Welcome mate, hope you enjoy posting on here. It's true some players will have to go and you may be right, but Ekwah has what some of our other midfield players don't have so may be worth coaching into the player he could be. He's quite a size and should help us when teams are trying to bully us. If he can become tougher and impose himself we could have quite a player.
Welcome aboard mate. Have to agree with you regarding Ekwah. Mind you, if he actually used his size and strength it would be a different matter
He showed very little emotion when he scored that rocket against the Spanish team last week. I know it was only a friendly but he hardly broke into a smile, must have known he wasn't in Reggies plans. English football probably doesn't suite his style of play he should be loaned out closer to home or sold if we can recoup some of his transfer fee.
My problem is that I want all these young lads to succeed and perhaps give them too much leeway ... ... we have a good coach, in Le Bris, so I'll just have to accept his judgement.
when we signed him he was noticeably weak in challenges despite how strong he looks, I put that down to inexperience in the men’s game and hoped with time they would improve but still far to weak for me. id sell if we get a good bit but put in a decent return % just in case he develops that side of his game and gets a good move from there. i think we will be playing Browne and Neil more prominently with the idea to break Rigg in gently because he’s still to young to go straight in from the off playing 40/50 games this year as he would massively be as risk of burnout, we’ve seen that with Jobe and even going as far back as Callum Doyle. Keeping Ekwah wouldn’t be beneficial to us, him or Rigg is my thinking.
I worry that we might look a bit lightweight defending in midfield with Neil, Rigg, Browne, Jobe, etc ... ... some Championship teams are like 'land of the giants' and we look vulnerable at corners, etc, when the midfield helps the defence.
This is my only concern really, intrigued to see if gives Triantis a try in DM as he was playing for Hibs last season and quite well. not saying he’s the answer but could be a option.
Triantis is not good enough for CDM at championship level yet, watched him a few times for hibs and he was ok but he wasnt getting pressed like he would in the championship. He would offer us physicality at set pieces but that wiuod be it. Hoping he gets a good loan move again as i like the lad
That's what modern keepers seem to do, they become an extra central defender allowing others to move up and flood the midfield. I thought he played the role well as it stopped Blackpool playing the long ball down the middle. Obviously he will get lobbed sometime RLB seems to know what he wants from the lads and importantly Who he wants to keep and who to let go.
I have the feeling Le Bris won't be taking any prisoners ... ... I hope he's come to Sunderland to make a name for himself then move up eventually.
Plenty have said it on here, that’s what I’m basing that previous reply on. Normally creeps up when our players are linked away or we’ve apparently rejected a bid. There’s a bit of truth to it to be fair because clearly we aren’t going to sell our assets at the first instance but we still defo need that big player sale to boost our finances.
Can’t say I’ve seen him to be honest mate. I think he will be going on loan, I think if we are talking about the need for more height in the squad then I’d argue the need to sign a good sized centre back to play alongside Ballard or to at least challenge O’Nien for that spot. i suspect we won’t be signing another midfield option even if we let Ekwah go.
There must be a section of the forum I don't have access to ... ... I haven't seen one poster ever claim we don't have to sell anyone.
You've spotted my concern. If we had two big lads in the middle, with a bit of height in the full backs, I could cope with Rigg and Neil coming back for dead balls. But O'Nien, Cirkin, Hume and those two leave us like sitting ducks imo. Stewart used to stop loads of corners and crosses into the near post but we don't have that at the moment. And Jobe doesn't seem to like putting his face in among the flying boots and headers
Agree. Won't bash the club for signing a 6ft4 Benfica academy graduate but just think his on pitch attitude doesn't suit the championship. Will probably have a decent career in Portugal or Italy but not here.
O’Nien while not being his biggest fan I can still see what he brings to defence, he’s good with the ball at his feet and will throw himself around. All of which is good but for me we need to upgrade on that if we really want to press forward and get on with getting out of this league. Worst thing we can do is make him captain this year as then it makes it difficult to drop him if he throws a few stinkers in. Top bloke and a good defender but makes to many mistakes and think we should be improving on him.
That was definitely the case last season when there was no real option imo ... ... but we now have Neil, Ballard, Browne as potential stand in captains if O'Nien is left out. I don't believe Le Bris is sentimental and will make difficult choices then live with them.
