Will RLB change his back four at Man Utd? #onthewhistle

Sunderland Echo

Phil Smith discusses as part of his weekly Q&A with Sunderland fans

Transcript

00:00Masuaku will finally start Gatroyda.

00:02I think Masu was the only weak link tonight for me.

00:05Yeah, I'd say a couple of things on Masuaku's performance.

00:07One is his first league start for a long time.

00:10So I think you have to give him a little bit of sort of grace and time to adjust to the intensity and the tempo.

00:16When we did our analysis when Masuaku signed, looking at his stats, looking at his clips,

00:20it was clear that he was a very attacking left-back, very, very different to Real Nildo.

00:24And I thought that's what we saw yesterday.

00:25I thought he put some gorgeous balls into the box.

00:27And actually, I'm kind of hoping that when Sunderland's analysed this game,

00:30maybe the next time Masuaku plays, there'll be a few players on their pitch who are a bit more bold than getting into the box.

00:35Because a couple of his deliveries were really, really dangerous.

00:38And it's just there wasn't the Sunderland players in the box to get on the end of it.

00:42So I was really impressed with some of what he did.

00:44I would agree that, you know, I don't think the defensive side of his game is his strong suit.

00:49So, yeah, I think that that's definitely something to look at.

00:53But I thought it was a telling decision from Labris.

00:55He sort of, he hinted in his press conference, I like consistency.

00:59I like keeping the structure, giving the players that familiarity, which they can improve with.

01:03And I don't see him changing it again next week, to be honest, in terms of,

01:07I think he'll try and keep it as similar as he can.

01:09And again, use Ballard and Gatroyda from the bench.

01:12Doug Gatroyda really grew into it yesterday.

01:14I think by the end of the game, you can really see what he brings.

01:16And I think he's going to make a strong claim to get in the team, probably a right-back initially.

01:21Maybe that then leads to trick him to move over a left-back, you know, see how that shapes out.

01:26But I agree with you, Anthony, that I think yesterday Gatroyda put his hand up and showed for the first time.

01:30Because obviously he's only really come on in the last couple of minutes of games to play in midfield.

01:34So we haven't really been able to see much from him yesterday, but I thought he looked really strong.

01:38So, yeah, I think he's got a really good chance of fighting his way in at the moment.

01:43But I think, to be honest, I don't see LaBrice making many changes next week.

01:47I think he'll just look for someone to build on that again.

01:50And as I say, I think for sure there's some defensive reservations about Mastic RQ.

01:54But hopefully he'll also be better for getting an hour under his belt at Premier League level.

01:59John says, where is Serkin?

02:01So, yeah, not 100% sure exactly where he's at in his recovery, to be honest.

02:06The wrist, which he had more surgery on in the summer, didn't heal as quickly or as well as someone would have liked.

02:12So that was an issue.

02:13But then as he was sort of feeding his way back into training, there was an issue with his knee as well.

02:18Which wasn't particularly serious, but someone decided it was best just to give Serkin Basie a period of rest.

02:24So in the hope that when he comes back, he can actually have a real run at it and get himself up to full fitness.

02:29So I'm not entirely sure what the time frame is on that.

02:32I'd be very surprised if he was in contention for Man United next weekend.

02:35So I think that's probably going to be one of those where we're looking at probably after the next international break.

02:40Of course, at that point, Ray Nill will only be one game away from a return.

02:43So he's definitely got a bit of a battle on to get into the side.

02:49But we'll see how that develops.

02:50I'll try and get an update from the Brees and Man United pretty much press conference.

02:53So...

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended