Every word from Mike Dodds after Sunderland's 2-1 defeat to Swansea City.

Luke Williams has said he was surprised by how you set-up but it didn't work?

It didn't work. I don't think you need to be a football expert to see that. One thing that I demonstrated last time and one thing that I'll keep reiterating is, while I'm in this positions I'll make bold decisions. Sometimes that's going to be a positive, sometimes that's going to be a negative. The ironic thing is we wanted to be really bold and aggressive in terms of tagging certain players. Then second-half, in terms of our set-up, we were actually more reserved, but we looked more aggressive. That's the question I've just posed the players.

How can we set up a certain way, that is to be more aggressive and set-up another way which means we have more players behind the ball, but look more aggressive. That's something that I need to pick the bones out of. I could sit here all day and talk around tactics and whatever else. Clearly, first-half there were one or two things that I wasn't happy with. The second-half was miles better. Again, you don't need to be a football expert to see that. We've got to take that first-half on the chin, myself, the staff, the players. I wouldn't have sent the players out if I wasn't confident the message was really, really clear. That's something all of us as a collective can take on the chin.

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Easy to say, but did you miss Jack Clarke because he's an outlet? 

Yeah, listen, Jack Clarke could play in any team and you're going to miss him. Not just Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard. One thing I won't do is come in here and make excuses. I'm not going to sit here and say we lost Jack and lost Dan, with people feeling sorry for me. I won't shirk away from responsibility of being the head coach. I won't shirk away from the first 45 minutes not being acceptable. As the head coach, that's something I'll have to pick the bones out of it.

Callum Styles, handed him his debut, not the afternoon he would have wanted but he's another body?

Yeah, we've got Dan suspended and a couple of injuries. I thought Callum did okay. The change of shape in the second-half meant we could afford to put Romaine on and have more out and out wingers. Yeah, look, naturally I'm disappointed because I was really confident in terms of the set-up. For whatever reason, we weren't as aggressive and we didn't disrupt them as well as what I thought we would do. That's something I'm going to have to reflect on.

You were angry after Bristol City, I get the sense you're not as angry today you're more reflective?

Yeah I was just saying that on the way up. I can see the wood through the trees a little bit with this one. I know I've been really bold in terms of decisions. I know I've been bold in terms of how I tried to set-up. I'm not going to take all the responsibility for it, because, as I said to the players there, this is a relationship between us, and the players. There was definitely a mentality switch in the first-half and the second-half. We were a lot more aggressive and on the front foot.

Not only that, our quality on the ball was miles better. That's not tactics thing. We can sit here and talk tactics. It's not a tactics thing, we were just better with the ball. I'm a little bit more reflective on this one. I think the Bristol one was a different mindset. I'm very clear in terms of where we fell down today. That gives me piece of mind. We've got a really good week ahead of us and I'm really clear in terms of the next three games. We've got to make sure on Saturday that we put the performance right from today.

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Not a great day looking at the league table, where the season is now, what's the balance between improving performance and the league table?

There's still 12 games to go and I am going to be naturally optimistic. I know we've got some really good players. I know the result today isn't going to help that push for the top-six, but we've still got 12 games to go. I'm still confident in the way we work, I'm still confident in terms of the group we've got. As I've just said there, the difference between Bristol and this one, I can see where fell short and that's something that we, myself, staff, players, we've got to take on the chin. I'm looking forward to having a really good week with them. I'm looking forward to the next few games.