Transport yourself back to August and imagine you are Dick Advocaat. A series of awkward challenges is cramming your in-tray in the manager’s office at Sunderland and, by way of deciding how best to confront them, you decide to complete a specially devised multiple-choice test. The first question must be answered before the start of September.
1 It is the transfer window and, badly burnt by some shocking buys on the part of certain predecessors, the owner is reluctant to spend much. You fear this will lead to near-certain relegation. Do you?
A: Make it abundantly clear to the media you are intensely unhappy and refuse to dismiss the possibility of walking out.
B: Swear blind allegiance to the chairman.
C: Resign.
Once the transfer window closes, it is time to address the second, third and fourth dilemmas.
2 You have a former England striker on the books. He has done well playing through the middle in the past but you lack a suitable partner for him to play off and feel forced to deploy him wide right in your preferred 4-3-3 system. But he is unhappy and the team are struggling. Do you?
A: Tell him to shut up and put up with life on the wing.
B: Offload him to any rival willing to pay his wages.
C: Persuade your owner to sign a deep-lying forward with physical presence tactically suited to working with him, switch your formation to 4-4-1-1 and hand your unhappy striker the central role he craves.
3 The club decided to award their midfield enforcer a lucrative new long-term contract earlier in the summer. He’s a local lad who did very well for you last season but his game has limitations and he is powerful in the dressing room. As much as you like to keep an open mind and know that, at his best, he can control games you harbour certain reservations about him.
He has started this season extremely badly but dropping him would be a politically fraught decision. To address the situation you have taken a gifted but self-destructive, France defensive midfielder on loan from a Russian club. He blew a chance of the big time at one of Italy’s leading clubs last season and his lack of off field discipline has wrecked his chances of playing in the Champions League, the stage his talent demands. Do you?
A: Attempt to keep the peace by playing both your homegrown enforcer and the loanee even though it unbalances the midfield.
B: Drop your homegrown enforcer to the bench along with a couple of his big mates, tell the media your squad is a meritocracy and challenge your loanee to confound the doubters.
C: Keep faith with the homegrown hero and tell the new import he will have to remain patient on the bench.
4 Your predecessor became so alarmed by the squad’s technical limitations and lack of pace that he adopted ultra-cautious safety-first tactics with grinding out draws in a 4-1-4-1 system. Do you?
A: Follow suit. What other option is there?
B: Introduce a back five.
C: Abolish the quasi-sweeper sitting between defence and midfield and switch to a much more attacking 4-4-1-1 formation, with two wingers in midfield effectively serving as part of the front four but the second striker able to help out in central midfield when required.
Back in the real world Advocaat decided the correct answers to these condundrums are A, C, B and C, with all the indications suggesting Sunderland’s manager is spot on. An appalling opening to the season prompted the worldly wise former Holland manager to use the media to, not so subtly, pressure Ellis Short, the club’s owner, into a late burst of transfer window activity. In, at the 11th hours, came Fabio Borini for £7m from Liverpool, Sweden’s Ola Toivonen on loan from Rennes and DeAndre Yedlin, borrowed from Tottenham. They joined Rubin Kazan loanee Yann M’Vila, ex Spur Younes Kaboul, Dynamo Kiev old boy Jeremain Lens, ex Celtic right back Adam Matthew and former Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates as Sunderlands summer acquisitions.
At first glance they form a distinctly mixed bunch,
Sunderland have only two points from five games but, judging from the evidence of Sunday’s slightly harsh 1-0 home defeat by Tottenham, Advocaat and Lee Congerton, his sporting director, have made decent use of their limited budget. Sunderland’s manager acknowledges that a season of struggle almost inevitably beckons but there is cause for cautious optimism that relegation can be avoided.
M’Vila – and Advocaat must pray he stays out of trouble – is not yet fully fit but has already been excellent in central midfield, dispensing with the need for the old “belt and braces” quasi-sweeper role Gus Poyet deployed Lee Cattermole – dropped against Spurs – in. Meanwhile Lens has added much needed pace and invention while Toivonen’s withdrawn attacking presence finally enables Jermain Defoe to play through the middle. This dictates Borini must operate wide on the left but there is a case for arguing that is his best position anyway.
The adoption of this much more attacking approaching featuring a “front four” saw the crowd applaud Sunderland warmly for their efforts against Spurs and it has certainly provided a very one paced, two dimensional team with a new, much more, attractive facade.
Yet if Advocaat’s re-modelled side look capable of scoring goals there are – despite Kaboul’s impressive display against his old club – enduring concerns about a defence in which Patrick van Aanholt can be horribly vulnerable to decent wingers at left-back.
With his new recurits short of match fitness and the side needing time to gel, Advocaat has warned it could be the end of December before we see the best of this re-invented Sunderland.
Advocaat must hope Sunderland are not too far adrift of the pack by late December while it remains to be seen how Cattermole and co react to life as regular bench warmers.
At least there is finally some real competition for places - young Duncan Watmore looks a fine attacking prospect who should soon be challenging for a front four starting slot - in a squad preparing for some potentially season defining fixtures.
If a win at Bournemouth on Saturday could alter the mood on Wearside dramatically, the game that matters is on 25 October when Sunderland are at home to Steve McClaren’s Newcastle United and seeking a sixth straight derby win against the old enemy.
The psychological fallout of recent Tyne-Wear derby defeats has variously convinced Alan Pardew to defect to Crystal Palace, sent John Carver’s Newcastle into freefall and marked the beginning of the end for Steve Bruce at Sunderland.
Given that derby wins are capable of reinforcing belief and building momentum, the outcome of the next instalment could go a long way to determining the efficacy of Advocaat’s rather ingenious looking survival strategy.
