Sunderland have been heavily praised for their ‘entertaining’ and ‘fresh’ style of football.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Keith Andrews admitted that he would love to watch a training session at the Academy of Light due to their ‘scintillating’ players.
Sunderland suffered a third successive defeat last night as they were narrowly beaten by Leicester City.
The Foxes have now won 12 of their opening 13 matches in the Championship, though it was far from easy against the Black Cats.
A number of spectacular saves from Anthony Patterson kept the visitors in the game, but Sunderland had their own chances that could have seen them claim at least a point – as well as a clear penalty that wasn’t given.
Tony Mowbray‘s side played some excellent football, but didn’t quite have that cutting edge and were unable to unlock Leicester’s defence.
Despite a difficult run of form, Keith Andrews has hailed Sunderland for their entertaining performances in the Championship.
“I would love to see their training sessions because I would imagine they’re absolutely scintillating with the types of players they have,” he told Sky Sports.
“[Jack Clarke] is prevalant in most things they do, productive, the way he dribbles, the way he shifts the ball, shifts his body. Though he probably wasn’t clinical enough.
“Much like a lot of their squad, it’s the lack of experience, the lack of league games, you just wanted them to take one of those opportunities. Their play with the ball is so entertaining and so fresh. There’s a real kind of love about the way they play the game. They play with such joy and pleasure, it’s good to watch. They just need to iron out a few creases without the ball.”
Sunderland’s inexperience has positives and negatives
Keith Andrews is correct in suggesting Sunderland’s lack of experience can sometimes let them down, though it is clear that is what can make them so good as well.
These players have such little care about what is happening around them and just want to focus on their football. There is very little pressure and you can tell that when they are on the pitch – they all just love playing together.
Off the ball is definitely where we have been struggling, and perhaps that is where the club could have benefitted from bringing in a couple of more experienced, older lads in the summer.
We aren’t always going to be winning games though, and it just depends on how we deal with it and how we recover from now.