Leicester City vs Sunderland Preview

Sunderland are one of the more interesting teams to watch in the Championship, and I've had my eye on them all season given they made it to the play-offs last time round, losing to eventual winners Luton. They have a very interesting philosophy at the club, almost using our model but in a Championship version. IE lots of really promising up and comers who they develop and sell on for a lot of money, with an astute and experienced manager in Tony Mowbray. This makes them both exciting and prone to collapse in equal measure, they play good stuff but are really inconsistent.

• They play a mixture of 4141 and 4231, but sometimes even go 442. They even played Jobe Bellingham as a false 9 against Southampton where they won 5-0, which they might well try again.
• They play good stuff, playing out from the back and having a good possession style, they rank 3rd in terms of possession in the division so far.
• They are an interesting case where they have the top scorer in the division in Jack Clarke (left wing), but none of their strikers have scored yet. So a bit like Leicester, they really rely on their wide forwards and midfield players.
• They typically play two hard-working box-to-box players in Bellingham and Ekwah with Dan Neil (who was suspended against Stoke) as the sitter.
  • I'll be interested to see what they do here, a lot of teams try to go man for man on Ricardo and Winks, but I feel like the youthful nature of their team might mean this could backfire, and we play could play around them.
  • Jobe Bellingham is pretty good IMO. Obviously hard not to compare him to his brother; he's not as good at the same age but he is good. Will for sure be a Premier League player one day. Hard-working, technical, good on the ball and a great engine.
• What they might do, which I have seen them do a few times, is to play 442 and try to kill the opposition on the transition. The biggest warning I would give about this team (and Leeds) is they have players that can exploit a turnover and getting in behind, like on the weekend where Hermansen saved us. Their players are young, full of energy and are fast, and they were ruthless against Southampton at doing this, where they could have won by more.

This is a team that I think could catch us on the break, but equally I think they won't be able to deal with 90 minutes of relentless pressure. With young players, they are more likely to lose concentration at the wrong moment and for it to cost them. So I think this will be another game where we have to work hard but eventually break them down.

I think this will be an enjoyable game and will feel more like a Premier League game rather than a Championship one. They might be a bit more like Brentford in the way they play, in terms of trying to kill us on the transition.