Tony Mowbray says his changes against Cardiff were made in a bid to avoid injuries to key players. The Sunderland boss admitted after yesterday's defeat that his decision to rest experienced men such as Corry Evans and Alex Pritchard 'did not help the team', with the young midfield pairing of 20-year-old Dan Neil and 19-year-old Abdoullah Ba - the latter making his first start in English football - struggling against the Bluebirds.
Sunderland only really improved and began to get a grip on the game in the final half-hour, by which time Mowbray had brought on Evans and Pritchard. But when asked about the reasoning behind his decision to rotate his squad, Mowbray said it was less a case of players suffering from fatigue, and more about the desire to avoid the kind of injuries that fatigue can bring.
"Less fatigue, more an injury caused by fatigue," said Mowbray. "We do wellness things and every day players get gauged on where they are, how they feel, what levels of fatigue they've got - red, amber, and green.
