'Dan Neil is some player - he sends me for hotdogs every time,' says Sunderland star

Luke O’Nien has hailed Dan Neil as ‘some player’ as he discussed his recent move into the Sunderland midfield.

O’Nien was brought to Sunderland as a midfielder in 2018 but he has spent most of his career on Wearside playing in defence.

He is still very much seen as a defender by head coach Tony Mowbray, but the hectic recent schedule and the season-ending injury to Corry Evans has seen O’Nien pushed into midfield of late.

The former Wycombe man has performed there too, with him being arguably Sunderland’s best player in the 3-0 win over QPR.

However, O’Nien knows the competition in midfield is fierce, especially with Dan Neil in the squad.

“We have people like Dan Neil who has led the way all this season in midfield,” O’Nien said. “He’s some player. In training he sends me for hotdogs every single time and drops me with a stepover.

“Dan Neil is, I'm not sure how much younger than me, four, five, six years, and he’s been teaching me for the last two or three years.

“Having people like that who have come on and changed the game again, and then week in, week out is delivering with his performances is credit to him.

“He’s got to keep setting the standards that we are looking to match.”

O’Nien may be pushed into midfield duty again in the coming weeks, but he says he still finds it very easy to step into the role.

In fact, he thinks it is largely just the same as playing in defence in that it’s more about engaging his head than it is his legs.

“The way I break down the game, I see it as I have to go out and make decisions,” O’Nien said. “I think me as a younger player here would have maybe not have adapted as well as I have now in some games.

“I’m not going to get it right all the time but I have really good people helping me.

“I just know that whatever position I play, the same with everybody, we just have to make the best decisions we can. If it goes wrong you move onto the next decision.

“I just keep trying to make better decisions for the team and when we get back to the training ground me and Veno (Sunderland assistant coach Mark Venus) will be watching the clips back, we talk about it as a team as well some of the clips and how we can improve.”

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