Tony Mowbray has revealed that he plans to rotate Jobe Bellingham, Chris Rigg and Bradley Dack in Sunderland’s midfield.
Speaking ahead of the Black Cats’ clash with Ipswich Town this weekend, Mowbray praised Bellingham but explained that he will be handed carefully as he is a ’17-year-old boy’.
Bellingham joined Sunderland from Birmingham City this summer, on the same day that his brother Jude completed a £88 million switch to Real Madrid.
The youngster only made five starts in the Championship during his time with the Blues and is lacking in any real experience, while Rigg only has a couple of appearances in the FA Cup under his belt.
Dack is quite the opposite, racking up over 350 appearances in senior football – scoring 98 goals and providing 65 assists in the process. However, the 29-year-old spent around two years on the sidelines during his time at Blackburn Rovers.
With Pierre Ekwah and Dan Neil likely to retain a regular place in the starting line-up, Mowbray will have to carefully consider how he will handle their three teammates.
Tony Mowbray’s plans for the Sunderland trio
“He has the ability to play anywhere in midfield for us,” Mowbray said.
“Some days he will play alongside either Ekwah or Neil. You can see the moments the flashes when he broke in behind, he breaks through the lines with his athleticism.
“He’s not full power – if you look at his brother who is a few years older, the power is there. Jobe’s power is going to come because he is the same sort of frame.
“He’s training every day and working, it’ll be raw power.
“At the moment he has got the desire to run in behind.
“Jobe has done well in pre-season, but I see a 17-year-old boy as well,” Mowbray added.
“I see a 17-year-old boy with lots of personality and lots of opinions on football, and he’s very driven to try to create and carve out his own career. I’m pretty sure he’ll get there, but at this moment, in my mind, unless he over-excels, he’ll be sharing game time with [Bradley] Dack and [Chris] Rigg.
“We will rotate around in that position, and I think we can afford to do it because of the players we’ve got there.
“We’ve got a really exciting 17-year-old and a really exciting 16-year-old, and then we’ve got a lad in Dack who’s missed two years because of two cruciate injuries.
“I think the young ones will learn massively off Dack, and yet Dack won’t play 46 games for us. Neither will Jobe or Chris. We’ll roll them around and rotate them about, and see if we can get the best out of them as we go.”