Alex Neil was left disappointed by Sunderland's below-par showing in their pre-season defeat at Bradford City. The Black Cats were beaten 2-0 at Valley Parade by the League Two outfit, and there could be no dispute that the better team won on the night.
Emmanuel Odasebe put Bradford in front just after half-time, with Jamie Walker then earning and converting a penalty 15 minutes from time. Neil started with a back three of Carl Winchester, Danny Batth, and new signing Aji Alese, before switching to a back four during the second period.
"With three at the back, I thought we were sound enough defensively," said Neil. "I thought they became a lot more threatening in the second half. I tried to change the shape to make us more threatening but we didn't use the ball well enough and we didn't compete as well as we can.
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"The simple fact is, they were probably man for man better than we were."
Neil continued: "I thought in the first half ultimately our use of the ball let us down. Our shape was good and our press was good, we made them turn the ball over quite a few times.
"Unfortunately for us, we turned it over far too many times and so they looked dangerous in transition. What I did today was try to put two forwards up top, because obviously we only have Ross [Stewart] at the club, so I tried to supplement it with another player up top.
"I actually thought we got into really good positions, it was just that final bit of quality that let us down. The second half I tried to give them a more familiar shape to work in, so they can try and show their best attributes.
"Ultimately, we didn't perform as well as we can. Some of the lads didn't fully understand the second shape, some of them should because we played it last season at times but equally, for the newer lads it was tough at that point.
"Our press did become disjointed at that point. Sometimes it's not bad to make the game frantic when you're chasing, but they got better in that period.
"The lads are disappointed, they know they can perform better than that. I'm disappointed, you never want to lose, but it's better happening now than against Coventry on the opening day.
"For us, as a club really, we need to have a realisation of where we currently are. We've got a lot of work to do in terms of bringing bodies in and equally, we have a lot of work to do on the training ground to get some of the new lads up to speed so that we can perform at our best."
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