Sunderland U21s boss Graeme Murty highlighted the unselfish approach of PSG loanee Edouard Michut. The young French midfielder scored the decisive goal for the young Black Cats as they picked up just their second win of the Premier League 2 Division 2 campaign.
Michut has been made to bid his time since arriving from France in the summer. Originally a season-long loan, the youngster struggled with fitness on arrival and has had to build that up in a combination of U21s games and minutes from the bench.
It was a tough start in his first outing for the second string, a sending off against Middlesbrough rounded off a poor display, but he's since put that behind him and turned in an impressive display at St. George's Park.
READ MORE: Edouard Michut scores first Sunderland goal as U21s halt winless run with Stoke win
“I thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable game of football, and that the lads deserved the win for the quality of their play at times,” Murty told safc.com.
“The boys showed bravery in their press, their intensity at times was excellent, and it sets the standard for where we want to go. It does need to be entertaining but effective as well – we focused in the pre-match briefing about accessing areas where we can be dangerous with our attacking output, and our goals came from that.
“It was really pleasing to see the rewards come from the hard work by the lads on working into those areas where assists come from. With H’s goals, it’s nice to see a forward player get within six yards of the goal – that positioning is worth hundreds of goals a season across the leagues.
"We understand players – particularly youngsters – might prefer to score a worldie goal, but we need to have runners who penetrate the back lines and get into dangerous areas on the pitch to score goals. Edou deserved his goal for his hard running, the sacrifices he made for the team and the goal proved vital.”
READ NEXT
Tony Mowbray's verdict on Burnley defeat and Sunderland's second half struggles
Sunderland 2-4 Burnley player ratings as excellent first half displays are thrown into reverse
- Sunderland blow two-goal lead as Burnley romp to victory at the Stadium of Light
- Tony Mowbray is no fan of VAR being introduced into the Championship
- Sunderland's young quartet are not yet ready to start Championship games
