Sunderland lost 1-0 away at Norwich City in the Championship on Saturday, but there were some positive player performances.
Sunderland have now lost their last four in the Championship.
The gap to the top six now stands at nine points after Hull City picked up a point away at Preston North End, with the Black Cats remaining in 10th.
And there’s also a nine-point gap between Sunderland and the relegation zone with teams in the bottom half all finding momentum in recent weeks.
Although relegation won’t likely come into the thinking of Mike Dodds and co, he and his staff certainly need to turn around this vein of form.
Jobe Bellingham shines in Norwich City defeat
The first half of today’s game was very tight, with very little separating the two.
Norwich got the all-important goal in the second half with Josh Sargent netting on 81 minutes, but the Black Cats looked decent in the second 45.
Several players put in solid performances today including Dan Neil and Pierre Ekwah in the midfield, and Jenson Seelt in defence.
And Jobe Bellingham was also impressive today; Sunderland Echo gave him a 7/10 rating, with journalist Phil Smith adding:
“Put in a huge shift, got through so much running and put a lot of pressure on the Norwich midfield and backline. Moved the ball well throughout.”
As per Sofascore, Bellingham completed 29 out of 34 passes (85%), winning 4 out of 14 duels, and making 1 clearance.
Bellingham showing no signs of slowing down
A common debate among Sunderland fans over the past few weeks has surrounded Bellingham, and the fact that he needs resting.
The 18-year-old has now featured in 34 of Sunderland’s 35 Championship games this season, starting the bulk of them too.
And at times, his performance levels have dropped; notably through Christmas and January.
But despite having played so much football at such a young age, he’s showing no signs of fatigue, with today’s performance proving that.
Although he didn’t see a whole lot of the ball and didn’t have to much involvement in the way of passes, dribbles, tackles and so on, he covered a lot of ground.
He was everywhere in the middle of the pitch and for large spells it helped towards keeping Norwich City at bay.
On the whole, there’ll be a lot of positives for Dodds to take from today.
Though it’s another defeat; the recent form is a huge cause for concern, and matters don’t get any easier when Leicester City visit the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night.