Tony Mowbray says Alex Neil and Lee Johnson are the reasons for slow Sunderland changes

Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray has explained why he is going about things 'gently' for now.

Tony Mowbray says he is trying to be ‘gentle’ in implementing his own style of play on Sunderland due to the turnover of managers at the club.

Sunderland have had three managers in 2022, with Lee Johnson starting the year in the hotseat before being replaced by Alex Neil in early February.

Neil then unexpectedly walked out to join Stoke in a row over transfer policy, opening the door for Mowbray to take over.

He, though, believes such a quick turnover of managers has been very difficult for the players, so while he wants to assert himself and his methods at Sunderland, he is mindful that he has to do it slowly.

“It’s tough on the players having had a real quick turnover of managers over the past year or year and half,” Mowbray told safc.com.

“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’.” 

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