They say a week is a long time in football and yet here we are, 66 days on and Mike Dodds is back in the Sunderland managerial hotseat. Michael Beale lasted just 63 days as Black Cats head coach, before leaving the club earlier this week.
The call for progression by the Sunderland hierarchy, missing from Beale's tenure at the club, saw Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus forced into action and admitting they'd made a mistake.
With Dodds back in charge of first-team duties, there a sense of cautious optimism surrounding the club. The 37-year-old has 13 games to prove himself as the right man for the head coach job on a permanent basis, or give the club time to appoint their next head coach.
READ MORE: Michael Beale hits back at claims 'wide of the mark'
Highly thought of as a coach, there's a view from inside the club that Dodds will be the head coach of Sunderland when the time is right.
As proven from his recent stint as interim head coach following Tony Mowbray's departure, Dodds is a safe pair of hands, learning and growing as a coach since his first time in the role back in League One.
"A lot more relaxed than I was last time," Dodds told reporters ahead of his first game in charge against West Bromwich Albion. "I think it makes it a lot easier this time around, the fact that I've been with them for a period of time. So there hasn't been a huge amount of change."
Dodds has been a constant in the first-team set-up over the last few years and knows the players like the back of his hand.
Wins over West Brom and Leeds United gave the incoming Beale a perfect platform to build-upon, even if there was a defeat to Bristol City before handing over the mantle.
The following 63 days have been well documented by now, with one major issue being Sunderland's lack of identity on the pitch. There can be no denying there were statistical improvements in terms of shots conceded on target, but at what cost?
"Completely," Beale told We Are Sunderland in the weeks leading up to his departure when asked if there was a false perception around Sunderland's lack of width. "The first goal against Plymouth comes from a Trai overlap cross and we pick up the second ball. The second and third goal have come from the inside or outside channel.
"What I think is really interesting in football, is if Jack Clarke takes on a fullback, he's still then got to take on a centre-back, or a cross has got to beat two centre-backs. If he's in ten-yards, he might be taking on a centre-back and scoring. When he's doing that, who else is providing width?
"Width is the most important thing in football, without getting too tactical. Because the game is played in 40-yards length, because of the offside lines. If we're on the halfway line, their defence won't be on the edge of their box, that's only 36 metres back and forth. So width is really important because it opens the spaces.
"Who occupies the width? I'm not really fussed. I think sometimes Jack arriving off the wings is really dangerous for teams who don't know where he is. We don't like any teams playing in the middle of our organisation, so defensively, over a game, people might say 'they're a bit more narrow.' But we don't want anyone playing in the middle of our team.
"Every takes part in defending. I'm not willing to have two people stay out here when the team is defending. When we get the ball, does it makes sense for Jack and the other wide players to be one vs one? Sometimes. Other times it makes a lot of sense - he actually made his run in behind the centre-half for his goal against Plymouth. I know he ends up out wide, so Jack is evolving all the time. I think as long as we're winning, I'm happy for people to analyse the a*** off it. As long as we're winning I'm not too fussed. There's always a reason why you lose as a coach."
But they didn't win often enough and Beale was shown the door. It's interesting that there weren't any accusations levelled at Dodds over a lack of width, although admittedly, three games isn't a huge sample size.
So what did we learn from his interim spell earlier this season?
As we know, Dodds isn't afraid to tinker with how Sunderland set-up. Much can be made of formations and transitions in and out of possession, but the average positioning of players generally is a good indicator of width.
Against Leeds, Dodds moved to a variation of a 3-4-3 - a back three, or a back five out of possession - coming away with a huge three points against a play-off rival. Leeds have since kicked on and look to be contenders for automatic promotion, making that result all the more impressive.
On the right, in the image above, we see Sunderland in their more orthodox 4-2-3-1, with good spacing between players, even if the result went against them at Ashton Gate. Their away form, as we've spoken about on We Are Sunderland, an issue of it's own.
If we focus on the game against Daniel Farke's side in greater detail, we see why there can't be accusations of avoiding wide areas.
