Sunderland injury update and Millwall preview

Sunderland Echo

Phil Smith issues an update for Sunderland fans ahead of the trip to face Millwall this weekend

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone and welcome to a very quick edition of On The Whistle. It's been a while since

00:14I last spoke to you, obviously after that Coventry draw, so I thought ahead of the Millwall

00:17game it might be worth bringing you up to speed a little bit on all the latest news,

00:20particularly on the injury front because there is a lot of it. I think it's fair to say that

00:25Millwall on Saturday I think is shaping up to be one of, if not the biggest tests at

00:29Sunderland and reduced Lebris have faced this season just because of the sheer number of

00:33players missing and who is missing. So we spoke to Lebris at his pre-match press conference

00:38today. Bad news in terms of Alan Brown and Romain Mundell, I think it was kind of the

00:42worst kept secret on Wearside to be honest, but Lebris did confirm that they are both

00:46facing significant spells out of the side. You expect both of them to be out for around

00:52six to eight weeks. Obviously they both got injured in that same passage of play against

00:56Coventry. Mundell is a hamstring injury, Brown actually fractured a bone in his leg

01:00which is quite remarkable really that he came back on the pitch to try and play on. So really

01:05big blow in different ways. Mundell has obviously been one of Sunderland's key attacking players

01:10in terms of his goal output. Brown has been so versatile, so dependable when he's been

01:14called upon and when you throw it forward to the Millwall game, when you think the Trehearne,

01:18Patrick Robertson, Joe Bellingham are all suspended, there's five of Lebris' key players

01:23really from the opening exchanges of the season all missing. Brown probably hasn't

01:27started as many games as the others, but even in the games where he's been on the bench

01:30he's come on basically as the first substitute pretty much week in, week out. So I think

01:34that's a big setback for Sunderland. It wasn't all negative news by any stretch of the imagination.

01:38Anthony Paterson is fit again after that injury. Obviously Simon Moore has done really, really

01:42well and it's no slight on him. I think he's proven himself a really capable deputy and

01:46a safe pair of hands, but I think Paterson will probably come straight back into the

01:49team. I think he is Sunderland's first choice goalkeeper and I think especially the dynamics

01:54of Millwall the way Paterson is so aggressive and brave in terms of coming off his line

02:00and also from set pieces, from crosses, from long balls into the box, I think that's going

02:05to be a really valuable skill at Millwall and I think Sunderland will be quite keen

02:08to bring him back. I think because it is a game where Sunderland's box is going to come

02:13under a lot of pressure and I think Paterson having Paterson back is really important.

02:17Aji Alise is also fit again, so that's a really good news. He obviously hasn't played a lot

02:23of football for quite a long time, so will Ibris chuck him straight into the start of

02:26the XI against Millwall? I think that's unlikely, but it is obviously a really handy option

02:30in terms of the depth of the squad, in terms of giving him some options to change it within

02:34the game and obviously moving forward over the next couple of weeks, having Alise back

02:38in contention for selection, both at left-back and at centre-back where he played so well

02:42at the start of the season is really good news. So there were some positives amid the

02:45kind of gloom and I think it's really interesting now because no matter what Ibris does in terms

02:50of his formation or his system, he is basically going to have to rely on players who haven't

02:56had a huge amount of league minutes this season. So his options, you've got Milano Lexic, you've

03:01got Adil Al-Sheikh and or Abdullah Barre, plays like Tommy Watson, Harrison Jones, even

03:06in defence, plays like Leo Yelder. So I think it's going to be a really interesting test

03:10of Sunderland's squad depth and also Ibris' ingenuity as a coach really in terms of how

03:14he finds the right blend. So I think that Lexic is probably the option that causes the

03:20least disruption elsewhere on the pitch because he's an attacking midfielder, it would allow

03:24you to keep that 4-2-3-1-4-3-3 shape if you just move Luko Naino to right-back potentially.

