Defender Trai Hume recently overtook Robin Roefs for the most minutes played this season
Régis Le Bris has praised Trai Hume's key role in Sunderland's successful return to the Premier League.
Despite many of the stalwarts of Sunderland's promotion back to the top tier struggling for regular minutes this season, Hume's consistency and versatility have made him a regular in the starting XI. Indeed, the recent hamstring injury sustained by Robin Roefs means that Hume has now played more minutes of competitive football across all competitions this season than any other member of the squad.
"He has a strong versatility," Le Bris said.
"Left-back, right-back, right-winger, midfielder, probably centre-back. I don't know in the back four, I've never tried that but in a back three, 100%. He's versatile and we need this kind of player."
As well as playing across the defensive unit, Hume also featured in an unorthodox right wing role earlier this season when Bertrand Traoré was absent due to AFCON commitments and then injury. While it's a role Hume has not played for a while and does not appear likely to reprise in the near future given Chris Rigg's strong recent form in the position, Le Bris says it can still be a valuable option on occasion and said it summed up Hume's contribution to the squad this season.
"It was interesting," Le Bris said.
"When we faced strong teams, away especially, sometimes we may expect that the majority of the game, the defensive phases, will go in deep blocks. With a right winger like Trai, it's easy to drop in a 5-4-1 naturally, organically. We can manage this right triangle really easily. With Trai in this position, it's a good principle. With the ball, because he's got this ability to manage different positions, he can play wide, he can play inside, he can play as a double pivot in the 10-pocket.
"For the opponent, you never know what position he will pick on the pitch. He can manage different positions really efficiently. This versatility is useful."
With 2,584, Hume has also played the most Premier League minutes in the Sunderland squad this season ahead of Roefs and centre back Omar Alderete. Enzo Le Fée and Noah Sadiki complete the top five.
Trai Hume reflects on World Cup disappointment
Hume will return to Wearside later this week for the Premier League run in after Northern Ireland face Wales on Tuesday night. Hume captained his side as they were beaten 2-0 in Italy last week, bringing an end to their World Cup hopes.
“I think we were in the game for large moments,” Hume said.
“I think we had a 10-15 minute period in each half where they created chances and there was a little bit of chaos, which obviously we didn’t want. “They scored at a good time in the second half and now we’re disappointed. But we’ll be looking into the future. There’s experience that we need to learn from.
“The team’s still young and we’re only going to get better. It’s one of those experiences that you have to accept even though it’s hard and it’s disappointing. But I have no doubt that we’ll learn from it and we’re going to get better. I think we’ve taken strides compared to where we were a couple of years ago. We’re getting used to each other and we’re going to get better. We were missing key players [on Thursday] and we were missing key players throughout the campaign. That’s football, but we just have to keep on improving.”
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