Phil Smith issues an update for Sunderland fans ahead of the trip to face Millwall this weekend
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00:00Hi everyone and welcome to a very quick edition of On The Whistle. It's been a while since
00:14I last spoke to you, obviously after that Coventry draw, so I thought ahead of the Millwall
00:17game it might be worth bringing you up to speed a little bit on all the latest news,
00:20particularly on the injury front because there is a lot of it. I think it's fair to say that
00:25Millwall on Saturday I think is shaping up to be one of, if not the biggest tests at
00:29Sunderland and reduced Lebris have faced this season just because of the sheer number of
00:33players missing and who is missing. So we spoke to Lebris at his pre-match press conference
00:38today. Bad news in terms of Alan Brown and Romain Mundell, I think it was kind of the
00:42worst kept secret on Wearside to be honest, but Lebris did confirm that they are both
00:46facing significant spells out of the side. You expect both of them to be out for around
00:52six to eight weeks. Obviously they both got injured in that same passage of play against
00:56Coventry. Mundell is a hamstring injury, Brown actually fractured a bone in his leg
01:00which is quite remarkable really that he came back on the pitch to try and play on. So really
01:05big blow in different ways. Mundell has obviously been one of Sunderland's key attacking players
01:10in terms of his goal output. Brown has been so versatile, so dependable when he's been
01:14called upon and when you throw it forward to the Millwall game, when you think the Trehearne,
01:18Patrick Robertson, Joe Bellingham are all suspended, there's five of Lebris' key players
01:23really from the opening exchanges of the season all missing. Brown probably hasn't
01:27started as many games as the others, but even in the games where he's been on the bench
01:30he's come on basically as the first substitute pretty much week in, week out. So I think
01:34that's a big setback for Sunderland. It wasn't all negative news by any stretch of the imagination.
01:38Anthony Paterson is fit again after that injury. Obviously Simon Moore has done really, really
01:42well and it's no slight on him. I think he's proven himself a really capable deputy and
01:46a safe pair of hands, but I think Paterson will probably come straight back into the
01:49team. I think he is Sunderland's first choice goalkeeper and I think especially the dynamics
01:54of Millwall the way Paterson is so aggressive and brave in terms of coming off his line
02:00and also from set pieces, from crosses, from long balls into the box, I think that's going
02:05to be a really valuable skill at Millwall and I think Sunderland will be quite keen
02:08to bring him back. I think because it is a game where Sunderland's box is going to come
02:13under a lot of pressure and I think Paterson having Paterson back is really important.
02:17Aji Alise is also fit again, so that's a really good news. He obviously hasn't played a lot
02:23of football for quite a long time, so will Ibris chuck him straight into the start of
02:26the XI against Millwall? I think that's unlikely, but it is obviously a really handy option
02:30in terms of the depth of the squad, in terms of giving him some options to change it within
02:34the game and obviously moving forward over the next couple of weeks, having Alise back
02:38in contention for selection, both at left-back and at centre-back where he played so well
02:42at the start of the season is really good news. So there were some positives amid the
02:45kind of gloom and I think it's really interesting now because no matter what Ibris does in terms
02:50of his formation or his system, he is basically going to have to rely on players who haven't
02:56had a huge amount of league minutes this season. So his options, you've got Milano Lexic, you've
03:01got Adil Al-Sheikh and or Abdullah Barre, plays like Tommy Watson, Harrison Jones, even
03:06in defence, plays like Leo Yelder. So I think it's going to be a really interesting test
03:10of Sunderland's squad depth and also Ibris' ingenuity as a coach really in terms of how
03:14he finds the right blend. So I think that Lexic is probably the option that causes the
03:20least disruption elsewhere on the pitch because he's an attacking midfielder, it would allow
03:24you to keep that 4-2-3-1-4-3-3 shape if you just move Luko Naino to right-back potentially.
