Graeme Murty has handed Sunderland's January arrival Isaac Lihadji his first start in red and white. The promising French talent lined up alongside a young Black Cats XI looking to continue their unbeaten run of games.
The French youngster is yet to start for Tony Mowbray's first-team, having played just 15 minutes of senior football since arriving at the Stadium of Light last month. Lihadji was given 15 minutes from the bench against Reading, but has been left on the bench against QPR and Bristol City.
Last month, the Black Cats boss revealed communication with the youngster had proven difficult given his lack of understanding of the English language. Mowbray said: "He doesn't communicate much other than with the young French kids we have in the squad because at this stage he doesn't really have any English.
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"He understands when you say his name but beyond that, I need a bit of a help translating! So in the short term, he might be someone who we bring on from the bench to see if he can impact the game with the qualities that he's got.
"It's very difficult, though, to plan and prepare for a game with him being in the starting XI at the moment with that barrier. It's something that we will overcome over a long period."
Sunderland U21s: Richardson, Wilson, Johnson, Crompton, Taylor, Scott, Middlemas, Lihadji, Kelly, Watson, Gardiner
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