'Football-savvy' Alex Pritchard's positional awareness made him a natural choice to play as a false nine at Reading, says Tony Mowbray. Sunderland's head coach had to have a mid-game reshuffle on Wednesday night when Ellis Simms - his only fit senior centre-forward - limped off with a toe injury before half-time at the Madejski Stadium.
Mowbray opted to play Pritchard up front but, at 5ft 7in, he was not expected to lead the line in the same way that Simms had, and instead he played in a slightly different role which meant he dropped deeper to receive the ball and then bring the wide players into the game. The moved worked, with Sunderland going on to win 3-0 with Patrick Roberts scoring twice and Jack Clarke once, with all three goals coming after Simms had departed.
Mowbray is hoping Simms will be fit enough to play at Watford this afternoon but, if not, Pritchard could reprise the role he played at Reading. Asked about the thinking behind playing Pritchard up front, Mowbray explained: "Alex played there, basically, because of his football intelligence, his awareness of a different position and what his responsibilities are.
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"We have a lot of players who could play there, but Pritchard is football-savvy really - he understands the game. Some footballers are just wonderful talents but they don't necessarily think about space and why they're in a specific position, they just get the ball and do what they do.
"Alex Pritchard is someone who understands football, and I just knew he had the intelligence to occupy the position and occupy defenders, to come into positions where defenders don't want to go, and link with the wide players."
Despite the success of Pritchard's positional switch, losing Simms was the last thing Mowbray needed having already seen leading scorer Ross Stewart ruled out for at least six weeks with a thigh injury. Simms appeared to suffer the injury after seeing a shot blocked and, while he tried to carry on for a short while after treatment, ultimately he had to go off.
Mowbray said: "When I first saw it, I feared the worst because I could see how disappointed he was - he was stamping his other foot on the ground and throwing his arms up in frustration, really, and then he sat down. It wasn't a situation where he was running and it went, he just knew there was something wrong because he felt really uncomfortable.
"I could tell from his body language that something was wrong so we got the subs warmed up, Ellis was going to try give it a go but he sat down again a few minutes later, and so by that point had already prepared in my mind what we needed to do, and who could play up front. I suppose it's pretty common in modern-day football. Manchester City won the Premier League without a striker last season.
"This term 'false nine' and players who can play down the middle but not up against a centre-half, it's pretty common - it is not as though it has just been invented."
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