Jobe Bellingham's Journey So Far: Strengthening Sunderland's Midfield

11/11/2024 01:00 AM

The midfielder's red card at QPR has left Régis Le Bris with a tricky dilemma, as well as highlighting how valuable he is to our team.

During the summer, the mood music surrounding Jobe was interesting, to say the least. He completed his first season in red and white and looked to the future after a debut campaign that was marked by some memorable highs and some bruising lows.

Seven goals and one assist was a more-than-respectable return from his maiden campaign on Wearside, but there were also plenty of detractors who claimed that he was too slow, too easily bypassed, not suited to our style of play, and perhaps most ludicrously, that he was playing for Sunderland purely as a consequence of familial connections between Kristjaan Speakman and the Bellingham clan.

During the offseason, Premier League interest was mooted, specifically from Crystal Palace, as the idea that the Bellingham surname would prove to be a golden ticket for Sunderland gained traction before thankfully being kyboshed when he put pen to paper on a new contract at the Stadium of Light.

Suffice it to say, this was one of the key developments ahead of the new season, as Jobe restated his belief in the club's direction of travel and eagerness to remain on Wearside and play his part in what was hoped would be a season of recovery.

Should top flight clubs show serious interest in him next summer, we've at least protected ourselves from the possibility of losing him for a lowball fee- in theory at least, but that's for another day.

Under Régis Le Bris, and prior to his red card at Loftus Road, Jobe had started the 2024/2025 season in devastating fashion, with a marked improvement in his standard of play and his influence on this team becoming ever more pronounced.

He scored superb goals against Derby and Oxford, was going from strength to strength, and after being shuffled here, there and seemingly everywhere during 2023/2024, had finally found a position to call his own at the heart of our midfield. His mistimed challenge against QPR was certainly not malicious, but it's proven costly during subsequent games.

In his absence, we struggled to find any real synergy in midfield against Preston (that's no slight on Alan Browne and Dan Neil — two fine players in their own right). Although it's difficult to say whether his absence contributed to our second-half implosion against Coventry, it did highlight just how diminished we are whenever he's not on the pitch.

What we get with Jobe — perhaps more so than any other quality — is dynamism.

His awareness of danger, ability to shield the ball, pick passes in a split second, and seemingly boundless energy are all key tenets of our favoured style of play.

There are surely few players in the division more adept at receiving the ball from a teammate on the half-turn, eluding their marker and suddenly finding acres of space to run into. It's this skill that allows us to pose far more of a threat, and never more so than at home.

The final game of Jobe's three-match ban will be our trip to The Den to face Millwall when the season resumes after the international break.

A nervy prospect at the best of times, not least given the Lions' reputation in front of their own crowd, but given that we'll be robbed of not only Jobe but Trai Hume and Patrick Roberts, and potentially Romaine Mundle and Alan Browne, it promises to represent an even tougher test for Le Bris and his squad.

Peculiarly, it's not as if we don't have alternative midfield options available, should Le Bris opt to change things up and utilise them.

To the frustration of many fans, the enigmatic Adil Aouchiche remains a fringe figure at the Stadium of Light, and Milan Aleksić, hailed as one of Balkan football's most promising talents and signed for a substantial fee by Sunderland standards, has barely got a look in since arriving at the club.

It's also an annoyance that the Champions League-experienced Salis Abdul Samed has yet to kick a ball for Sunderland and won't do so until December according to Le Bris, and it's fair to say that the next three weeks and beyond are going to represent a major test of our squad's depth.

It's possibly been quite a bittersweet week for Jobe, with his Sunderland suspension being somewhat offset by an overdue and thoroughly deserved England U21 call up, but when he does make his return for the Lads, hopefully against West Bromwich Albion for our next home game, he'll be able to pick up where he left off before that mistimed tackle in West London.

It's not a stretch to claim that our chances of sustaining a promotion push through the winter could depend on it.