AFTER his final full season in charge at Bolton Wanderers, Phil Parkinson claimed he learned things he was never taught on his UEFA Pro Licence course. Now at Sunderland, in the midst of a promotion charge, he has described how one of the driving factors behind Sunderland’s resurgence was taken from his studies.

Parkinson has recalled how one of his fact-finding trips on that course was responsible for shaping much of how his style today. When Parkinson was the manager of Colchester United between 2003-06 he travelled to Milan to watch Roberto Mancini lead Inter’s sessions to further his education, having only just taken his first steps in management.

Now, aged 51 and with spells at Hull, Charlton, Bradford and Bolton behind him, Parkinson still fondly remembers what he learned from his time at Inter’s Angelo Moratti Training complex watching Mancini work with the likes of Walter Samuel, Marco Materazzi, Javier Zanetti and Sinisa Mihajlovic in tow.

Some of those defensive principles that Serie A teams are renowned for have helped Parkinson along the way. “It’s just the very, very simple things,” said Parkinson, whose Sunderland have kept seven clean sheets from their last eight matches.

“I remember years ago when I was at Colchester I was doing the Pro Licence. I used to work defenders all the time and I was very fortunate to go and study Inter Milan and watch Mancini training. And the defenders were doing incredibly basic, simple things.

“I think there were two Argentinian internationals (Samuel/Zanetti/Nicolas Burdisso) in there, just squeezing, covering and just working unopposed for ages on the pitch.

“We spoke to him about it afterwards and he said ‘every week we drill that into defenders’. I then watched them on the Sunday and you could see it with the defenders how that detail was in place.

“I went back and said to the Colchester lads, ‘listen, you know, all that work that we do? Don’t think it’s beneath us because I’ve just watched Mancini with four international defenders drilling home all of those important things. So yeah, it’s just an example.”

It was not that his time at Inter made him do things differently, it was more an enforcement of the sort of beliefs he already had in mind.

As a successful Football League manager he has maintained those, while also insisting he still wants to attack teams – and that has been highlighted by the way he has Chris Maguire and Lynden Gooch floating around behind Charlie Wyke, with wing-backs bombing on when possible for Sunderland.

He said: “It’s important and I think the way teams are playing out from the back more, which is great, and we’re trying to do that ourselves, and we’ve had success at that, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that a defender is paid to defend first and foremost.

“I just gave that example because that’s where I did my Pro Licence. I mean, I’ve always admired the John Terry’s of this world, the proper defenders, you know? So … is it an Italian inspiration? No. It’s just that I used to appreciate the defenders who did their job first and foremost, and then the football came on top of that.”

Sunderland will look to keep another clean sheet against Bristol Rovers today, with Parkinson expecting to be entertained in the final third too.

He said: “I think first of all, it’s making players understand what is good play, and good play for Denver Hume, for example, is driving forward. But he’s also making sure he’s got the tenacity to stop crosses coming in at the other end. And we’ll give him as much plaudits for doing that as crossing a ball and creating a chance at the other end.

“As I said, after the game last weekend, I said to the lads at half-time at Oxford, the biggest cheer from our supporters in the first half, apart from the goal obviously, was when Denver worked incredibly hard on the left-hand side and blocked a cross coming in, because the supporters appreciate that that is important.”