'People don't realise the impact' - Sunderland boss says key injury behind poor run of form
Michael Beale says people have underestimated the impact the injury to Patrick Roberts had on Sunderland ahead of his return at Middlesbrough.
Roberts injured his calf in the 1-1 draw with Rotherham in December and Sunderland have struggled for balance at times since.
However, with Roberts set to return, Abdoullah Ba in form and Romaine Mundle signed on deadline day, Sunderland have a lot of strength on the flanks again.
“Paddy’s got a lot of experience,” Beale said. “He’s won leagues and played in big games in Europe and things like that. As a young player, a lot was thrust on Paddy.
“He’s been a loss because I think we lost our balance. When I first came in, to lose Niall [Huggins] in the first game and then to lose Paddy in the second (editor’s note: It was Beale’s third game when Roberts got injured, not his second), I don’t think people realise how big an impact that had on us.
“If you think of our flying full-backs and our wide players that come in, we’re a team that if we didn’t get you on the left, we’d try to get you on the right and that would open up space in the middle. All of a sudden, we’ve lost a lot of balance in our team. We were disorientated a bit, at the same time as changing the coach.
“Paddy coming back is great, but he’s got a fight on because Abdoullah looks in a really good place at this moment in time. Abdoullah did a great job at the weekend.
“Romaine comes into that as well, so with Jack [Clarke], I think we’ve got four really good players in the wide areas who can really contribute. They’ll need to, and then if they’re not dribbling their way in, it’s important that we hit crosses from our full-backs too.”
While what Beale says is largely true, he also has to take a degree of responsibility himself.
He was unlucky with the injures to Roberts, Huggins, and left-backs Aji Alese and Dennis Cirkin as well. However, Beale was selecting Alex Pritchard on the right ahead of centre-back Jenson Seelt whilst Abdoullah Ba sat on the bench, so the balance was there – he just wasn’t picking it.
Even when Ba came in away to Ipswich and set up a goal, he was back on the bench for the following game in favour of Pritchard and Seelt.
There can be little doubt, though, that Sunderland look a lot more balanced now. Leo Hjelde can offer natural balance at left-back, freeing Trai Hume to return to the right, and the winger options look very exciting.
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