Michael Beale has explained the decision to leave Jobe Bellingham on the Sunderland bench was motivated by a need to rotate his midfield this week.
Sunderland’s week is packed, beginning with a home match against Plymouth and continuing with away visits to Birmingham City and Huddersfield (on Wednesday).
There will be a lot of travelling for those next games, so Beale wants to make sure his team is as fit and fresh as possible.
This meant that Jobe rested against Plymouth before replacing Ekwah and scoring; nevertheless, even that substitution was organised ahead of time with the next games in mind.
“We spoke about this week, [we have] three really big games [this week],” Beale responded when asked what his reasoning was for keeping Jobe off the pitch.
“We’ve got a lot of travelling to do, down to Huddersfield and back, then down to Birmingham.
“Pierre [coming off was] was pre-planned. You can’t plan it 100 per cent, but it was pre-planned that the midfield would rotate a little bit this week.”
Beale also wanted to change Sunderland’s formation when they played at home, so he coupled the plan to rotate the middle.
With Patrick Roberts coming back on the right and Abdoullah Ba being shifted to the centre behind Nazariy Rusyn, more men were committed forward.
“We’d play with one more up the pitch, certainly at home,” Beale said. “Abdoullah deserved to stay in the team and I think Paddy has shown what we’ve missed in moments. That dribbling ability.
“There are so many positives at the moment. Young Rigg coming on as well.”
Get more sports updates on https://sportupdates.co.uk/
Leave a Reply