Graeme Murty hails Ian Poveda’s display for Sunderland U21s as exit speculation continues this summer
Senior head coach Régis Le Bris has informed the 25-year-old that he is free to leave this summer, but his performance at Eppleton was strong despite having not featured with Sunderland’s first team at all during pre-season or the Black Cats’ opening Premier League game against West Ham.
Murty said: “You can see the talent, you can see he’s got some magic in his feet, and he’s a nightmare in training because he’s so elusive and he’s so jinky, but he works extremely hard. As we’ve always said, we’re a willing vehicle for players who need to remain sharp, who show the right attitude and who want to come and help the young players and I thought that he was a help to our young players.”
The U21s lead coach highlighted the benefit Poveda brings to Sunderland’s emerging talent, with a number of teenagers involved against Spurs. “Let’s face it, we’ve got Finn Holcroft, we’ve got Archie Lightfoot, we’ve got Felix Scott, we’ve got Charlie Dinsdale, all under-18s coming onto that environment and trying to play and he’s been nothing but supportive so we thank him for that and we show our players, he’s the level, we need to challenge you to be better than what you’re seeing.”
Murty added that having first-team players drop down to the U21s reinforces the standards required at Premier League level. “It’s really good for us that we get so much support from our first team players that our players can understand they’re not completing their journey yet, they’ve still got steps to make, they’ve still got improvements to make. We keep on emphasising it but it’s really good that we’ve got a really tangible link to the first team that can reinforce that message.”
Murty delivers verdict on Sunderland’s loss to Tottenham Hotspur
On the game, Murty added on the 5-3 loss: “The first 30 minutes were unacceptable for the standards that we've set so far. We were far too passive, far too reactive. We didn't organise the shape of the press. We weren't clean enough on the ball.
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“Having said that, we still could have been level when we were smooth and clean with the ball, but it was far too easy to score against. That, I think, is a really good example for our young players that if we are reactive to a team who are really dynamic like that, you're going to find yourself on the back foot and chasing shadows. And I thought for the first 30 minutes it would look that way, but they showed really good resilience once again.
“They took on the information at half-time well. And I thought in the second half, I thought there was only one team in it. But then we work ever so hard to get back within touching distance and give a soft call away because players can't be bothered to do the simple things or the hard things, and deny space to our opponents. And unfortunately, we are then left ruing the multiple missed chances that we had.”
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