Dan Neil has explained what has changed so much in the Sunderland dressing room recently.
Dan Neil has taken the captain’s armband in recent games due to the suspension of Luke O’Nien, while has quickly had to become one of the more experienced, older members of the Sunderland squad.
The midfielder is only 22 years old but is already closing in on his 150th appearance for the Black Cats.
He was previously seen as a promising youngster who was able to learn from the likes of Alex Pritchard and Lynden Gooch, but he has been asked to grow up at a much faster pace this term and has now filled the boots of his former elders.
Sunderland now only have five players in their entire squad who are over the age of 24, with all of them missing out on the draw to QPR due to suspension or injury.
The Wearside outfit have offloaded all of Ross Stewart, Lynden Gooch, Alex Pritchard, Danny Batth, Bailey Wright and Carl Winchester since the summer, and Dan Neil admits it has caused a shift in the dressing room.
“I think it’s been a big dynamic shift within the group,” Neil told the Sunderland Echo.
“Last week (against Southampton) was a really, really young team. I think last week we actually came out all guns blazing in the second half and think we were really, really good, similar to Leicester. We actually wanted to push on and get the winner and that’s probably our naivety with younger lads and they’ve caught us on the break and scored.
“The dynamic has shifted, you had the likes of Danny, Lynden, obviously Corry (Evans) was fit for quite a bit of last year, Pritch. But you’ve almost got a new core group of players now like me, Trai (Hume), Dan Ballard, Jack Clarke, Patrick Roberts, Patto (Anthony Patterson) in goal. It happens in football, just evolving.
“We need to grow into figureheads in the changing room and help these young lads. We might be young but in terms of games, we’ve played a lot of games at this level now and know what’s coming. I think it’s our job now to try and help these lads who have made that jump to play for Sunderland, help them keep going the same way the likes of Danny Batth, Lynden Gooch helped us.”
Who else could Sunderland sell this summer?
Sunderland could be in big trouble this summer if they lose even more of their ‘experienced’ heads.
Anthony Patterson, Dan Neil, Dan Ballard and Jack Clarke have all been linked with moves to the Premier League, while Corry Evans and Bradley Dack could potentially leave at the end of their contracts.
If all six players were to move on, then the average age of this squad would be astounding.
This leaves Kristjaan Speakman with a huge task of bringing in more experienced players, which he has seemed extremely reluctant to do so far.
The fans have demanded a proven goalscorer and some more leadership in the team, but he instead responded with more youth and expected them to help us reach the play-offs once again.
The club’s sporting director has made huge mistakes that has set is in decline this season and it could now be defining to Speakman’s career as to whether he can fix it, and whether Kyril Louis-Dreyfus will stick by him.