Due to Luke O’Nien’s suspension, Dan Neil has assumed the captain’s armband in recent games, although he has rapidly had to establish himself as one of the older, more seasoned players on the Sunderland team.
Even though the midfielder is only 22 years old, he has already made 150 appearances for the Black Cats.
He was once thought to be a bright young man who had the opportunity to learn from people like Lynden Gooch and Alex Pritchard, but this term he has been expected to mature much more quickly and has taken on the roles of his former seniors.
There are currently just five players in Sunderland’s squad who are older than 24, and they were all unable to participate in the draw against QPR because of injury or suspension.
Since the summer, the Wearside team has let go of all of Ross Stewart, Lynden Gooch, Alex Pritchard, Danny Batth, Bailey Wright, and Carl Winchester. Dan Neil acknowledges that this has led to a change in the dressing room.
“I believe there has been a significant change in the group’s dynamic,” Neil stated to the Sunderland Echo.
The team that played Southampton last week was incredibly inexperienced. I believe that last week, much like Leicester, we really came out swinging in the second half and were very, very good. We genuinely wanted to keep going and win, but perhaps because of our inexperience with younger boys, they were able to catch us off guard and score.
However, it looks like you have a new core set of players now, including Patto (Anthony Patterson), Dan Ballard, Jack Clarke, Patrick Roberts, and me (Trai Hume). It’s only evolving, but it happens in football.
“We need to grow into figureheads in the changing room and help these young lads. We might be young but in terms of games, we’ve played a lot of games at this level now and know what’s coming. I think it’s our job now to try and help these lads who have made that jump to play for Sunderland, help them keep going the same way the likes of Danny Batth, Lynden Gooch helped us.”
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