Mike Dodds has explained what Adil Aouchiche must do to stay in Sunderland’s starting line-up.
Adil Aouchiche has endured a stop-start season in his first on Wearside, having made only four starts in the Championship prior to the weekend.
The Frenchman was a regular substitute under Tony Mowbray, but fell out of favour under Micheal Beale and was forced even further down the pecking order when he missed an absolute sitter in the defeat to Ipswich Town earlier this year.
After featuring for only seven minutes in the eight games that followed, Mike Dodds brought Aouchiche back into the fold.
A particularly encouraging cameo against Leicester City resulted in the midfielder being handed his first start in almost three months against QPR.
Aouchiche struggled to have as much of an impact on the game as he did against the Foxes, failing to pick up a shot on target and also completing only one of his seven attempted crosses, as well as losing possession a whopping 25 times.
However, Dodds was adamant that the 21-year-old was one of ‘few positives’ from the draw and has explained what he needs to do to keep his place in the team.
Speaking to Sunderland Echo, the interim coach said: “”I thought he was good, I thought he was one of the few positives for us to be honest.
“He’s observing Ramadan at the moment as well which needs to be mentioned because he’s really gone out there and emptied the tank for us. On the flipside, we just didn’t have that many other options [to manage his workload] available.
“I do think his last two performances coming off the bench had more than warranted a start in the team. He’s trained really well, I was asked about Adil shortly after I took charge and I said that I thought that we’d got him in a much better place in terms of his concentration and his application. If he stays in that place, then he’s going to stay in the team.”
Mike Dodds hasn’t handled Adil Aouchiche well recently
Adil Aouchiche was exceptional in his cameo appearance against Leicester earlier this month.
The ‘talented‘ midfielder was only on the pitch for 30 minutes but managed three key passes, two crosses and an impressive four shots on target.
He completely changed the game and really needed to be awarded with a start in the following game, to keep the momentum going so he could pick up where he left off.
Dodds made a huge mistake there though and instead opted to bench him, before waiting another week to start him against QPR.
Aouchiche was brimming with confidence despite defeat to Leicester and would have benefitted from being thrown in at the deep end only days later, but Dodds decided against rewarding him for his efforts.
It was yet another mistake by the coach and it makes his underwhelming performance at the weekend rather frustrating. But we shouldn’t punish him for that, and Dodds is definitely correct to give him another chance.