Graeme Murty was pleased on the whole with his sides performance against Derby County despite conceding a late equaliser. The Sunderland U21s boss was able to give Isaac Lihadji his first minutes in a red and white shirt with the French youngster impressive against the Rams.
The Black Cats took the lead through Harry Gardiner, but Sonny Blu Lo-Everton equalised in the dying embers of the game. The Wearsiders had a number of good chances throughout the game to win it, but couldn't add to their tally with the rams picking up their first point of the season.
“There were some really good bits; some of our passages of play, some of the way we controlled the game and some of the way we beat their press were very good, but we lack consistency,” Murty told safc.com
READ MORE: Isaac Lihadji shines as late Derby goal denies Sunderland U21s victory
“When we do things to our highest level we look like a good team, but when we drop from that top level then we are quite easy to frustrate and easy to play against. The goal is too easy on our part, we need to defend it a lot better, I still think we were the better team without really showing enough control in the opposition's half.
“We seemed to break their press and get over the halfway line and think we have to score within three passes. I would love for us to dominate from the halfway line and enjoy having the ball in their half. Too often we made poor decisions when the situation was not quite right, or we could have just kept the ball.
“We were not smooth or slick enough with our decision-making to understand where the gaps were, we sometimes forced situations that were not there. On some occasions, we sprung their press and got through and had some nice passages of play which could have ended up with a better outcome but too often our decision-making was not as good as our build-up play.
“I think our variant is too high, between our best stuff and the stuff we do after. It’s not a big surprise because consistency is one of the key things we try to develop in young players.
“We need collectively to move towards an area where we have a minimum level of performance, and that minimum level is coming up. It needs to be far higher than it currently is because that then will complement their best stuff a lot better than it does currently.
“Once we do that then I think we will be able to put a 90-minute performance in rather than a 60 or 70-minute performance which we are seeing currently."
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