Sunderland have been advised to bolster a defensive position after making ‘priority’ signing in January.
According to Scott Wilson of The Northern Echo, Sunderland should look to invest in a natural right-back, but only after they have prioritised a new midfielder.
Sunderland currently rely on Trai Hume as their right-sided defender, with the Northern Irishman solidifying his spot in the team after an exceptional year or so in the first team.
The 21-year-old joined the Black Cats from Linfield in 2022 and took a while to get his big chance, but hasn’t looked back since making his mark in the Championship.
Behind Jack Clarke, Hume’s the highest rated Sunderland player this season (via WhoScored) and has made the most tackles PG (3.3) and interceptions (1.6) in the entire squad.
While Sunderland signed Timothee Pembele in the summer, Wilson still believes Tony Mowbray could do with another natural right-back to compete with the youngsters.
Writing for The Northern Echo, Wilson said: “A natural right-back would be desirable given the way Mowbray has had to shuffle things around to fill the position in the last few weeks, but with Corry Evans likely to stay on the long-term absentee list for a fair while yet, the priority in terms of January incomings will surely be a central midfield, preferably one whose primary focus is on the defensive side of the game.”
Do Sunderland need a new right-back?
No Sunderland fan will disagree with Scott Wilson that the club are in desperate need of a defensive midfielder.
The recent absences of Pierre Ekwah and Dan Neil made that glaringly obvious, with the latter’s red card against Middlesbrough resulting in a 4-0 demolition on our own turf.
However, it would be a surprise for me to see Sunderland target a new right-back. Trai Hume is certainly irreplaceable and is comfortably one of our best players, while Timothee Pembele could return to action soon.
Mowbray claimed that he wasn’t ‘too far away’ at the start of October, which means we could maybe see him make his debut over Christmas.
Pembele joined from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer and has a lot of potential, so he could prove to be some brilliant competition for Hume.
Given that both Niall Huggins and Luke O’Nien can play at right-back, the position seems far from anything to be concerned about.