Sunderland beat Wolves 2-0 on Saturday afternoon.
The duo started at the heart of a back four for Regis Le Bris’ side, with Nordi Mukiele moving to right-back and Trai Hume shifting over to the left flank. Indeed, the Black Cats’ two full-backs would combine for the opening goal in a 2-0 victory, with Hume laying on a smart assist for his French teammate in the 16th minute.
But while Gabbiadini was impressed with Hume and Mukiele, it was Ballard and Alderete - who made 10 interceptions between them over the course of the 90 minutes - that the pundit reserved particular praise for.
What did Marco Gabbiadini say about Sunderland pair Dan Ballard and Omar Alderete?
Speaking on BBC Radio Newcastle’s Total Sport, Gabbiadini said: “I mean, look, Wolves had lots of ball, lots of possession, lots of passes, and, you know, in some respects you could say they were on top, but actually, what did they actually achieve with all that output? Not very much. And I think that there's two different ways to be in football - you can be tiki-taka with lots of touches and be expansive, but if you haven't got the final ball or the final touch or the goal-scorers, you're in trouble, and I think that's what Wolves' problem is.
“It looked all quite nice up until a certain point, and Alderete and Ballard just headed and booted everything out of the box, didn't they? They just didn't stop all afternoon, it was incredible.”
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When asked if Le Bris’ decision to reshuffle his defence worked, the pundit responded: “It did. I mean, look, it helps that Mukiele is flexible. I think we all love Ballard. I think Ballard is a player that every Sunderland fan wants to see playing, but Mukiele and Alderete have made a great partnership, so it was difficult to see how he would get in. But I think maybe coming off the back of the performances he had for Northern Ireland, and maybe because Wolves did put a lot of balls in the box, maybe the manager wanted two centre-halves on Saturday who just love defending, and you don't always get that.
“Hume's flexible as well... I think the modern full-back in a way, you know, most of them are two-footed, and they're all good enough to come inside onto their favoured foot if they have to, but look, it was great. You know what I liked about it, I've seen the game back, and what I liked about it more than anything was how we rotate. When we scored that goal, the first goal, you had Hume playing like an attacking midfielder on the edge of the box, Mukiele went in, sliced through them like he was a winger...”.
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