MIKE Dodds isn't afraid of making himself look like an "idiot" during his time in the Sunderland hotseat and will continue to be bold with his team selections and approach, despite last week's Swansea humbling.

Dodds switched to a back three for the visit of the Swans but it didn't go to plan, with the Black Cats ultimately paying the price for a dreadful first half as they lost for the third successive time.

Sunderland head for Norwich City on Saturday in desperate need of a result to keep their fading play-off hopes alive, and while Dodds was understandably reluctant to give too much away on his plans for the game, he insists he'll continue to be courageous with his selection.

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"I’ll play a three again at some point," he says.

"I showed last time and I think I showed on Saturday, like I said before, I’m not a roulette table, I’m not gambling or risking. It’s well thought-out, whatever we come up with and it will be discussed a thousand times.

"I went with a back three and the outcome was the outcome, it wasn’t a positive outcome but I will make decisions that might be slightly risky to try and get a positive outcome, if it works I’m a genius and if it doesn’t I’m an idiot.

"For 45 minutes [on Saturday] I was an idiot. That’s something I’m comfortable with.

"I’m comfortable sitting in that territory because I said when I took this role that I would be authentic to me and I wouldn’t allow anyone to dictate or influence my thought processes.

"I do too much preparation and I spend too much time planning training sessions and watching opposition, looking at strengths and weaknesses."

Dodds added: "I’m not going to delve into what happened on Saturday because it’s in the past, but there were some things tactically that I actually quite liked, we just didn’t execute it.

"That’s not an excuse, by the way, because whatever answer I give to what happened in the first 45 minutes, all the roads point back to me anyway. But I’ll go back to a back three if I think it’s right for the team."