Edouard Michut 'growing in confidence and belief with every game'

Edouard Michut once again left Tony Mowbray impressed after his influential performance in the win over Middlesbrough.

The 19-year-old, who is on-loan from Paris Saint-Germain, did not start the Championship game although he featured heavily after replacing the injured Corry Evans early on.

It has probably cemented his chances of starting the FA Cup game at Fulham next week, and Mowbray says Sunderland are now starting to see why he is so highly rated.

"Every time Edouard Michut gets on the pitch he gets more confidence and belief, and the same with [Abdoullah] Ba and the same with Jewison [Bennette].

"Young players have got to be given opportunity to grow and then somewhere down the line they can start affecting the game like Amad affects the game."

Michut, Ba and Bennette are all players who could play a big part in Sunderland’s future, and that could even include a play-off bid this season.

However, Mowbray says there is absolutely no pressure or expectation on the players to deliver that yet – although there will be relatively soon.

"There's no huge expectation from the people in suits to get to the play-offs or get promotion, we just have to keep trying to produce a football team that can compete in this division and then as we build it over the next year or two the aspirations for the team will get higher," he said. "I like this group of players, they work really hard.

"They finished fifth in League One last year and they are adapting to this division, working really hard to be a decent team. We have to grow it incrementally."

Edouard Michut 'growing in confidence and belief with every game' - Tony Mowbray

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