Tony Mowbray insists he takes share of the blame for Sunderland defeat at Rotherham

A tactical tweak by Tony Mowbray did not work for Sunderland at Rotherham, and he has held his hands up and admitted it.

Tony Mowbray said he must take his fair share of the blame after Sunderland lost to Rotherham in the Championship.

Sunderland were in confident mood going into the game, but they never really recovered from a sluggish start and ultimately fell to a 2-1 defeat.

Mowbray was keen to give Rotherham fair credit for that, with the Millers’ intensity and physicality causing issues all night.

However, he also changed systems to play two up front, and he was happy to hold his hands up and accept he got that wrong.

“We’re left disappointed,” Mowbray said after the game "I think you’ve got to give them some credit for the intensity they play at, but we knew that.

“I changed the shape today to try to play slightly differently against their pressure, but I think ultimately, as you saw, we’re better at doing what we normally do.

“I think when we made the changes and brought some more established players onto the pitch, we got better. Maybe because we were 2-0 down, we got better too, but we weren’t at the level we would normally play at, and that’s credit to them.

“You roll it all up, and that’s what you get. I wouldn’t sit here and say it was one thing or the other – we just didn’t perform at the normal level.

“I think a lot of that is down to the intensity they play at. It’s difficult to play against. I’ve likened it to playing against Millwall, you know you are playing against a team who play against the ball very well.

“We changed formation to play, and there’s a logic why you change formation. It’s a team that press really high, so why would you play around your own box when they press so well? You don’t do it, you leave more targets forward.

“There’s a logic to why we changed formation, because of the way they play, but we still should have been better tonight.”

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