Swansea City boss Luke Williams said his team were rewarded for focusing on their own game plan after securing three crucial points at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
Williams admitted Mike Dodds’ change of formation had surprised him, and was something that his players weren’t prepared for. But they dominated the first half and were unfortunate to be only 2-0 ahead at the break, a lead they eventually held onto despite Luke O’Nien’s header.
“We tried to concentrate on improving our performance as a team, that was the key focus for me,” Williams said.
“Imagine if we set up a game-plan purely based on the opposition and they change everything today and we lost. We have to understand the opposition – it would be crazy not to – but at the same time we have to be excellent at our own game. We have to turn up and try to impose the game-plan on the opposition. Today was a good example of that. Had we developed a really strong game plan on what we think Sunderland were going to do, we’d have been lost today.
“They were different to what we thought. I tried to keep an open mind and give my players advice rather than tell them we’ll do one thing then change everything. In my opinion for the players to go into a game with four different game plans depending on personnel and formation is taking away from them being able to have the confidence in something. They showed their confidence in their own game plan and style today and I think that’s what got us the victory.
Williams praised Sunderland’s ‘brilliant’ second half showing and admitted he was frustrated his side couldn’t maintain the same level of dominance that had shown in the first half, but felt they were nevertheless worthy of the three points.
“Particularly the first half was strong,” he said.
