TONY MOWBRAY admits his Sunderland side found themselves wrestling with a tactical dilemma they could not solve as they tried to contain Swansea City with just ten men at the Stadium of Light.

The Black Cats were at a numerical disadvantage for more than 70 minutes of today’s game, which eventually saw them crash to a 3-1 defeat as all the goals came after the interval.

Swansea’s playing style is based around retaining possession – despite their mid-table position, the Swans boast some of the best passing statistics in the Championship – and it became extremely difficult to contain them with only ten men on the field.

Mowbray said: “You could feel it was really dangerous to try to play a high press against them with a man down because there are so many spaces, and they play in the half-spaces off the back of the outside of your midfield.

“Once they get through, they’re into your backline, and you have to be really careful how you play. We decided to drop away, let them have the ball, and see if we could break on transitions, which is difficult because they have such good control of the ball.

“We found a way to get back into it. It’s frustrating, I suppose, to lose the goals we did, and then the game’s finished really. But it wasn’t as if we were peppering their goal with ten men because they don’t give you the ball back.

“It’s really difficult, and if you commit too many men too high, they’re in your backline and are probably going to score again. This is the way modern-day football is. Look at Man City, it’s really difficult to go and press them because all of a sudden they pass through you, and then the high-quality players are in your backline and the game’s over.

“You have to be careful against high-possession teams, and yet I thought we started very well and the game plan was good. But we couldn’t carry that on with ten men because you couldn’t commit enough bodies forward to get pressure on the ball.”