What Michael Beale said to his Sunderland players during halftime of their thrilling victory over Plymouth has been made public.
Michael Beale instructed his Sunderland team to eliminate backward passes during their victory against Plymouth, emphasizing that such a style of play was not in line with their football philosophy. The 3-1 win over The Pilgrims was a tale of two halves, prompting Beale to acknowledge the necessity of candid discussions during halftime in the Black Cats’ dressing room. Post-game, both goalscorers, Pierre Ekwah and Jack Clarke, attributed the team’s second-half improvement to Beale’s impactful halftime remarks.
Beale has now made public everything he told his players.
“The things we discussed at halftime were playing too slowly, too many backward passes, and using too many touches.
“That’s not how we want to play football, so we need to come back and play better away from home against Huddersfield than we did today.
This season, Sunderland hasn’t always played well against teams around the bottom of the Championship league.
This includes a depressing 1-1 draw at Rotherham, a bottom team, during Beale’s tenure, and a 1-0 home loss to Huddersfield under former manager Tony Mowbray.
In the rematch this week against the Terriers, Beale hopes to make one for it.
“We’re going to go to a team that’s fighting for its life on Wednesday so the points are going to be really important for them,” Beale stated.
“We don’t go into the game up or down 1-0. We have to start over and play every game, every minute of the game, with the proper mindset and caliber. We must maintain our optimism.
“We are only able to perform our duties. Had we not fulfilled our duties today and observed the outcomes inside the league, we would have felt deeply regretful.”