Why Sunderland's squad rotation reticence must change in 2025

12/31/2024 01:00 AM

Régis Le Bris has shown unwavering loyalty to many of his youthful Sunderland charges this season, but Jonny Hawley makes the case for change

It must be an extremely frustrating time to be a squad player at the Stadium of Light right now. If you have any doubts about this, I'd suggest asking Aaron Connolly, Adil Aouchiche, or Abdoullah Ba how satisfied they are with their playing time so far this season.

Let's immediately address the potential reasons for Régis Le Bris' apparent lack of desire to rotate his squad more.

The fact that the starting eleven he was naming for almost every game was picking up over two points per game for weeks; a glut of injuries and suspensions in key areas which forced his hand, and behind the scenes issues making him reluctant to turn to certain players.

The first of those three points is certainly valid, in that we were naming a settled team which won more often than not, and that wasn't losing even when it didn't win.

Fair enough, especially for a head coach just getting his feet under the Sunderland table, but the difficulty comes when trying to balance that against the eventual needs of the team in December, January, February, and so on, which I'll come to later.

The third is nigh-on impossible for us to evaluate, as we're not privy to what goes on at the Academy of Light, but I'd be shocked if more than one or two players had given Le Bris genuine reasons to isolate them, and if I'm wrong, I'll hold my hands up.

The second point, however, is what begins to irritate me.

I have a lot of sympathy for Le Bris having to navigate the mini-crisis we suffered in November, sparked by Jobe's red against QPR, and think he did very well to keep our heads just above water during that run, managing to again avoid defeat far more often than not.

But I really don't think he helped himself before and since that time, with his near-refusal to change lineups or use substitutions to properly manage games.

Once the squad becomes injury-hit, it does rather force you to rely on a decreasing pool of players, so it's crucial to balance workloads and rest players as and when you can, so as to effectively future-proof yourself. We didn't do that.

Romaine Mundle, Chris Rigg, Dennis Cirkin and Jobe are the kinds of names that you write on your team sheet without thinking. They're some of the best players in the league, never mind at the club, and you obviously want to call on them as much as you can.

The problem is that three are aged twenty one or younger, two of them are teenagers, and one of them is massively injury-prone.

Rigg in particular starts almost every single game.

The kid is seventeen. Yes, he looks like a generational talent, but he's a talent with all-too-human muscles and tendons.

The injury he picked up at Ewood Park - thankfully looking less serious than it could - may have been an impact injury, but in a game in which Le Bris made zero unforced subs, it begins to look rather reckless.

He isn't a seasoned veteran with the miles in his legs to cope with these demands; instead, that has to be built up and nurtured.

Mundle is another who picked up an injury, and it was much more substantial, unfortunately, as we still await his return from the hamstring issue he picked up in November, a hamstring which has never played a full season of senior football.

The fifteen league games he's played in so far this season is the most in his fledgling career, and in my opinion, it shows.

He's a player who can turn on the burners and has a great burst of pace- one of the most obvious potential victims of the exact kind of injury now stopping him from contributing as we lose ground in the promotion race.

I don't want to come across as a hindsight merchant, as it's easy to criticise after the fact, but I do think these kinds of injuries are the exact reason why we must be more proactive in rotating our squad as we enter 2025.

It's not the ONLY reason, though. How many late goals have we conceded that have lost us points? Millwall, Sheffield United, Stoke City...the list, unfortunately, goes on.

It's purely conjecture to say more rotation would have stopped these, of course, but I can't imagine having so many players with so many minutes under their belts makes desperate, late defending any easier.

Is it too simplistic to say some of the defending for those goals looked like it came from very tired legs? I don't think so, but thankfully, this isn't all doom and gloom.

As I say, I do think Le Bris has had some valid reasons not to rotate the squad so much, and I think some of them should be addressed soon anyway. The picture should brighten somewhat in January, and let's hope we get the balance right going forward.

He hasn't exactly been drowning in options since that November run, but we should be welcoming several faces back into contention in the coming weeks, with Mundle, Tommy Watson, and Salis Abdul Samed chief amongst them. Samed, for me, is the most important of the three, even though we've not yet seen him kick a ball.

With a proper holding midfielder available, it opens the door to much more rotation in our youngest area of the pitch.

Alongside Alan Browne's return from a fracture in his leg, it'll allow Le Bris to choose between six options for three positions, both when selecting the lineup and making substitutions, as well as allowing for Dan Neil to occasionally play further forward in a role I think is much better suited to him.

That's a discussion for another day, of course.