Sunderland v Leeds United: Who is Black Cats interim boss Mike Dodds? Meet the coach who played big role in Jude Bellingham career

Leeds United come up against a Sunderland side on Tuesday night who will be led by Mike Dodds, with the first-team coach taking temporary charge of the Black Cats following the sacking of Tony Mowbray last week. Dodds led Sunderland to a 2-1 victory over West Brom on Saturday, in a big boost for their play-off ambitions.

The Whites are enjoying a fine run of form under Daniel Farke, as they seek to close the gap to Ipswich Town in second. Sunderland's continued search for a new manager means Dodds will remain in charge for the visit of Leeds, and we have looked at his career so far and rounded up what he has had to say about the Whites ahead of the fixture on Tuesday night.

Who is Mike Dodds?

Dodds, 37, moved to Sunderland from the Birmingham City academy in 2021, having worked at St Andrews' as Academy manager. He worked closely with Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham and current Sunderland player Jobe Bellingham during his time at Birmingham. Jude and Jobe's father, Mike, paid tribute to Dodds when he left Birmingham. He tweeted: "Kids need teachers. Doddsy is an incredible teacher. As a family, we thank him for the care he showed towards their [Jude and Jobe] learning. They would not have progressed in the same way elsewhere.”

Dodds first joined Sunderland as an individual development coach but quickly progressed to a first-team coach. He was previously in temporary charge after Lee Johnson left the Black Cats in February 2022 but lost games to Doncaster Rovers and Cheltenham Town. Dodds worked as a youth coach at Coventry City aged just 18 and joined Birmingham City in 2009.

What did he say about Leeds?

In his pre-Leeds press conference, Dodds promised to take the game to Farke's side on Tuesday. He said: "We've played what you'd call the big boys or those with Premier League money and power and we've gone toe to toe with them. That will be the plan again on Tuesday night. We won't roll over and have our belly tickled. We'll give as good as we've got. They're two tough games (West Brom and Leeds) and I knew that when I took charge. We had to make sure the preparation was as clear and concise as hopefully it has been and hopefully there will be another positive outcome."

He also admitted Leeds are a difficult side to prepare for because of the fluidity of the Whites' front four. He added: "I think the thing that makes Leeds so dangerous is I don't think they're as pattern based in terms of specific movements. They have a real framework and principle to how they want to play and what they do in terms of their front four is they have complete freedom, and that freedom can cause problems because when you give top, top players like that the freedom to go and find areas on the pitch, it becomes a lot harder from a coaching perspective and that's where we've spoken to the players, in elements I will have to rely on the players to problem solve."