Tony Mowbray wants Sunderland to be 'unplayable' when they are at their best as he looks to build a side that combines silk and steel. The Black Cats have shown their silky side numerous times this season with their attacking approach earning plaudits, as players such as Amad, Patrick Roberts and Jack Clarke have taken centre-stage.
But they have also demonstrated steel to dig in and pick up points, with last weekend's draw against Millwall at The Den a prime example. And yesterday they showed another aspect to their game as they found a way to win against Reading at the Stadium of Light despite not being at their best, and with the Royals determined to slow the game down and run down the clock at every opportunity almost from kick-off.
Mowbray believes the demands of Sunderland's previous two games - against Millwall, followed by the midweek FA Cup fourth round replay defeat at home to Premier League Fulham - had a bearing on their performance against Reading, with ten players starting all three games. "We're trying to grow the team and hopefully in 18 months' time we're a really tight unit and on our best days, we're unplayable," said Mowbray.
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"But when we have to, we can dig in like we did at Millwall. It was just frustrating for me that we weren't better [against Reading] than we were, and yet I think there was probably a reason for that in that it was our third game in a week.
"The Millwall game was a hugely intense football match, and then the emotional drain of playing against a Premier League side out there on Wednesday took a lot out of them.
"Then to go into a game that they thought they were going to win because we won 3-0 at Reading earlier in the season, it was a really difficult job to get them to a level where they knew it was a massive game. The danger was that we might get beat because we didn't turn up and they score from a set-play and we weren't good enough with the ball to break them down, but thankfully we found a way."
Roberts scored the only goal of the game against Reading five minutes from time, and the win lifted them to seventh place in the table, a single point behind Watford who are immediately above them and who occupy the final play-off spot. The Black Cats' busy schedule continues on Tuesday night when they head to London to take on Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.
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