Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray issues verdict on Lee Johnson and Alex Neil | OneFootball

Sunderland head coach Tony Mowbray has issued his verdict on two of his predecessors at the Championship club, Lee Johnson and Alex Neil.

Mowbray was appointed as Neil’s replacement back in August after he jumped ship to join second tier rivals Stoke City.

The Scot had led the Black Cats to promotion from League One after being hired to take the place of Johnson in the latter part of the 2021/22 campaign.

Mowbray has done an admirable job at the Stadium of Light – steering Sunderland to within reach of the top six despite having been without both his strikers for long periods – but has made it clear that he is still moulding the squad given the amount of change in the dug out over the past year or so.

Speaking to club media, the experienced coach shared his thoughts on two of his predecessors and their impact at Sunderland.

He said: “It’s tough on the players having had a real quick turnover of managers over the past year or year and half.

“If we go back to Lee Johnson. Knowing Lee, having managed against him back when he was at Bristol City and before then at Barnsley, I’m sure he put a big imprint on the football club because of the intensity that he works with and his own beliefs.

“For them to jump from Lee straight to Alex Neil, who again I know pretty well from his time at Preston North End just down the road from Blackburn where I was and Norwich City of course.

“They’re different characters. I’m sure Alex was very central to everything that was done as the manager. He’s a very intense guy and I can feel on the team really as if they’ve been indoctrinated to play a certain way.

“I’m trying, gently really, to change it to the way I want to play football and what I want to do but I didn’t think the right thing to do was to come in and smash everything up and say ‘that’s not what we do anymore, we’re going to do this’.”

The Black Cats are 13th in the table at the halfway point in the season and will hope to cut the three-point gap between them and the play-offs when they take on Blackburn on Saturday.

Quiz: Have any of these 25 ex-Sunderland players ever played for a Yorkshire based team?

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The Verdict

It’s interesting to hear Mowbray’s assessment of the two Sunderland bosses that preceded him.

Johnson and Neil were two intense characters and coaches that required everyone to buy 100% into the way they wanted to do things but we’ve seen from the early months of his tenure that Mowbray has been happy to take a slightly more relaxed approach.

There’s no doubt that’s worked so far and it seems his knowledge of two of his predecessors, gained from managing against them previously, has helped him.

You’d imagine we will start to see more and more of his character imprinted on the team as time goes on.