Beale must ditch Ba to unleash Sunderland’s “magic” £11k-p/w ace with “sheer quality”

This afternoon, Sunderland will play their second Championship match of the season as they travel from Wearside to St. Andrew’s to play Birmingham.

The Black Cats enter this game coming off a 1-0 loss to Huddersfield in Yorkshire earlier in the week, which was decided by a goal scored by Matthew Pearson in the first half.

Head coach Michael Beale may now try to alter his starting lineup in an effort to win again against Tony Mowbray, the man he took over as manager in the dugout.

Michael Baldwin Sundland
After a lackluster showing the previous time out, Patrick Roberts ought to take Abdoullah Ba’s position in the starting lineup.

The way Abdoullah Ba performed versus Huddersfield
Against the Terriers, the French midfielder lined up on the right side but did not have a great impact both in and out of possession.

He played the first sixty-one minutes of the match and gave his teammates one opportunity, but the dud was unable to obtain a single shot on goal.

Before being carted off shortly after an hour, the 20-year-old lightweight lost three of his five ground duels and failed all three of his attempted dribbles.

Ba has been struggling over the past three games, as the table above illustrates, and he has made a startlingly small contribution at the top of the pitch.

Beale has to put Roberts on the right wing in place of him in the starting lineup since he has wasted the two excellent opportunities his teammates have created for him and has only made two crucial passes in his three games for the Black Cats.

The reasons Patrick Roberts ought to begin
The £11k-per-week magician recently made his debut in the 3-1 victory over Plymouth Argyle, putting on a strong show that highlighted his abilities and value to the team.

That day, Ba started in midfield rather than on the right wing, which gave Roberts more room to play wide. The English attacker made an outstanding play to seize the opportunity.

The above table illustrates how dependable the former Manchester City starlet—who was once referred to as “magic” by reporter Josh Bunting—was when it came to ball control, with just two mishandled passes and three opportunities produced, one of which resulted in a goal.

Bunting also praised Roberts for his “sheer quality” when he slid the ball over to Pierre Ekwah from a free-kick, surprising the Plymouth defence and letting the former West Ham star score a goal into the net to tie the score at the time.

Roberts Subland Transfer Gossip Championship at Mowbray, Rak, and Sakyi

In just 69 minutes against Plymouth, the 27-year-old wizard—who won five of his eight duels that day—provided more crucial passes (three) and was involved in more goals (one) than Ba has in his last three starts combined.

For this reason, Beale ought to remove the former Le Havre prospect with ruthlessness from the starting lineup, creating room for Roberts to enter on the right wing and trouble Birmingham’s defense.

FOR MORE NEWS HERE