Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray was full of praise for Blackburn Rovers after his Black Cats defeated Rovers 3-1 on Wednesday night.
Based on the score line it would seem a fairly comfortable victory for Sunderland, but Blackburn had 22 shots compared to Sunderland’s 13. A Jack Clarke double and a goal from Dan Neil were enough to get the victory.
Mowbray lauded Blackburn, particularly the man in the opposite dugout, Rovers manager Jon Dahl Tomasson. Ha praised the Swede for Rovers being well-coached.
“I’d like to put on record I think they’re an amazingly talented football team, very well coached and they gave us lots of problems,” Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph.
“Getting the intensity right on the back of a 5-0 and 3-1 win, with a young team it’s difficult to get them to the level and I was trying to make them aware that they’re playing a really talented football team who will overload centrally and they will get it through and get to your box. And they did that for half an hour or so and caused us plenty of problems.
“We scored at good times. We were really disappointed with their goal. We were down to 10 men and I don’t know whether you’ve seen it but the linesman is nowhere near looking across the line. I don’t know whether he’s slipped but he’s a good 10 yards behind the play. He’s guessing. But it’s irrelevant now.”
Mowbray on needing to be more intense to defeat Blackburn in second half
Mowbray said how, at 1-1 at half time, his side needed to change things up in the second half to deal with Rovers.
“We sorted a few things out at half-time. We needed to play at more intensity really. They wanted to play through the middle of the pitch and we needed to be more aggressive.
“We looked like a real threat and we looked like we’d score goals on transition when we won it back and broke into spaces they left.But in possession, they’re a very good football team. We found a way.
“The only thing I talked about at half-time was the intensity. If you sit off good football teams they pass around you. I say it every day to the team. You can’t stand two yards off good players because they pass around you.
“We played against a good team with good rotations and good patterns of play. If you sit off them and you’re not aggressive and make the feel your intensity, they’ll play through you like a knife through butter. Second half I felt we were a real threat.”