Sunderland’s ‘Warriors’ appear to be developing a new Dan Ballard

Sunderland confirmed actual staff spirit of their away recreation to Brighton & Hove Albion, incomes a hard-fought level.

It wasn’t the prettiest recreation by any stretch of the creativeness, because the Black Cats needed to survive a 0-0 stalemate on the south coast.

However six members of the Regis Le Bris facet shall be taking part in within the African Cup of Nations, a constructive signal that the Wearside fighters will proceed to work onerous for one another, even when they slip a bit within the standings.

Daniel Ballard, specifically, has as soon as once more distinguished himself as a resilient defensive presence, with the previous Arsenal centre-back persevering with to impress for the Premier League’s rookie staff this season.

Ballard’s excellent efficiency within the Premier League

In a summer season that noticed main modifications on the Stadium of Gentle by way of new signings, Ballard managed to stay in Le Blis’ first-team plans, becoming a member of the Championship facet for the primary time in the course of the 2022/23 season.

He now appears each bit a Premier League-caliber defender, successful the person of the match award within the closing phases of a lackluster draw on the Amex, with Sky Sports activities’ Dougie Critchley hailing him as Sunderland’s “star participant” right this moment.

The numbers again up all of the rave opinions, with the Northern Eire worldwide trudging into the ultimate phases of a fair match with an enormous 16 duels and deal with wins, making simply 5 errors from 46 passes and making a chilled impression within the coronary heart of a rock-solid Black Cats defence.

Ballard additionally had two photographs heading in the right direction in opposition to Unhealthy Verbruggen’s strong protection, and in line with former Manchester United defender Phil Jones, Ballard stood out all season as “one of many key figures on the pitch”, scoring two targets (one in all which got here in opposition to his former employers at Arsenal) and decisively successful 6.3 duels per league match.

He made the soar from the Championship to the Premier League look straightforward. Le Bris will subsequently be hoping to get one other ballad on this equally combative determine, who might turn out to be an much more essential a part of the French squad with the continued AFCON.

Sunderland’s new ballad

Sunderland, who spent £162m on new gamers this summer season, shall be happy to see most of their promotion heroes step up effortlessly with splashy, high-profile signings.

With Reinild away to Morocco with Mozambique within the coming weeks, Trey Hume has the proper alternative to indicate Le Bris that he is additionally a ballad kind of man. An brisk and dependable defender, good for the brilliant lights of the Premier League.

He has been Sunderland’s predominant starter at right-back this season and has been dependable all through the Black Cats’ play-off journey, however his significance to the trigger will now be even better as he rivals Ballard’s standing as one of many first names on the staff sheet, having made a formidable swap to the left-back place in opposition to the Seagulls in Reinild’s absence.

Certainly, the versatile 23-year-old lived as much as the ‘warrior’ tag handed to him by his supervisor within the second tier, making 15 tackles and successful a duel to maintain Robin Roofs clear sheet.

Moreover, like Ballard, he confirmed flashes of offensive momentum, recording one shot and one key move. The previous Lorient supervisor is aware of that fan favourite Hume can step up when wanted, which has definitely eased his fears over the previous Atletico Madrid defender’s absence.

Having price a staggering £200,000 to signal from Linfield in early 2022, it’s clear that the £45,000-a-week full-back was a discount purchase throughout Sunderland’s droop within the Championship, and it has now paid off, with Ballard additionally costing simply £2m to signal from the Gunners.

Coach Le Bris will wish to enhance the attacking division. Nick Woltemade’s personal purpose was the one purpose Sunderland had been in a position to cheer over the previous two video games.

However Ballard and Hume can have no complaints in regards to the Black Cats’ defensive acumen as they purpose to start out extra video games collectively and lead their well-coached facet to extra close-fought factors in the course of the busy winter months forward.