Tony Mowbray has explained that leaving Dan Neil out against Blackpool was a 'gamble' to allow him to play an extra attacker. Midfielder Neil dropped to the bench in midweek, with his place in the side taken by Amad Diallo.
But rather than any loss of form from the academy product, Mowbray says his decision was based on his desire to include Amad up front to increase the Black Cats' goal threat as they look for solutions in the absence of injured centre-forwards Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms. And the head coach also revealed he had considered leaving out Corry Evans instead of Neil to accommodate Amad, although in the end he felt Evans' experience was needed.
"I had a decision to make, really," said Mowbray, whose side fought out a goalless draw against the Seasiders. "I wanted to put another attacking player on the pitch, so I gambled with playing with five attackers rather than the four that we'd been playing with.
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"We played Amad up top and took that midfielder out. At home, it was just a decision I made.
"I sat Dan down and talked to him, he understands. I was considering leaving Corry out and putting Dan in that pivot position because he can move the ball through the lines quickly, but ultimately I decided on [keeping] the experience of Corry to play behind [Alex] Pritchard and [Elliot] Embleton."
Neil enjoyed an excellent start to his breakthrough season 12 months ago, but in the second half of Sunderland's promotion campaign he was left out of the starting XI by then-boss Alex Neil who was keen to avoid burning out the youngster. But he has been a regular again this season and Mowbray has been impressed by the 20-year-old.
He said: "He's a young player, learning his trade, and he has done extraordinarily well. He was a player very much on our radar [at his previous club Blackburn] when Sunderland were in League One, we felt we could potentially get League One players out and get them to come and play in the Championship.
"Obviously, promotion catapulted him to become a Championship player [here] and he has shown that he can handle the division and do well in this league. I think he's a good footballer, he has a good passing range, and he can learn from Corry about anticipation and being brighter and cleverer than your opponent.
"I think he'll develop into a distributor of the ball, there's no reason why his physicality or his athleticism would stop that. He looks to me like a very rounded footballer.
"I think we just have to keep on encouraging him and keeping him going."
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