Journalist Josh Bunting was left miffed by Tony Mowbray’s substitutions in Sunderland’s defeat on Monday night.
Sunderland fell to a late 2-1 defeat in their latest Championship outing despite taking the lead following Amad Diallo’s penalty on 19 minutes.
Goals from Tom Rogic and Daryl Dike then turned the game on its head for West Bromwich Albion.
It was the Mackems’ third home loss from their previous four as they let a chance to go one point behind the play-off places slip through their fingers after losing the lead with 20 minutes to go.
And the decision from Mowbray to only use two of his allotted five subs before added time left Bunting stumped, as he tweeted his reaction to Mowbray, who failed to act as the game got away from Sunderland.
He said: “Mowbray has worked well, doing a good job, but those substitutions tonight baffle me. We lacked creative spark, keep Amad on and [bring] Patrick Roberts on earlier. So flat going forward. Amad aside, get him on, he can’t do much inside two minutes. Poor management, that.”
TIF Thoughts on Bunting’s comments…
Mowbray’s decision to make a triple change in injury time sold an obvious feeling of desperation and it was ultimately too little, too late.
Despite falling behind with seven minutes still left of the 90, it was only in added time that he finally reacted when he made three attacking changes, including the withdrawal of Danny Batth to throw more bodies forward.
To introduce Roberts so late was a particularly strange decision. He’s often been used much earlier in games by Mowbray in his eight sub appearances.
A three-minute cameo in August against Norwich City was the only previous time he’d featured for less than 10 minutes after coming on, and the Englishman should’ve been afforded more time to make an impact and potentially rescue some crucial points.