Sunderland have been handed a huge fitness boost with Jordan Pickford back in full training.Pickford had been in stunning form for Sunderland after breaking into the first team until he picked up a knee injury in the Boxing Day defeat to Manchester United. The England Under-21 international was initially ruled out for six to eight weeks but Washington-born Pickford has been working hard and has now returned to full training at the Academy of Light. It remains to be seen when Pickford will be ready for first team action, with Southampton the visitors to the Stadium of Light on Saturday. But Pickford's return leaves manager David Moyes with a selection headache given Vito Mannone has helped Sunderland record back-to-back clean sheets against Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace to boost survival hopes. Moyes revealed last week that Pickford, who stretched his cruciate ligament in the 3-1 defeat to Manchester United, was making good progress and hoped to be able to call upon his services again soon. Ahead of his return to training, the Scot told the Echo: "The specialist said that they didn’t want any contact, which I thought was strange because with goalkeepers there’s always contact when they hit the ground, but it was a certain type of contact. "He’s not too far away, he’s doing a lot of work, a lot of handling work, a lot of diving about, but he’s not in the group just now because they don’t want any contact. "I hope so because he’s quite well down with his work, it could be a couple of weeks but I’m not quite sure." When Pickford was first ruled out, Moyes described his injury lay-off as a "massive blow" but said Sunderland were lucky to have Mannone to fill his gloves. The experienced Italian started the season as the number one but lost his place to Pickford after a spell out following elbow surgery.
Great news. He would have walked straight back into the team but after Mannone kept a clean sheet and gave a decent performance against Palace, he's going to have to wait his turn.
Vito's clean sheets keeps his place for me. It won't be long before Vito has a couple of dodgy games(as he oftern does) and Pickford would be back in. I think it's harsh to drop keepers for nowt.
Agree Bri, Vito's kept two clean sheets and deserved to remain in the side, he's been helped of course by the return of Kone in those games as hes got his act together. Brilliant news for Pickford.
So pleased but conundrum now with Mannone playing well -do we wait till he makes a mistake / has a poor game before Pickford returns or replace him asap ?? For me its continue with Mannone
Vito might have keep two clean sheets, but before that he has been poor in most games. To say we have to wait until he has a bad game before he is dropped can not make sense with so few games left, we can not afford to lose any games at this stage of the season. Put simply you play your best players when fit and Pickford is our best keeper, so when fully fit he starts.
he couldnt hold a candle to Pickford drop him,his distribution alone is the pits and puts us back under pressure straight away, Pickky is 5 times the goalie he will ever be, so thanks for keeping his place warm
Mannone deserves to keep his place but knows he must perform to keep it with JP waiting to come on. JP need not be rushed back and an extra couple of weeks waiting will make sure his injury is completely healed. His presence on the bench will improve Mannone. After Southampton and the New York break they should both be in contention to play so then, the one in best form starts.
Bring him back when he's ready, no rushing. Mannone has been playing well over the last couple of weeks. Once they're both fit and training it goes to who ever shows more quality and desire during those sessions.
If Pickford is 100% fit then he goes back in for me. If he's not and only fit enough for the bench then Vito stays.
Bit of a tricky one as assuming that Mannone keeps his form up then it wouldn't be fair to drop him and if we did he may feel justifiably inclined to bugger off, but on the other hand Pickford is a better keeper and we can't afford niceties if it costs us points. I'd stick with Mannone and hope that the competition pushes him on to be even better. He is perfectly capable at this level when he's on form.
If your striker was injured and his replacement comes in and scores in consecutive games, you keep him in the team. Same applies with goalkeepers and clean sheets, for me. (Pretend our striker isn't Defoe for this to work)
Not long back people were saying Pickford and Defoe were our two most important players and without them we'd be long gone, which I'm inclined to agree with. Even less far back everyone was calling Mannone, granted he's had 2 clean sheets but his distribution is still awful and simply isn't as good as Pickford, therefore I'd play Pickford.
Stick with Vito for this one but after the weeks break get Picks back in. AR alluded to the fact that Vito's distribution is utter utter w*nk whereas Picks is top notch. Vito will be away back to Italy in the summer so we need to be looking for another back up goalie.
My first reaction is "put him straight In" but looking at the bigger picture not just Vito vs Pickford you can't break up a defense who has just kept 2 good clean sheets unless forced. Vito should play against Southampton but as has been mentioned after the NY trip DM should be picking on who's training better