Phil Smith and Jason Jones on Enzo Le Fee's imminent Sunderland return (1)

On the latest episode of The Roar podcast, our SAFC writers discuss the Frenchman's imminent return from injury.

Transcript

00:00So, the return of Le Fay is relatively imminent. Now, I imagine some of them are going to be

00:06super cautious with him, to be honest, over the next couple of weeks, because obviously

00:10another hamstring injury would be a bit of a disaster at this stage of the season. But,

00:15Jason, just looking back to Le Fay coming back, are we now at the point now where the

00:20ends are wide? I wouldn't say experiment, because it was actually pretty logical in

00:23the time given the situation. Is that over? Are we now just dropping Le Fay in for Rigg,

00:29in for Job, in for Dan Neil? Do you think that's the way forward?

00:33Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think you sort of hinted at it there, but when he came

00:38into the club, Le Bris' hand was very much forced by the sort of dual absence of Mundell

00:42and Watson. Obviously, both of those players are back now. Mundell has started the last

00:46few games. Watson has made a couple of cameo appearances from the bench. I don't really

00:53see how there could be an argument for Le Fay playing out wide ahead of either of those

00:59two when it's sort of obvious that he was signed as a central midfielder and it's sort

01:03of obvious that that is his preferred position as well. I think it's actually really exciting

01:08to be able to consider the prospect of him coming into this Sunderland side at this stage

01:13of the season, obviously with the caveat that Sunderland won't want to rush him back into

01:17the action. But there is a version of this where, again, don't want to tempt fate, but

01:22we get sort of two, three, four weeks away from here and some of them could have, you

01:27know, quote-unquote their best attacking line-up available to them. You know, if we sort of

01:31consider Mundell on one side, Roberts on the other, Le Fay playing in behind and Isidoro

01:35and Maienda, obviously that would then give you the option to rotate Rigg and then Bellingham

01:41sort of floating around on the other side of that central three as well. So, it's, yeah,

01:46it's what he was signed for and I still think that it's what Le Bris will ideally want him

01:51to be in this side. And I think that what we've seen of him, the glimpses that we saw

01:56of him and the way that he was able to impact games from that wide position, the prospect

02:00of then putting him into a central role where he's sort of more readily involved in the

02:04sort of cut and thrust of the game, I think there is the potential for him to be a real,

02:10real game changer for Sunderland. So, I think he's, you know, if and when he's ready, he's

02:14got to play in a central role.

02:17I think this feels like quite a big deal for me, James, not just because of how good Le

02:21Fay is, but I just think that even if it is sparingly initially, we've talked a little

02:26bit about how unusual the situation in the season is with where Sunderland are on the

02:29table. And I think in terms of keeping the momentum and also a bit of freshness, a bit

02:34of excitement among the fan base, I think dropping Le Fay in is going to be a really

02:38big part of that. And of course, what it does massively is it puts real competition in central

02:43midfield, which hasn't existed this season. And the three players who've played the vast

02:47majority of minutes have been incredible, really, when you consider their age and how

02:50many minutes they've had to play. I think just going into that play-off, I think that

02:53might just be the bit of edge that's needed in there for those players knowing that their

02:58place is under threat, because let's be real, if Le Fay is fit by the time the play-off

03:01starts, he's in the team, right?