Drooling at some of these line ups, there’s no glaring weakness in this side and I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that about a Sunderland team
The other bonus of signing Le Fee is what the other lads will learn from training with him. He's only young himself but it will only benefit the young lads to learn from him as well. Really need to calm down my excitement about all this
Midfield 3 as below for me. Rigg, Neil, Jobe I do wonder how we now move forward with the midfield we have. I cant really see much point in having a bench full of the best midfielders in the league. In some ways it is unbalanced. I could see something like a 4231, Patto Hume, Mepham, Onien, Cirkin Neil, Samed Rigg, Le Fee, Jobe Wilson It means quite a shift to play without real width but Cirkin and Hume wouls have licence to join in wide, with a double insurance against the counter of Samed and Neil. Of course it would need to be 1 at a time, not a complete all guns blazing job. The thought of having two of those 5 on the bench regularly doesnt really sit well with me. Assuming of course Samed and Le Fee settle into the league well. We already have Aleksic who has shown he is a capable sub imo. Adil has done well recently. Without a change in formation I just dont see how we deliver the sort of team dynamic and spirit we will need and currently have.
The obvious downside to this is that one of our current three 'first choice' midfield is going to lose his place imo. We can tell ourselves that Neil, Jobe and Rigg can be rotated with Le Fée and Samed but I'm not sure RLB will think the same. If Le Fée comes in, and is clearly more effective, he won't be dropped ... same goes for Samed. Of course it would be amazing to have Jobe, Neil or Rigg on the bench but I'm not sure they'll be ecstatic.
Time for Reggie to really earn his wages....Not that he wasn't already. Bet he feels a headache coming on, but he wouldn't have gone down this road without already having a solution sorted out in his head...a real thinking man's manager is Reg and its what I like about him.
Add a sprinkling of Roberts, Mundle, Watson, Mayenda to the mix; all of whom have a justifiable claim to be in the starting 11. Perhaps we’ll be changing formation on a game by game basis, dependant upon the opposition? It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how we manage to keep them all invested and motivated. Exciting times ahead!
With the current competition for midfield places it’s looking like Rigg, Neil and Jobe might just be starting to see how things would be if they moved to a Premiership team.
Talking about the progression of the team in general, the level of technical ability and skill is very high and has been steadily increasing. I seem to remember a new signing commenting how impressed they were by the levels in training - might be Rusyn. It's a pleasure to watch when we really click and sides struggle to contain us. Now we've added Le Fee and increased the skill level even further. Love it.
i bet our young lads have kept an eye on clarke's move and are taking that into account when thinking about thier own futures, the grass is not always greener on the other side and it is very easy to go from hero to zero. we all know clarke is a good player but right now i guess he is questioning both his move and his ability...right now our young lads are probably better of continuing to build thier profile even if they get less game time, it also means they have to prove they are more worthy of a start than others which can only benefit them and the club.
Interesting to see what he goes with on Friday night RLB is usually patient with new signings but I think Le Fee will be straight in
