What Mike Dodds won't do with Sunderland team selection after Blackburn hammering

MIKE Dodds says he can't be fuelled by anger and must strike the right balance with his team selection on the back of the Blackburn hammering on Monday - but says one thing he won't do between now and the end of the season is "experiment".

After such a dreadful showing against Rovers, Dodds must decide whether to make wholesale changes for today's game against Bristol City or to give the players who disappointed last time out a chance to put it right.

That's something he's considered all this week but after studying the Robins and how they play, the interim head coach says his final decision will come down to how he thinks his side will be best equipped to pick up three much-needed points.

"It's a good question," said Dodds, who must decide whether to hand Jack Clarke a start after the star winger's return to action from the bench on Monday.

"The balance is, one giving them (the players who started on Monday) an opportunity to correct what happened, you were that bad show me you want to represent the club properly.

"The other balance is letting them know it's not acceptable and taking them out of the team. But I go back to my processes, I watch the opposition and a huge amount of football. I go through all the data and pros and cons and I will always pick the team based on what I feel is best to win the game.

"That hasn't happened at the weekend, hence the questions for why I changed a winning team. That's always something a head coach has to live with. It's a balance between letting them know it's not acceptable and giving them an opportunity to put it right."

RECOMMENDED READING:

• Sunderland will wait to make head coach appointment as Mike Dodds confirms plans

• Mike Dodds gives Sunderland players silent treatment & reveals minor injury setback

• Jermain Defoe wants the Sunderland job - and has backroom team set-up and ready to go

Sunderland's hopes of a top six finish have long disappeared but Dodds says the Black Cats can't just write off the final six games of the season. With that in mind, the interim head coach won't be making major changes to his team and says he'll continue to select what he believes is his strongest XI for every game.

"I won't experiment with the team," he says.

"After Monday every individual has to earn the right to play for Sunderland Football Club. We have six massive games and one thing I won't do is let the last six games turn into a kickaround with our mates.

"It's an unbelievable football club, I understand the privilege I have to be leading the club so the players will earn the right to play for the last six games."