Sunderland moved back into the play-off places with a 2-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion on Saturday as interim manager Mike Dodds got off to a winning start.
The Black Cats are still on the lookout for a new manager to replace Tony Mowbray, who was sacked from his post last week.
However, Dodds gave a good account of himself in that victory and some of the bold tactical decisions he made, including the one to start Jobe Bellingham as a striker, paid off.
The teenage sensation kept on dropping deep which freed up space for Patrick Roberts and Jack Clarke to run riot on both flanks.
Roberts, in particular, had his best game for Sunderland for quite some time. He was instrumental in Sunderland’s attacking play having made three key passes and completed three of his six dribbles, as per Sofascore.
Whilst the 27-year-old was instrumental, central attacking midfielder Adil Aouchiche could be dropped for Tuesday night’s fixture against Leeds United.
Adil Aouchiche’s performance in numbers v West Brom
With the fixtures coming thick and fast in the Championship as we enter the festive period, Dodds could consider dropping Aouchiche following his performance against West Brom.
Although he didn’t necessarily have a bad display, which was demonstrated by the creative influence he had on proceedings with two accurate crosses played and three long balls, the Sunderland interim could look to rotate his squad.
The Frenchman has only started three of his 12 games this term, regularly coming off the bench.
He also isn’t used to starting multiple games across a hectic fixture schedule and it’s important that he doesn’t get burned out.
With this in mind, Dodds could instead unleash Alex Pritchard ahead of Aouchiche against Leeds on Tuesday after outperforming Aouchiche.
Will Alex Pritchard start v Leeds United?
Pritchard came off the bench for Aouchiche in the 61st minute and made an instant impact.
The 30-year-old, who was close to leaving the Stadium of Light in the summer, supplied the assists for both goals as the Black Cats secured their first victory in four matches.
First, he planted an inch-perfect cross onto the head of Dan Ballard from a set-piece and then he freed Dan Neil with a beautiful outside-of-the-foot pass.
Ballard’s header flew past Alex Palmer while Neil’s deft lob put Sunderland into a 2-0 lead.
Once labelled as ‘skilful’ by former Tottenham Hotspur teammate Christian Eriksen, the £7k-a-week maestro proved he has the quality to unlock defences from his wand of a right foot.
And for that, he deserves to make only his fifth start of the season at the expense of Aouchiche.