Luke O’Nien had a nightmare outing for Sunderland against Sheffield United on New Year’s Day, giving away a penalty and scoring an own goal during the Black Cats’ 2-1 win.
2025 couldn’t have got off to a better start for the Black Cats and Regis Le Bris. He watched on as Sunderland beat Sheffield United 2-1 at the Stadium of Light, with the win leaving them in 4th place of the Championship table but now just two points from the top two.
There was a lot to like about the performance. Gary Bennett said afterwards that Eliezer Mayenda had his best game for Sunderland after opening the scoring and then setting up Wilson Isidor for the second.
Just a week before, Sunderland fans blasted Mayenda after his missed opportunity in the Boxing Day draw against Blackburn Rovers. Then after the Blades game, Sunderland fans criticised O’Nien for his performance.
But Bennett has now defended O’Nien despite that nightmare outing on New Year’s Day.
Gary Bennett hits back at Luke O’Nien critics at Sunderland
Sunderland fans were certainly very vocal about O’Nien after that Sheffield United game. And in fairness, he was very poor, giving away a reckless penalty before putting one into his own net.
But the 29-year-old has been a standout player for the most part this season. Speaking on Total Sport, Bennett reminded fans that O’Nien has had a good season all round, comparing the criticism to that of Mayenda after the Blackburn game.
Bennett said: “He makes a couple of mistakes, and then all of a sudden everyone’s thinking: ‘He shouldn’t be doing that’, ‘He shouldn’t be playing here’, and you’re thinking, ‘Hold on a minute, players do make mistakes’.
“We talk about Mayenda, and people focused on the two opportunities he missed in the last two games, not his overall game, which had been good.”
Another Sunderland case study applies to Luke O’Nien
There’s certainly been a few players who’ve come under the spotlight at Sunderland this season. Perhaps none more so than Dan Neil.
Sunderland fans were totally unimpressed with Neil earlier in the season. But he’s since turned it around having been one of the Black Cats’ best players of late.
At the time, Marco Gabbiadini spoke out on the Neil criticism and echoed what Bennett has now said about O’Nien.
Gabbiadini said: “Unfortunately there are certain people who’ve got a skewed view of these situations.”
He later added: “Some of the negativity; it’s a sign of the times unfortunately, where people just go overboard.”
Whilst it’s easy to get carried away when criticising a player after one bad game, it’s even easier to not look at the overall picture, like Bennett says.
O’Nien will be determined to remind fans of the quality he has when Sunderland host Portsmouth on Sunday.