Tony Mowbray has confirmed that Adil Aouchiche will make his first start for Sunderland next month.
Speaking to Chronicle Live, Mowbray admitted that the Frenchman has proven he is ‘ready’ to make his mark on the Sunderland team after scoring his first goal.
Adil Aouchiche arrived on Wearside in the summer after joining from Ligue 1 side Lorient.
The midfielder took his time to settle into life in the Championship and had to wait until the win over QPR in September to make his debut, however he has since enjoyed some very promising cameos.
After picking up his first assist in his first appearance, Aouchiche went onto bag his first goal for Sunderland as he scored the third in the victory over Birmingham City at the weekend.
With Aouchiche previously in line to make his first start against Leicester City before he picked up an injury, Mowbray has now revealed that he will be handed a fresh opportunity during the Christmas period.
“I think he is ready and we’ve said that,” said Mowbray. “He was going to play away at Leicester, he was going to start that game, but he picked up an injury and so we went again with Jobe.
“He is very accomplished with the football, we won’t worry about him and whether it [the move] is going to keep breaking down on Adil – he is very talented. He wants to break the box and get in there to try and score.
“The competition for Adil is as a number ten, I think. So it’s Jobe, Dack, Pritchard … it’s been tough for him while we didn’t feel he was quite ready to actually put him in.
“We feel he’s up to speed now, we felt he was before and we were ready to put him in, but he picked up that knock. He’s up to speed again and he’s come on and scored for us [against Birmingham].
“Somewhere down the line, around the Christmas period when we have so many fixtures, he is going to be starting football matches. And if he is scoring goals, it’s going to the other lads asking me why they’re not playing and I’ll be telling them it’s because Adil keeps threatening the goal, scoring and creating.
“That’s football, a competition within a competition in your club.”
Will we see more of Adil Aouchiche after the international break?
It has been over a month since I had declared it time for Adil Aouchiche to start his first game against Sheffield Wednesday, however I am still waiting.
There certainly haven’t been many chances for him to force his way into the starting line-up since, especially since he missed out on three games due to injury.
However, the Frenchman has only looked better since missing out on a start against the Owls and it is a huge relief to see that Tony Mowbray is finally ready to throw him in.
Given that the Sunderland boss is preparing to give Jobe Bellingham a rest, I see no reason why Aouchiche wouldn’t replace him against Plymouth Argyle next time out.
The 21-year-old will be raring to go after the international break and the trip south could be the perfect opportunity.
If not, then we will definitely benefit from his attacking threat going into a very busy winter.