It's fair to say there was a change in approach from Dodds, not only in terms of shape, but in yielding possession. The Black Cats had just 37 per cent possession at home, with Leeds dominating the ball with 63 per cent.
That being said, the Wearsiders boasted a higher expected goals than the visitors, with 1.34, to Leeds' 0.92. The pass map above shows how Sunderland avoided one of Leeds' biggest strengths, in central areas of the pitch, while also utilising their own out wide. However, as we see, there's a heavy reliance on play down the left, as opposed to the right-hand side of the pitch.
Criticism that was also levelled at Beale using average player positions, rather than passing lanes. So is there underlying issues to address? The outgoing head coach suggested that injuries had played their part, while also suggesting there's a risk of over analysing that area of the pitch.
Interestingly under Dodds, Sunderland's most dangerous attacks against Leeds came down that right-hand side of the pitch despite completing less passes out there, with an XG of 1.00 from ten attacks down that side. Abdoullah Ba started out on the right, with Patrick Roberts coming off the bench to up the ante on that side. There were 15 attacks down Sunderland's left-hand side of the pitch, with an xG of just 0.31, but the defensive job Leeds did on Clarke that evening may answer that conundrum - accounting for just 0.17 of Sunderland's overall xG.
"I'll be honest, I thought they executed the game plan to an absolute tee," Dodds said in his post-match press conference. "I think before Trai cleared the ball off the line, their expected goals was something like 0.4. For a team of their quality, Premier League quality, to limit a team to that number of chances, it's remarkable really.
"So it's a little bit of both in terms of the way we want to set them up, they've got to believe in it and I think that's really important. When we've played the bigger teams in the league, in particular Leicester away when we've turned the game into a one vs one game, I think that's sometimes psychologically difficult for a player.
"They've got to believe in it and tonight I felt they really believed in how we set them up. We've played two teams in really good form. Both with Premier League budgets, both with good coaches and over the two games we've had five shots on goal over the two games which just shows how well organised they were."
When we look at the defeat at Bristol City which followed, we see another change from Sunderland under Dodds.
In the final game of Dodds' tenure, Sunderland reverted back to type in a 4-2-3-1, dominating 67 per cent of the ball, to Bristol's 33 per cent. A controlling performance, lacking in the final third. That being said, Dodds' side were still able to create an expected goals of 1.80, just missing that final touch.
In terms of dangerous attacks, again we see Sunderland threaten down both flanks, but also in central areas of the pitch.
With Roberts starting on the right, Sunderland had 30 attacks down their right-hand side of the pitch, but xG was more evenly spread. That stat would hint that Beale is right, Roberts has been a huge miss for Sunderland, but the even spread of attacking threat under Dodds, suggests he has the blueprint to unlock stubborn defences.
It may sound hypocritical given the Black Cats actually failed to scored against the Robins, and converting chances has been a problem throughout the campaign, but under Beale expected goals fell. Dodds will be once again tasked raising the bar.
Interestingly, he didn't utilise a striker during his first interim spell in charge of the club, so some credit must go to Beale for persisting with some of those summer signings. The performances of Nazariy Rusyn in particular, with two goals now to his name, will have given Dodds food for thought.
Jobe lead the line for Dodds and recognised the Sunderland youngster had played as a striker in his youth, so we could see the 18-year-old given another run up front, if it were needed.
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Jenson Seelt is an obvious change for Dodds ahead of Sunderland's clash with Swansea City this weekend. The young Dutch defender is front of the queue to replace the suspended Daniel Ballard. A change of shape, as we saw against Leeds earlier in the season, albeit a more defensive approach, could see Leo Hjelde, Luke O'Nien and Seelt operate in a back three.
We're yet to see Callum Styles after joining the club, following an operation on his appendix, but he could fill in the left-wing back slot, with Trai Hume pushing higher up on that right-hand side of the pitch. That being said, it would mean dropping someone from Sunderland's midfield three, with Dan Neil, Pierre Ekwah and Jobe among those who could make way, the latter of the three could also be pushed further forward, operating without a striker again.
There are plenty of tweaks and changes the interim head coach can make now he's back in the hotseat. Can he bring the excitement back? We'll soon see.
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