Who takes the honours as Sunderland's 'player of the month' for August?
09/08/2024 01:00 AM
The Lads boast a perfect record in the league thus far, but who excelled as Régis Le Bris' coaching methods made a huge impact during the first month of the season?
Dennis Cirkin
The Championship's premier left back has started the 2024/2025 season in superb fashion and seems eager to make up for lost time after an injury-wracked 2023/2024 campaign.
Last season, Cirkin's absence often forced Sunderland to seek solutions in the shape of Leo Hjelde and perhaps most calamitously Callum Styles, but with the former Tottenham youngster now fully fit, any potential worries have been eased.
After an encouraging pre-season campaign, Cirkin turned in an eye-catching performance against Cardiff City in our first game of the season, setting up a goal for Luke O'Nien after connecting with Patrick Roberts' lofted free kick, and has since maintained similar standards in attack and defence.
His left wing partnership with Jack Clarke may be no more, but with Romaine Mundle showing real promise in Clarke's stead, a similar kind of chemistry may well develop between them, and Cirkin also opened the scoring against Sheffield Wednesday, powering a header past James Beadle to kick off a riotous afternoon in the August sunshine.
Only fitness issues will potentially prevent Cirkin from turning in a hugely successful season, but he feels like a perfect fit for Régis Le Bris' all-action style and those emphatic back post headers may well become a regular feature of his game as the season unfolds.
Jobe Bellingham
Another player who endured a tough 2023/2024 campaign (although often through no fault of his own, and he did also finish the campaign as our top scorer) Jobe recently secured his immediate future at the Stadium of Light and he's started the season with all the enthusiasm of someone who's fully invested in what's happening under Le Bris.
Currently benefiting enormously from the Frenchman's tactical approach and no longer being shuffled here, there and everywhere in an attempt to fit in, Jobe seems to have found his true position and has been hugely influential so far, with his dynamism, energy, work rate and passing ability all coming to the fore.
He no longer looks shackled (something that applies to almost every Sunderland player who's seen Championship action thus far); he's showing an even greater degree of maturity then he did last time out, and it's important to remember that he's still only eighteen years old.
An assist for Jack Clarke helped to secure all three points on the opening day, and Le Bris will doubtless be looking for even more from the former Birmingham prospect during the coming weeks and months.
Chris Rigg
The secret's out (not that it was particularly well hidden in the first place) and the name on the lips of the majority of Sunderland fans, as well as Championship social media content creators and analysts is that of the young man who's simply the best player for his age that I've seen in the red and white stripes.
Michael Gray, Michael Bridges and Jordan Henderson all impressed as youngsters, but I'd currently place this lad above all of them.
Rigg's talent and ridiculously high ceiling have been well documented for quite some time, but this feels serious; this feels like something very, very special, as the Sunderland academy graduate strode through August with the composure of a veteran, with his passing range, agility, close control and calmness in all situations often defying belief.
When a seventeen-year-old encourages his older teammate to take the plaudits after scoring a goal in front of the Roker End, as Rigg did when Eliezer Mayenda opened his account against Sheffield Wednesday, you know you've got a player on your books who's blessed with an elite mentality and the ability to go right to the top of the game.
The radars of top clubs both at home and abroad may be beeping more regularly this season as Rigg continues to go from strength to strength, but that's testament to the player himself, his sheer ability with a football at his feet, and the environment in which he's currently playing.
Eliezer Mayenda
Given how encouragingly the young Spaniard has started the season, you have to wonder just what was happening at Hibernian during 2023/2024, with Mayenda often not even making matchday squads during his loan spell at Easter Road.
Tasked by Le Bris with leading the red and white line, Mayenda gave us plenty of reasons to be optimistic last month as he atoned for a disappointing missed chance at Cardiff with a dynamic, two-goal performance against Sheffield Wednesday, with his first goal in particular being the kind of emphatic finish you'd expect from a player whose confidence is growing.
In the light of the ongoing debate surrounding 'proven goalscoring strikers' at Sunderland, Mayenda looks to be settling into his role impressively.
We may still be slightly light up top, with Wilson Isidor arguably looking more comfortable on the flank during his appearances for the U21s and youngster Ahmed Abdullahi very much unproven, but Mayenda's excelled so far, and hopefully he'll continue to make an impact, starting against Plymouth this coming weekend.
