Tony Mowbray hopes that leaving Amad out of Sunderland's starting XI at QPR will see him 're-energised' when he returns to the side - insisting the on-loan Manchester United forward is not a 'robot' who can perform for 90 minutes every week. Amad has been one of the stars of the season for the Black Cats, but Mowbray is conscious of the physical and mental demands on the 20-year-old.
Prior to the midweek game at Loftus Road, Amad had started Sunderland's last 18 games in a row - and had completed the full 90 minutes in 12 of those - and that led to Mowbray opting to rest him against QPR, a matter of days after he had taken him off two-thirds of the way through in the home win against Reading. Sunderland won 3-0 at QPR even without Amad starting, and he is likely to return to the side for Saturday's home game against Bristol City.
"It was important [to rest Amad]," said Mowbray. "He is not a robot, he needs to re-energise mentally as well as physically.
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"It looks to me as though he is a pretty robust footballer - he's played just about every minute up until the last week or so, when we brought him off [against Reading] and left him out [against QPR]. Hopefully this period is of benefit to him moving forward, emotionally and psychologically to hit the reset button and show everybody just how talented he is and almost to say to the coach that it's difficult to leave him out."
Amad still played almost half-an-hour after coming on as a sub at QPR, and Mowray said his introduction did make a difference. The Black Cats were leading 1-0 when he was introduced, and while Jack Clarke's late brace rounded off the scoring, Amad could have added his name to the scoresheet when he went through one-on-one with goalkeeper Seny Dieng.
Mowbray said: "I did think the team had a spurt [at QPR] when he came on, to be honest. He just has the ability to pick the right pass and release some pressure and if the other team is pressing, he can eliminate that press with one pass or one bit of skill and suddenly we are breaking away at their back line.
"It felt as if in that last 15 minutes, on another day, we could have scored another three goals just because he is picking the right pass more often than not, either sending Patrick [Roberts] away or playing a one-two with Patrick or Trai [Hume], and he was in one-one-one with the goalkeeper himself once. The bigger picture is that hopefully he will benefit from the rest he's had.
"I'm not saying he needs to rediscover his form because he had never lost form, but he maybe wasn't hitting the same heights as when he was scoring every game for us but he was still picking the right passes. I want him to be hungry and play with that hunger that makes him the best player on the pitch every time he goes out there."
While Amad was rested, Mowbray drafted another creative spark into the starting XI at QPR in the shape of Alex Pritchard. The midfielder was making his first start since suffering a calf injury before Christmas, which he then aggravated at the end of December.
He played 70 minutes in midweek and came through unscathed, but Mowbray has yet to decide whether he is ready to start two games in quick succession after so long out of action. He said: "I haven't had a chat with Pritch yet. I'll speak to the sports science department and the medical department.
"I think he came through it alright, he didn't come off chuntering and unhappy after 70 minutes - I think he knew he was about done, because he has missed a lot of football over recent weeks. He's a very important player for us, his delivery from dead ball for instance is fantastic, and his out of possession stuff is really good too.
"It was a tough shift for him the other night with only two in central midfield instead of the three that we would normally play with, it was a tough ask by me to get him to do it but his understanding of the game gave him a better chance than somebody else. We'll pick the team collectively and we'll see.
"If he is on the bench, he will definitely come on to impact the game, if he starts then he will probably be coming off before the end."
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