Sunderland’s new signings are anticipated to progress from impact subs to potential starts.
Tony Mowbray believes Adil Aouchiche and Nazariy Rusyn have already demonstrated enough to warrant starting spots.
Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray plans to use new signings Adil Aouchiche and Nazariy Rusyn as impact subs as they adjust to Championship game, but he believes they will soon be challenging for starting roles. Aouchiche, a French midfielder, has already struck the eye after coming off the bench in each of the last three games after joining on deadline day from Lorient, and he made his debut with an assist for Abdoullah Ba in the 3-1 win against QPR a fortnight ago.
Rusyn, a Ukrainian striker, made his debut as a substitute in last weekend’s 1-0 home defeat against Cardiff City, but just over 24 hours later he impressed Mowbray as he provided one assist and earned a penalty for the Black Cats’ U21s in their 3-1 Premier League 2 win against Derby County at Eppleton. Both players are anticipated to be in the squad for tonight’s Championship game at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday, and while Mowbray believes they may not be ready to start games until after the international break, he believes they will be significant additions.
“With Adil and Nazariy, I think [impact sub is a better role] because they have to bed into the structure of the team,” Mowbray stated. “The team must repeat the consistency of how we want to play in order to dominate the game, and when we don’t find that dominance, how we can break away and the gaps that players must fill.”
“It can be frustrating if a new player hasn’t quite settled in… and we’re not doing a lot of 11-vs-11 training right now because we’re playing so many games.” Of sure, we can use video to communicate our point.
“In a few weeks, I’ll be happy that they can play in these positions and that I can rotate the team around based on the strengths of specific players.” I believe we’ll have a lot more options in a few weeks, perhaps after the next international break, as injuries heal and some of these individuals begin to step up.”
“He’s a very talented boy, he’s played a lot of Ligue 1 football, so it’s not as if he’s a young boy who has never played at a senior level,” Mowbray said of Aouchiche. He’s incredibly gifted; it’s just that, in my opinion, he’s still figuring out the discipline of the position we want him to play.
“He tends to roam around and wants the ball; he’s very tidy and technical, but right now we’re asking the team to play with a bit more positional discipline.” Once Adil understands that, I will have no reservations about throwing him in because he is unquestionably good enough to play in our team.”
“We’re tempted to use him more, yes,” he said of Rusyn. The boy needed to train; he hadn’t played football in a month, and I had discussed his gametime with him, and he wasn’t quite ready.
“He wanted to play for the U21s [to gain experience], he played off the left and showed a great eye for diving in and making those diagonal runs.” He performed admirably and appeared bright.
“He’s still integrating into our group, and he needs to filter in and earn the team’s respect through the qualities he brings.” He’ll get there gradually, and I’m optimistic that it won’t be long before he’s forced his way into the team with his talent and work ethic, and ideally with goals and assists.”
