Michael Beale confirms Sunderland selection plan and makes 'risk-taking' pledge in play-off push

Michael Beale has confirmed he will rotate his Sunderland side at Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night and has warned his players that they cannot afford to underestimate a side who are showing impressive signs going forward.

Huddersfield were beaten away at Southampton on Saturday afternoon but were leading 3-2 in the game heading into the latter stages, and that was off the back of a 4-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday under caretaker boss Jon Worthington.

Beale says he will freshen up his side with another challenging away at Birmingham City lying in wait, with Jobe Bellingham an obvious contender to return to the side. The head coach believes his side are showing a lot of positive signs but is eager for them to show a greater level of consistency within games.

"There's likely to be a couple of changes for both games," Beale said.

"First and foremost you deal with the game in front of you and recover. It's two away games and so we've got to recover really well, make sure we bring our A game tomorrow night but then again just a couple of days later. They're two different opponents but their need is as great as ours in their own situation, so it's important that we pick the right team tactically tomorrow and then make the right subs. You need different qualities because the game changes over 90 minutes, and in the last couple I think we've just about got it right.

"It will be a really tough game. I've watched them," he added.

"They are quite direct in terms of they are not a team that wants too much possession, but they play the most forward passes, certainly in the last five or six games, in the league.

"They are fifth for shots so that tells you what's coming. We are going to need to be defensively strong, we need to make sure we are up for the midfield battle all over the pitch. We are not going to be able to have the lapses in concentration we've had, maybe at the start of the second half at Middlesbrough and first half at the weekend. We are going to need to be at it for 90 minutes."

One of Beale's key decisions is whether to continue with Abdoullah Ba in a more central role, as he opted to do against Plymouth. Whether he does or not, Beale says he is eager to get as many attacking players on the pitch as possible in order to maximise his team's attacking threat.

"I just felt that at the weekend, we knew that at times Plymouth would sit deep with a back five and four in front," Beale said of his Ba decision.

"So I just wanted to get three dribblers on the pitch, and Naz's movement was good. We're learning how to use that and at times the timing of his runs could be better, but we felt that in the 1-v-1 moments we felt those three could be dangerous - and then we knew we had Romaine to come on as well. I thought Abdoullah found it difficult in the first half, we moved him slightly wider in the second and then ultimately Jobe came on and scored from that position. The idea in principle was right to overload that side, and I think they are going to have find a way to play together if they're going to play. They've got to learn that they're stronger together and play in combinations, I think if you're a right-sided defender and you have to come up against Jack and Abdoullah, it becomes very difficult to double up on Jack.

"So we're looking at different options all the time, they all want to be in the team so we have to find the balance, and I'm really pleased with Romaine who has shown that he has got a part to play," he added.

"It's really good to have Paddy back, we of course have to manage his minutes in the next two games because we don't want a relapse of his injury. So Abdoullah could easily go back to the right tomorrow night, for example.

"It's interesting with Paddy and players like that, because they want to be on the pitch when the game opens up in the last 25 minutes or so. So if he was to start tomorrow it might be Abdoullah who is on during that spell, it might be a Jobe. Someone like Paddy, if we can get him 1-v-1... we want to feed these guys early because the more we can do that and play with 1-v-1, I think we're a team with more options than one or two others. We lost Paddy in the first 20 minutes in my third game and there's been a lot of football played since then where we've not had that extra option. Now all of a sudden we've got Paddy back, Abdoullah and Romaine, Callum Styles back in training, hopefully Bradley back before long... It enables us to play with the same intensity for 90 minutes and it's about giving the opposition other problems to solve. I'm not sure Plymouth would have guessed our starting XI and that's important, adding something a little bit different to keep other teams guessing.

"Every team has different strengths and we need to be wary of every one," Beale added,

"We want to play with lots of style and freedom but there are other teams out there who look at it differently and have different strengths, with defensive compactness and set plays for example. Wins are going to be important, draws can be your nemesis a bit and at the moment, we're willing to take risks against everybody. We'll keep players up the pitch and trust in our defensive shape, hoping that when we turn it over we can get at you. You saw that against Stoke and Plymouth, we conceded one playing risk football but then scored two of our three doing it. That makes for exciting viewing."