What to expect as Sunderland search for new head coach

What kind of direction are Sunderland likely to go in the search to replace sacked head coach Tony Mowbray?

Michael Graham | Dec 4, 2023

What to expect as Sunderland search for new head coach /

So Sunderland are looking for another head coach. I suppose it wouldn’t be a proper season without this centrepiece, would it?

In fact, if you are anything like a self-respecting Sunderland fan who has been paying attention, you have almost certainly had the ‘available coaches’ page on Transfermarkt bookmarked for a good number of years now.

What can we expect this time around, though? Well, it’s Sunderland, and history tells us this club are capable of anything no matter how crazy it seems, but there are a few things that can help us at least try to predict what’s coming.

Let’s start at what happened earlier this year when it looked like Mowbray was going to go.

On that occasion, Francisco Farioli was the headline linked name but he wasn’t alone. There was also some serious talk about Matthias Jaissle, while Kyril Louis-Dreyfus was pictured with Gerhard Struber during the 2-1 win over Birmingham on April 15.

Gerhard Struber (one of the names being mentioned by national outfits today in relation to Sunderland) was pictured with owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus earlier this season.#SAFC pic.twitter.com/Lam2yGA7Jh
— James Copley (@JamesCopley_) May 17, 2023

None of those names are likely to be in the frame this time around, of course. Farioli is currently second in Ligue 1 with Nice, Jaissle is collecting the Saudi riches at Al-Ahli and Struber replaced him at Red Bull Salzburg.

What it does do, though, is offer some insight into what kind of a search Sunderland will be doing. It will be highly driven by data and the net will be cast far and wide. It’s also important to stress that when it comes to data, it’s obviously just a lot more than basics such as win ratio and successes.

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What the club will be looking at – and it will form the very foundation of the search - is metrics that serve the ‘football identity’ that they have put in place since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus took over. While previously clubs would decide on their manager first and allow him to dictate their style of play, Sunderland now subscribe to the modern theory that you decide on the style of play you want and then find coaches who fit it.

In theory, the disruption would then be minimal as an incoming coach already has a squad who can play his football, players aren’t asked to do anything significantly different, and no huge player turnover is needed with every new coach who breezes through the door. It’s a good theory – as long as you get the execution right.

Metrics Sunderland will likely be looking for in coaches, therefore, will be how much possession their teams have and how many times they win the ball in the final third, and so on.

Kristjaan Speakman - Sunderland — Kristjaan Speakman will follow the data - often data hidden from plain sight :: IMAGO / Ross Johnston

The search won’t just cover current head coaches either. Coaches of under-23 teams and those working as assistants at top clubs who play the kind of football to which Sunderland aspire will be looked at as well.

That kind of appointment is becoming more and more popular in the modern game. In fact, the current top two in the Championship went down that route by appointing Kieran McKenna and Enzo Maresca respectively. Michael Carrick and Danny Rohl are another two current Championship managers who came into the top job at a club from similar secondary roles.

Whichever way Sunderland choose to go, you just hope that they will be quick about it. The cub notoriously took two weeks to appoint Alex Neil after sacking Lee Johnson, but a repeat of that this time would see three games go by and a new coach then immediately facing four games in nine days over the festive period. Haste would therefore be imperative here.

It shouldn’t be a problem either. This isn’t like the previous two appointments when the sackings were thrust upon the club at short notice. Lee Johnson couldn’t stay in a job after a 6-0 thrashing in League One and Neil walked out. No one at Sunderland can claim to have been caught unawares here.

If I was a betting man, then, my guess would be to expect an appointment within a week and it’ll be someone we’ll probably need to Google. Then again it’s Sunderland, so…

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