Salis Abdul Samed: The key to Sunderland's midfield revival?

Today at 01:00 AM

Now that he's finally arrived, what can Sunderland fans expect when Salis Abdul Samed finds his feet at the heart of our midfield?

Following his arrival to Sunderland during the final hours of the Summer transfer window, Salis Abdul-Samed was known to be carrying a knock and was expected to miss the first portion of the season, what nobody did foresee though, was Samed to end up missing the entirety of the opening half of the season due to a re-injury occurring during the October international break setting the Ghanian international back to the New Year.

After what must have felt like an age for Salis, he finally made his debut for Sunderland during their 2-1 defeat to Stoke City, marking his first 60 minutes in professional football since his injury during pre-season and although he may have looked a little rusty which is totally understandable, there's plenty to be excited about for 2025.

As it's been so long it's probably worth providing some noteworthy information around Samed and a slightly more in-depth look at how the midfielder could really help Sunderland during the second half of the campaign.

Why does Samed hold a pedigree?

As readers may remember back in the summer, Samed arrived off the back of two highly successful campaigns in France, having featured in 91 Ligue 1 matches following his move from Clermont Foot to Lens during the 22/23 campaign and managing to notch himself within the 22/23 Ligue 1 Team of the Season in a year which Lens only missed out on the Ligue 1 title by one point to a star-studded PSG side featuring Mbappe, Neymar and Messi to name a few.

Acting as a defensive general in Lille's 4-3-3 system, Samed occupied the role as a true number six and midfield general to break up play and prevent teams from hurting Lille on the counter.

In what was a truly remarkable campaign, the defensive midfielder racked up some staggering statistics for ground covered as can be seen from the tweet below, averaging a staggering 12km per game he topped the charts for recovery runs if you look closely readers might also recognise another name on that list.

In a season that saw him excel across the defensive side of the ball, his pass accuracy was ranked within the 98th percentile in Ligue 1, with him also racking up 36 interceptions placing him in the 83rd percentile and a staggering 213 recoveries placing him in the 86th percentile.

In doing so he secured himself a place in the Ghanian World Cup squad for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, featuring in all three of his Nations games for a total of 250 minutes and completing these with a 100% tackle success rate and 100% dribble success rate in group games featuring Portugal.

European Experience

Following the heroics of Samed's 2022/23 campaign with Lens, Champions League football was secured for the first time in over a decade, with the French outfit then going on to compete in the 23/24 Champions League, unfortunately for Lens however they could only secure third place in the group which involved Arsenal and Sevilla however Samed featured in all six of Lens' group games which allowed him to continue his European foray in the Europa League that season.

As previously discussed, Samed put in some stellar performances which included a victory over Arsenal in which he won 6/8 of his ground duels against an Arsenal midfield of Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice.

He then went on to make a further two further appearances in the Europa League knockout rounds before losing to Freiburg.

Whilst simply saying a player has European experience is one thing, for him to have played in eight competitive fixtures during the previous season coming up against Europe's elite teams is certainly not something to be scoffed at for a championship club.

So what's so difficult about the number six role?

Of all the positions in modern football, number six is often one of the most overlooked in the game. Until the recent success of Rodri's Ballon'd Or win in 2024, defensive midfielders were so frequently overlooked in the way the game is played and often referred to as the ones 'who do the dirty work.'

In an era where so much emphasis is placed upon those in the attacking aspects of the game for their creativity or ability to aid in scoring, the number six plays a crucial role in commanding the defence, covering absurd amounts of ground, and assuring the attacking players have the appropriate coverage to succeed.

The modern role of a number six is to break up counterattacks when teams control possession, cover the excess space vacated by midfield partners pushing up to support attacks, and look to be tidy and composed under pressure to distribute the ball in the half-space to their teammates, something which although often goes unnoticed remains one of the more difficult skills to pull off.

Another role embodied by a modern number six is the ability to dictate and control the tempo of a game, acting as a metronome in midfield, the job of the six is to judge when the pace of the game needs to increase by quickly fizzing balls in between the lines or by evading an oncoming press and slow the game down to a canter when things start to get chaotic, something which Samed's stats provide excellent evidence of.

The key to being an excellent number six is often if you don't notice them on the pitch then it probably means they're doing the right thing as they relive the pressure and allow other players to perform the eye-catching aspects of the game.

Where does Samed fit in at Sunderland?

There's no hiding that Sunderland have tried to deploy Dan Neil in the number six role throughout the last 18 months to varying levels of success, whilst our captain undoubtedly possesses the skillset required to play there, he often feels wasted as his best attributes come when utilised slightly further forward and his defensive nous can sometimes lack in high-pressure situations.

With Samed regaining full fitness, Sunderland now have the option to either replace or rotate Neil out of that number six role and allow the captain to either push into that advanced midfield role shared with Jobe.

Alternatively, with the season reaching the crucial period Samed could come on and sure up the midfield in tight games and help turn some of those last-minute equalisers into securing all three points for Sunderland.

One thing is for sure though, for a player of Samed's pedigree he's certainly not come here to sit on the bench for the remainder of the campaign.

Due to Samed's injury, he's had a full six months to integrate into the Sunderland Squad and his numerous appearances in the club corporate box have shown he's fully bought into the team, something which we may not have gotten from a fresh January signing meaning he will hit the ground running as we enter 2025.

Ultimately, was Samed full fit during pre-season there's no way Sunderland would have been able to lure someone of his quality in therefore it can be seen as a shrewd piece of business from Speakman albeit the additional injury setback was an unavoidable circumstance.

Despite signing six months ago, fans still have plenty to be excited about with Samed and therefore once he's up to speed, having him as an option alongside Le Fee in Sunderland's midfield paired with our young trio of stars will add some much-needed squad depth for the second half of the season.