03:31And so I think that is quite an attractive option but I also think it's one that's quite
03:35unlikely. I think Ibris has been so cautious with Lexic because he's basically explained
03:40it before, saying that slightly different to some of the other players he's signed
03:43in the summer. There has been a language barrier with Lexic which he's still getting
03:46to grip to. That obviously makes it much harder for him to adapt to a new league, a new team,
03:51a new culture. And while he really rates him and thinks he's a really gifted attacking
03:54midfielder, he's been clear that he doesn't want to expose him too early and potentially
03:58knock his confidence. And I think that given that he hasn't used him at home, coming off
04:03the bench against Derby, Oxford, games where Sunderland have looked in relative control,
04:07I think it's a bit of a stretch to see him going in from the start away at Millwall.
04:11Could he come off the bench? Absolutely. But I don't quite see it. One of the other
04:15issues is that obviously Lexic hasn't been around a lot during the international break
04:18because he's been on international duty, whether that be with Serbia under-21s or with the
04:22Serbia men's national team. That's amazing for his long-term development and shows you
04:26what a talented player and what a big prospect he is. But it's obviously meant that a period
04:31where he could be training day in, day out and really getting to grips with things at
04:33Sunderland, he hasn't really been around. So I think it's more likely either that Ibris
04:39would bring in Aoushish back as a number 10 because there's an obvious gap in the team
04:42for that, or I think potentially more likely he's changed formation a little bit and sort
04:47of get those strikers who've performed well at different times of the season all basically
04:51into the same team. I think the Aoushish one is an interesting one because for all he hasn't
04:57had any league minutes of late, he hasn't actually played since the Sheffield Wednesday
05:00game in August. He has been training fully with the team for quite a while now and Ibris
05:06has included him in the squad a lot. So that would suggest that he is very much in contention
05:12for section and he is an option. I think it's interesting though because we know that Job
05:16and Roberts are going to be back after this game, which potentially then puts Aoushish
05:20back down the pecking order. And I think it's probably more likely that Ibris will go with
05:24a slight changed formation that includes players who've already been a big part of what he's
05:31done this season and who are potentially going to be a bigger part of things moving forward.
05:35So I think probably one potentially quite attractive option is to bring, say, Connolly
05:41and Isidore, play them together up front. Obviously, there'll be a lot of responsibility
05:45on both those players at different times to drop in and help the midfield and that would
05:49potentially allow you to play sort of Watson and Meander as wide players, players who've
05:53been knocking on the door at different times of the season or starting games at different
05:56times of the season. Certainly Meander, someone you can trust very much defensively and obviously
06:02also offers a lot of pace on the break as well. But, you know, that's how my gut tells
06:06me he'll go. But honestly, I have no idea. I think it's going to be really interesting
06:09to see that team when it drops at two o'clock on Saturday. And as I was saying before, whichever
06:15way he goes, we're going to see a big shift in personnel and formation probably from what
06:19we've seen a lot of this season. But to be fair, Ibris was really upbeat and really optimistic.
06:23He said, you know, he trusts all of these players. He's more than prepared to give them
06:27the opportunity. And, you know, he's already picked his team, wouldn't tell us what it
06:31was, obviously. And he said that when he put it up on the tactics board in his office,
06:34he felt really confident about the different potential strengths that all these players
06:38are bringing to the fold. So certainly no negativity or pessimism from Ibris. But it's
06:43going to be a really difficult game and really interesting to see how some of them go. So
06:46as ever, we'll have full coverage of that over on the website. And I will be back with
06:51On The Whistle sometime probably on Sunday morning, possibly Saturday night, depending
06:55how we go. I am now over on Blue Sky at Phil Smith Reporter. So come and find me on there.
07:01That's where I'll be asking for the questions for On The Whistle on Saturday time. So if
07:05you want to get involved, come and find me over on Blue Sky at Phil Smith Reporter. And
07:09I'll be putting out my usual call for questions after the game on Saturday. And I'll hopefully
07:13see you then for a debrief on what will hopefully be a brilliant Sunderland win. Let's see.