Leo Hjelde could be Sunderland's ultimate 'squad player'

Today at 01:00 AM

Amid our positive start to the season Leo Hjelde has almost become a forgotten man, but he's seemingly working hard to be prepared for when his time does come.

Leo Hjelde was a January arrival who was pitched into a pretty unpleasant situation at Sunderland AFC earlier this year.

Signed during the Michael Beale era, he was thrown into a team that was low on confidence and that eventually stuttered to the finishing line last season.

During the summer, he was one of a handful of players who it quickly became apparent wouldn't feature regularly for the first team. Abdoullah Ba, Jewison Bennette and Adil Aouchiche were others, but Hjelde has something that none of those lads have banked so far this season- first team minutes.

Régis Le Bris has taken an interest in Hjelde, and he's been part of the matchday squad for twelve of our thirteen games this season.

With the in-form defenders ahead of him, Hjelde was always going to need to be patient even for substitute appearances, and the last three matches has seen the Norwegian trusted by his boss to come on and help to see games out.

Should there be injuries to our starting defenders, Hjelde is next in line.

Centre backs aren't too much of a concern, with Luke O'Nien, Dan Ballard, Chris Mepham and Aji Alese all ahead of Hjelde when fit, but his build certainly makes him a decent option in there. He's also next in line for the left back spot should anything happen to Dennis Cirkin, and a gradual increase in the length of his first team appearances shows that Le Bris trusts him.

For me, the issue with Hjelde is that some fans judged him too quickly.

He had some good games last season, but he also struggled in others, and after being signed as a left back, it seems clear that this should only be a backup position for him.

As a centre back, Hjelde has the stature and in flashes has looked half decent on the ball- it's just unfortunate for him that it's possibly one of our most stacked positions.

As fans, we only see small glimpses of how well players get on with each other, and social media provides a good insight into this.

Through content shared by the club, it's clear that Hjelde is a good character and seems to be a popular member of the squad. Other fringe players seem unhappy at the lack of minutes and being moved aside, but Hjelde seems to be enjoying his role within the wider squad.

He's clearly working hard in training; Le Bris has noticed this and rewarded his efforts, and this was his response when asked if Hjelde's first appearances of the season were linked to a positive period in training.

Yes, absolutely. It is very important because he trains properly.

And when you have the opportunity to play, you can keep the connection (with the team), even if they understand that Dennis, Luke, Meps (Chris Mepham), Trai - they have done very well.

It feels important for Le Bris to tell fans about how well some of the squad players are doing behind the scenes, because they'll be needed at some point during the season.

Hjelde is one of several players who've been perceived negatively due to the poor ending to last season. Yes, he might've looked uncomfortable at times, but how many of our players didn't look that way towards the back end of the campaign?

Getting into Sunderland AFC's team in 2024/2025 requires patience, but it's certainly worth it.

Hjelde could be another fine example of patience being a virtue, and having a good squad player who's popular with his teammates sounds like a win-win to me.