Sunderland 2-1 Blues

Starting XI

Completely unchanged from the Easter Monday draw against Stoke City.

Game

Sunderland started the better here, their fluid system catching Blues out, the visitors needing to get their communication right. Diallo cut inside and forced a save and he then found Gooch, who looked to have teed up Pritchard for a tap-in only for Marc Roberts to step across and deny him. Pritchard fired wide after a counter attack.

Blues settled down and stemmed Sunderland's flow. Jutkiewicz headed wide before Chong cut inside of his man and forced a sharp reaction stop from Patterson. He was involved again as Blues took the lead, found by Bacuna and teeing up Hall for a simple finish.

Jutkiewicz couldn't make the most of a loose ball, firing straight at Patterson before a Neil strike was deflected wide at the other end.

Sunderland equalised in first half injury time, Batth making first contact from a corner and the loose ball flicked on by Patrick Roberts to an unmarked Hume.

Chong started the second half brightly, bursting past Neil and cutting back for Bellingham who was denied. Little happened until around 20 minutes later, a poor pass from Trusty giving the hosts the chance to break, P Roberts playing a one-two with substitute Gelhardt but firing over. Ruddy was forced to claim Clarke's looping header after another fine break.

Blues made changes of their own and it led to two chances in quick succession, Hogan and Bacuna both slicing wide of the near post. At the other end, Diallo was more accurate, cutting inside of Trusty and Hannibal to find the far corner.

Cirkin was sent off for a second bookable offence - and took a whack for his troubles - but Blues couldn't find the big moment, substitute James closest to getting on the scoresheet but being unable to connect with crosses from either flank.

Tactics

Blues lined up 4-2-3-1 again here against a very fluid Sunderland 4-4-2 / 4-3-3 / 3-4-3.

Firstly, Blues. It was all about width. As soon as the opportunity arose, Blues would look for the pass into Chong or Khadra so they could carry the ball and take Blues towards goal. This paid off much better down the right where Colin was more comfortable overlapping and Bacuna was often nearby.

Sunderland didn't have to do too much out of the ordinary to stop this. Cirkin and Gooch were almost always backed up by a central midfielder or their winger to force the wingers down the line, something they were less comfortable with on their weaker sides. They blocked the central area of the pitch in numbers and waited for the pass they could pick off and shift forward.

Working out Sunderland took me a while and I'm still not entirely convinced I've got it. I will partly blame having to look after an ill eight-month old while watching the game!

So, they started off in a 4-4-2. Diallo and Pritchard up top, Roberts and Clarke wide. In deep possession, they had the two deeper midfielders dropping in and the full-backs out wide. Pretty standard stuff.

Blues set up to sit off the centre-backs then go. Blues matched up 6 v 6 with Bielik and Bacuna stepping onto the Sunderland midfielders and effectively going man for man all over the pitch. This included Roberts and Long following Pritchard when he dropped off into midfield areas.

This did change. After a while, Roberts and Long started communicating with Bielik and Bacuna to keep tabs on the strikers when they dropped in, which stopped them pressing too high.

However, fluid shape started to show. Firstly, Diallo started playing high and wide on the right and Roberts dropped into more of a central position, making it something of a 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3. But the pair occasionally dovetailed, just to keep Blues on their toes.

Then there was the forward runs from Gooch, which made Sunderland turn into something of a 3-4-3 with Gooch inside with Roberts and Pritchard and Diallo and Clarke high and wide on either flank as very attacking full-backs, attacking Blues 5 v 5.

Their preference was to get hold of the first pass forward and look to spin their marker before breaking. A lot of their build up play came via the left-hand side or left-central areas so they could shift the ball quickly out to Diallo or Roberts to go 1 v 1 at Trusty, who was starting in a narrow position to avoid any runs in behind him and Long.

The nature of that overload down Blues' left forced Khadra to do a lot of defensive work tracking Gooch and / or Roberts, which he did to his credit.

Sunderland's first subs made for more change. O'Nien and Gelhardt replaced Gooch and Michut. Sunderland moved to 4-3-3 with Pritchard and Roberts as 8's, Neil the sole holding midfielder. O'Nien stepped in at centre-back with Hume now at right-back. It simplified their game, gave them more control in central areas and allowed the switch to the right to happen more often.

After Cirkin was sent off, Anderson replaced Roberts and Sunderland moved to 4-4-1.

Players

Not a great day for Blues. Chong was bright down the right and our best outlet for much of the game, but showed signs his decision making still needs refining. Bacuna had one of his better games with a key involvement for the goal and some excellent forward runs.

The best player on the pitch, for me, was Danny Batth. One sloppy moment aside, he was in control of every action he made.

Diallo was very sharp. Roberts and Pritchard didn't let their size faze them in central areas.

Anything else?

George Hall pulled his hamstring and the likelihood is that he's done for the season. A real shame. Scored the opener and his willingness to run forward and support the attack at speed is a real benefit. Time for others to step up now.

Wrapping it up...

It's that stage of the season where we have nothing to play for and it's futile going too big.

We were competitive enough. It wasn't a "beachy" performance. And we showed signs of communication and organisation in-game to manage the performance, which has often been an issue.

The frustration with the loss is how soft the goals conceded were. A corner kick against a side with only one reasonable aerial threat and allowing a very left footed player to step inside on his left foot. Basic errors and it showed a lack of concentration and attention to detail.

There will likely be a couple of changes for the midweek fixture with Millwall. Hall has to be replaced. I'd personally like to see Jordan James get a start given his impact from the bench. I assume Chang replaces Bacuna as well, allowing Bacuna to be fresher for the home game with Blackpool in which we will be more on the front foot.