Sunderland suffered a disappointing defeat away at Huddersfield Town in the Championship last night, with the loss shining a light on one key issue for the Black Cats.
Sunderland saw a three-game unbeaten run come to an end in Yorkshire last night.
Huddersfield Town snatched an important 1-0 win to boost their survival hopes, whilst putting a dent in Sunderland’s top six credentials at the same time.
The Black Cats now sit in 10th place of the table and although they’re just a point outside the play-off places, promotion is starting to look like a job for next season.
And after last night, a key issue has been brought to light for Sunderland; their lack of experience.
Sunderland youth comes at a cost
Sunderland boast the youngest squad in the Championship this season (22.6 years), having bolstered their ranks with Leo Hjelde (20 years old), Callum Styles (23), and Romaine Mundle (20), in January, whilst offloading the 30-year-old Alex Pritchard.
Pritchard’s form this season was impressive and his exit certainly raised a few eyebrows, especially given the fact that Birmingham City reportedly paid just £100,000 for a player with his quality.
He brought experience and therefore balance to a very youthful side, and that’s something that journalist James Copley says Sunderland are missing this season.
Key issue, but it’s not Michael Beale’s fault
Whilst Beale may, and certainly already has received criticism for some of Sunderland’s performances so far; not least the one last night, he can’t be blamed for a lack of experience in the team.
With Pritchard now gone it leaves Luke O’Nien and Patrick Roberts as the more senior players in the side, with the likes of Mundle and Hjelde lacking first-team experience altogether (despite Hjelde’s strong start), and many players in the side lacking experience in the Championship bar the experience they’ve gained in the last year-and-a-half.
Selling Danny Batth was another surprising decision from the club last season, and it seems highly likely that Corry Evans will be released in the summer when he returns from injury, his spot in the team filled then by another inexperienced youngster.
Whilst Sunderland are having a lot of success in finding these talented players and making them into very valuable assets, they look set to constantly fall short of promotion with mostly youngsters in the team.
Like Copley says, they need that bit of experience to get them over the line in this business end of the season.
Pritchard and Batth would’ve been two hugely important players in the side right now, but the Sunderland hierarchy wanted them gone and replaced with younger blood.
Come the summer, Sunderland will no doubt be targeting youth. But they might yet learn from their mistakes this season and bring in some tried and tested names as well.