Tony Mowbray admits his formation change backfired at Rotherham - with Sunderland only starting to look like their usual selves when he changed things in the second half. The Black Cats boss moved away from his preferred 4-2-3-1 shape to a 4-4-2 for the trip to the New York Stadium in an attempt to counter Rotherham's pressing style.
But it did not work and Mowbray acknowledged that the first half performance was sub-standard, as Sunderland went in trailing 1-0 to an Ollie Rathbone goal. Mowbray changed tack at half time but still Rotherham doubled their lead through Shane Ferguson before a triple substitution which saw Patrick Roberts, Trai Hume, and Aji Alese introduced finally made an impact, and Joe Gelhardt halved the deficit.
Mowbray said: "I think you have to give Rotherham some credit for the intensity of their play. I changed the shape a little bit to play slightly differently against their pressure but, ultimately, as you saw, we are better doing what we normally do.
