Leo Hjelde has named the one Sunderland player who was really wowed him in training.
Leo Hjelde has only been in Sunderland for around a week now, but has already made his ‘fantastic’ debut and has formed a bond with the travelling supporters.
The defender has now showered praise on his teammates as he trains and prepares for his first match at the Stadium of Light this weekend.
With Aji Alese, Dennis Cirkin and Niall Huggins still sidelined, Hjelde is likely to continue at left-back.
The Norwegian has already spoken very highly of Jack Clarke in training and has admitted that it is ‘great’ playing behind him on a match-day.
Speaking to Sunderland Echo, Hjelde said: “I’ve trained against Jack now, and if I was playing against him in a game, I think it would be a case of praying to God really.
“He’s brilliant. It’s great to know you’ve got a player like that, where you can give him the ball in tight positions and he will do some magic with it. It made my job easy really – I could stay back and do my job at left-back, knowing that Jack was there in front of me doing his stuff.”
What are Sunderland missing on the left flank?
Jack Clarke put on a Man of the Match performance against Middlesbrough last time out, with his superb assist for Nazariy Rusyn claiming them a vital point.
Leo Hjelde also enjoyed plenty of success down that left flank too, pushing up plenty and running into good positions for a one-two.
The only problem is Jack Clarke will rarely use the overlapping full-back to his advantage and instead of looking left, he will often just cut inside and either shoot, pass it into danger or lose the ball.
Don’t get me wrong, it is often worth it when he curls one into the top corner, but it does get frustrating when he holds onto it for too long or has a perfectly good option out wide. It is something Patrick Roberts and Amad Diallo did so brilliantly last season, and it usually worked.
We know he’s just at good at running to the byline and cutting it back as well, but he rarely does that either.
Clarke is undoubtedly our best player, but I think his decision-making would become a much bigger issue if he earns himself a move to the Premier League in the summer.