Sunderland returned to winning ways this weekend as they comfortably beat West Brom 2-1 at the Stadium of Light.
It was Mike Dodds’ first game in charge after he was appointed interim manager following Tony Mowbray’s sacking.
The 37-year-old made two changes to the team that drew to Millwall last time out, replacing Mason Burstow with Jobe in a false 9, while Patrick Roberts returned in the place of Abdoullah Ba.
While Patrick Roberts still hasn’t got off the mark this season, he did make a lovely run into the box and should probably have been awarded a penalty at the end of it, but was unfortunate not to.
According to sofascore, the forward completed three key passes, create one big chance, made three successful dribbles and won five ground duels.
While he hasn’t scored a goal since April, Mike Dodds was still eager to praise the winger.
“Look, Pat’s got all the ability to be a Premier League footballer,” Dodds told Sky Sports.
“Pat knows what I think of him as an individual and what we’ve got to try and do is just kind of push him a little bit harder and get a little bit more consistency out of him. And I’m sure he will propel us too, to the levels which the football club wants to get to.”
Can Patrick Roberts turn things around?
Patrick Roberts is quite clearly one of the most talented footballers we have and I would probably bet my house on him dribbling past you or nutmegging you across 90 minutes.
But he’s not delivering the goods at the minute and that makes it very frustrating.
Roberts enjoys some excellent runs into the box and always looks like he’s going to score, but can never quite finish his dinner.
I really like Roberts and I would keep starting him over Abdoullah Ba, as I just don’t think the Frenchman shows much more than his teammate.
The former Man City man will undoubtedly get off the mark eventually and then there will be less pressure on him, though hopefully he can pick up some form when he looks to impress our eventual new manager.