Chris Coleman is a man staring relegation in the face, but even as the dark day looms large he's still tinkering with his side, trying to find the set up that could give them an unlikely great escape.

Rather bravely, he's doing everything he can to fight the drop, including a switch of formations with much more emphasis on attacking play.

That change resulted in the 1-1 draw with Leeds at the weekend, but when questioned about it he got incredibly defensive.

"We have played a back four at times this season and been absolutely smashed to pieces, overpowered and overrun, and nobody then says ‘we’re playing with a back four’," he told the Sunderland Echo.

"We went to the side that will be the champions, Wolves, with a back three and got a result even though we were down to ten men. So when people talk about back fours and back threes, for me that’s nonsense."

Instead of focusing on formations, Coleman would prefer his team showed the right attitude and application in their endeavours.

“As I’ve said all along, you can play whatever formation you like and if you’ve got the right mentality and the right attitude on the pitch, you will get results. We hadn’t won for almost a year at home playing with a back four, then we played with a back three and won."

He refused to put any of the recent good performances down to the change in tactics, although he stressed they must keep performing well if they're to stand any chance at all of avoiding the drop.

“The reason we have played well in the last three games is mentality, end of story. That has to continue. We have to play with no fear. The way we are playing at the moment, it looks like we could win or lose games because it is so open, but we don’t have any choice, we have to do that."

The Verdict

Whether it is a back three or a back four, too much water has passed under the bridge for any of it to truly matter. Sunderland are drowning and I'm not sure a back nine or ten would solve their defensive issues.

There's plenty in which fans can find solace though, a spell in League One can give a club the winning mentality back, something the Black Cats need rather desperately at present.