest, I
03:47 kind of assumed that you'd all just go to the pub to celebrate a win in the bank holiday.
03:52 Maybe you've done both but really nice to get all your comments so thanks for that.
03:56 First one from Dean saying, "Thoroughly enjoyed watching that this afternoon, our best 90
03:59 minute performance in months." Definitely agree. Obviously you've got to factor in the
04:03 opposition, you know I do think Cardiff were really poor but for me that's the most complete
04:07 performance Sunderland have produced probably since their win over Leeds I think or maybe
04:12 certainly the Leeds and West Brom game right after Tony Mowbray left. It's certainly the
04:16 first time that I felt since Mowbray left really that Sunderland could score at any
04:21 moment in the game. It's the first time they've played with that fluidity and that confidence
04:25 and you feel like they can really hurt the opposition. And you know fair play to the
04:29 players on the pitch and fair play to Mike Dodds because that's still without Jack Hart
04:33 and Patrick Roberts. There are some players coming back to fitness now but that wasn't
04:38 by any means a full strength team or is how we would understand it, players like Chris
04:42 Rigg off the right, Barra I thought had a threat at times. So credit to Dodds and the
04:49 players that they were able to produce that level of performance with those that are missing.
04:53 Tony sort of on a theme that we've been talking about says, "Ausishe's passes don't always
04:57 come off but I think he brings great energy to the attack, linked well with Job." Totally
05:02 agree. Part of that credit goes to Job as well for being that player who Ausishe can
05:06 bounce off but he's someone I really love watching. He takes brave options which you've
05:11 got to do in that position, that's how you create. That was a lovely cross for Job's
05:15 goal and full of clever little touches, little flicks. But the thing for me with Ausishe
05:21 is, and you sort of alluded to it there Tony, is work rate is exceptional. He presses and
05:25 presses and presses and runs and you're factoring as well that he's observing Ramadan at the
05:31 moment so he's fasting. The physical output that he's producing for the team in that context
05:37 is something really quite remarkable. I think this is a really disappointing period generally
05:44 for the team and I think we're all disappointed with how the season's ebbed away. One big
05:47 positive is for me that at the moment, the consistency with Ausishe's playing and the
05:53 attitude and work rates, for me he's emerging as someone who I think is going to have a
05:57 big role to play next season and someone that you can start to depend on a little bit. Obviously
06:02 he needs to maintain it but that's really encouraging for me so hopefully that's something
06:06 that can continue. Then we've got a few of you who've all asked a question around a similar
06:11 theme. Tim and David both saying, "Will Dodds persist with playing Job up front until the
06:16 end of the season?" and another question asking what I think Job's best position is. I think
06:21 Job has to stay up front for now because I just think at the moment he's performing in
06:27 that position at a level beyond anybody else in the squad and I think you saw the impact
06:32 it had on the rest of the team the day that he was able to hold the ball up, that he was
06:35 able to offer an outlet. I asked Mike Dodds the exact same question after the game, "Is
06:39 Job going to have to stay up there now just because of how well he did?" Dodds was fairly
06:44 coy on it. The one thing he did say is that Job can play in a huge amount of positions
06:50 and he'll give you 100% which I'm sure we'd all agree with. But he also said that he did
06:55 it today because he felt the team needed that physical platform and I thought Job certainly
07:02 brought that and he did sort of hint that he would stay there. The only reason why he
07:06 didn't definitely commit to saying he'll play up front for the rest of the season is because
07:09 I still think at times he may be in one or two games will still want to try and give
07:14 Hamir an opportunity, maybe Roosen when he's fit again because ultimately if we move towards
07:20 the last couple of games of the season and there's not a huge amount of play for, it
07:24 may be that Dodds wants to bring one of those players in to give them an opportunity to
07:27 give them some more exposure to see how they do. But I certainly think in the short term
07:31 Job's level of performance today sort of demands that he stays in that position and I know
07:35 how keen Dodds is to try and get a bit of the feel-good factor and to try and build
07:40 some momentum. So for that reason, I definitely think we can expect to see Job sort of playing
07:46 up front at least for the next couple of games, at least the next three or four games I think.
07:50 And as I say, maybe the last couple of games you might see him drop back into midfield.
07:55 But I do think at the moment, I think for an 18-year-old to be able to look like not
08:00 just a competent Championship striker but a very good one, it's an extraordinary feat
08:04 and he's a very, very impressive young player.
08:08 Another comment was how good was 0-9, so consistent. I was actually really pleased that someone
08:12 flagged up Luke 0-9's performance because I think if we think back to the QPR game,
08:16 which was deeply disappointing, I thought you actually really saw how important Luke
08:20 0-9 is, not just in terms of his mentality and his energy, but actually his quality in
08:25 bringing the ball out from the back. He can go past players, he can beat the press, he
08:29 can play those passes, you can switch it out to the other flank. I thought he brought
08:35 so much intensity to Sunderland's performance today and so much quality in starting attacks.
08:41 Big part of the reason why Sunderland was so dangerous on the counter today was 0-9's
08:44 quality and possession. He's not the perfect Championship defender by any stretch of the
08:49 imagination, but he's a very consistent one. Sometimes you need a player to drop out of
08:54 the team to really see what they do, if that makes sense. And I think the last couple of
08:59 games and today certainly underline 0-9's performance, not just to the team, but his
09:04 importance to the team as a central defender. So full credit to him for that and I completely
09:08 agree with that comment.
09:09 The last one, I've got a question here from Mike who says, "Do you know why Tommy Watson
09:13 wasn't on the bench today?" A player who, totally understandably, a lot of people are
09:17 talking about because in the absence of Jack Clarke, he's an exciting young player with
09:21 a similar profile and certainly someone you'd like to see if you get more minutes. The simple
09:25 answer to that is that Watson's been recovering from a hamstring injury, which meant that
09:30 to be honest, he was out for pretty much most of the time that Clarke's been out. He obviously
09:34 did come back from that injury over the course of the international break, but the priority
09:40 was, understandably I think, to get his match fitness up. So he played three times in the
09:45 under-21s over the international break. Now what that meant is he didn't have much training
09:49 time with the first team. So Mike Dodds' view was that it was a little bit early to bring
09:54 him back into the first team because he hasn't really been training with those players. Obviously,
09:58 they don't want to increase his workload too much because he's gone from a period of not
10:02 playing to playing three games in two weeks. He hasn't played 90 minutes in all those games,
10:06 but you know what I mean. So the plan is for Watson to start stepping up his first team
10:11 training over the next couple of weeks. I think he'll start training with them, if not
10:16 sort of permanently, then certainly semi-permanently. I definitely think we'll see him in the squad.
10:22 Maybe not on Monday, probably not next Saturday, but you will start to see him filter into
10:25 the squad. I definitely think you'll see him make senior appearances between now and the
10:30 end of the season. So I totally get the question. I think a little bit of patience. I think
10:34 we will see someone like Thomas Watson before the end of the season and that's going to
10:38 be a really exciting prospect. So there we go. That's on the whistle. I hope you enjoyed
10:43 it. I hope you enjoyed the game today. Thank you so much for all your questions and comments.
10:47 I'm now going to go and finish my whiskey and I will see you all on Monday for another
10:51 edition. So get your questions in at full time on Monday and me and James will answer
10:55 them from the stadium light. Thanks very much for watching as ever.
10:57 [END]
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