03:31And so I think that is quite an attractive option but I also think it's one that's quite

03:35unlikely. I think Ibris has been so cautious with Lexic because he's basically explained

03:40it before, saying that slightly different to some of the other players he's signed

03:43in the summer. There has been a language barrier with Lexic which he's still getting

03:46to grip to. That obviously makes it much harder for him to adapt to a new league, a new team,

03:51a new culture. And while he really rates him and thinks he's a really gifted attacking

03:54midfielder, he's been clear that he doesn't want to expose him too early and potentially

03:58knock his confidence. And I think that given that he hasn't used him at home, coming off

04:03the bench against Derby, Oxford, games where Sunderland have looked in relative control,

04:07I think it's a bit of a stretch to see him going in from the start away at Millwall.

04:11Could he come off the bench? Absolutely. But I don't quite see it. One of the other

04:15issues is that obviously Lexic hasn't been around a lot during the international break

04:18because he's been on international duty, whether that be with Serbia under-21s or with the

04:22Serbia men's national team. That's amazing for his long-term development and shows you

04:26what a talented player and what a big prospect he is. But it's obviously meant that a period

04:31where he could be training day in, day out and really getting to grips with things at

04:33Sunderland, he hasn't really been around. So I think it's more likely either that Ibris

04:39would bring in Aoushish back as a number 10 because there's an obvious gap in the team

04:42for that, or I think potentially more likely he's changed formation a little bit and sort

04:47of get those strikers who've performed well at different times of the season all basically

04:51into the same team. I think the Aoushish one is an interesting one because for all he hasn't

04:57had any league minutes of late, he hasn't actually played since the Sheffield Wednesday

05:00game in August. He has been training fully with the team for quite a while now and Ibris

05:06has included him in the squad a lot. So that would suggest that he is very much in contention

05:12for section and he is an option. I think it's interesting though because we know that Job

05:16and Roberts are going to be back after this game, which potentially then puts Aoushish

05:20back down the pecking order. And I think it's probably more likely that Ibris will go with

05:24a slight changed formation that includes players who've already been a big part of what he's

05:31done this season and who are potentially going to be a bigger part of things moving forward.

05:35So I think probably one potentially quite attractive option is to bring, say, Connolly

05:41and Isidore, play them together up front. Obviously, there'll be a lot of responsibility

05:45on both those players at different times to drop in and help the midfield and that would

05:49potentially allow you to play sort of Watson and Meander as wide players, players who've

05:53been knocking on the door at different times of the season or starting games at different

05:56times of the season. Certainly Meander, someone you can trust very much defensively and obviously

06:02also offers a lot of pace on the break as well. But, you know, that's how my gut tells

06:06me he'll go. But honestly, I have no idea. I think it's going to be really interesting

06:09to see that team when it drops at two o'clock on Saturday. And as I was saying before, whichever

06:15way he goes, we're going to see a big shift in personnel and formation probably from what

06:19we've seen a lot of this season. But to be fair, Ibris was really upbeat and really optimistic.

06:23He said, you know, he trusts all of these players. He's more than prepared to give them

06:27the opportunity. And, you know, he's already picked his team, wouldn't tell us what it

06:31was, obviously. And he said that when he put it up on the tactics board in his office,

06:34he felt really confident about the different potential strengths that all these players

06:38are bringing to the fold. So certainly no negativity or pessimism from Ibris. But it's

06:43going to be a really difficult game and really interesting to see how some of them go. So

06:46as ever, we'll have full coverage of that over on the website. And I will be back with

06:51On The Whistle sometime probably on Sunday morning, possibly Saturday night, depending

06:55how we go. I am now over on Blue Sky at Phil Smith Reporter. So come and find me on there.

07:01That's where I'll be asking for the questions for On The Whistle on Saturday time. So if

07:05you want to get involved, come and find me over on Blue Sky at Phil Smith Reporter. And

07:09I'll be putting out my usual call for questions after the game on Saturday. And I'll hopefully

07:13see you then for a debrief on what will hopefully be a brilliant Sunderland win. Let's see.

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