Talking Tactics: Millwall (H)
04/02/2025 01:00 AM
Sunderland returned to winning ways during a rather routine game at the Stadium of Light. How did Régis Le Bris go back to basics in order to pick up another home win?
Sunderland returned after the international break with a victory over Millwall, preventing Alex Neil from haunting us on his return to the Stadium of Light.
With a number of injuries cropping up and a makeshift defence, how did Régis Le Bris set us up to go through the motions and all but seal a place in the playoffs?
Sunderland Lineup
As mentioned above, we were hoping the international break would provide our players with some much-needed rest, but with only a small number of our matchday squad remaining on Wearside and not currently recovering from injury, Le Bris was limited in his ability to work on tactical tweaks during the break.
With fresh injury concerns for Dennis Cirkin, Le Bris shuffled his back four, with Trai Hume moving to the left side and Alan Browne coming in at right back. Elsewhere, Eliezer Mayenda made way for Wilson Isidor after making two appearances for Spain's U21's during the break.
We operated in our usual 4-3-3 system, utilising Dan Neil in his deeper role and the usual triangles of passing play being opened up. With Hume operating on the opposite side, he often drifted infield during build-up to provide underlapping runs, giving Romaine Mundle the additional space to operate along the touchline.
Millwall lineup
Alex Neil made several changes of his own following Millwall's 1-0 victory over Stoke prior to the international break.
Luke Cundle, Aidomo Emakhu and former Sunderland striker Aaron Connolly came in, with Millwall operating a similar 4-3-3 in possession, Connolly drifting between the right wing and centrally, Aidomo operating off the left and Cundle sitting just behind Josh Coburn in attack.
Out of possession, Millwall often switched between a back three and a back five, with Tristan Crama sliding into a more central defensive position and Connolly tracking into wingback to negate Sunderland's attacking threats with Mundle out wide.
A rapid Sunderland start
Sunderland started hunting early and looked to exploit Millwall's timid nature during the opening periods of games.
Plymouth, Watford, and Leeds were all able to score in the opening third of the game when facing Millwall in recent weeks, and therefore it was clearly an early pressure tactic given their ability to grow into games away from home, as they boasted the fifth best away record in the league.
Wilson Isidor saw an early effort saved before Chris Rigg flashed a header into the gloves of Jensen.
Jobe also saw a shot blocked before Patrick Roberts saw a wonderful flowing move ended by another great save from Lukas Jensen. For context, Roberts' shot was fading away into the top corner with a SoT xG of 0.91, demonstrating just how much of a fingertip Jensen was able to apply.
Set piece coordination
We started the game with real intent and within the opening twenty minutes had already forced three corners against the Millwall defence.
Following Emakhu's clearance, we won our fourth corner of the game and this time it paid real dividends.
In a routine that was clearly worked on by Michael Proctor during the break, a short corner was rolled back to Roberts before a whipped cross sailed over a sea of blockers, allowing Hume to volley home and open the scoring.
Similarly to some of our earlier set piece routines, it was nice to see an orchestrated line of blocking defenders allowing Hume to stroll to the back post unchallenged.
With small margins often making a big difference, routines like this could come in really handy to split a tight leg during Sunderland's playoff campaign. Roberts notched another assist and in creating the angle/shot, we went from a standard corner xG of 0.08 to 0.21 xG.
Attacking patterns
Sunderland were quick to establish some of the transitional patterns which came so naturally to us earlier in the season, and it was nice to see a more fluid approach within the build up play despite Le Bris not having a full complement of players during the international break.
Isidor was consciously looking to drop in and form triangles with one of his wingers and an advancing midfielder.
Rigg looked back to his usual bright self and linked up well with Roberts and Browne, running the channels and providing outlets whilst Jobe, Hume and Mundle looked to link up on the opposite flank with a constant barrage of underlapping and overlapping runs.
Given the conditions on the day, Dan Neil's usual raking diagonal balls to quickly increase the tempo and progress laterally were limited in use.
However, Jobe was able to fill this void through his crisp sweeping switches to Roberts in transition (4/4), opening up driving lanes to get Millwall's defenders running back towards their own goal more frequently.
Getting back to basics
In flashes, we reverted to some of our early season patterns of play during this game, leaning back into what worked so well during the first quarter of the campaign.
With Isidor consciously looking to link up play to his forwards, we were able to exploit our usual tactic of drawing the opposition narrow to free up Roberts before quickly transitioning laterally to stretch the play.
Similarly, Jobe looked much more confident in his ability to screen passing lanes and intercept lazy passes. By catching Millwall players in transition, he was given the option of multiple passes to exploit the pace of his teammates, which ultimately resulted in Mundle winning a penalty.
Paddy's confidence returns
Patrick Roberts remains a polarising figure due to his lack of direct goal contributions, but in my opinion he remains the best close control ball carrier we've seen in well over a decade for Sunderland.
Operating in a playmaker-type role, Roberts often completes the 'pre-assist', if you will: drawing in opposition players and creating attention for others to exploit. This means that although he doesn't get credited with an official contribution, his ability to draw attention or progress the ball in tight spaces creates chances for others.
This game was a perfect example of Roberts at his best.
Early dribbles resulted in mazy runs to create chances for Isidor, set piece delivery for Hume's goal and even a solid strike for himself.
Roberts completed four passes into the final third and created three chances, and whilst he was only 3/7 for dribbles on the day, he caused problems all afternoon.
Taking a closer look at Roberts' ball progression, he was ranked highest for progressive carries on the day — which showcased his ability to get Sunderland from A to B on the ball on a consistent basis.
A controlled, measured display
In the stands, the atmosphere was very subdued at times and murmurings from around the ground were that the game was often played at a more pedestrian, pre-season pace following the opening goal.
Although we didn't jump out to a more convincing victory, Millwall were restricted to only five shots in the game — of which only two were on target.
With half of our starting eleven on international duty and the remaining squad players injured, collecting an easy and uneventful three points was just what we needed to mount a charge into the final half dozen games.
Millwall looked uncomfortable when we ceded possession to them, which often meant we were exposed from prolonged build-up but only on the counter following our own mistakes.
Although not the most exhilarating of games, our quick interchanges and transitions, which saw the creation of the second half penalty, showed that the players still have the energy and ability to press, but that we're just opting to conserve energy wherever possible and avoid any further injuries.
Next time out…
With Enzo Le Fée returning to fitness and Dan Ballard not far behind, we could showcase some additional depth on the bench for the trip to the Hawthorns on Saturday.
Although every fan wants to see us win every game, we need to view the final games through a wider lens and utilise the unique opportunity to best prepare our side for the playoff games that define our destiny.
Some of the football will be lethargic and changes will be made, but the aim is to get our matchday squad ready for the potential 270 minutes in May that could define our trajectory, therefore we've got to be content with taking the points and moving forward.
