The latest episode of The Roar podcast, brought to you by the Sunderland Echo, is out now
Should Dan Ballard be a nailed on starter for Sunderland, and if so, how do you get him into Regis Le Bris’ team?
It’s a double-headed question that plenty have been asking in recent weeks, and after his latest display against Wolves on Saturday, it feels increasingly as if the Northern Ireland international has earned his spot in the XI - almost to the extent that he is verging on the undroppable.
In the latest episode of The Roar podcast, brought to you by the Sunderland Echo, Ballard was once again a topic of discussion with writers Phil Smith, James Copley, and Jason Jones offering their views on the centre-back.
What has been said about Sunderland defender Dan Ballard?
When asked whether Ballard was a must-pick for Sunderland based on his current form, Jason responded: “It certainly feels that way. He's been absolutely magnificent from the first whistle of that West Ham game onwards. I know, obviously, he had the little injury and missed a short spell, but he has been nothing short of exemplary. Everything he does... his physical presence is borderline unparalleled for me, in my opinion, and obviously that's without taking into account the quality of his defensive work, how measured he looks on the ball as well, which I don't always think he gets the most credit for.”
Phil replied: “He's made a huge improvement over the last 18 months, right? Because that was the one question mark we had over Ballard when he first came into the team, but he doesn't look like that player who can't handle himself on the ball anymore whatsoever, does he? I do think that's the big thing he's improved on.”
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Jason then added: “Definitely, and I think it's maybe one of those where - we've spoken about this with various Sunderland players - he's probably benefiting from having that higher quality of player around him. Someone like an Omar Alderete next to him, who himself is phenomenal on the ball, really. Someone like a [Nordi] Mukiele in there as well. He looks like a player who's come on leaps and bounds.
“You know, it's not just for Sunderland. I mean, the last international break with Northern Ireland - Northern Ireland came really close against Germany to getting a really decent result. I know there were a few Newcastle fans on Twitter who maybe pointed out that it was [Nick] Woltemade who scored the winning goal - obviously from a corner that Ballard's nowhere near him for - but actually in that game, if you look at it, I think Ballard won something like 14 duels compared to Woltemade, who lost 11 or something like that.
“We're talking about a player who is able to go toe-to-toe aerially with pretty much anybody, come out on top, and then you talk about the aspects of this game that have improved as much as they have. It is just really, really difficult to see how you could justify leaving him on the bench. I know it's not easy to get him in the team when you've got Alderete and Mukiele playing as well as they are. Obviously, Reinildo is coming back from suspension as well now, which is going to create a certain amount of headache for Le Bris, but in this form, Ballard's kind of got to be in the starting line-up.”
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